The Story of the Cambrian

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Many and difficult as were the engineering problems involved in the
construction of the coast line none aroused greater interest or put
scientific skill and courage to a severer test than that, to which we
have already briefly alluded, of carrying the railway over the sand and
river current into Barmouth. To the lay mind it appeared an almost
insuperable task, and there were those who did not hesitate to whisper
their doubts as to its practicability, one well-known local gentleman
being reported to have gone as far as publicly to undertake to eat the
first engine which ever crossed that formidable gulf. But engineers and
craftsmen set to work with a will, and before long what had appeared an
impossibility was rapidly taking shape as an actuality. Eight hundred
yards in length, the greater portion was constructed on timber piles,
over 500 in number, in 113 spans, driven into the sand. The navigable
channel, at the Barmouth end, was crossed by an iron-work construction,
of seven fixed and one opening span. The latter was of the drawbridge
type, and when lifted at one end by means of large screws was carried on
wheels and could be drawn back over the adjoining span.

It was a lengthy as well as a cumbersome operation, and when, in 1899,
the ironwork portion of the viaduct had become too weak for the
constantly increasing loads of developing traffic, it was completely
renewed with a modern steel structure of four spans, one of which was a
spring span, revolving on the centre pier and giving two clear openings.
The piers carrying the girders are formed of columns 8ft. in diameter
sunk through the sand down to solid rock, which was reached at a depth of
about 90 feet below high water mark. The columns are steel cylinders
filled with concrete, and were sunk into position by means of compressed
air on the diving bell principle, and owing to the depth below water at
high tide, the men excavating inside were finally working under a
pressure of three atmospheres, or 45 lbs. to the square inch. The
contractors were the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Co. Ltd., of
Darlington. In 1906, and the following two or three years, the timber
portion of the viaduct was also completely renewed in the same material,
the contractor in this case being Mr. Abraham Williams of Aberdovey, who
had built, or helped to build, many of the old wooden bridges on the
coast line. The total cost of the renewals was approximately 60,000
pounds, and it is no small achievement that they were carried out without
a moment's stoppage in the traffic.

[Picture: Barmouth Bridge. Reproduced from the "Great Western
Magazine."]

But even the original viaduct, old-fashioned as it may seem now, was a
wonder in those days, and the fact that it carried (and still carries) a
footpath as well as the railway, provides Barmouth with a promenade
unrivalled in character and in range of panorama of river and mountains
and sea anywhere in this country. For a time before it was completely
finished a carriage was drawn over the bridge by horses, but in 1867 it
was opened for regular traffic, and in the first train which crossed it
into Barmouth rode the gentleman, who was under contract to make a meal
of the locomotive. If he had forgotten his rash undertaking, he was very
soon to receive a startling reminder. On safe arrival on the northern
shore, the story goes, he was politely escorted by an official to a table
laid for one, and was courteously requested to elect whether he would
have the engine roast or boiled. Alas! for the frailty of human nature,
more especially where a sense of humour might stand us in good stead.
The sceptic, disillusioned, is stated to have failed to appreciate the
joke!

Once the estuary was bridged, north of Barmouth, the constructional
problems were simpler of solution, and when the contractors reached
Minffordd, they were able to take advantage of an earlier engineering
enterprise, no less remarkable than any railway building. In former days
the sea had covered what is now called the Traeth, the broad valley of
the Glaslyn, stretching from the hillocks of Penrhyndeudraeth to
Moel-y-Gest, overlooking Portmadoc. The tides then surged several miles
up this vale, and washed the walls of Llanfrothen churchyard, while
vessels bore their freights almost up to Pont Aberglaslyn. In 1791 Mr.
Madocks, following the example of earlier builders of sea walls in the
district, purchased the Tan-yr-allt estate, and soon set to work to make
dry land of a large part of the ocean bed. He erected what, in the
locality, is commonly called a "cob," the great embankment which runs
across the mouth of the former estuary, shut out the sea and recaptured
4,500 acres from its rapacious maw. Behind the shelter of this
embankment (along the top of which the Festiniog Railway runs), the new
line was comparatively easily carried over the marshy ground, and no
greater gulf had to be bridged than the narrow channel in which the
river, flowing down from the bosom of Snowdon, some eight or nine miles
away, is now confined.

