Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway
| Welshpool – Llanfair Caereinion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 14 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 762 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway (W & LLR, Welsh Rheilffordd y Trallwng a Llanfair Caereinion ) is a narrow-gauge railway in the Welsh county of Powys . The railway is approximately 14 km long and connects the localities of Welshpool and Llanfair Caereinion . The track width is 2 ft 6 in (762 mm).
opening
The W & LLR was one of the few narrow gauge branch lines built under the provisions of the Light Railways Act of 1896. The line was opened on April 4, 1903 and was intended to support the economic development of the remote area. Originally operated by Cambrian Railways , the line never made a profit.
The winding route leads through undulating terrain, with correspondingly steep inclines and descents. The starting point in Welshpool was next to the main line station; when the trains went through town, the engine driver kept ringing the bell for safety.
Decline
In 1923 the line was taken over by the Great Western Railway as part of the merger of companies . On February 9, 1931, passenger transport was abandoned and buses were used instead; only freight traffic was retained. For the Eisteddfod , passenger traffic was provisionally resumed between August 6 and 11, 1945.
In 1948, W & LLR became state owned. The freight traffic continued for a while; In 1956, however, British Railways decided to shut down the line.
Tourist attraction
A few years after the closure, a group of railroad enthusiasts got together, took over the line, and began restoring it. On April 6, 1963, the first section from the end point Llanfair Caereinion was reopened as a tourist attraction. Almost all of the line was put back into operation in several stages. Because the route through the town of Welshpool to the starting point at the old train station was no longer available, a new terminus was built on the outskirts at Raven Square and inaugurated on July 18, 1981.
The 762 mm gauge of the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway was quite common in the British colonial empire, but was only very rarely used in the British Isles. Therefore, locomotives and wagons had to be procured from other countries, for example from Austria. The common Bosnian gauge of 760 mm made it possible to use used vehicles from the Zillertal Railway without major modifications.
A generous monetary donation from the Heritage Lottery Fund made it possible to restore both the original locomotives and the construction of replicas of the original passenger cars as well as the purchase of the necessary workshop equipment.
The railway is a member of the Great Little Trains of Wales .
literature
- Peter Johnson: An Illustrated History of the Great Western Narrow Gauge . Oxford Publishing 2011, ISBN 978-0860936367
- Glyn Williams: The Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway . Wild Swan Publications Ltd. 2010, ISBN 978-1-905184-75-0
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 39 ′ 2 ″ N , 3 ° 19 ′ 27 ″ W.