The Dulas Valley Mineral Railway was incorporated in 1862 to bring coal from the Onllwyn area north-east of Neath to the quays there, and in the following year was reconstituted as the Neath and Brecon Railway. The line was opened as far as Onllwyn in 1863.
The directors allowed a contractor John Dickson a free hand in building the line and when he became bankrupt the company was in a desperate financial situation. Nevertheless, the line was completed to Brecon in 1867, and an offshoot to connect with the Swansea Vale Railway, giving better access to Swansea, was ready in 1873.
The larger Midland Railway acquired rights over the line and ran a heavy mineral train service for many years, although the remote and difficult course of the line was expensive to operate. After the 1922 "Grouping" of the railways, a pooling agreement led to the diversion of the heavy traffic to routes that were easier to work over, and the line reverted to a quiet and remote rural line.
The passenger service was withdrawn in 1962 and present-day (2017) traffic is confined to uncertain mineral business from Onllwyn to Neath.
Brecon Forest Tramroad
Brecon had long been a market and agricultural town, but its location within hilly terrain discouraged early communication routes.
In 1812 the Crown Estate sold 12,000 acres of forest land in Fforest Fawr to John Christie, an industrialist and entrepreneur. Christie thought that the band of limestone lying across the area was a commercial opportunity.
He needed a means of transport to move the heavy mineral to kilns for firing, and he determined to build what became the Brecon Forest Tramroad to do so. The original route was to lead from Fan Gyhirych, at an altitude of about 1,500 feet and descend to near present-day Sennybridge. However the long route over difficult terrain was discouraging, and in addition he needed to link in a source of coal for the firing process. A modified route was adopted, from quarries lower in the Tawe Valley at 1,267 feet; this involved hauling the limestone up for the first part of the journey to the pass known as Bwlch Bryn-rhudd.Gwyn Birwnant Jones, Denis Dunstone and Tudor Watkins, The Neath and Brecon Railway: A History, Gomer press, Llandysul, 2005,
This line was completed in 1824; it was a gauge plateway. The economics of the business were imperfect: the limestone was hauled a considerable distance north-east, when the potential market for sales was in the south west. Moreover, access to coal reserves was also still difficult. He acquired the Drum (or Drim) Colliery late in 1822 and extended the tramroad down to the Swansea Canal at Gwaun-clawdd; he acquired a further colliery near there, as well as 24 canal barges.
These acquisitions over-extended Christie financially, and at the end of 1827 he became bankrupt.
A creditor named Joseph Claypon purchased the tramroad (through the Brecon Forest Tramroad Company) in 1831, and extended it to Gurnos and made other improvements. This extension was called Claypon's Tramroad Extension, or the Brecon Forest Branch Tramroad, and was ready in 1834.
Hay Railway
The Hay Railway received approval in the Hay Railway Act 1811 (51 Geo. 3. c. cxxii) to build its line, in fact another 3 ft 6in gauge plateway, from Watton, on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal (later part of the in Brecon, to Hay and Eardisley). The Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal later became part of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal and Hay is now known as Hay-on-Wye. The line opened in 1816.
It continued an unexceptional business conveying rural merchandise, but by the beginning of the 1860s more modern railways were being considered at a time when the Hay Railway with its horse-drawn plateway wagons, was looking extremely obsolescent. The Hay Railway offered its line for sale, at a time when three railway companies were considering building on at least part of its route: the Mid Wales Railway, the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway and the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway.
The three companies wanted to build their lines on the same ground for at least part of the way, and at length wasteful triplication was avoided, when they agreed to share out the Hay Railway and to build end-to-end. The Brecon and Merthyr Railway built its line from Talyllyn Junction to the Watton station at Brecon, opening in early 1863 from Pant on the northern margin of Merthyr.
By this time Neath had become heavily industrialised, and lay on the line of the South Wales Railway, opened there in 1850. The South Wales Railway was a broad gauge trunk line and was to connect the area in to the network of the Great Western Railway, with through trains to London.
A broad gauge ally of the South Wales Railway, the Vale of Neath Railway, ran from Neath over the watershed near Hirwain (now spelt Hirwaun) to Aberdare. Aberdare became the centre of a huge production of high quality coal. However the use of the broad gauge was a mixed blessing, and transits between Aberdare or Merthyr and Cardiff on that system via Neath involved a considerable excess mileage compared with rival, narrow (standard) gauge routes.
Dulais Valley Mineral Railway Meanwhile, in the 1830s coal and anthracite began to be extracted near Onllwyn, at the head of the Dulais Valley. A number of tramroads were constructed and anthracite was conveyed to the Swansea Canal. Iron was produced in the area, reducing the carrying of iron ore on the tramroad, but this local industry fluctuated wildly.
