The Hay Railway was a narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway in the district surrounding Hay-on-Wye in Brecknockshire, Wales. The railway connected Eardisley in Herefordshire, England, with Brecon in Wales. The Brecon terminus was Watton Wharf on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal.
| Hay Railway Act 1811 | |
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| Act of Parliament | |
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| Citation | 51 Geo. 3. c. cxxii |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 25 May 1811 |
| Hay Railway Act 1812 | |
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| Act of Parliament | |
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| Long title | An Act for enabling the Company of Proprietors of the Hay Railway to amend, vary, and extend the Line of the said Railway, and for altering and enlarging the Powers of an Act passed in the Fifty-first Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, for making and maintaining the said Railway. |
| Citation | 52 Geo. 3. c. cvi |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 20 May 1812 |
The railway received parliamentary authorisation (51 Geo. 3. c. cxxii) on 25 May 1811. Construction of its winding 24-mile long route took nearly five years and the line was opened on 7 May 1816. [1] The tramway was built to a gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm). The railway adopted the use of cast iron 'L'-shaped tramroad plates in its construction. The vertical portions of the two plates were positioned inside the wheels of the tramway wagons and the plates were spiked to stone blocks for stability. The size of the stones, and their spacing, was such that the horses could operate unimpeded. [2]
From 1 May 1820, the Hay Railway was joined at its Eardisley terminus, in an end on junction, by the Kington Tramway. Together, the two lines totalled 36 miles in length, comprising the longest continuous plateway to be completed in the United Kingdom. [3]
The Hay railway operated through rural areas on the borders of England and Wales and was built to transport goods and freight. Passengers were not carried on any official basis.
The Hay Railway was absorbed into the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway in 1860 and the line was converted to standard gauge [4] for operation by steam locomotives.
The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal is a small network of canals in South Wales. For most of its currently (2018) navigable 35-mile (56 km) length it runs through the Brecon Beacons National Park, and its present rural character and tranquillity belies its original purpose as an industrial corridor for coal and iron, which were brought to the canal by a network of tramways and/or railroads, many of which were built and owned by the canal company.
A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later.
Eardisley is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire about 5 miles (8.0 km) south of the centre of Kington. Eardisley is in the Wye valley in the northwest of the county, close to the border with Wales.
Hereford railway station serves the city of Hereford, in Herefordshire, England. Managed by Transport for Wales, it lies on the Welsh Marches Line between Leominster and Abergavenny, is the western terminus of the Cotswold Line and also has an hourly West Midlands Trains service from Birmingham New Street. The station has four platforms for passenger trains and two additional relief lines for goods services.
Hay was a railway station serving the town of Hay-on-Wye in Powys, Wales, although the station was located just across the English border in Herefordshire. Hay had one of the earliest railway stations in the country, being part of a horse-drawn tramway.
The Nantlle Railway was a Welsh narrow gauge railway. It was built to carry slate from several slate quarries across the Nantlle Valley to the harbour at Caernarfon for export by sea. The line provided a passenger service between Caernarfon and Talysarn from 1856 to 1865. It was the first public railway to be operated in North Wales.
Penygroes railway station was located in Penygroes, Gwynedd, Wales.
Thomas Savin was a British railway engineer who was the contractor who built many railways in Wales and the Welsh borders from 1857 to 1866. He also in some cases was an investor in such schemes.
Newbridge on Wye railway station stood on the single-tracked Mid Wales Railway between Builth Wells and Rhayader. It was closed on 31 December 1962 and the trackbed removed. The site has been cleared and now contains senior citizens' housing. An overbridge which formed the entry point to the station from the south is still in place.
The Morda Tramway refers to two industrial railways south of Oswestry, on the border between England and Wales. They connected the coal pits around Morda to transport networks, the first to the Montgomery Canal and the second to the Cambrian Railways at Whitehaven.
The Crickheath Tramway was a 1.5-mile-long, 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge industrial railway connecting the Porth-y-waen lime quarries near Llanymynech to the Crickheath Wharf on the Ellesmere Canal's Llanymynech branch. It opened in the 1820s and closed in 1913.
The Elan Valley Railway (EVR) was a Welsh industrial railway built to assist in the construction of the Elan Valley Reservoirs in mid Wales. It was in operation from 1896 to about 1912/1916.
The Ruthin and Cerrig-y-Drudion Railway was a proposed 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge railway that would have linked the towns of Ruthin and Cerrig-y-Drudion in Denbighshire, Wales. A bill was put before Parliament in 1873, promoting the railway, which was intended to meet the planned branch of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways from Beddgelert at Cerrig-y-Drudion.
The Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway (HH&BR) was a railway company that built a line between Hereford in England and a junction with the Mid-Wales Railway at Three Cocks Junction. It opened its line in stages from 1862 to 1864. It never had enough money to operate properly, but the Midland Railway saw it as a means of reaching Swansea, and from 1869 the Midland Railway was given exclusive running powers over the HH&BR. There was then a long-running dispute over whether the Midland inherited rights of access previously granted to the HH&BR.
The Kington Tramway was an early narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway that linked limestone quarries at Burlinjobb near New Radnor in Radnorshire, Wales, to Eardisley in Herefordshire, England.
Doldowlod railway station stood on the Mid Wales Railway between Builth Wells and Rhayader. It was closed on 31 December 1962 and the track removed.
Credenhill railway station first opened on 30 June 1863 and finally closed by the Western Region of British Railways on 31 December 1962. The site is now used for Credenhill's Sports and Social Club, owned by the local council.
Carnarvon Castle railway station was opened in 1856 by the narrow gauge Nantlle Railway near the foot of what is today the Allt Y Castell which slopes down to Caernarfon's harbour area. It was the line's northern terminus and was the closest of Caernarfon's ultimately five stations to the historic town centre.
Eardisley railway station was a station in Eardisley, Herefordshire, England. The station was opened on 30 June 1863, closed to passengers on 31 December 1962 and closed completely in 1964. The former station site, now an industrial estate, is to the south of the village, on the A4111.
Willersley and Winforton is a civil parish in west Herefordshire, England, and is approximately 14 miles (20 km) west-northwest from the city and county town of Hereford. The parish contains the village of Winforton and the farming hamlet of Willersley. The nearest towns are the market towns of Hay-on-Wye 5 miles (8 km) to the south-west, and Kington 6 miles (10 km) to the north. The physicist Sir Thomas Ralph Merton KBE, DSc, FRS, lived at Winforton during the Second World War.
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