The Whitland and Cardigan Railway

The Whitland and Cardigan Railway ran from Whitland in Carmarthenshire and then over the Preseli Mountains to Cardigan in Cardiganshire, a distance of about 27 miles. Over half of its length was in Pembrokeshire serving the north east of the county.

During the 1860s a local landowner and business man John Owen of Glogue decided to promote a standard gauge railway from the Great Western Railway station at Whitland and up the Taf Vale to Crymmych in Pembrokeshire some 16 miles distant. The line would serve his slate quarry at Glogue and a nearby silver and lead mine at Llanfyrnach both of which were also in Pembrokeshire. Once Crymmych was reached it was hoped to extend the line to Cardigan which the Cardigan and Carmarthen Railway had failed to reach.

In 1869 a company was formed called the Whitland and Taf Vale Railway. One of its board members was the famous Welsh engineer David Davies who had built the Pembroke and Tenby Railway and these two companies became close allies. The G. W. R. moved at once to try and dominate the new company by refusing to allow them to build a seperate station at Whitland. They did, however, agree to rent station facilities at Whitland to the Whitland and Taf Vale Railway as well as part of their line west of the town. This gave the G. W. R. a strangle hold on the company from the start and their rents were very high.

In 1870 work on the railway began but financial problems were already apparent. By 1873 the line was complete to Glogue but the contractor refused to hand it over to the company until he was paid! The dispute was settled but the company had to lay the line from Glogue to Crymmych themselves as the contractor had pulled out.

March 1873 saw the first freight trains running to Glogue and in July 1874 freight trains began operating to Crymmych with traffic increasing considerably.

During 1875 the railway was opened to passenger traffic. An inspection of approval by the Board of Trade was required for the opening but when the inspector was several days late arriving the Whitland and Taf Vale Railway opened anyway. A furious Board of Trade finally inspected the line and found a very large number of faults and ordered passenger traffic to cease but the company pointed out that the Board had no authority over an already open railway and ignored them. With the passenger traffic the desperate financial position of the company finally began to improve as trade increased throughout 1875.

In 1877 the company was renamed the Whitland and Cardigan Railway and an Act of Parliament authorised a further 11 miles of line to Cardigan. Work began on this extension in 1878 but problems were again caused by the lack of money as given the company's poor financial position the people of Cardigan were reluctant to invest in it.

During 1879 the company was in dispute with its engineer and all work on the extension was halted while a new engineer drew up new plans. G. W. R. rents for the use of Whitland station also remained high and the company found itself unable to pay so the G. W. R. took legal action. In desperation the directors negotiated for the G. W. R. to buy the line but they refused due to its poor state of repair which was again caused by the lack of money.

Finally in 1881 the G. W. R. agreed to operate the line for the company but only if they completed the Cardigan extension and carried out extensive improvements on the existing line from Whitland to Crymmych. Finances now improved as investors were reassured by the agreement with the G. W. R. who were also contributing funds for the extension. The contractors building the new line were also more confident of payment and work restarted in 1883 on the extension and the improvements.

On August 31st 1886 the railway was opened to Cardigan and the next day the G. W. R began operating the line. In 1890 the G. W. R. absorbed the Whitland and Cardigan Railway.

The Whitland and Taf Vale / Whitland and Cardigan Railway owned three locomotives all of which were 0-6-0 saddle tank engines. The first locomotive arrived in 1873 and was called John Owen after the railway's promoter, in 1875 a second locomotive called Number 2 was purchased and a third called Number 3 arrived in 1877. In 1874 the company also hired a 2-4-0 tender engine called the Alma for 12 weeks and they hired another locomotive for a short period of time in 1875. The company also owned 6 carriges, 10 wagons and 1 brake van.

The traffic on the line consisted mainly of passengers, coal, lime, slate and lead ore. The line itself was always difficult to operate as it was constructed with sharp curves and steep gradients that restricted the speed of the trains using it.