Finally in 1861 a viable scheme was put forward, and the (25 & 26 Vict. c. cxciii) obtained royal assent on 29 July 1862 authorising the Dulas Valley Mineral Railway.Dulas instead of Dulais was no doubt the responsibility of the parliamentary draftsmen in London. The estimated cost was £60,000. The purpose was to bring coal down from the Onllwyn area to the waterway at Neath, though some among the promoters saw this as part of a future through route from Swansea to Birmingham and Manchester.A F N Barnsdale, The Neath and Brecon Railway, in the Railway Magazine, September 1939 The line was to make a junction with the Vale of Neath Railway at Neath, and the VoNR was to lay a third rail to enable narrow (standard) gauge access.H Morgan, South Wales Branch Lines, Ian Allan Limited, Shepperton, 1984, D S M Barrie, revised Peter Baughan, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 12: South Wales, David St John Thomas, Nairn, 1994,
At the first board meeting on 3 September 1862 a tender from John Dickson was accepted; he would build the line for £75,000 including all land acquisition and structures, as a single line of standard gauge,Jones, Dunstone and Watkins, page 20. The authors do not explain the rationale for this change; the company was still dependent on the broad gauge Vale of Neath. but with space for later doubling; most importantly he would be responsible for raising the capital.
The Neath and Brecon Railway John Dickson became in effect the driving force of the Dulas Valley Mineral Railway, and he saw that the line would only reach its potential if it extended at each end. In the 1863 session of Parliament, therefore, the company promoted a Swansea and Neath and Brecon Railway. Swansea docks were as yet undeveloped but clearly had much greater potential than Neath. Extension north-eastward to Brecon would connect there with the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, itself connecting with a chain of other lines reaching to Hereford and beyond.
The Vale of Neath Railway was hostile to the extension to Swansea, and a mixed gauge Swansea and Neath Railway was in any case being promoted at the same time. The bill was accordingly pared down to omit the Swansea extremity, and the name of the proposed company changed to the Neath and Brecon Railway. At Brecon it was to make arrangements with the Brecon and Merthyr Railway to use its station, and corresponding terms were to be agreed somehow at Neath with the Vale of Neath Railway.
The bill was given royal assent on 13 July 1863 as the (26 & 27 Vict. c. cxxx): the Neath and Brecon Railway was incorporated.
A further act, the (27 & 28 Vict. c. cccxvi) was obtained the following year, authorising a line from Devynock to Llangammarch Wells on the (as yet unbuilt) Central Wales Extension Railway. The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) was sponsoring the chain of railways that became the Central Wales Line, but it was asserted that the Devynock line would give the a more convenient entry to Swansea. The act was passed on 29 July 1864, and also authorised a branch from Onllwyn to a colliery at Maes-y-marchog.
Some work was done on the Llangammarch line, but it was overtaken by the financial crisis following the collapse of the banking house of Overend, Gurney and Company in May 1866; work was suspended, and by the time finance became available once again, the Llangammarch line was no longer a priority. This work is visible on Google Earth up the Cilieni valley right up to the watershed just south of Tirabad. No work is visible between there and Llangammarch Wells.
Opening
The line was opened as far as Onllwyn on 2 October 1864. Goods traffic started to run to Brecon on 13 September 1866, and a free passenger train service was run; Board of Trade authorisation for passenger operation had not yet been received. Authorised passenger train operation started on 3 June 1867. This was to a temporary station at Mount Street in Brecon; there was lengthy and fractious argument over forming a common station there with the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, whose station was only seven chains away and on a practicable alignment.
The Junction Line
Entry to Neath was all very well, having been chosen because of the convenience of simply building down from Onllwyn to Neath in the Dulais Valley. Swansea, however, was a much more attractive destination, and the set about thinking how that place might be reached. The Swansea Vale Railway had been opened in stages down to 1861; it ran from Swansea to Ystalyfera, and was not far to the west of the line. The decision was taken to build a connecting line, and this became the Swansea Vale and Neath and Brecon Junction Railway. It was incorporated by the (27 & 28 Vict. c. ccxciii) on 29 July to run from Colbren, a little north of Onllwyn, to a junction with the Swansea Vale Railway at Ynysygeinon. This railway became known as "the Junction line".
Under the (29 & 30 Vict. c. ccxii) was to be leased for 999 years by the Neath and Brecon from 1 January 1867, by which date it was assumed that construction would have been completed. In fact this was not the case, and it was amalgamated with the from 26 July 1869.
Financial difficulties
In the summer of 1866 the financial position of the company was becoming serious. Application was made to Parliament for increased capital. This was approved by the (30 & 31 Vict. c. cxxii). Meanwhile, the contractor for construction submitted a series of requests for additional funds.
There was considerable impropriety in John Dickson's handling of the affairs of the company, which he had been given exceptional licence to manage without much supervision. Heavily discounted shares and debentures were transferred to him, as well as surplus land. Moreover, major liabilities of the company were indemnified by him personally. In September 1867 Dickson became bankrupt, heavily indebted to the Neath and Brecon Railway, and the company itself was now in serious trouble.