The Inside Story of the Llanelly Railway & Dock Company

The story of the Llanelly Railway & Dock Company, an enterprise that started before Queen Victoria became monarch, is told in the third book by locally born author Mike Denman.

The Llanelly Railway was one of the earliest to acquire an Act of Parliament. The industrial revolution was in full swing, the copper works and its dock were well established and a similar investment by the iron and coal industry was inevitable. There was a lot of coal in the hills of east Carmarthenshire and the demand seemed endless.

It was only a couple of years after trains first ran on the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1825 that this enterprising company was formed. In the end the network had a main line from Llanelli through Ammanford to Llandeilo.

It included branches to Brynamman via Garnant and Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, from Llandeilo to Carmarthen via Nantgaredig and from Pontardulais to Swansea (Victoria) and Penclawdd. The Llanelly Railway also provided the train services between Llandeilo and Llandovery by leasing the Vale of Towy Railway. All this came from its modest beginnings when it built the New Dock at Llanelli and a short line to Dafen for the St David’s Colliery on the Bryn.

The Company began in 1828 and the Great Western Railway took over running trains in 1873 finally buying the Llanelly Railway in 1889. The book looks at that period in a detailed history, not just about building the line but how it was run, the challenges and the contributions of the people involved and some of the family histories.

The Llanelly Railway gave the town the name for the New Dock district and built the southern section of what we now know as the Heart of Wales line. In the 21st century we can still take a train on the line to Llandeilo and then on the Vale of Towy Railway to Llandovery before continuing along the rest of the Heart of Wales line to Craven Arms and end the journey at Shrewsbury.

There is even the occasional coal train on the Brynamman branch. But the story of the people who built and ran the line, the conflicts with the London & North Western Railway and South Wales Railway are something of a Victorian saga.

The book is published by The Wider View and has 184 pages with over 85 illustrations and maps many in colour. In Llanelli the book is available from In The Frame, 17 Station Road.

There are full details at www.llanellyrailway.co.uk