Manchester And Milford Railway, Penpontbren Junction - Llangurig section

Opened: c1864

Closed: 1882(?)

The Manchester and Milford Railway had a name that suggested that it was intended to be a lengthy cross country route. But this was far from the case, and the railway was never intended to leave Welsh soil, or get particularly close to the port of Milford Haven for that matter.

The MMR was actually intended to form a link between two other railway companies - The Cardigan and Carmarthen in the south, and The Llanidloes and Newtown Railway in the north. The latter was isolated from the rest of the emerging railway network, having opened in 1859 - not until 1863 did it connect to another railway, The Oswestry and Newtown. The aim of the MMR was to attract traffic away from Liverpool, which held a monopoly on transatlantic traffic to and from the industrial northwest of England, and take it instead to Milford Haven in southwest Wales.

1866 map showing the line terminating at Llangurig

The act of Parliament for the line was passed in 1859, to run from Pencader via Devil's Bridge (where a branch would head off to Aberystwyth) and thence to Llanidloes but the following year, an act was passed for another line in the area, The Mid-Wales Railway. There were initally clashes between the two parties south of Llanidloes, but eventually sense prevailed, and a joint line was built between Newtown and Penpontbren Junction. Services via The Mid-Wales Railway  commenced on this section in 1864, with their trains initially running to Three Cocks Junction before being extended to Brecon.

By 1863, a short section of the MMR had been completed between Penpontbren Junction and LLangurig, but work on this section was halted as the company had had second thoughts on the route as planned, due to the extensive engineering work including long tunnels that would be required to drive it through the mountains south. An Act in 1864 to allow deviation of the line failed, but another attempt the following year was passed, which involved the Aberystwyth branch leaving the main line at Strata Florida instead of Devil's Bridge, and the main line was to be rerouted.

Despite this uncertainty, work progressed on the southern half of the line, which was built along the Teifi Valley, far less demanding terrain than that required to the north. Train services reached Lampeter from Pencader in January 1866, extending to Strata Florida in the August of that year. As for the northern section, the decision was made to build the less intensively engineered Aberystwyth branch first; this opened in August 1867.

Many sources say that the Llangurig branch only ever saw one freight train; others say goods traffic ran until 1882. Either is possible; Llangurig was (and still is) a small community, unlikely to have generated much traffic by itself.

The various machinations involving the scheme, the 1866 collapse of The Overend, Gurney and Company Bank and the money owed for the operation of the Llanidloes - Penpontbren Junction section (which of course was isolated from their main system) left the company in a poor state financially, and the MMR ended up bankrupt by 1875, before eventually being bought out by The Great Western Railway in 1905.

It would appear that the very rural location of the line has contributed to the survival of much of its course, over 130 years (at least!) since trains stopped running. Perhaps the most impressive surviving structure is a bridge spanning a minor road immediately south of Penpontbren Junction. Further south, part of the route has been used for a new alignment of the A44, but soon reappears, and the cutting where the line ran into Llangurig village is clearly visible alongside Tan-Y-Groes.


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It appears rails were laid no further west than Cae Capel, but bridge abutments remain for crossing a minor road and stream just to the west of Llangurig School (See above Google Steetview), and the course of the line is traceable until opposite the farm of Tynddol and the Wye Valley Garage, where it peters out. Some work was allegedly also carried out further west in the form of cuttings to approach the lengthy tunnel that would have to have been built, although 19th Century cartographers labelled them both as old quarries.

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales' images of the Llangurig line

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