Swansea and Mumbles Railway
The Swansea and Mumbles Railway ( Welsh Rheilffordd Abertawe a'r Mwmbwls ), originally Oystermouth Railway ( Welsh Rheilffordd Ystumllwynarth ), popularly known as The Mumbles Train ( Welsh Trên y Mwmbwls ), was the first passenger railroad in the world and operated in Swansea , West Glamorgan , Wales , United Kingdom for a distance of approximately 8.9 kilometers (5.5 miles).
Originally built according to an Act of Parliament of 1804, the horse-drawn tram was supposed to transport limestone from the quarries near Mumbles (Y Mwmbwls) to Swansea (Abertawe) and began carrying the first paying passengers worldwide on March 25, 1807 . It was later converted for steam operation and then converted into an electric tram before it was decommissioned in January 1960 and replaced by buses .
At the time it was discontinued, it was the longest running railroad in the world.
history
In 1804 the British Parliament approved the construction of a railway line between Swansea (Abertawe) and Oystermouth (Ystumllwynarth), part of Mumbles (Y Mwmbwls) in South Wales , to carry materials to and from the Swansea Canal and the port at the mouth of the Tawe ; the first tracks were laid in the same year . At the time, the railway company was known as the Oystermouth Railway ( Welsh Rheilffordd Ystumllwynarth ) and was appointed by the Committee of the Company of Proprietors of the Oystermouth Railway or Tramroad Company , which included many prominent residents of the city (including the copper and coal industrialist John Morries, later Sir John Morris, Bart. ). The original company was not wound up until after 1959, even if the line was renamed Swansea and Mumbles Railway in the meantime .
Early history
In the early 19th century there was no road link between Swansea and Oystermouth, and the original purpose of the railway was to move coal , iron ore and limestone . The construction of the line was probably finished in 1806 and operations began without any further celebrations using horse-drawn wagons . The route of the railway ran from the Brewery Bank next to the Swansea Canal in Swansea along the long arch of Swansea Bay to a terminus at Castle Hill (near today's Clements Quarry) in the small isolated fishing village of Oystermouth (now part of Mumbles ). A branch ran from Blackpill about one and a half kilometers up the Clyne Valley to Ynys Gate and was intended to promote the development of the valley's coal reserves.
One of the original owners, Benjamin French , paid the railway company a sum of £ 20 to obtain passenger transport rights for one year from March 25, 1807. This date is usually mentioned as the beginning of the first passenger service between Swansea and Oystermouth; consequently, the railway can be described as the first passenger railway in the world. The passenger trains departed Swansea from Swansea The Mount Station (later replaced by Swansea Victoria Station ), the world's first traditional station . The company appeared to be a success as French and two of his businessmen offered £ 25 the following year to extend the passenger service contract for a year. The construction of a toll road along the railway in the mid-1820s, however, meant a major decline in passenger numbers, so that passenger service (now under the direction of Simon Llewelyn ) was discontinued in 1826 or 1827. At this time, especially in the north of England, developments began that were to make the railroad a widespread national and international transport system.
In its early days, the railway was operated in the same way as canals and toll roads at that time. Tolls and charges were laid down in the enabling Act of Parliament and anyone could use the railway after paying these charges to the operating company if they provided their own rolling stock. The tracks were designed as plateways , i.e. H. as ruts that were lined with iron or iron-shod wooden rails, the track width was about 4 ft (1219 mm).
After the cessation of passenger service, the route lay idle for a long time and the original company of the owners went out. The branch into the Clyne Valley was re-laid in 1841-42 and extended by a further one and a half kilometers as a private railway to the Rhydydefaid mine, where George Byng Morris , the son of one of the first owners of the line, had started to mine coal and iron. From 1855 he took over the rest of the railway, relocated the tracks a little further inland as edge rails (Vignol rails) made of iron (i.e. as with today's railways) in standard gauge (4 ft 8½ in or 1435 mm) and again ran a horse-drawn passenger service Swansea and Blackpill, extended to a terminus at The Dunns in Oystermouth, from November 10th .
