Llanelly Railway and Dock Company
The Llanelly Railway & Dock Company (also Llanelly Railway , later also Llanelli Railway and Dock Co. according to today's spelling ) was a British railway company in Glamorganshire in Wales .
history
The company, financed by local businessmen, received the concession to build a port on June 19, 1828 and on August 21, 1835 to build a railway line between the port and the coal mines of the Llangennech Coal Company near Dafen . Local entrepreneur John Biddulph junior became the first manager. The company opened the railway line to the coal mines as early as 1833, initially as a horse-drawn tram. On June 1, 1839, the standard-gauge railway line to Pontarddulais was opened. By 1840, the route network was expanded to Garnant and in 1841 to Cross Hands . In 1841/1842 the line from Garnant to Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen and a branch line to Brynamman were extended .
In 1842 the company ran into financial difficulties as John Biddulph Jr. got bogged down in his many different ventures. In 1845 he resigned from his position at the railway company, but kept his company shares. Llandilo was connected to the grid on January 24, 1857 and Carmarthen on June 1, 1865 . On January 1, 1858, the Llanelly Railway & Dock Co. leased the recently completed Vale of Towy Railway ( Llandeilo – Llandovery railway ).
On December 14, 1867, a line from Pontarddulais to Swansea with a branch line to Penclawydd was put into operation, partly parallel to the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, which had existed since 1807 . The routes to Carmarthen and Swansea were run as independent economic units. This led to higher operating costs as the entire route network of the Llanelly Railway & Dock Co. was not operated as such. The two routes had to file for bankruptcy a short time later.
Since the company did not exercise the option to extend the lease of the Vale of Towy Railway in time, it was forced to admit other railway companies ( Central Wales Railway , Central Wales Extension Railway and Knighton Railway ) as co- tenants from June 26, 1868 . With this, the London and North Western Railway tried to get access to South Wales, which was dominated by the Great Western Railway .
From July 1, 1871, the London and North Western Railway received route use rights on the routes to Carmathen and Swansea. After a dispute that was carried out to Parliament in 1873, the company was obliged to cede the bankrupt Llandeilo – Abergwili and Pontarddulais – Swansea (including the branch line to Penclawydd) to the Swansea and Carmarthen Railway subsidiary of the London and Northwestern Railway. The L & NWR also tried to obtain route usage rights over the entire route network of the Llanelly Railway & Dock Co. However, this project was rejected. On January 1, 1873, the Great Western Railway took over operations on the remaining lines of the Llanelly Railway & Dock Co. The merger was approved on June 24, 1889.
Locomotives
The first steam locomotives Victoria and Albert (after Victoria and Albert von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha ) were put into operation in May 1840.
literature
- Christopher Awdry: Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies . Stephens, Wellingborough 1990, ISBN 1-85260-049-7 .
Web links
- Route sketch Llanelli – Llandilo
- Route sketch Pontarddulais – Swansea
- Route sketch Llandilo – Abergwili
Individual evidence
- ^ Llanelli history: The Biddulph family. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on March 30, 2018 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ Llanegwad: The Carmarthen Branch. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 17, 2008 ; accessed on March 30, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
