The Corris Railway

The Story of a Mid-Wales Slate Railway

Peter Johnson

• Editorial: Pen & Sword Transport
• Año: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781526717559
• Categoría: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Categoría: Trasporti ferroviari

An extensively illustrated history of this Welsh railway—and the effort to restore it. One of Wales' oldest narrow gauge railways, the 2ft 3in gauge Corris Railway was built to carry slate from several quarries in the Dulas valley to wharves on the river Dyfi. At first forbidden to use steam locomotives or to carry passengers, it overcame these obstacles and became an essential part of the community that it served. It was also a forerunner in encouraging tourists, offering inclusive tours to nearby Talyllyn, with passengers traveling on the train and on railway-operated road services. Taken over by the Great Western Railway in 1930, the railway was closed by British Railways in 1948, apparently for good. Fortunately, the last two steam locomotives and some rolling stock was saved by the nearby Talyllyn Railway, where it played an essential role in that railway's preservation. Eventually, the thoughts of enthusiasts turned to reviving the Corris Railway, and, after many twists and turns, the first passengers were carried on a short section in 2002. In this book, historian Peter Johnson has delved into many sources to uncover the intricacies of the railway's origins, development, operation, and revival.

CHAPTER 1

THE HORSE ERA

The slate quarries of Corris and Aberllefenni were located five and six miles to the north of Machynlleth, an ancient market town in the old county of Montgomeryshire, now part of Powys. The town sits just above the flood plains on the southern banks of the Afon Dyfi, River Dovey in English, ten miles from the Cardigan Bay coast. The Romans settled in the locality, a fort known as Maglona was built on the ridge on the river’s northern bank, and a market charter was granted in 1291. By 1851 the population was 1,665. The river was navigable by smaller craft to within two miles of the town, and deep water was available on the coast at Aberdyfi. In 2009 the Dyfi valley became the first UNESCO Biosphere in Wales, fulfilling conservation, development and logistical functions.

The quarries were set in the Dulas valley, the west bank of the river in Merionethshire and the east in Montgomeryshire, enclosed by mountains rising to more than 1,500ft, the main centre at Corris. At around the 100ft contour there is little level ground in the locality to be dogmatic about its precise elevation.

First recorded in the fourteenth century, investment in local slate quarries in the 1830s brought growth to the village too. By 1861 the population was 1,565 but 150 years later it had fallen to 723, which reflects both the loss of employment opportunities and the desire of the inhabitants to have more personal space.

To the north-west of Corris lies the Deri valley, where the Braich Goch quarry tips once dominated the village and where the smaller Gaewern and Abercorris quarries were located. To the north-east, further along the Dulas, were the Aberllefenni and Ratgoed quarries. There were other quarries too, but these were the most significant. As a quarrying centre, the Corris area was much smaller than Ffestiniog, Dinorwic, Nantlle or Penrhyn to the north. The slate was not as fine as that produced at the Ffestiniog, Dinorwic and Penrhyn centres, but was suitable for slabs and enamelling.

During the 1830s, newspaper advertisements give a flavour of the economic development of some of the quarries: purchasers or partners wanted, Gaewern, next to Braich Goch, (North Wales Chronicle 21 June 1831); North Wales Slate & Slab Company, £80,000 capital required to develop Rhognant (Ty’n y Berth), and Tyn y Ceunant, next to Gaewern (Worcester Journal 4 August 1836); Braich Goch, to let (North Wales Chronicle 19 June 1838); British Slate & Slab Company, £15,000 capital to develop Abercorris, opposite Gaewern (Hereford Journal 11 July 1838).

Abercorris was on the east side of the Merionethshire turnpike from Dolgellau, the county town, the others on its west side, just to the north-west of the village. Crossing to the eastern side of the Deri, the turnpike shared the Dulas valley with the river as far as its union with the Dyfi at Fridd Gate. The road had been improved in the 1830s, the 1838 advertisement for the Braich Goch quarry lease describing it as ‘new’, giving it an even gradient favouring the transportation of slate to the Dyfi.

From Fridd Gate it was the practice to take the slate across the Dyfi to wharves on the southern bank at Derwenlas and Morben. There it was transhipped to small craft capable of navigating the river to the harbour at Aberdyfi where it was transhipped again to coastal trading craft. The Dyfi was first bridged in 1533, the current structure dating from 1805 being listed grade II*.

produced in 1909, this graphic showing the railway and its surroundings was used on timetables and in issues of the company’s reports to shareholders.

The Dyfi river bridge near Machynlleth. The route of the railway crosses the centre of the picture in a straight line, the railway’s river bridge almost obscured by trees. The Cambrian Railways’ line to Newtown runs along the bottom of the hills on the far side of the river. (Donald George)

Although there is nothing to show for them now, the Derwenlas wharves were well established. As well as slate, lead from the Dylife mines, between Llanidloes and Machynlleth, was also exported and ships were built there in the early nineteenth century, the last being a 160-ton schooner named Sarah Davies launched in April 1870. Ships had also been built at Morben, the last being a 400-ton brig launched in 1865.

