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The Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway, (also known as the Nantmawr Branch,)[1] was a project to build a line from Market Drayton, Shropshire, England to Llanymynech, Wales. It was completed in 1866, obtaining notoriety as the most expensive non-metropolitan railway then built. After years of abandonment it re-opened as the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway in 1911.
Remarkably, the branch from Blodwel Junction to Nantmawr survived for many years as something of a forgotten part of the national network, accessed from Oswestry via the Cambrian Railways' Porthywaen branch. Having been acquired by the Tanat Valley Light Railway Company during 2004, efforts are now under way to re-open the line as a heritage railway.
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History
Construction of the Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway followed a flurry of parliamentary activity, with nine acts of parliament obtained between 1862 and 1866. The West Shropshire Mineral Railway obtained three acts relating to a main line between Yockleton, on the Shrewsbury & Welshpool Railway, and Llanymynech, on the Oswestry & Newtown Railway, in 1962-4. This was subsumed into the Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway in 1864, the SNWR obtaining three acts by 1866 and being realigned to connect with the Shrewsbury & Welshpool Railway at Hookagate in the process. In 1865 the Shrewsbury & Potteries Junction Railway obtained an act to connect the Shrewsbury with Market Drayton, linking the SNWR with the North Staffordshire Railway. The SNWR obtained another act in 1866 before amalgamating with the SPJR to become the Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway on the same day. There were branches between Llanymynech to Nantmawr and from Kinnerley to Criggion to serve stone quarries.
The railway was opened between Llanymynech and Potteries Junction, Shrewsbury, on 13 August 1866. The passenger station at Shrewsbury, intended to be a temporary measure, was located near the Abbey and was accessed by a short and steep branch from Coleham Junction. The main line was double track, the mineral branches single.
The railway company was always short of money and after a receiver was appointed the line was closed on 21 December 1866. It was December 1868 before it re-opened.
The main line was singled between Ford and Llanymynech in 1868/9 and between Shrewsbury and Ford in 1875. The branches to Criggion and Llanyblodwel, on the Nantmawr branch, were opened for passengers in 1871 and 1872.
Following a complaint to the Board of Trade concerning the condition of the Melverley river bridge, on the Criggion branch, the BoT ordered the railway to be closed on 14 June 1880. The company had neither money nor will to carry out repairs and it was abandoned. Some of the stone traffic was continued after the Nantmawr branch was leased to the Cambrian Railways, the lease being made durin June 1880. The Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway (winding-up) Act was obtained in 1881.
In 1888 an act of Parliament authorised the railway to be transferred to the Shropshire Railways Company and reconstruction was started. The company, however, was very litigious and fell out with its contractor and its financier. In 1895 the scheme collapsed when a fund-raising prospectus failed to mention that the company was in receivership.
In 1908 Colonel Holman Fred Stephens led a consortium that applied for a Light Railway Order, wishing to take over the railway, reconstruct it and to operate it as a light railway. The order was made in 1910 and the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway was opened in 1911.
Locomotives
Little is known about the locomotives. According to Woodcock [2] one of them, named Black Tom was a 0-4-2 tender locomotive built by Bury, Curtis, and Kennedy in 1848 and acquired from the London and North Western Railway in 1866.
References
- ^ http://www.railbrit.co.uk/Nantmawr_Branch/frame.htm
- ^ Woodcock, George, Minor Railways of England and their Locomotives, Goose & Son, Norwich, 1970, page 151
Sources
- Turner, Keith & Susan (1982). The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 8233 0.
- Johnson, Peter (2008). The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway. Hersham: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 978 0 86093 619 0.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
