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The Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway (S&WR), formally named the Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway, is a standard gauge railway which connects the towns of Shrewsbury and Welshpool. It opened in 1861 and the majority of the railway continues in use.
| Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway Act 1856 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
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| Long title | An Act for making a Railway from the Oswestry and Newtown Railway in the Parish of Buttington in the County of Montgomery to Shrewsbury, with a Branch thereout to Minsterley in the County of Salop, and for other Purposes. |
| Citation | 19 & 20 Vict. c. cxxxii |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 29 July 1856 |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway Act 1858 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for extending the Powers of the Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway Company for purchasing Lands and completing their Railway; and for other Purposes. |
| Citation | 21 & 22 Vict. c. cx |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 23 July 1858 |
| Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway Act 1860 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Citation | 23 & 24 Vict. c. xxv |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 15 May 1860 |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway Act 1861 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
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| Long title | An Act to authorize the Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway Company to widen their Minsterley Branch; and for other Purposes. |
| Citation | 24 & 25 Vict. c. xiii |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 17 May 1861 |
| Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway (Capital) Act 1863 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act to authorize the Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway Company to raise a further Sum of Money; and for other Purposes. |
| Citation | 26 & 27 Vict. c. xcvii |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 29 June 1863 |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway (Transfer) Act 1864 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Citation | 27 & 28 Vict. c. cxcvi |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 14 July 1864 |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway was incorporated by an act of Parliament, the Shrewsbury and Welchpool Railway Act 1856 (19 & 20 Vict. c. cxxxii). Although initially an independent company, the line was to be operated and maintained by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR).
Construction began in 1859, and by 1861 the line from Shrewsbury to Minsterley was completed, and opened on 14 February 1861. Construction of the main line to Welshpool was completed later in 1861 and officially opened on 27 January 1862.
The Minsterley branch served the agricultural communities of the area, but its main purpose was to carry lead from the mines along the Stiperstones hills. These mines were connected to the S&WR at Pontesbury by the 2 ft 4 in (711 mm) narrow gauge Snailbeach District Railways which opened in 1873 and closed in 1959. The Minsterley branch closed for passenger service in 1951 and for freight traffic in the mid 1960s.
The main line of the S&WR continued in use as the main route from Shrewsbury to Welshpool and, via the ex-Cambrian Railways main line, to mid-Wales and Machynlleth. The railway was jointly operated by the LNWR (LM&SR after 1923) and the Great Western Railway until nationalisation, when it became part of British Railways. All of the intermediate stations were subsequently closed in September 1960.
The Minsterley branch was a short railway line that ran from Cruckmeole Junction on the Cambrian Line just south of Shrewsbury to Minsterley in Shropshire. The six-and-a-half mile standard gauge line was the only section built of a plan to connect Shrewsbury with mid Wales. It was part of a joint venture between the Great Western Railway and London and North Western Railway companies.
The Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway was authorised in 1846. It agreed to joint construction with others of the costly Wolverhampton to Birmingham section, the so-called Stour Valley Line. This work was dominated by the hostile London and North Western Railway, which used underhand and coercive tactics. The section between Shrewsbury and Wellington was also built jointly, in this case with the Shropshire Union Railway.
The Chester and Holyhead Railway was an early railway company conceived to improve transmission of Government dispatches between London and Ireland, as well as ordinary railway objectives. Its construction was hugely expensive, chiefly due to the cost of building the Britannia Tubular Bridge over the Menai Strait. The company had relied on Government support in facilitating the ferry service, and this proved to be uncertain. The company opened its main line throughout in 1850. It relied on the co-operation of other railways to reach London, and in 1859 it was absorbed by the London and North Western Railway.
The Llanelly Railway and Dock Company was an early Welsh railway system. It opened its first short line and a wet dock at Llanelly in 1834, and soon went on to build a longer line from Llanelly to serve pits in the Amman Valley, and then on to Llandilo, reached in 1857. The Llanelly company leased and worked the Vale of Towy Railway on to Llandovery, from 1858.
The Denbigh, Ruthin and Corwen Railway was a standard gauge railway line that connected Corwen with Denbigh via Ruthin in North Wales.
