COMMENTS TO MY PAGE "ART POSTCARDS WITH A RAILWAY MOTIVE"

The Vale of Rheidol Railway

The Vale of Rheidol Railway (Welsh: Rheilffordd Cwm Rheidol) is a narrow gauge heritage railway (603 mm gauge) that runs on a 18.9 km long line between Aberystwyth and Devil's Bridge in Ceredigion, Wales. The original main purpose of the line was to transport timber and ore from the valley of the River Rheidol to the port and the main railway line in Aberystwyth. There were many lead mines in the area towards the end of the 19th century. Following a parliamentary decision in 1897, construction began in 1901. To save money, the cuts in the rock were made by hand rather than by blasting. The line opened for freight and passenger traffic in 1902. By then, however, lead mining in Ceredigion was already in decline. At the same time, tourism increased and passenger services soon became the main activty of the railway. In 1913 the line  was taken over by the Cambrian Railways.
With the Railways Act 1921 the Cambrian Railways and thus also the Vale of Rheidol Railway became part of the Great Western Railway (GWR). The GWR continued to operate passenger services only and gave up freight services altogether. From 1931 the trains only ran during the summer months. With the start of the Second World War the line was completely closed, but maintenance continued. The railway line reopened in 1945. In 1948, the Great Western Railway became part of the Western Region of British Railways (BR), and The Vale of Rheidol Railway line continued to be operated for tourism. In 1968, the line was relocated to Aberystwyth; since then it has run parallel to the BR's standard gauge main line to its terminus. The line was 1989 changed to a museum railway and is now run by The Narrow Gauge Railway Trust. The railway continues to operate for tourism and generally runs from Easter to the end of October. There are four stations and five halts on the route. The journey takes around an hour in each direction. The line runs along the valley floor to Capel Bangor and then climbs fairly steadily at 20 ‰ to the terminus at 190 m. Unlike other railways in the United Kingdom, the Vale of Rheidol Railway has never been closed; it was only temporarily closed during the Second World War. It was built for tourism from the start and celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2002.

January 3rd 2025

 

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.