Golden Valley Railway
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 Bacton Station in the 1960s
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| Route length: | 30 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Golden Valley Railway was a British railway company based in Herefordshire , England . The company existed from 1875 to 1901 and connected the places Hay-on-Wye and Pontrilas with a 30 kilometer long railway line .
history
In the hope of reducing transport costs and time for their goods, some landowners, tenants and merchants from the region between Pontrilas and Dorstone campaigned for the construction of a railway line between the towns. In Pontrilas could be connected to the railway line of the Great Western Railway . A first meeting of interested parties took place on September 30, 1875. Gavin Robinson became the company's first managing director. Equity was set at £ 60,000 and borrowing was set at £ 20,000.
The company received on July 13, 1876 the concession to build a railway line between Pontrilas and Dorstone . The groundbreaking ceremony took place on August 30, 1876. As a result, traders and farmers in Hay-on-Wye also requested a connection to the railway line. On the one hand they feared economic losses and on the other hand they hoped for the income from the railway operation. The concession was granted in 1877 and approved further equity of £ 72,000 and borrowing of £ 24,000. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on August 31, 1877.
Construction progressed slowly as the company could not raise enough funds to pay the construction company. The construction company therefore stopped work several times. Negotiations with property owners and the Great Western Railway to integrate the railway line also extended the construction time. Operations on the route between Pontrilas and Dorstone began on September 1, 1881.
The operation on the section between Pontrilas and Dorstone was initially carried out with a locomotive rented from GWR. Three trains a day and an additional fourth train every two days were offered. Right from the start, attempts were made to reach an agreement with the Great Western Railway to operate the line. However, the GWR's offers were regularly rejected as inadequate.
The company failed to generate enough income. In this way, neither dividends nor the necessary loan interest could be generated. Operations could only be maintained at all through loans and guarantees from the members of the Board of Management as well as agreements with lenders. A further £ 20,000 increase in working capital in 1883 did not improve the financial situation. After GWR did not provide a locomotive for a month due to a lack of payments, the company had to report a record loss at the end of the year.
The construction of the section between Dorstone and Hay-on-Wye was delayed due to further negotiations about the end point of the railway line. Instead of an independent station, a connection to the Midland Railway in Hay was advocated by the directors of the GVR. It was also hoped that this would lay the foundation for an extension of the route to Monmouth . The corresponding concession for this plan change was granted on 1884. An additional £ 45,000 in equity and £ 15,000 in loans were also approved.
In 1884, passenger traffic between Pontrilas and Dorstone had to be suspended for a time, as deficiencies in the track position no longer allowed safe operation. At an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on April 16, 1885, there was a heated argument. A group headed by chairman Robinson wanted to accept an offer from GWR to take over operations, repair the line and cease work on the extension to Hay, while the opposing group Richard Green-Price asked for construction to be continued, and in London the same Wanted to organize capital. The meeting ended with the resignation of Robinson as chairman of the society. Green-Price moved up to this post. In addition, on July 2, 1885, due to the still unclear financial situation and the condition of the line, operations were stopped. After a new shareholders' meeting on July 18, 1885, passenger traffic was resumed on August 19, 1885.
The financing of the second section after Hay turned out to be even more difficult than that of the first part. The construction company's offer of £ 154,000 was well above the planned sum of £ 60,000. Since the local entrepreneurs no longer had sufficient funds, an attempt was made to find investors through London brokers in 1886. The line was completed at the end of 1888, but still had some safety deficiencies. It could not be officially opened until May 27, 1889.
Due to unpaid bills from GWR and other creditors, the company was placed under forced administration from March 1887 to April 1888. In the meantime, many of the local investors had left the company's board of directors. The current board tried to ensure the success of the company in the planned continuation of the route to Monmouth. The concession for the planned continuation to Monmouth was granted in 1889.
After the route between Hay and Pontrilas could be fully driven, the number of passengers rose sharply. Five passenger trains and one freight train were offered daily. Even so, it failed to make a profit in 1889 the loss was 723 pounds and in 1890 2,129 pounds. As a result, some investors questioned the accuracy of the share prospectus from 1886. In the negotiations, Green-Price was able to prevent them from filing a lawsuit. In return, however, he had to forego the planned project of the railway line to Monmouth. Nevertheless, there were regular disputes between the lenders for the original route and the extension.
At the beginning of 1891, the company was temporarily unable to pay the employees' wages, so that they threatened with a strike. In February 1891, most of the company's directors resigned, leaving Green-Price to run the company alone. The company's continued operation is largely irregular. In many cases, the locomotives and wagons could not be used because the Golden Valley Railway was in arrears with the rental payments and maintenance services. Nevertheless, 44,891 people, 4,361 tons of freight and 3,760 tons of ore were transported in 1893. The annual loss was £ 881.
From 1895 a newly elected board tried again to reach an agreement with the Great Western Railway to operate the GVR. In August 1897 there was a train derailment between Westbrook and Clifford, whereupon operations on the route between Hay and Dorstone were stopped on August 23, 1897. On October 28, 1897, an agreement was reached with the GWR to acquire the company for £ 10,000. The necessary parliamentary approval was not given, however, as one of the main creditors (the building contractor Chambers as the contractor for the Monmouth extension) and the London and North Western Railway opposed it. As a result, operations on the section between Dorstone and Pontrilas were also discontinued on April 20, 1898.
On December 15, 1898, a new agreement was made between the GWR and the GVR. The purchase price was set at £ 9,000 and Chambers received a separate payment of £ 2,000 for his stake of over £ 100,000 in the GVR. With effect from July 1, 1899, the Golden Valley Railway was incorporated into the Great Western Railway. The existing vehicles were scrapped. Operations resumed on May 1, 1901, after further investments of £ 17,280.
Passenger traffic ceased on December 15, 1941. Freight traffic as required was continued until 1957.
literature
- Christopher Awdry: Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies . Stephens, Wellingborough 1990, ISBN 1-85260-049-7 .
- William H. Smith: Golden Valley Railway . 1st edition. Wild Swan Publications, 1993, ISBN 978-1-874103-16-5 .