Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway - History

History

In 1895 the Plynlimon Mining Co. Ltd. leased Bwlchglas Mine from the farm of that name, other surrounding lands having been leased from Sir Lewis Pryse of the Gogerddan Estate in 1890. Captain John Davis of Talybont and Thomas Molyneux, an industrialist of Earlestown, joined forces to exploit minerals (Hafan, Henfwlch, Elgar - with other mines being seriously considered), and to develop grit stone quarries on Hafan mountain. In 1890 Molyneux proposed building a tramway from Hafan to the coast at Ynyslas using the Leri Valley - Hafan/Talybont/Dolybont and run down and across Cors Fochno using the canalised embankment of the Leri diversion constructed by the Aberystwyth & Welsh Coast Railway, to a Dock suitable for coasters at Ynyslas. However the Cambrian Railways would not permit the tramway to cross its line at any point between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth, leaving no alternative but to unload into barges to get under the bridge at Ynyslas, and then tranship to coasters from the barges the other side. Much thinking went on as to how to get to the sea elsewhere: in frustration, Clarach Bay was considered but ship loading would have been very difficult, a tramway under Ynyslas bridge was considered but discounted due to obvious tide problems, even a line alongside the main line to Aberystwyth Harbour was considered, the transhipping at Ynyslas was discounted as too costly a procedure. In the end it was decided the only option was to go to the Cambrian Railways. Llandre Station, even though Mr Molyneaux had previously stated that much benefit would be lost by their not having direct Port access... however, this option was the only way in the end.

Construction commenced on 11 January 1896, but was briefly brought to a halt by the Gogerddan Estate as the route had not been finalised or indeed agreements signed. Some months afterwards construction commenced in ernest, and very impressive progress was made. The mines and tramway to this point had been funded totally by Thos.Molyneaux, but on the 24th of Oct. 1896 he sold his holdings to the Plynlimon & Hafan Co.Ltd. for £14,000 of the new company's Ordinary shares - meaning he held a 46.6 holding in this new company, and became its Managing Director - with his son holding the post of General Manager and Engineer (having been involved for some while).

By late 1896 the track bed of the line was largely complete. After much delay, track materials were delivered in January 1897, with the first rails being laid at Talybont on 11 January. Tracklaying progressed quickly and in May the first locomotive Victoria arrived on site. During December, Mr Molyneaux had asked Sir P.P.Pryse "...to try to get Sir James Szlumper to adopt the P&H gauge of 2'3" for the proposed Devils Bridge line", and had this happened things would have been interesting and possibly very different, but it did not due to the sharp curves of the Devil's Bridge line.

The first test run of Victoria was a limited success. On 5 June another attempt was made with the locomotive propelling two trollies and pulling a third. Just before Glanfred level crossing a piece of timber was spotted lying across the rails. One of the men on the train, Richard Roberts went forward to clear the line but fell underneath the train and was killed.

In August 1897 the second locomotive Talybont arrived along with the line's first passenger carriage. On 19 August a trial train was run as far as the bottom of the Hafan incline, although the track between Llanfihangel and Talybont was not laid to a high enough quality to permit passenger services to begin immediately.

From late 1897 freight service began on the line. The formal opening to passengers took place on 28 March 1898, although trains only ran on Mondays, connecting with the Cambrian Railway's Market Day Special to Aberystwyth. The majority of passenger trains in the line's short history stopped at Talybont as there were few houses to be served further east of that village.

The passenger service only ran until the summer of 1899 and the entire company went into voluntary liquidation on 19 December 1899 the last train having run sometime before that date. Not long after closure, the company operating the Bryn-yr-Afr Mine made inroads to reopen the line to serve their needs, but nothing came of it unfortunately. The track remained in place until 1914 when it was taken up, though the stretch of line through the Bwlchglas Farm property remained intact until scrapped by the landlord in 1926.