The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

[rogerfarnworth]

The next post in this thread provides a link to another thread on the forum. The industrial railways of Pembrokeshire developed alongside the industry of the area. This link is to a thread about the industrial railways around Milford Haven. ....

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4823

[Mountain Goat]

The line between Carmarthen and Whitland had to cross a large marsh. They did this by using a membrane of thousands of rabbit skins where women were employed to sew them together.
The Pembroke and Tenby and the Manchester and Milford which had by then reached Carmarthen via a line from Llendeilo to the station that is there today in Carmarthen wanted to connect to each other and the GWR was not interested in allowing them to use their line as a dual gauge line (Was just broad gauge at the time), so they were going to build a new line parallel to the GWR line following a similar route but up the little valley south of Whitland tunnel etc., but they did not have to as the GWR (That took over from the South Wales Railway by then) was faced with having to change its gauge to standard gauge by the government at the time who wanted a single gauge of railway network, so the P&T and the M&M paid for the GWR line to be re-gauged and I believe did the work (?) in exchange foe having running rights for their trains to use it so they could connect.
The South Wales Railway was a contracting company set up to build the line in which Brunel was involved with. It was essentially a company set up for the sole purpose of building the line. In those days such companies were the ones to take the risks, as they were responsible for not only raising the funds via shareholders and getting permissions through parliament along with building the line, but also in providing starter locos and rolling stock AND advertizing to attract customers and starting train servces to a time table. Only when the line was seen to be operating and generating a decent income would the larger concern (Which in this case was the Great Western Railway) then take over and pay the contractors for doing a good job. Thus the company that took over and their shareholders essentually had no risks involved, and the contracting company shareholders could either make or break according to if their venture was a success or if things did not go to plan. There were also other companies set up to build lines but this time not neccessarily for profit but set up by the people who lived in towns and villaes along the proposed route at their own initial cost (Usually via shares) wth the sole purpose of connecting and being taken over by another line as abuy out, so they could get their money back. The motive being was so that they could have access to travel along a railway. The Pembroke and Tenby railway was such an example and as the Great Western was not initially interested in connecting with them, they looked to the forthcoming Manchester and Milford line to connect to which is why they built their line to standard gauge and not broad gauge.

Broad gauge used to be (As old records show) 7ft, and narrow gauge was 4ft 8inches. An extra quater of an inch had to be added to broad gauge and an extra half inch to narrow gauge (Which later became known as standard gauge) when speeds exceeded 60mph as it was found a little extra "Give" was needed at these higher speeds to prevent excessive wheel and track wear and to aid smooth running at those speeds.

An interesting line is what was once the main line to Milford which later became known as Neyland (I believe Milford Haven where it goes to now was once called New Milford when it took over as a principle port destination, and Milford was renamed Nayland to avoid confusion? (Maybe someone local who knows their history can confirm if I have this right?)
What is interesting is what I was told about Neyland by an older member of the PW gang who used to travel with me to work. He was not really that interested in things like railway history but this one day while travelling on a quiet train, he did say something which had always puzzled him. He said that when he first started on the railways, it was during the time when a lot of smaller less used lines were being closed, and this 4 mile branch down to Nayland which branched off left just below Johnston station was no exception, and he remembered how they had to lift the track and the rails went as scrap and the sleepers were burned off etc.

He recalled that it wasn't too long after the line had been closed and all the track had been lifted, when they were given the job of re-laying the whole 4 mile branch all with brand new track, so they completed the job. He said that they sent a train down there at night (Or a few trains(?) as he knew something had been run down there), and just four days after they had re-layed this track the whole branch was lifted again and to this day there has been no track.
For a great many years this had puzzled him, but I also recall old drivers I worked with (Who were just coming up to retirement) who told me how they themselves had been working trains hauling scrap locomotives and had been stopped at signals and relieved from their duties at the signalbox and given the rest of the day off with full pay! What this driver told me though was highly unusual and irregular because he said another traincrew took over but it was no one they knew. This was unheard of as everyone knew each other and any new staff had to be a fair few months or even longer learning the routes or learning how to operate the locos etc so they would have come into contact with them many times while learning, as no one was allowed to work trains without going through this process, and yet the ones who took over were complete strangers!
Were these dead locomotives taken down this branch? Nayland was kept open in its last years as a naval concern, so were these locomotives then loaded onto a ship? Or were they stored in the tunnels that were said to be in the area? No one knows! I only write this out of sheer curiosity after hearing so many times about these strange events, but I know one thing, that these two accounts I have heard were genuine as none of the ones who told me this (And I was told the drivers account a fair few years before the rail worker told me what he had seen, and he was the type who would never talk about things like this, exceot that this one day not long before I left the railways and close to when he would retire he opened up asking if I had a clue why as it had been on his mind for so long! Is funny the things one remembers! Could it be a railwaymen wind up? To be honest, I don't think so as the railworker was not like that. Some drivers were wind up merchants though!

[rogerfarnworth]

Thank you. There are certainly plenty of tunnels in the area!