19th century The first main line railway in central Wales, the
Llanidloes and Newtown Railway, was opened in 1859. At first it was not connected to any other railway, but it fostered interest in railway development, and soon, through routes to
Newtown from both
Chester (opened 1861) and from Shrewsbury (opened 1862) were available. Striking westward and crossing very difficult terrain, the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway was opened on 31 December 1862. Although Machynlleth was an important market town, its promoters were considering an extension to Aberystwyth and the
Cardigan Bay coast. Due to a shortage of subscription money from general investors, the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway was in the hands of a successful partnership of railway contractors,
David Davies and
Thomas Savin, who put up most of the construction money and took paid-up shares as the majority of their payment. These men shared the idea of continuing to the coast, but Savin's ambitious vision of a huge investment in developing the coastal district was considered by Davies to be over-reaching, and the partnership was dissolved on 30 January 1861. The Newtown and Machynlleth Railway had preliminary designs made for a coastal line, to be known as the Machynlleth, Aberystwyth and Towyn Railway. At about the same time, the
Llanidloes and Newtown Railway and the
Oswestry and Newtown Railway (the latter still under construction), working together, had a scheme prepared for a coastal line from Aberystwyth to Pwllheli, with several branches. Davies supported the
Towyn scheme, while Savin favoured the line to Pwllheli. Moreover, there was no talk of the Pwllheli line continuing to
Porth Dinllaen, on the north side of the
Lleyn Peninsula. Porth Dinllaen was a natural harbour on the north side of the Lleyn Peninsula, that had been proposed as a packet station for the Irish mail service. At that time,
Holyhead had been selected in preference, but Porth Dinllaen still had supporters for development as a ferry port. The A&WCR took stock and made progress to secure the extension from Portmadoc to Pwllheli and Porth Dinllaen. Railway schemes supported by the
Great Western Railway were being planned from
Llangollen towards
Barmouth, and possibly on from there to north Wales. The A&WCR wanted to head off the threat; to do so it proposed a branch line from near Barmouth to Dolgelly. The A&WCR obtained the second act on 29 July 1862, the '''''' (
25 & 26 Vict. c. clxxvi), which authorised these extensions. Further north, the
Carnarvonshire Railway was incorporated on 29 July 1862 with powers to build from
Carnarvon to Portmadoc by way of
Afon Wen. The Carnarvonshire Railway authorisation duplicated the A&WCR as between Afon Wen and Portmadoc. The duplication was ignored at first, but the position was finally resolved by an agreement of 13 December 1865 under which the Cambrian Railways (successor to the A&WCR) built the section. The line from Llwyngwril to Barmouth Junction, and from there to
Penmaenpool on the Dolgelly line, followed on 3 July 1865. There was an intermediate station called
Barmouth Ferry, at the place where
Fairbourne station was later built. Passengers for Barmouth alighted there and walked on across the sandbar to catch a ferry over the
Mawddach estuary to Barmouth Harbour.) The A&WCR's engineer, Benjamin Piercy, was dismissed early in 1864 as part of a power struggle between Thomas Savin and other factions on the board. He had been progressing the design of the Dovey bridge, but practical and financial difficulties with it had been emerging. In particular, finding a good foundation stratum was proving extremely difficult. Piercy's expulsion gave an opportunity to revisit the plan to bridge the estuary, and in May 1864 the decision was taken to abandon the bridging plan. The course of the connecting line at Aberdovey was difficult, and a proposed waterside route through the town proved unacceptable. An alternative path around the back of the town was developed, but it was operationally difficult, with steep gradients and sharp curves, as well as three tunnels. In addition, the Aberdovey Harbour station would be bypassed, there was no space for a new station on the deviation line, and the new Aberdovey station was inconveniently located some way west of the town. A year later, the criterion for amalgamation was achieved, and the A&WCR was incorporated in the Cambrian Railways by the passing of the '''''' (
