The Lampeter, Aberayron and New Quay Light Railway was an independent branch line railway in south west Wales. It connected Aberayron (later spelt Aberaeron) to the former Manchester and Milford Railway line at Lampeter; New Quay was never reached.
It opened in 1911 and was loss-making from the outset; it was worked, and to some extent funded, by the Great Western Railway, and absorbed by that company in 1922. The limited passenger train service was discontinued in 1951, but at the same time a new creamery was opened at Green Grove on the line near Felin Fach, bringing significant milk traffic to the line.
The remaining general goods traffic ceased in 1965 and the milk traffic finished in 1973, when the line closed completely.
First railways
In the eighteenth century, most of Aberayron's trade had been conducted by sea; the road network was of poor quality and inadequate. The main materials of trade were slate, limestone, coal and grain; the hinterland was solely agricultural.
The nearest town of any size was Lampeter, 13 miles away, with a population of 2,000. As the railway network in the region began to develop, thoughts turned to connecting Aberayron to a railway branch line. At first there was the Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway, which was planned to reach Cardigan by way of Newcastle Emlyn. It opened the first short section of its line in 1860 and reached Llandyssil, in 1864. Always desperately short of money, the C&CR never managed to extend beyond that point, although the Great Western Railway later took the company over and extended the line to Newcastle Emlyn.
The Manchester and Milford Railway (M&MR) promoted its line, obtaining an authorising act of Parliament, the Manchester and Milford Railway Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. clxxv). It did not aspire to build a line either to Manchester or to Milford Haven, but to form the central link in a chain of lines through mid Wales, connecting with other companies at each end. During the construction phase it became obvious that the company's limited financial resources would not permit the intended north-eastward line to Llanidloes, where it had planned to connect with routes northward. A change of route was authorised, and the onward construction was diverted to Aberystwyth instead. That town was already served by the Cambrian Railways.
The M&MR was opened throughout from Pencader to Aberystwyth on 12 August 1867; at Pencader it connected with the Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway. With debt on interest mounting up, the M&MR leased its line for 999 years to the Great Western Railway in 1905 and sold the company to the GWR in 1911.
Also in 1860, David Davies proposed a line from Pencader (where the Manchester and Milford and the Carmarthen and Cardigan lines joined one another) to Aberayron by way of Lampeter, but nothing came of this scheme.
In 1885 a further scheme was put forward, this time for a narrow gauge line from Llandyssil to New Quay; J W Szlumper, engineer to the Pembroke and Tenby Railway, conducted a survey, but this too came to nothing.
Vale of Rheidol On 6 August 1897 the Vale of Rheidol Light Railway obtained the Vale of Rheidol (Light) Railway Act 1897 (60 & 61 Vict. c. clxxiv) authorising it to build a line from Devil's Bridge to Aberystwyth. The 12 mile line was to be built to a gauge of 1 ft in.This is the gauge usually quoted; Price says 1ft in on page 71, and some sources refer to it as "the two-feet gauge". Although tourism was beginning to be a commercial factor, this was no tourist line, and its primary purpose was to convey lead ore and timber from the hinterland at Devil's Bridge to the coast for onward transport. The authorised capital was £68,000.
At the time of authorisation, the VoR directors were talking of an extension from Aberystwyth to Aberayron along the coast, a distance of 16 miles. This was no idle thinking, for on 13 August 1898 the directors of the Vale of Rheidol obtained a light railway order for the extension, the Vale of Rheidol Light Railway (Aberayron Extension) Order 1898. The Vale of Rheidol was authorised to raise another £25,000 in shares to finance the extension. However raising the capital proved to be impossible, and nothing could be done towards the extension, even though Cardiganshire County Council, anxious to develop the area, had offered an £18,000 grant. The powers for the Aberayron extension were extinguished in 1904.
The Great Western Railway leased the Manchester and Milford Railway from 1 July 1906, and a local newspaper reported: "We expect great things from the Great Western, and also want some of their splendid motor buses to connect Aberayron and New Quay with the railway."Unreferenced report quoted in Holden
A light railway from Lampeter In fact a railway branch line from Lampeter to Aberayron had been proposed by local people in 1903, and an arrangement with the Manchester and Milford Railway for the junction was concluded by early 1904. The concern was to be called the Lampeter, Aberayron and New Quay Light Railway; estimated cost of construction was £88,000, with rolling stock calculated to cost £10,000. At this stage the line was simply to run from Lampeter to Aberayron, and at first the line was to have its own independent station at Lampeter. The M&MR agreed to work the line at cost plus 25% of the profits. The LA&NQLR tried unsuccessfully to get the M&MR to guarantee minimum profit levels.
