Merionethshire Railway
The Merionethshire Railway was incorporated on 29th June, 1871, and had Samuel Holland as its Chairman. Holland, who was also Chairman of the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway was getting frustrated by the stranglehold exerted by the Festiniog, and therefore proposed this 10 mile line. It was to connect the F&B to the Cambrian Line near Talsarnau, north of Harlech, using mostly a falling gradient across what was fairly difficult terrain.
Holland, however, was also a director of the Bala & Festiniog, formed in 1873 in conjunction with the GWR, and once it became clear that this was the way to escape from the Festiniog Railway's monopoly, plans for this line were dropped, though kept on the back burner, and the powers subsequently lapsed in 1885, and were formally abandoned in 1887.[1]
Railway authorised by the Merionethshire Railway Act 1871[edit]
(1.) A railway (No. 1), three miles one furlong eight chains and thirty-five links or thereabouts in length, commencing in the parish of Festiniog in the county of Merioneth by a junction with the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway, and terminating in the parish of Maentwrog, in the same county, in a plantation on a farm called Hendre Mûr, belonging or reputed to belong to Morgan Lloyd, Esquire.
(2.) A railway (No. 2), six miles seven furlongs eight chains and five links or thereabouts in length, commencing by a junction with the first-mentioned railway (No. 1), and terminating in the parish of Llandecwyn in the said county of Merioneth by a junction with the railway of the Cambrian Railways Company
Postscript[edit]
In 2009, as part of a Statute Law Repeal, it was proposed to repeal the Abandonment act of 1887[2]
References[edit]
- ^ Boyd, James I.C. (1972). Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire. Lingfield, Surrey, England: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 9780853611158. OCLC 707587. p052
- ^ [1] Abandonment Repeal - page 207-9