But there were other difficulties to be faced--difficulties not so easily
overcome as even mountain torrents and sandy estuaries. The hand of the
law was heavy upon the constructors, and even when the line was
practically ready for opening, so long a delay took place in settling
outstanding claims that the track became almost derelict. For these were
anxious days for railway promoters. The rosy promise of rich revenues
from remote Welsh lines failed to mature, and Mr. Savin, heavily weighted
with the immensity of his undertakings, and crushed by the costly
construction of his great hotels, sank under the burden. He faced his
financial embarrassments with characteristic pluck, but it was a dark
hour in the annals of British finance far beyond the boundaries of the
Principality, amidst which came the sensational failure of the Overend
and Gurney Bank, and, so far as the Welsh Coast Railway in particular was
concerned, the interminable legal wrangles not only cost money, but
postponed the hour at which the line could earn its keep.

Even under these adverse circumstances trains did occasionally run,
carrying pigs from Pwllheli, or a small load of coal or timber for some
outlying farmer or builder, or a passenger or two willing to take the
risk of an adventurous journey liable at any moment to be brought to a
sudden termination by the barriers of the bailiffs. But even bailiffs
are human; and at night, when they slept, or were turned away by subtle
hospitality at some neighbouring hostelry, journeys could be made,
dashing down from Portmadoc to Barmouth and back with all the
exhilaration of a secret expedition.

Eventually assistance came to the hard-pressed promoters, and the line
was officially opened for traffic from Barmouth to Pwllheli on October
10th, 1867. But the number of trains often depended on the state of the
exchequer, and sometimes quaint incidents would occur to break the
monotony of events. One driver arriving from Pwllheli at Portmadoc, in
the early days, discovering that there was no "staff" available to enable
him to proceed to Penrhyndeudraeth according to regulations, was in
considerable perplexity as to what to do, when an ingenious sub-official
bethought him of a scheme, and fetching an old carpenter's auger, wrapped
it round with paper, and thus armed by what perpetrated to be the badge
of authority to go forward, the driver blew his whistle and off the train
went on its hazardous way.

On another occasion an official of the line visiting one station master
on this section was startled, in reply to his cheery inquiry as to
whether all was well with him, to learn that "the only drawback was that
he had the devil in his parlour." On his exclamation of incredulous
alarm, the stationmaster said that he would show the official, if he
would come and see. Entering the station house with some trepidation, he
beheld in the middle of the parlour one of the iron fire-brackets, used
to prevent water troughs from freezing in cold weather, popularly known
among railway men as "devils." It seems that the builders had neglected
to put in a grate, and the poor man had had to fall back on this
diabolical method of keeping himself warm! The matter, no doubt, was
quickly righted, for stationmasters, even then, were important
functionaries, often wearing tall silk hats, though some of them were
regarded as passing rich on 15/- or 16/- a week.

It was something, however, that, in the face of all these difficulties,
financial and constructive, a line should be completed along this
wandering coast at all. Only in one respect, indeed, did the original
project fall short of attainment. The great objective of which the
shareholders heard so much in earlier days--Porth Dinlleyn--was never
reached. The line still terminates at Pwllheli, where, up to 1901, the
station lay at arm's length from the town close to the harbour, which, in
hot weather, used sometimes to alarm arriving visitors by its fishy
odours. In 1901 power was obtained to carry the line into the centre of
the town, where a new and commodious station now serves this popular
health resort, the gateway to the mysterious fastnesses of Lleyn.

CHAPTER VIII. SOME EARLIER BRANCHES.

"Y ddel gerbydres welir--yn rhedeg
Ar hyd ein dyffryn-dir,
Ac yn gynt ar ei hynt hir
Y fellten ni theithia filltir.

O ganol tre Llangynog--am naw
Cychwyn wneir yn dalog,
Fe'n ceir cyn tri'n fwy gwisgi na'r gog,
A hoenus yn Llundain enwog." {91}

--A WELSH BARD.

The traveller along the main artery of the Cambrian, from Whitchurch to
Aberystwyth, will note that, as he proceeds on his way, past the Welsh
border foothills, and on by the waters of the Severn to the highlands of
central Montgomeryshire, a series of more or less attractive lateral
valleys branch off to the left, and still more definitely, to the right.
Up some of these the eyes of ambitious engineers and railway promoters
had often been cast as the main line was being constructed. No less
eagerly did the residents at the remoter ends of these sequestered
hollows among the hills look forward to the day when they might be linked
up with the central system, and so brought into direct touch with the
great world beyond.

