Stenlake Publishing - The Manchester & Milford Railway
The Manchester & Milford Railway
Author : J. S. Holden ISBN : 9780853616580 Cover : paperback Price : £14.95
This is the story of a railway whose ambitions were as lofty as the Cambrian mountains through which it sought to build, but whose achievements were as modest as the townships of mid-Wales which it ultimately served.
The Manchester & Milford Railway never came within many a mile of either place. It amounted to a delightful cross country route from Aberystwyth, south to Pencader Junction near Carmarthen, plus a never-used short section (visible to this day) to Llangurig.
It is a story of a struggle against the odds, of internecine warfare between directors and with the Court of Chancery and its appointees, of lawsuits and disputes with neighbouring railways, of impecuniousness and frustrated hopes. It is also a story of construction through hard times and hard country by a giant among Welsh railway promoters, David Davies, and of the building of a fiefdom by the Barrow family, without whose money the line would have neither opened nor survived.
It was a line of great scenic attraction: 40 miles of single track through the valleys of the Ystwyth and the Teifi, deep in farming country. Its eccentric assortment of modest engines toiled over the gradients to maintain a minimal service with ramshackle rolling stock until the Great Western took it over.
The Manchester & Milford has never featured large in the annals of railway history. Perhaps it was just too remote to excite much comment. This history is not aimed solely at the railway fraternity; it is also for those who live in, or love, the tranquillity and beauty of this part Wales.