Introduction of steam operation
As early as the 1860s, George Byng Morris wanted to sell the train several times to John Dickson for £ 20,000 , but he became insolvent, so the purchase did not materialize. On October 31, 1877, the train was auctioned for £ 31,000 and bought by Dickson's business associates. From July 1, 1877, however, operations on the railway were carried out by the Swansea Improvements & Tramways Company (SIT), which also owned the urban trams in Swansea . Dickson registered his company as Swansea & Mumbles Railway Co. Ltd (S&M) on March 31, 1879 and was henceforth in conflict with the SIT.
On August 17, 1877, after a test phase, it began operating steam locomotives built by Henry Hughes . After several legal proceedings, the SIT was granted operating rights in 1880, including continuous operation on the city tram network, but it was only allowed to use horse-drawn trains after the trains of S&M, which had also started steam operation in the meantime. This regulation was lifted when S&M leased the line to Sir John Jones Jenkins and Robert Capper in 1884, who in turn allowed SIT to use steam trams from July 1, 1885. This agreement ended at the end of 1891, and SIT only operated horse-drawn trains again, while S&M again operated steam trains.
On July 26, 1893, the Swansea & Mumbles Railway Co. Ltd was re-registered as Swansea & Mumbles Railways Ltd after an Act of Parliament in 1889 put the Mumbles Railway & Pier Co. on. The latter built an extension of the railway from Oystermouth to Mumbles, the first section to Southend opened on May 6, 1893; the rest, including a pier in Mumbles, followed on May 10, 1898. At the same time, the one and a half mile long section (2.4 km) from Oystermouth to Blackpill was neutered.
Ultimately, the Swansea & Mumbles Railways Ltd and the Mumbles Railway & Pier Co. were leased from July 1, 1899 for 999 years to the Swansea Improvements & Tramways Company , which had belonged to the British Electric Traction Co. Ltd (BET) since 1898 , however not resolved.
The coal transport on the Clyne valley branch continued until the closure of the Rhydydefaid colliery in 1885, after which the entire branch was shut down. In 1896, proponents of the Gower Light Railway proposed that the line be incorporated into this project, but nothing came of it. The original section to Ynys Gate (as approved in 1804) was relocated in 1903 to open up a new pit for the Clyne Valley colliery, and used for coal transport until the colliery closed in 1915. The extension from 1841–42 was inactive until 1920 when a narrow-gauge freight railway was laid on its route, which transported coal from another new mine at Ynys to Ynys Gate. This freight railway was shut down again in 1921 after the mine was closed. There was no further traffic on the branch, although the line was probably still operational until at least 1936 when a diesel locomotive drove to Ynys Gate.
Between 1877 and 1929 a hodgepodge of steam locomotives was in operation for the railroad, starting with the Hughes locomotives mentioned above (they belonged to SI & T. and could no longer be used on the Swansea & Mumbles Railway after 1878 ) and later comprised of locomotives built by Falcon Engine & Car Works , Manning Wardle , Hunslet , Black Hawthorn , Brush and the Avonside Engine Company . All were tank locomotives with wheel arrangement B or C. The locomotives belonged to either Swansea & Mumbles Railways Ltd or Mumbles Railway & Pier Co. and were sometimes moved back and forth between the companies for accounting reasons. As early as the 1890s there are indications that the railway had to rent locomotives to supplement its own fleet. In the 1920s, locomotives were regularly rented from a local dealer, Charles Williams of Morriston, and often appear in photos of the railroad at the time.
Centennial and royal visit
In 1904 the railway celebrated its centenary, for which a commemorative publication was published. Accumulator railcars had been introduced on a trial basis two years earlier, but they did not prove themselves. One of the carriages was kept after the electrical equipment was removed and used to carry dignitaries, including King Edward VII , when he and his consort Queen Alexandra visited Swansea in July 1904 to ceremonially break the ground for the King's Dock perform. The car was also used in 1920 when King George V visited when he opened the Queen's Dock.