The Vale of Clwyd Railway (VoCR) was a standard-gauge line, which connected the settlements of Rhyl, St Asaph and Denbigh in North Wales. It opened in 1858, at first without a connection to the main line at Rhyl, but this was provided in 1862. At Denbigh, a connection could be made on to the Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway. Although the area became popular with holidaymakers from the 1920s, the line never realised its potential; it closed to passengers in 1955 and completely in 1968.
The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway was an English railway company that built a standard gauge line between those places. It opened its main line in 1853.
The Van Railway was a standard gauge railway in mid Wales. The line was built in 1871 to link the highly productive lead mines at Van, near Llanidloes to the main Cambrian line at Caersws. The mines closed in 1920, but the railway remained open until 1940.
The Llanidloes and Newtown Railway (L&NR) was a railway company between Llanidloes and Newtown in Montgomeryshire, Wales. It was promoted locally when plans for trunk railways passing through the locality were cancelled; local people saw that a railway connection was essential to the flannel industry in the district. The 17-mile (27 km) line opened in 1859, and at first was isolated from any other railway, but from 1861 it became connected to Oswestry by an allied railway company, and other companies also connected to it. From 1864 the company was incorporated into the new Cambrian Railways company.
The Red Wharf Bay branch line was a standard gauge railway line in Anglesey, Wales, a branch off the Anglesey Central Railway. It opened fully in 1909, but closed to passengers in September 1930. Freight operations continued until 3 April 1950, and the tracks were lifted during the summer of 1953.
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 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 Bangor and Carnarvon Railway was a railway company promoted to build a branch railway connecting Caernarfon with the main line at Bangor, in north-west Wales. It opened in 1852 as far as Port Dinorwic and was extended to Caernarfon later in the same year.
The Conway and Llanrwst Railway was a standard gauge railway built to connect the Welsh coastal town of Conway, nowadays addressed by its Welsh name of Conwy, with the inland towns of Llanrwst and Betws y Coed. It opened in 1863 and was eventually absorbed into the lines operated by the London and North Western Railway. In 2008 it continues to operate as part of the Conwy Valley Line.
The North Wales Mineral Railway was formed to carry coal and ironstone from the mineral-bearing area around Wrexham to the River Dee wharves. It was extended to run from Shrewsbury and formed part of a main line trunk route, under the title the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway. It opened in 1846 from Chester to Ruabon, and in 1848 from Ruabon to Shrewsbury. It later merged with the Great Western Railway.
The Mold Railway was a railway company that built a line in north-east Wales. The line linked Mold to Chester and it opened on 14 August 1849. The company built a mineral branch line to Ffrith, opened in November 1849. Mold itself was an important regional centre, and contained considerable mineral resources.
The Dyserth branch line was a short standard-gauge mineral railway between the northern end of the Clwydian Range at Dyserth and the North Wales Coast Line at Prestatyn. The line was constructed by the London and North Western Railway in 1869; it was built to carry quarried stone and coal. The rise of tourism led to the introduction of a passenger service in 1905. There were stations at Dyserth and Meliden, and basic halts were built at other stopping places. Competition from road transport led to the passenger service being withdrawn in 1930. With the eventual demise of all the mineral industries around Dyserth the entire line was closed in September 1973.
The Oswestry and Newtown Railway (O&NR) was a British railway company that built a line between Oswestry in Shropshire and Newtown Montgomeryshire, now Powys. The line opened in stages in 1860 and 1861. It was conceived to open up the area to rail transport, when local opinion formed the view that the trunk railway companies would not do so. Subscription money for the construction proved very difficult to generate. It was the action of a contractor partnership, Davies and Savin, in agreeing to accept shares as the majority of their payment for construction work, that saved the company from failure.
The Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley Railway was an English railway company promoted to connect those places by rail. It was authorised by Parliament in 1846. It became apparent that it would be advantageous to merge with the Great Western Railway. The rival London and North Western Railway went to great lengths to frustrate the amalgamation, but ultimately failed, and the merger took place in 1847.
The Ruabon railway branch lines were a network of railways built to serve the mineral bearing area west of Ruabon, which contained many coal and iron deposits, as well as limestone, and a small but dense network of railways developed to handle the minerals.
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