Author: Stuart Owen-Jones
Publisher: National Museum of Wales/Amgueddfa Cymru
ISBN: 9780720002485
Price: S/H copies available from £1 to £7 depending on condition
Publication: December 1981
Number of pages: 48
Format: Paperback
How Obtained: Purchased
Getting a complete picture of the railways of Wales during more than two centuries of history takes many hundreds of pages. But what if you need a good but brief overview of the story of the network?
The Railways of Wales by Stuart Owen-Jones and published by the National Museum of Wales/Amgueddfa Cymru is one possibility. It was originally published in 1981 and reprinted in 1986 making this post a retro review. However, like all books reviewed on this blog it is easily available on the second hand market.
Railways of Wales: Much more than moving iron and coal…
The book opens by reviewing the early history from the tramroad system of the eighteenth century up to the establishment of modern style ‘edge’ railways during the 1840s. However, Owen-Jones then rejects a purely chronological approach as unworkable, instead focussing on specific aspects of the story. The first deals with the race to build a mainline route on the South and North Wales coastal plains capable of swiftly transporting passengers and mail bound for Ireland. Inevitably comes an early section on predominantly south wales valleys railways serving the coal and iron industries. Next, there is an account of two railways serving mid Wales, the Central Wales line and the Cambrian Railway.
The rapid expansion of mining sparked a rash of railway construction leading to the South Wales docks and Owen-Jones outlines the main developments in new lines along with the ensuing fierce competition and uneasy collaboration up to the First World War. In conclusion, the last chapter charts the slow decline of the railways after 1918 through the establishment of the ‘Big Four’ in 1922-23 and 1948 nationalisation.
A condensed account of a long and complex history
As Owen-Jones points out, the overwhelming impression of Welsh railways is of a tank locomotive slowly leading a huge rake of coal wagons down a winding valley line. However, the story is much more involved than this and cannot be told in a small book of forty-eight pages. For example, the Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain series contains two volumes to cover the nation, with the South Wales volume alone weighing in at over two hundred and fifty pages. Nevertheless, the author manages to provide an invaluable primer and guide to further study. For example, many of the independent pre-1922 companies are name checked which is a great help to the newcomer attempting to gain a foothold in the subject.
The book is well illustrated throughout with black and white photographs covering everything from main line express work to local freight and a host of railway related ephemera such as signs, posters and document seals.
There are some factual slips. For example the Sirhowy Railway is reported to have converted to an edge railway by 1855 rather than 1865. These do not detract from the overall value of the book.
In Summary
Brevity and very reasonable second hand price makes it an excellent place to start if you are looking to gain a good overview of the history of Welsh railways before 1980. Use it for general information or as a guide to further study.
The Good
- An excellent brief overview of the history of railways in Wales.
- Well written and accessible with an easy to read style
- Generously illustrated
The Not So Good
- The book was first published over 40 years ago and much has changed in that time
- Some minor factual errors – if you are using the book as an academic source, double check the facts!
Outline Contents
- Making Tracks
- The Routes to Ireland
- The Coal and Iron Trade
- Into ‘Wild Wales’
- Courtship and Competition
- Zenith and Slow Decline
Related reviews
A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Vol.12, South Wales by D.S.M. Barrie
Isambard Kingdom Brunel by Robin Jones
Rails in the Valleys by James Page
Severn Tunnel Junction by P.D. Rendall
The Beeching Legacy, Volume 3: South and Central Wales and The Marches by Philip Horton
Wales and Western Region Railways: the Late 1940s to Late 1960s by Brian Reading and Ian Reading