28 & 29 Vict. c. ccxci) on 5 July: the merger took effect on 5 August 1865. The contractor Thomas Savin was undertaking all the remaining construction work for the A&WCR section of the Cambrian Railways, as well as working the traffic. He had accepted company shares as the major part of the payment for his construction work, and he was directly financing company outlays from his own resources. By 5 February 1866 he was effectively bankrupt, putting the Cambrian Railways into difficulty. On 10 May 1866, the financial house of
Overend, Gurney and Company failed, plunging money markets throughout the United Kingdom into turmoil and making railway investments hazardous for the public. Many investors were unwilling or unable to respond to calls on shareholdings, and borrowing became very difficult. For some years the company was in serious financial difficulty, and at length mortgage holders sued in the
Court of Chancery. The company's Deputy Chairman, Captain R. D. Pryce, was appointed as receiver; the actions were stayed after two months, at the end of 1867. In fact, the company as a whole was in serious financial difficulty, with huge obligations and almost no profitable business activity. The
Cambrian Railways Finance Act 1868 (
31 & 32 Vict. c. clxxvii), was passed on 31 July 1868 and authorised a financial reconstruction, as well as preventing for a period the activation of claims against the company; this averted an immediate disaster but did not abate the problem. The 113-span viaduct, constructed on over 500 timber piles, was driven into a stand, with a drawbridge at the northern end. Meanwhile, on 14 August 1867, the "deviation" line from Dovey Junction to Aberdovey was opened. Porth Dinllaen had once been promoted as the mail packet terminal for Dublin, but lost out in favour of Holyhead. The A&WCR still yearned to develop it, and obtained powers to do so in the 1862 act. When the line reached Pwllheli the vision waned, and continuing across the Lleyn peninsula was not attempted. The Cambrian Railways unsuccessfully sought to revive these powers in 1876. Undeterred, the Porthdinlleyn Railway Company was incorporated in 1884 by the '
(47 & 48 Vict. c. ccxlviii) for a line from Pwllheli but abandoned it in 1892 by the ' (
55 & 56 Vict. c. xcvi). In 1913 the company obtained powers for a rail extension to Porth Dinllaen, but
World War I intervened and the idea subsequently lapsed. In 1899,
Barmouth viaduct was re-built, described by C. P. Gasquoine as: The original Pwllheli station was on Abererch Road, short of the inner harbour and the River Erch. In the mid-nineteenth century, the harbour was busy with coal and agricultural products, but the railway dominated those traffics; reduced conservancy resulted in silting of the inner harbour by material brought in by the River Erch. In 1903, improvement works were carried out to the inner harbour, and reclamation work was carried out; an embankment was constructed by Pwllheli Corporation. As the railway station was distant from the town centre, the opportunity was taken to extend the line westwards to its present position at the Cob, as authorised by the
Cambrian Railways Act 1901 (
1 Edw. 7. c. lxix) of 2 July. The extension and the new two-platform terminus were opened on 19 July 1909.
20th century After World War I, the
Railways Act 1921 transferred most mainline railways into one of four companies, in a process referred to as the "grouping". The Cambrian Railways became a constituent of a new Great Western Railway, of which the old GWR was the largest component. The transfer took effect on 1 January 1922, from which date the Cambrian Railways ceased to exist. The layout at Aberystwyth was improved in 1925, with longer platforms taking up the land formerly used by a turntable. A triangle for locomotive turning was installed, using one of the Manchester and Milford sidings, though through running to Carmarthen via the triangle was not possible. A new station frontage and a big increase in the area roofed over were the improvements most appreciated by passengers. Aberdovey station, opened at the same time as the "deviation" line to Dovey Junction, was a great distance west of the town, causing complaints lasting for decades. In 1933, Penhelig Halt was opened, at the east end of the town but considerably more convenient. The last of a series of coast halts was opened at Llandecwyn in 1935. At Abererch, a conditional halt with double-arm platform signals for passengers to stop trains became a full station. A proposal to close the entire coast line in 1971 was fought successfully by a pressure group. The Radio Electronic Token Block signalling system was installed over the weekend of 1 and 2 October 1988. ==Morfa Mawddach triangle==