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In this day of mass ownership of motor cars and with most goods going by lorry it is hard to imagine the amount of rail traffic in Pembrokeshire at the beginning of the last century.

The peak of trade was during the first half of the 20th Century when the county's rail system was dominated by the Great Western Railway.

Every day long fish trains carried vast amounts of fish from Milford Docks up through Haverfordwest to cities in the rest of the country. Fast express trains roared along the main line through the centre of the county travelling to and from the Irish Sea port at Fishguard and Paddington Station in London.

Huge quantities of agricultural produce was leaving Pembrokeshire by rail from every station, with cattle from all over the county, wheat and ceral crops from the south and vast amounts of potatoes from the county's early potatoe crops. Every station had crates of rabbits stacked daily on its platforms to go to the cities and long trains carried away vast quantities of milk from the area's large number of dairy farms.

Coal trains left the collieries at Bonvilles Court in Saundersfoot and from Hook Colliery south of Haverfordwest laden with the worlds' finest quality coal. Huge amounts of limestone, gravel and sand left South Pembrokeshire together with slate from the north of the county.

Passenger sevices were not neglected with through trains to Paddington and numerous local trains to all stations, including special work trains for dockyard workers at Pembroke Dock. The dockyard here was the destination for trains of coal and supplies for the warships and large amounts of armour plate for their construction. This traffic increased by large amounts during the First World War. The Second World War saw huge amounts of munitions and troops moved over the county's rail network. Each day in Pembrokeshire also saw the arrival of the mail train which was so long that on entering the county it was split into three different trains to go to different areas.

Peak times would be even busier with extra trains having to be fitted in alongside all the regular traffic. The monthly horse fair at Narberth saw most of the horses transported to and from there by rail and at that time every horsebox wagon that could be aquired was used and large numbers of cattle wagons would be pressed into service to meet the demand for horse transport.

The summer tourist season saw a large increase in the number of passenger trains on the old Pembroke and Tenby line from Whitland to Tenby with excursion traffic running from major cities such as London and Birmingham. Tenby was also a favourite destination for the works trains carrying the Great Western Railway's workers on holiday from the huge railway works at Swindon.

The summers also saw extensive military training in South Pembrokeshire with training areas at Penally and Castlemartin, near Pembroke, and this resulted in large numbers of troop trains carring troops, supplies, cavalry horses and armoured vehicles. The railway line to Tenby was only a single track line and so trains would often have to stop at every station between Tenby and Whitland to let another train (or more) pass them by due to this huge weight of traffic.

To operate this vast amount of rail traffic there were locomotive depots at Neyland, Tenby, Pembroke Dock, Fishguard and Milford. Just across the border in Carmarthenshire was the railway junction at Whitland and all the rail traffic into and out of the county passed through here. The extensive railway sidings there were so busy with Pembrokeshire traffic that a shunting engine would operate 24 hours a day putting trains together.