Llangurig branch
| Llangurig branch | |
|---|---|
Llangurig branch
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| Overview | |
| Status | Dismantled |
| Termini | Penpontbren Junction Llangurig |
| Stations | Llangurig |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1864 |
| Closed | 1882 |
| Owner | Manchester and Milford Railway (M&MR) |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 1.5 mi (2.4 km) |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
| Llangurig Branch (1864-1882) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Llangurig branch was a part of a proposed scheme by the Manchester and Milford Railway (M&MR) to connect industrialised Northwest England with the West Wales deep water port of Milford Haven. After various financial and construction difficulties, the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of the Llangurig branch is noted in trivia as being the shortest lived working branch line in the United Kingdom, receiving precisely one train.
The M&MR was an ambitious proposal to connect Manchester, the Northwest and potentially the Midlands with the deep water docks at Milford Haven. Not going anywhere near either location's name in its title, it was effectively a highly marketed connecting scheme using London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and Midland Railway metals as its feeder. Using the southern end of Oswestry and Newtown Railway, which connected to the LNWR for North Wales, Crewe and Manchester, the M&MR would connect Llanidloes to a junction at Devil's Bridge (for a branchline to Aberystwyth), and then onwards to connect with the Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway (C&CR) at Pencader. Trains would then have run on the C&CR to Carmarthen, before connecting to the Pembroke and Tenby Railway for termination at Milford Haven.
The business plan was that, combined with industrial traffic from South Wales, Milford Haven could "provide the Lancashire cotton industry with [an] alternative port to Liverpool." Predicted return traffic included American cotton for the mills of Manchester and the Northwest.
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Wikipedia