Carmarthenshire Railway

Carmarthenshire Railway
Locale Wales
Dates of operation 18031844
Successor Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Railway
Track gauge 4 ft (1,219 mm)
Length 11.5 mi (18.5 km)
Headquarters Llanelli

The Carmarthenshire Railway was a horse-worked plateway built in South Wales in 1803.

History

The Carmarthenshire Railway or Tramroad was authorised under an Act of Parliament of 3 June 1802 the first granted for a public railway in Wales to acquire the existing Carmarthenshire Dock at Llanelly and its feeder tramroad built by Alexander Raby by 1799,[1] thus incidentally becoming the world’s first dock-owning public railway company.[2] The first 1.5 mi (2.4 km) from Cwmddyche ironworks down to the sea was open in May 1803 the first stretch of public railway in use in Britain[1] and construction ceased in 1805 when the line had reached Gorslas. The engineer was named James Barnes and the gauge was approximately 4 ft (1,219 mm).[1]

The line ceased to operate in or before 1844 and portions of its course were utilised by the Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Railway, opened in 1881.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Price, M.R.C. (1992). The Llanelly & Mynydd Mawr Railway. Oxford: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-423-7.
  2. Balkwill, Richard; Marshall, John (1993). The Guinness Book of Railway Facts and Feats (6th ed.). Enfield: Guinness Publishing. ISBN 0-85112-707-X.


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