The motivation for the railway did not, directly, have its origins in the locality, but in Gloucester. At some time in the 1840s, a group of investors from that place had taken over the Braich Goch quarries and had started to develop them. When the Braich Goch Slate & Slab Quarry Company was floated in 1851, the managers were named as Thomas Wakeman Esq of Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, and Robert Jackman Esq, Arthur Causton Esq, civil engineer, William Rees Esq, architect, and William Wingate Esq, builder, all of Gloucester. Running the quarry was their agent, Thomas Smith Nicholls, another Gloucester man.

Perhaps looking northwards, and noticing how the Ffestiniog, Dinorwic and Bethesda slate quarries had benefitted from increased output and profitability since they had started transporting their production by rail, in 1850 the Braich Goch owners decided that they should have a railway too.

The first public manifestation of their decision came with a public meeting held at the Machynlleth town hall on 7 August, reported in the Carnarvon & Denbigh Herald under the heading ‘Abercorris and Aberdovey Railway’. The meeting, not as well attended as it might have been because it coincided with a fair, resolved that a railway between those places ‘would be attended by many advantages, both to the landed and trading interest of the neighbourhood, and the quarry proprietors …’ There was no mention of any public interest. Tribute was paid to Causton, who had prepared the plans and sections for the proposed line.

Born in Gloucester in 1811, the youngest son of a printer, and newly elected, in May 1850, Gloucester city surveyor, Causton’s nomination for election as an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1846 had stated that he had more than ten years’ experience as a surveyor working on his own account, ‘chiefly engaged recently with Mr [James Meadows] Rendel and Mr [Isambard Kingdom] Brunel’.

Braich Goch quarry’s slate stacking yard and sheds. The railway’s Tyddynyberth branch ran between the road and the quarry buildings and then through the bridge behind the dressing sheds. The bridge carried a track used to carry waste from the underground quarry to the spoil tips. (County Times, Welshpool)

His engagements with these notable engineers may be slightly overstated as they seem to relate only to work carried out during a brief period in 1844. In October Rendel had appointed him to make surveys for the Gloucester & Dean Forest Railway, which might have been the extent of his participation in that undertaking, and in December he had made tidal observations in connection with the Great Western Railway’s proposal to bridge the Severn at Newnham, Gloucestershire, receiving a good soaking when he narrowly escaped being washed away by the bore.

The intention to deposit a Bill for the Corris, Machynlleth and River Dovey Railway or Tramroad was advertised first in the Carnarvon & Denbigh Herald on 16 November. The road between promoting a Bill and building a railway, however, was to be long and tortuous.

The Bill called for the powers to construct and operate a ‘line from the Aberllefenny slate quarries to the River Dovey, with branches’. The notice described it as ‘a railway or tramroad commencing at or near the engine house at Aberllefenny slate quarries … and terminating at or near a certain house called or known as Panteidal, on the river Dovey …’, near the western end of the later Aberystwyth & Welsh Coast Railway’s Aberdovey tunnel No 1, together with branches ‘from and out of the line of the intended railway or tramroad hereinafter described, commencing at or near a house called or place known as Aberllefenny … and terminating … at or near a certain house called or known as Tycam. Also, a branch railway or tramroad … commencing in the township of Corris … at or near the fifth milestone on the turnpike road leading from the town of Machynlleth to the town of Dolgelley … and terminating at or near a certain house called or known as Tyddynyberth.’

Measured from Aberllefenni, the deposited plans showed a 13-mile main line with a viaduct 572 yards long taking it over the Afon Pennal, near Talgarth Hall, and a tunnel 68 yards long on a two-chain curve near Llugwy Hall, both on the northern bank of the Dyfi. The branches were shown with lengths of 1 mile 6 furlongs 2 chains to Tycam and 2 miles 1 furlong to Tyddynyberth. The ruling grade to the former was 1 in 38 and 1 in 35 rising to 1 in 25 for the latter. On the estuarial section, the gradient averaged 1 in 660 whereas on the valley section it was 1 in 113 to the location now known as Maespoeth and 1 in 112 to Aberllefenni. The sharpest curves were of two chains, three along the river, one on the Tyddynyberth branch and two on the Tycam branch. As coastal craft were expected to be able to sail up to it, the terminus at Panteidal would eliminate transhipment to river craft, reducing costs and breakages.

An extract from the Corris, Machynlleth & River Dovey Tramroad's deposited plan, 1850. (Parliamentary Archives)

A 1934 view of the Dyfi estuary showing the Aberystwyth & Welsh Coast Railway’s line to Aberdyfi. Had it been built, the Corris, Machynlleth & River Dovey Tramroad would have terminated close to the beach slightly to the right of the centre foreground. (J. Valentine)

In contrast to the route adopted when the railway was eventually built, from the Dyfi bridge as far as Maespoeth the route followed an alignment on the western side of the road. The branches were more tram-like in their alignments and mostly followed the road exactly. The mixed nature of the alignments must be responsible for the ‘railway or tramroad’ uncertainty over the scheme’s title. Finding routes that avoided existing structures, particularly around Corris, must have taxed Causton, who signed the £12,000 estimate.

In the newspaper, the notice was followed by a prospectus for the Corris, Machynlleth & River Dovey Tramway Company dated 9 September 1850, which sought to raise £12,000 in £1 shares. Decla...