The South Wales Railway Company

Pembrokeshire was first linked by rail to the rest of the country by the arrival of the South Wales Railway in the county in the early1850s.

The South Wales Railway was formed in 1844 and ran from Gloucester (where it linked up with the Great Western Railway and the rest of the country) to Pembrokeshire. The idea was for the railway to service the industrial and population centres of South Wales and continue on into Pembrokeshire where a port for Ireland would be developed. Pembrokeshire was chosen as the line's terminus as its westerly location meant a much shorter sea crossing than from Swansea or Bristol. The terminus itself was originally to be Goodwick near Fishguard where the port would be built.

From the outset the company was dominated by the G. W. R. who nominated one third of the directors. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Great Western's brilliant engineer, was also the engineer for the South Wales Railway. This influence insured that the line would be built to the broad gauge of 7' 1/4" of the Great Western. In 1846 agreement was reached whereby the G. W. R. (in effect the parent company) would lease the line on its completion. The South Wales Railway operated with the G. W. R. running all the trains while the South Wales Railway paid the expenses and recieved 2/3rds of the profits.

In 1846 work began on building the line throughout South Wales but there was anger in Pembrokeshire that the line would only run through the centre of the county and then up to Fishguard thus ignoring all the other towns. As a result an Act of Parliament in 1846 authorised a five mile branch line from Clarbeston Road to Haverfordwest and this defused some of the opposition.

Construction began in Pembrokeshire in 1847 but in Ireland disaster had struck with the Irish Potatoe Famine of 1846 which left the Irish economy in ruins. The South Wales Railway was now in serious financial trouble having invested heavily in railways in Southern Ireland that were intended to link up with ferry services from Fishguard. Doubts about a port at Fishguard from an engineering point of view were also apparent when, in 1847, Brunel changed the planed location of his terminus and port to Abermawr, an isolated bay some four miles to the west. In 1848 work began on the line to Abermawr but this was soon halted when the directors stopped all work west of Swansea.

By 1849 there was a financial crisis in Britain as well as in Ireland and the struggling South Wales Railway no longer wanted a railway to Pembrokeshire at all. The shareholders (many with Irish interests) thought otherwise and the G. W. R. used its muscle as parent company and refused to accept a halt at Swansea. In June 1850 the railway was opened to Swansea and work then began again further west.

In 1851 Brunel again changed his mind over the terminus and port and now selected Neyland on the Milford Haven waterway. A new route to there from Haverfordwest was approved by Parliament in 1852.

Work went on in Pembrokeshire throughout the early 1850s and by 1854 the line was open to Haverfordwest and Pembrokeshire was at last on the railway map. Work then began on the section to Neyland which was opened by 1856. Neyland was then renamed Milford Haven but confusion with the existing town of Milford soon caused it to be renamed again as New Milford. The port there was far less extensive or practical than had been hoped due to opposition from the Admiralty who didn't want a major construction project which they feared would silt up their moorings. They were also opposed to any volume of private shipping interfearing with naval useage of Pembroke Dockyard and the Haven and were annoyed that the South Wales Railway showed no signs of building the promised branch line to Pembroke Dock.

After the line's completion to Neyland improvements continued to be made and by 1857 the line had been doubled between Carmarthen to Neyland.

The South Wales Railway was finally to disapear in 1863 when it was absorbed by the Great Western Railway.

The South Wales Railway owned no locomotives or rolling stock of its own as all its train services were operated by the Great Western Railway. The South Wales Railway provided all the stations, station staff, linesmen and signalmen however.