There had, as we have seen, already been plans for carrying a line right
up the Vyrnwy or the Tanat Valley, through the Berwyns to the vale of the
Dee--the wonderful West Midland line which was to run from Shrewsbury to
the shores of Cardigan Bay, over hill and down dale with "only one
tunnel." But the route left Llanfyllin eight miles to the south, and
Llanfyllin, as the largest town among these upland valleys, was not
disposed to take that lying down. The Oswestry and Newtown line crossed
the end of the vale, at Llanymynech, only nine miles away, and that was
clearly the route by which the engineers could most easily construct a
connective link. In the autumn of 1860, one of Llanfyllin's most
prominent citizens, Mr. J. Pugh, had posted over to Oswestry, where he
had an interview with Mr. Whalley. "Can you help us to get a railway?"
Yes, anything in his power, the hon. Member for Peterboro' would do, and
he was as good as his word. Within a month a crowded audience pressed
into the Llanfyllin Town Hall to listen to the scheme which Mr. Whalley
and his colleagues had to lay before them. The chair was taken by Mr. R.
M. Bonner Maurice, of Bodynfoel, who had, it was happily recalled,
presided at one of the meetings eight years earlier at Newtown out of
which the germ of the Montgomeryshire Railways sprang. This was, indeed,
good augury, and when, not only Mr. Whalley and Mr. Johns, with their
enthusiasm, but Mr. George Owen, with his plans in his pocket, came
before them to show how the thing could be done, at a cost of some 60,000
pounds, enthusiasm rose high.

The meeting, however, was not "like Bridgnorth election, all on one
side." Mr. A. C. Sheriff, of Worcester, manager of the West Midland
Railway, existent, so far, merely on paper, was there too, only he had no
plans in his pocket, and little more than vague notions in his head.
"If" they did make a second tunnel, out of the Tanat Valley, then
Llanfyllin should certainly be brought on to their main line, which would
carry the farmers straight into Shrewsbury market. The farmers, however,
did not want to go to Shrewsbury market. They wanted to go to Oswestry
and Welshpool, and it was by Llanymynech that their way lay. So it
scarcely needed Mr. Abraham Howell's warning to avoid the "shoals and
pitfalls" which threatened any deviation from the branch line scheme.
"Great companies," cried the redoubtable lawyer, "have been the bane of
Montgomeryshire," and Llanfyllin shouted back that they would have none
of them, whether they found they could tunnel out of the Tanat Valley or
not. Besides, "if" the West Midland could not put Llanfyllin on the main
line--and a very big "if" it seemed--then, Mr. Sheriff admitted, it would
not touch the town at all.

So, sweeping aside all "ifs" and "buts," Llanfyllin voted for the
Llanymynech branch. Whether it might be worked as an independent
undertaking or as part of the Oswestry and Newtown Company's concern,
mattered comparatively little. In either case, Mr. Savin was ready to
guarantee a dividend of 4.5 per cent., and Mr. Whalley had so much
confidence in the firm of contractors that he would back the guarantee
with his own name. Big companies should have no blighting and delaying
influence on their little valley. Like the other local companies to
which Mr. Howell alluded as examples of self-reliance, they would "trust
to their own exertions," and since, as somebody said, the Oswestry and
Newtown Railway was already a concrete fact, and no mere hypothetical
proposition, it was agreed to "join heart and hand" with the company. A
resolution to that effect was proposed by Mr. C. R. Jones, seconded by
Mr. John Jones--two names long intimately associated in close comradeship
with the public life of Llanfyllin--and carried unanimously; a similar
conclusion being arrived at at a meeting of "a few of the most
influential inhabitants of Llanymynech," with the Rev. J. Luxmoore,
Rector, in the chair, later in the day.