Electrification and operation as a tram
On January 1, 1927, the South Wales Transport Co. Ltd (SWT) took over the lease over the railway line from the Swansea Improvements & Tramways Company (SIT), with the SWT also belonging to BET.
After the takeover of SWT, the line was electrified with 650 V direct current in 1928 , for which an overhead line was built. Test operation began on July 6, 1928, and fully electric operation began on March 2, 1929. Were used eleven biplane - trams , by the Brush Electrical Company in Loughborough , Leicestershire were built. These were the largest and with just under 13.7 meters (45 ft) and some of the longest ever for operation in the UK -built double-decker trams and each had 106 seats, painted in red with a cream-colored band. Since they were mostly used in double traction , which was unique to British trams, the trains had a seating capacity of 212 people. Two more railcars followed in 1930, so that the fleet ultimately consisted of thirteen cars. In addition to the use of double traction, a special feature was that the wagons only had doors on the landside side of the vehicle.
Also in 1929 a locomotive (No. 14) with a B- wheel arrangement and ottomechanical drive was bought from Hardy Railmotors of Slough to serve the remaining coal traffic on the route, but this did not prove itself and was replaced by a locomotive (No. 15) in 1936. with diesel-mechanical drive, built by John Fowler & Co. from Leeds . The Hardy locomotive remained for a number of years and was used for shunting cars in the depot located on the site of the former car shed next to the Rutland Street terminus, and for inspecting the overhead contact line systems, but was dismantled until 1954 as parts for construction of a recreated horse-drawn carriage were used for the 150th anniversary of the route.
Shutdown
In 1958, the South Wales Transport Company (SWT) bought the formally still existing companies Swansea & Mumbles Railways Ltd and Mumbles Railway & Pier Co. even though, as mentioned above, they had been operating on the route since 1927. Despite major protests from the population, the South Wales Transport Act 1959 came into force the following year, allowing the route to be closed.
The railway was finally shut down in two phases. The section from Southend to the pier in Mumbles was closed on October 11, 1959, in preparation for the construction of a new bus lane for the buses replacing the railway. Then, at 11:52 a.m. on January 5, 1960, the last special train, carrying some local dignitaries, left Swansea for Mumbles. It was driven by Frank Duncan, who had worked for the railway since 1907. Shortly after this train reached the depot on Rutland Street, work began to demolish the tracks and dismantle the vehicles .
South Wales Transport then used buses on the route and is now called First Cymru after several purchases . The tasks of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway are taken over by bus routes 2, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3 and 3A.
conservation
A carriage (No. 2) was obtained from members of Leeds University in Yorkshire and housed with the Middleton Railway in that city, but was heavily vandalized over time and ultimately destroyed by fire. The front of car number 7 has been kept in the Swansea Museum for preservation and has been restored after years of neglect by members of the Railway Club of Wales . It is now on display in the Tram Shed next to the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea's Maritime Quarter.
The Mumbles Railway Society was established in 1975 to officially archive documents and to maintain the hope that the line would one day reopen.
Route description
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The line began near downtown Swansea, on the western bank of the Tawe. In later years, the terminus was on Rutland Street near Victoria Station for the mainline line (initially Llanelly Railway and Dock Company , most recently British Railways until 1964). The route ran on the waterside edge of today's Mumbles Road (A 4067), with the mainline still running between the bay and the Swansea & Mumbles Railway.
At Blackpill, the main line separated from the Mumbles Railway and continued north to Shrewsbury , at the junction there was a second track connection between the lines. The Clyne Valley branch of the Swansea & Mumbles Railway also branched off here and continued to run parallel to the main line.
terminology
The original name of the company of owners was Oystermouth Railway or Tramroad Company , but here the word "tramroad" is used in its pre-railroad sense. The original railway line was the first in this area and only after the construction of the toll road in the 1820s did the railway perceive its route as next to the road . The introduction of steam locomotives in the 1870s was simplified by a clause in the original law that allowed "pushing and pulling" of wagons by "people, horses, or other routes " and had nothing to do with the Tramways Act of 1870.
