The Cambrian Railways - Volume 1: 1852-88 (1st Ed.)
First Edition (1967)
Railways came late to mid-Wales - and then in ten crowded years from 1859 they spread like a bush fire until they stretched 300 route miles from Brecon to Pwllheli, Aberystwyth to Whitchurch and Wrexham. At first the lines were small and independent, but the desire for self-protection against the scheming English companies led them to merge into the Cambrian Rail-ways, which became the biggest of the independent Welsh railways. Essentially a passenger line, the Cambrian had little goods traffic to help pay its way. This, the first of two volumes, traces the development of the Cambrian from its inception to 1888 when, by taking over the working of the Mid-Wales Railway which ran through the en-chanting Wye Valley from Llanidloes to Brecon, it assumed much of the size and shape it was to retain until Grouping. Based largely on original research, Volume One tells of the difficulties of the five small companies which built the main line from Whit-church to Aberystwyth and the costly, yet magnificent coast line to Pwllheli, which bankrupted the Cambrian as well as its contractor. These were wild and rugged routes - lines where trains stood out against the gentle summer-blue skies of Cardigan Bay or grey-black rain clouds which drifted over the mountains behind and across the rolling Border hills. This volume, self contained, also describes in detail early locomotives and rolling stock and has many previously unpublished photographs. Volume Two takes the Cambrian story from 1888 forward to the present day.
Hardback with dust jacket, 180 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good with foxing to top edge of book.
ISBN: 9780715352366
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