Whitland and Cardigan Railway

Although coastal shipping was possible, the road system serving Cardigan at the beginning of the nineteenth century was primitive and unsatisfactory.

The South Wales Railway opened its broad gauge main line to Carmarthen in 1852, with the expressed intention of continuing to Fishguard; this was intended to connect to railways in the south of Ireland, but economic events resulted in a change of western terminal to Neyland, on Milford Haven.

Although the act of Parliament authorised the share capital, actually persuading investors to commit the money proved extremely difficult, and the company was unable to proceed with the construction as far or as fast as it intended.

The company never managed to build further than that point, although it was later taken over by the Great Western Railway, which extended the line to Newcastle Emlyn on 1 July 1895.

Both of these locations were in the Taf Valley which provided a natural line of transportation to coastal shipping at Carmarthen Bay or at Cardigan or Newport.

After the opening of the South Wales Railway in 1854 from Carmarthen to Haverfordwest[1] the slate was also transported away by rail from Narberth Road.

[5] Land acquisition proved more expensive than the directors had anticipated, but it was possible to let a contract for the construction of the line in the amount of £8,700 to Edward Lewis of Glandovey on 13 October 1870.

A major problem was that subscriptions for shares were considerably short of expectations: of the authorised £37,000 only £19,300 had been taken up by April 1872, limiting the directors' freedom to enter into agreements.

In fact the inspecting officer failed to visit within the ten day timescale allowed and the directors opened the line to passengers on 12 July 1875.

The engineer's report was... that Colonel Rich, R.E., inspected the [line] on the 15th ultimo, and minutely examined the details of the entire works, expressing much satisfaction therewith.

Colonel Rich made a visit and made recommendations; he reported that the track was Vignoles (flat-bottom) rail spiked to transverse sleepers; the steepest gradient (he said) was 1 in 40 and the sharpest curve was of 12 chains radius, although a later GWR assessment of the line showed steeper gradients and sharper curves than this.

[2][5] A third locomotive was obtained in April 1877, but the company did not have the cash in the capital account, and the engine was mortgaged to three named directors for the time being.

[9] Completion to Cardigan was not speedy; securing subscriptions was a slow business, and land acquisition too was difficult, despite earlier positive indications by landowners.

Negotiations with the GWR with a view to the larger company taking over foundered when an inspection disclosed that the state of the line was that it was "in bad order".

A variation to the route was designed, saving considerable earthworks at the cost of steeper gradients, and Appleby and Lawton agreed to complete the line for £48,000.

The company still did not have that kind of money available, and the only salvation for their finances, they believed, was the extra income that completion to Cardigan would bring in.

Nonetheless, work proceeded, and by late 1884 Boncath was reached, and Appleby and Lawton started carrying goods traffic to that point on behalf of the company.

Colonel Rich of the Board of Trade visited to make the statutory inspection on 29 and 30 June 1886; the line was not ready and postponement of passenger opening was ordered.

[2][4] The GWR passenger service settled down to four trains each way each weekday, with an additional return trip on Saturdays and on the day of the monthly agricultural fair at Crymmych.

The GWR was simply working the line, which was still owned by the shareholders, and when receipts declined they felt themselves powerless to change matters.

The rural nature of the landscape, and particularly the very low population density, made it difficult for the railway to earn income; the quarrying business too declined.

The trackbed between Cilgerran and Cardigan is a footway and cycle path through Teifi Marshes and Wildlife Park, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

A local Welsh language newspaper uses the nickname of the line, Cardi bach,[18] as does the shuttle bus service between Cardigan and Newquay.