The fleet of cars for passenger operation in the times of steam operation had little resemblance to conventional railroad cars, as it was partially open at the top and was built by tram manufacturers (Milnes, Starbuck & Falcon, etc.). After electrification, the similarities with urban trams increased through the use of double-decker railcars and the way they were operated: the signaling systems only regulated the entrances to overtaking sections, but not the entire flow of traffic. The track geometry , however, corresponded to that of the mainline lines, so that there was a freight wagon crossing with the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at Mumbles Road station and with the Great Western Railway in the Swansea-side terminus.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the term “tramway” stood for track-guided railways on which carts (“trams”) operated for mining. After a new type of track was introduced, which later became established for railways and was characterized by so-called edge rails , the term "railway" was used more. After the Tramways Act of 1870 was passed, the term “tramway” only applied to urban rail systems.
Proposed reopening
On February 16, 2009, the City & County of Swansea began a feasibility study for a new tram in Swansea Bay. As early as 2004, the ERC (Environment, Regeneration and Culture) Overview Board, which is a political decision-making committee chaired by City Councilor Rob Speht, has been discussing the options and planned tasks to assess the technical, financial and social feasibility of the tram renaissance in Swansea. Today the group is working on a formal constitution and going through the steps to register as a nonprofit organization.
See also
literature
- Gerald Gabb: The Life and Times of the Swansea and Mumbles Railway. 1987, ISBN 0-905928-79-2 .
- Rob Gittins: Rock & Roll To Paradise, The History of the Mumbles Railway. 1982, ISBN 0-85088-638-4 .
- Charles E. Lee: The First Passenger Railway (The Oystermouth or Swansea & Mumbles Line). 1942.
- Charles E. Lee: The Swansea & Mumbles Railway. 1988, ISBN 0-85361-381-8 .
- Mumbles Railway Society (Ed.): The Mumbles Railway, The World's First Passenger Railway. circa 1980.
- Julian Thompson: British Trams in Camera. Ian Allan Ltd, London 1978, ISBN 0-7110-0801-9 .
- Keith Turner: The Directory of British Tramways . Patrick Stephens Ltd, 1996, ISBN 1-85260-549-9 , pp. 178-179, 183-184 (English).
Web links
- Literature by and about Swansea and Mumbles Railway in the WorldCat bibliographic database
- Summary of the story on www.welshwales.co.uk
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Early Days of Mumbles Railway. (No longer available online.) BBC Wales, February 15, 2007, archived from the original on March 27, 2009 ; accessed on September 22, 2018 (English).
- ↑ Stephen Hughes: The Archeology of an Early Railway System: The Brecon Forest Tramroads . Ed .: Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales. ISBN 1-871184-05-3 , pp. 333 (English, google.com [accessed September 22, 2018]).
- ^ Charles E. Lee: The Swansea & Mumbles Railway . Oakwood Press, Oxford 1988, pp. 48 (English).
- ^ S&M and MR&P Society Records, deposited in the archives of Swansea University
- ↑ Journal of the Stephenson Locomotive Society, Vol. 43, No. 509 (December 1967), p. 364.
- ↑ see Opening Dates of Public Passenger Railway Stations in England, Wales and Scotland by ME Quick, published by the Railway & Canal Historical Society
- ↑ Swansea looks at tram return. BBC Wales, October 8, 2004, accessed September 22, 2018 .
- ↑ City tram scheme back on agenda. BBC Wales, February 16, 2009, accessed January 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Trams could be 'future of Swansea's transport network' says First Minister Carwyn Jones. (No longer available online.) South Wales Evening Post, October 16, 2015, archived from the original on October 18, 2015 ; accessed on September 22, 2018 (English).
- ^ Robin Turner: Could Mumbles train make a come back? Wales Online, March 26, 2015, accessed September 22, 2018 .