[Picture: Latest Cambrian Composite Bogey Coach, built for through
traffic between Aberystwyth and Manchester]

As to the rival West Midland scheme, like the ogre in the fairy tale
which ends happily ever afterwards, "little more was heard of it," at any
rate as a great through route from Shrewsbury to the sea. The project
was revived in the Parliamentary session of 1864, and a crowded meeting
at Llanrhaiadr gave it tumultuous blessing in speech and bardic effusion.
{94} But, though ultimately a line was constructed from Shrewsbury (as
we have shown in a previous chapter) it got no further than the Nantmawr
quarries, a few miles north-west of Llanymynech, and after running some
years, became derelict, until revived under the Light Railways Act as the
Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway. Not until 1904 did the Tanat
Valley itself echo to the sound of any sort of railway coach, "lightning"
or otherwise. Here again it was the Light Railways Act which made
construction possible. The Tanat Valley Light Railway Company was
formed, the directors being gentlemen interested in the locality, with
Alderman Charles E. Williams, of Oswestry, as Chairman. After some
controversy as to whether the line should be narrow guage, starting from
Oswestry and running along the Morda Valley through Llansilin, or an
ordinary guage extension of the mineral branch from Llynclys to
Porthywaen, via Llanyblodwel, the latter plan was adopted, and, under
pressure from the Earl of Bradford, a large local landowner, a connection
was also formed over the old Nantmawr mineral line to Llanymynech. The
railway which had its terminus at Llangynog has well served an important
quarrying and agricultural district, but it has never flourished
financially. For many years, indeed, the Company existed only in name,
and in 1921 it was formally absorbed in the Cambrian, which had worked
it, under agreement, from the outset.

But let us go back to the more successful enterprise in the neighbouring
valley. The middle of July 1863 saw the Llanfyllin branch ready for
traffic and on the seventeenth the opening ceremony took place. It
included an excursion to Borth in twenty-three carriages packed with
people, many of whom had never seen the sea. The train, we are told by a
contemporary chronicler, failed to keep time, but who cared? There were
some piquant scenes on the beach when the ladies, essaying to bathe,
found themselves closely surrounded by "gentlemen" in anchored boats, but
that, again, was a short-coming in the ordered programme which was
readily overlooked! Anyhow, it seems, a good many people managed to miss
the return train which "started punctually" at 1-30, arriving at
Llanfyllin at half-past five, and so they also missed the dinner,
presided over by the High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire, Mr. J. Dugdale, and
the speeches, with which the official proceedings closed. The next day,
following the precedent set at the opening of the Llanidloes and Newtown
Railway, Messrs. Savin and Ward entertained the navvies to a "good
substantial dinner" of their own, after which they, too, were entertained
to a flow of oratory from the "big wigs" of the railway company and the
locality, and another series of toasts were honoured with "three times
three."

The promoters had cautiously qualified their promises as to the length of
the branch by proposing to have its terminus at Llanfyllin for "the
present." Some years later, when the Liverpool City Council, seeking
fresh water supplies for their growing community, found a rich source in
the valley of the Vyrnwy at Llanwddyn and constructed their giant works
at what is now Lake Vyrnwy, thoughts began to turn to the prospect of a
continuation of the railway in that direction, but it was not a
practicable proposition. Up the Llanfyllin branch, however, there came
the bulk of the stores, including the huge pipes, and the Portland cement
for the bed of the lake. The cement was landed in bags at Aberdovey and
from Llanfyllin a team of ninety-five horses was employed to draw it by
road to the site of the works. Half were stabled at Llanfyllin and half
at the Lake, and those in charge noted a curious fact. The horses living
at the Lake went down empty in the morning and came back loaded in the
afternoon, and in a few years were all out of condition, whereas those
who started in the morning with their heavy load from Llanfyllin and
returned empty later in the day were always in excellent fettle. To-day
the development of the motor has solved many a transport problem where
heavy loads are concerned, but Llanfyllin remains, perhaps, the most
convenient approach to Lake Vyrnwy for the increasing number of visitors
who go year by year to enjoy its scenic beauties and its piscatorial
delights.

Less rapid success attended a similar enterprise a dozen miles away.
While the good folks of Llanfyllin were pushing on with their branch, the
residents of Llanfair Caereinion were asking themselves why they, too,
should not have their railway. Here, also, the initial problem was one
of route; but, instead of a somewhat easily disposed-of rivalry on the
part of a competitive company, the crux here was the measure of support
which could be won from the owner of the Powis estate, through which it
would almost inevitably, in some form or another, have to pass. In July
1862 Mr. R. D. Pryce of Cyfronaith, who was much interested in the
development of the Llanfair district, asked the Earl of Powis to receive
a deputation, but to a proposal that the line should go by the Black Pool
dingle his lordship found himself unable to agree. The promoters were
disappointed, for it seemed at the time, that no other way was feasible.
But a month later another route was discovered, by way of Newton Lane,
Berriew and Castle Caereinion and so by Melinyrhyd Gate to Llanfair; or,
as an alternative suggestion, from Forden or Montgomery by the "Luggy
Brook."