Unbuilt route to New Quay
By mid-1904 the means of incorporating New Quay into the line was under consideration; the branch would have diverged near the site of the later Crossways Halt at the modern hamlet of Neuaddlwyd adjacent to the A482 main road. It would have turned through 90 degrees to climb southwards via Oakford, then turning southwest to enter the village of Llanarth. a station in the middle of the village was planned followed by a short tunnel to emerge between the present-day Llanina Arms pub and garden centre.
The line would then descend past Wern mansion, via Gilfachreda to New Quay. This proposed route was used as the alignment in the late 1920s for a new main road from Llanarth to New Quay (the present day B4343). This road built has embankments, retaining walls, gentle curves and gradual gradients which are all railway-like in their construction.
The route was planned to enter New Quay along New Road before following the present-day School Lane, crossing behind the rear of the primary school to Francis Street and New Quay Bowls Club to terminate at the public library and car park area at the top of the town. Also proposed was a steeply graded branch to the harbour running from the junction of School Lane and New Road to descend behind George Street and above the lifeboat station to reach the harbour area.
It was to be a branch of the Aberayron line, diverging about 2 miles inland from Aberayron, and with significant gradients planned it would have consequently high operating costs. This was discussed with the county council, in the interests of securing a grant from them; the mile New Quay branch added £63,000 to the cost estimates. At this stage the receipts from the entire network were estimated to be £10 per mile per week.
Light railway order granted On 1 October 1906 the Great Western Railway inaugurated the sought-for motor omnibus service between Lampeter and Aberayron, and on 9 October 1906 the authorising the Lampeter, Aberayron and New Quay Light Railway was granted. At last progress could be made and the first sod was cut on 20 October 1906. The New Quay branch was quietly dropped from the proposed construction, although the County Council had earlier considered this to be an essential part of the work so far as their grant was concerned.
The contractor appointed was Edmund Nuttall, but subscription money came in very slowly indeed and it was not possible to carry out any construction. This situation was worsened when the GWR, who had been asked to work the line when it was completed, asked for considerable additional works to make the line to the standard they would require. The GWR insisted on some of the sharpest curves being eased before they took on the working.
Time went by with limited progress, but a Treasury grant of £10,000 was made in April 1910, and the GWR was persuaded to fund the final stages of construction itself. The line was considered to be ready for opening between the junction near Lampeter and Ystrad in June 1910, but before arrangements were made for the Board of Trade inspection, the Great Western Railway asserted their position that the line was not satisfactory from their point of view, and they insisted on delaying opening until the whole line was ready. This dragged into the following year, and the GWR took possession of the line on 3 April 1911 and opened it to goods traffic on 10 April 1911.
Opening Lieutenant Colonel Druitt of the Board of Trade inspected the line on 10 May 1911 and found it to be satisfactory and the line was opened to passenger traffic on 12 May 1911. The line was worked from the outset by the Great Western Railway, although for a short period the main line at Lampeter was still in the hands of the M&MR; absorption of that company by the GWR was now all but finalised. No expansion of the station accommodation at Lampeter was considered necessary to handle the branch traffic. The point of junction from the M&MR main line was at Aberayron Junction, about miles north of Lampeter station. The ruling gradient was 1 in 41 and there was a passing place on the single line at Ystrad (later Felin Fach).
The profit made by the line was insignificant, and was in fact insufficient to pay the interest due to the GWR and the banks, and the Directors paid with their own money. In fact the company made a loss of £962 in 1912 and made a loss in every year of its independent existence.
The charges made by the GWR were evidently a running sore; in February 1914 it was reported:
The directors state that during the year the negotiations with the Great Western Railway have been continued, and several matters in dispute have been settled. The construction charge [actually the GWR loan to complete the line] has been settled at £5,128... the charge of £1,459 7s 4d for the first year's maintenance has been withdrawn. So far the directors have been unable to get the Great Western to reduce their minimum charge of £3,000 per annum for working the line, though the auto-car service cost less than the train service contemplated in the working agreement. The company... will receive £436 18s 6d as surplus on this year's working, after deducting income-tax... The gross receipts for the year amounted to £3,464 19s 9d as compared with £2,998 18s 2d in 1912.
After 1922 The Railways Act 1921 was a measure by which the Government required all the main line railways of Great Britain to be "grouped" into four large companies; in this are the Great Western Railway formed one of the groups. The Lampeter, Aberayron and New Quay Light Railway was required to be absorbed by the GWR, and as the ordinary shareholders had never received a dividend they did not expect anything from the process. Debenture holders received a swap for GWR debenture stock in the ratio 1:3. The administrative process of the grouping was complete and on 1 July 1922 the loss-making company's line and assets were taken over by the GWR.
After World War I road transport competition had begun to take effect and in the latter half of the 1920s this competition became significant. From a very low base, the GWR tried to encourage traffic in the thinly populated area; the opening of a new halt at Crossways in April 1929 to encourage traffic can hardly have done much to affect the losses.
The weekday passenger train service had long been four trains each way, although this was reduced to three during World War II.