Llanelly Railway

Welsh railway system

The Llanelly Railway and Dock Company was an early Welsh railway system. It opened its first short line and a wet dock at Llanelly in 1834, and soon went on to build a longer line from Llanelly to serve pits in the Amman Valley, and then on to Llandilo, reached in 1857. The Llanelly company leased and worked the Vale of Towy Railway on to Llandovery, from 1858. Responding to competitive pressure the company obtained authorisation to connect its network to Swansea and Carmarthen, but the failure of a contractor put the company into financial difficulty, and a financial reconstruction later led to the Swansea and Carmarthen lines passing to the London and North Western Railway, while the original core system was taken over by the Great Western Railway. The line from Swansea to Llandovery became part of the Central Wales Line connecting to Shrewsbury and the north west, but after the 1960s only the Llanelli to Llandovery line and short colliery connections in the Amman Valley remained in use. Before 1971 many place names had Anglicised spelling. The railway system was slow to convert the names of railway locations. For consistency, this article generally uses contemporary spellings.

The sequence of stations at Llanelly developed over time; the first (1839) station was close to the dock, on the direct line from Llandilo. In 1852 a platform was opened adjacent to the newly opened South Wales Railway station, reached by a line on from the earlier station by a westward sweep close to the dock itself, then running for some distance immediately on the south side of the South Wales Railway main line, which was broad gauge at this time. The connecting line towards the SWR station was made more direct, and a third "Dock" station opened in 1869 replacing the first station. In this period, trains called at both stations, referred to as "Llanelly" and "Dock" (or "Llanelly Docks") in timetables respectively. In 1879, the layout and station arrangements were simplified, as described below. The failure of the financing scheme had forced the Llanelly company into borrowing at high rates of interest. Moreover, the poor income on the Carmarthen line further reduced the company's trading situation. The New Lines section of the Llanelly Company, which was separately financed, was plunged into financial difficulty, and it went into administration in January 1867.</blockquote>

The Llanelly company's passenger trains approached from the north east and crossed the GWR (former South Wales Railway) main line obliquely on the level. The line then ran on to a Llanelly Dock station. In 1879 a connecting spur was laid in at the point of intersection, and approaching trains from Pontardulais joined the GWR main line and ran to the GWR station. On Monday, the Llanelly Dock Passenger Station will be closed by the Great Western Railway Company, and, in future, passengers will only be booked at Llanelly station. This will be a convenience as far as booking per London and North Western route is concerned, as, previously, passengers had to proceed to the dock to get their tickets, but passengers to and from the dock will, in future, have to tramp it, unless some of our buses take up the matter and run down there. Here is a good opening for a tramway.

The Vale of Towy Railway was jointly leased by the GWR and the LNWR; in 1884 that was converted to full joint ownership; the Vale of Towy was vested in the GWR and LNWR jointly by Act of 28 July 1884. The Llanelly Railway station at Brynamman had always been cramped and inconvenient; in 1886 the GWR opened a new station to the west of the main road. It continued in use until passenger services were withdrawn in 1958. In view of the discontinuation of coal firing in the country it is likely that this traffic will not continue. (2016)

Gradients on the main line from Llanelli to Llandilo were significant, climbing at 1 in 157 to 1 in 108 for several miles to a summit at Derwydd Road, then falling at 1 in 108 for 2 mile (3 km) to Ffairfach. Derwydd Road at 229 feet (70 m) is the third highest point on the Central Wales Line. The Pontardulais to Swansea line was undulating with stiff alternating gradients; Dunvant was approached by at 1 in 72 eastbound and two miles /at 1 in 70 and 1 in 80 westbound. The Carmarthen line was gently graded all the way.