A meeting was held at Llanfair at which Mr. Edwin Hilton explained a
scheme which was estimated to cost 60,000 pounds, of which 20,000 pounds
should first be raised in ordinary shares, the rest to be made up
afterwards of preference shares and debentures. But nothing directly
came of it, and it was not until October, 1864, that another proposal was
formulated, this time of more ambitious character. This was a variation
of the original Shrewsbury and West Midland route, which Llanfyllin had
already laughed out of countenance, starting from Welshpool and making
its way through Llanfair over (or rather under) the Berwyns to the Great
Western system by the Dee. Mr. David Davies, on being consulted,
favoured a 2ft. 3in. guage, though he advised that enough land should be
taken and bridges built to accommodate an ordinary guage later if found
necessary. The minimum speed on the narrow guage was to be fifteen miles
an hour, and it was estimated that the average receipts would work out at
5 pounds per mile.

Amongst the leading advocates of this scheme was Mr. Russel Aitken, a
well-known civil engineer of Westminster, the home of many Welsh railway
projects in those days. He got into correspondence with Lord Powis about
it, pointing out that, as a beginning, the line might be made as far as
Llanfair, and then the promoters might "wait and see." But Powis Castle
was not so easily to be persuaded. The Earl considered a railway from
Welshpool below Llanfair Road to Sylvaen Hall "very objectionable" and
much preferred the alternative route of branching off the Llanfyllin line
at Llansantffaid, via Pont Robert. This Mr. Aitken "could not
successfully try to contest" and therefore "gave up the idea of trying
for powers to construct the proposed railway," but he still thought a
line "from Bala to Welshpool would pay and that it would be a great
benefit to the country through which it passes." How far these
prognostications may have been justified experience has never given us
opportunity to ascertain. A railway through the mighty ramparts of the
Berwyns is as remote an accomplishment to-day as it ever was; though,
after many years, Llanfair itself was to obtain its narrow guage line, an
inch less than Mr. Davies's original design, which, under the name of the
Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway, with the Earl's successor as its
most enthusiastic promoter and chairman, was opened for traffic on April
4th, 1903, to be worked by the Cambrian as an important feeder to its
main system.

[Picture: Two famous figures. The late CHIEF INSPECTOR GEORGE THOMAS, of
Oswestry, popularly known in his day as one of "The Three Georges," the
other two, of course, being Mr. George Lewis, General Manager, and Mr.
George Owen, Engineer. The late GUARD CUDWORTH, of Oswestry, for many a
long year the highly esteemed custodian of the principal passenger trains
on the Cambrian, beloved of all the travelling public]

A shorter branch, some five miles in length, from Abermule winding up the
course of the Mule to the village of Kerry, was in course of construction
while these other schemes were maturing or languishing. On Monday, March
2nd, 1863, the first engine puffed its way up the long incline (some of
it as steep as 1 in 43) to Kerry, drawing one carriage, and on its
arrival, after several stoppages on the way to "make steam," was met by a
company of local ladies and gentlemen. It had been intended to indulge
in some speechmaking, as befitted so auspicious an occasion, but the
assembled guests were so absorbed in shaking hands with one another and
looking at the engine, panting after its exertions, that the oratory was
forgotten, and folks were content to offer their personal congratulations
to Mr. Poundley, through whose enthusiasm and activities the branch was
mainly built. It had also been arranged to attach to the train a truck
of coal from Abermule to distribute amongst the poor, but this was more
than the locomotive could accomplish. It went up the next day, and, no
doubt, contributed to a wide endorsement of the views of the newspaper
scribe, detailed to record these stirring events, that the branch was
"everything Kerry can want." Anyhow, with its still rare trains, it is
all that Kerry has ever had, and possibly Kerry is still content.

The Kerry branch is also noteworthy for another thing, that it is the
first arm of the system which diverges to the east of the main line. So
does what was originally the first portion of the trunk, the line from
Moat Lane to Llanidloes, later extended by the amalgamation with the
Mid-Wales Railway, to Brecon, and so also does another diminutive line,
another mile further, which, though not part of the Cambrian proper,
deserves notice in these pages, if only for the personality of its former
manager.

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