The Milford Railway

The Milford Railway was first advocated in the 1840s due to local anger that the South Wales Railway had decided to make its Irish port and railway terminus at Fishguard and not on the north shore of Milford Haven. In the event the South Wales Railway diverted its line in the 1850s and chose Neyland as its Irish port with the railway there being opened in 1856.

The town of Milford now had a major railway nearby and plans were laid to link the town to it. In 1856 the Milford Junction Railway was formed to link Milford to the South Wales Railway at Johnston, some three miles away. One of the directors of the company was Colonel Greville the developer of Milford. A Parliamentary Bill that year authorised the company and its proposed railway line. It was soon clear that finance would be a problem and that the South Wales Railway would have to operate the line themselves once the company, now called the Milford Railway, had built it.

In 1857 Isambard Kingdom Brunel the brilliant engineer of the South Wales Railway and the Great Western Railway was appointed engineer to the Milford Railway as well. His influence and the desire to have the South Wales Railway operate the line meant that it would be constructed to the broad gauge of 7' 0 1/4".

1858 saw the Milford Railway fall out with the South Wales Railway over their plan to build a branch line to Pembroke Dock on the southern shore of the Haven. The Milford directors objected to this new line as they felt that their town was being ignored and Pembroke Dock favoured. As a result they sacked Brunel as engineer and so distanced themselves from the South Wales Railway. This was a curious decision as they needed the South Wales to operate the Milford Railway and it led to serious and near disasterous consequences.

Work began on building the Milford Railway in 1858 after a new engineer had been found and by 1860 the line was almost complete but the alienated South Wales Railway was, unsurprisingly, reluctant to agree for the Milford Railway to be linked to it. Stalemate persisted for several years with the Milford directors being unable to use their railway. In 1862 agreement was reached with the Great Western Railway who agreed to operate the line (they already provided all the trains for the South Wales Railway) but agreement was still not forthcoming over the building of a junction at Johnston to connect the lines.

Finally, in 1863 the line was completed and a junction provided south of Johnston station. The Great Western Railway had taken over the South Wales Railway and were much more accomodating. They then operated the Milford Railway which remained dominated by the Great Western until absorbed in 1896.

The Milford Railway owned no locomotives and rolling stock of its own because from its opening in 1863 all trains were provided by the Great Western Railway. With the completion of the Milford Railway the way was now clear for major developements in the town and thoughts turned to attracting shipping to Milford.

The first plan involved a pier into deep water at Newton Noyes and a railway linking this with the Milford Railway at Milford station just over a mile away. In 1860 the Newton Noyes, or Estate Line, was authorised by an Act of Parliament but once again finance was a problem and money to build the line was slow to arrive. The construction was thus delayed for several years and the line was finally built in 1867 and 1868.

In October of 1868 the Board of Trade carried out the inspection required before any railway could be opened and they were not impressed. They refused to open the line to passenger traffic. The line was finally opened in 1882 as part of the scheme for Milford Docks which were opened in 1888.