The company found it impossible to raise the share subscription[clarification needed], but the contractor partnership of Davies and Savin agreed to build the line and take shares in payment, The line passed through terrain requiring steep gradients and sharp curves in a sparsely populated area with little local traffic, and the limited long distance business was costly to operate.

There were several proposals to cross the region by a trunk railway, in some cases to connect industrial England to coastal ports in West Wales.

Next, the Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway made a connection to the O&NR at Buttington in 1862, forming a route from Newtown to the Midlands and London.

[2][1][3] After a number of false starts, a practicable route across Mid Wales gathered support in March 1859, when a meeting was held to further what became the Mid-Wales Railway.

[4][5] The line's supporters still saw it as part of a trunk express route, and the greatly reduced parliamentary powers were, they believed, a temporary setback.

Despite the sharp curves and steep gradients, the Shrewsbury Journal repeated the promoters' publicity that "express trains at the highest speeds reached can be run with the greatest ease and perfect security".

[6] The company's supporters still planned to reach Llandovery as part of the onward thrust towards south-west Wales, but Brecon was also considered to be a useful destination.

[10] However, the Mid-Wales board[clarification needed] feared that the HH&BR might demand an unreasonable price to surrender its line, so they arranged for the acquisition to be authorised in Parliament, by the Mid Wales Railway Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict.

This fact emerged as construction was being planned, and each company wanted to build the duplicated section, and permit the other to use the line for a fee.

[14] By this time the M&MR was having serious doubts about the wisdom of continuing construction over the difficult terrain to reach Llangurig from the south, and made the huge decision to divert the line to Aberystwyth instead.

The Llangurig stub remained, disused, and the M&MR paid the L&NR interest charges and operating and maintenance costs on the enlarged Llanidloes station, which it would now never use.

There was the customary banquet afterwards, and some directors made adverse remarks about Davies and Savin's financial involvement, which was felt to compromise the board's authority.

Remedial work was necessitated by the Board of Trade inspecting officer's refusal to sanction opening for passenger traffic earlier.

[22] The directors of the Mid-Wales Railway still hoped to get part of the traffic they had anticipated if they had reached Llandovery, as they had originally proposed.

A connection was agreed near Builth where the lines intersected, and the MWR got powers on 30 June 1864 in the Mid Wales Railway Act 1864 (27 & 28 Vict.

It provided a direct outlet to Cardiff and the Rhondda and Taff valleys, and from the opening day coal trains ran through from South Wales to Birkenhead.

[11] Through goods services should have been lucrative, but the company found that the big companies, the Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway in particular, which had their own established trunk routes in Wales, were not prepared to quote through goods rates in competition with their own business.

Half of the 36,000 tons of mineral traffic that the company carried in that period was iron ore from Northamptonshire to South Wales, routed forward over the B&MR, and the MWR share of the transit was only between Three Cocks and Talyllyn.

[11] Under an 1871 agreement the Mid-Wales Railway paid the B&MR £400 per annum plus £400 for working expenses for both the Brecon and Talyllyn stations.

There were in addition short workings from Builth Wells, and sometimes other stations south, to Llechryd to make connection with the Central Wales line trains.

Much of this traffic went through to Cambrian Railway resorts, but some was for Llandrindod Wells, and this was handled by arranging connecting trains at Llechryd, with the Central Wales line of the LNWR.

The nearest station was Rhayader and the area was remote, and would need a railway connection to reach all the dam sites.

The signal box and junction loop were opened in June 1894; the exchange sidings were not completed until August 1895, although a press and VIP visit had been run on 10 July 1894.

Semmens claims that the Cambrian Railways finished the year with a good balance on its books, which showed a profit of £122,970.

[note 1][34][35] Christiansen and Miller say "the increases in trade and fares were not sufficient to keep the small companies buoyant and everything was against them remaining independent any longer.

Costs and wages had soared to such a level that it was impossible for a company the size of the Cambrian, which had limited potential, to meet expenses out of revenue.

[36] Details emerged in early Spring of 1962 of proposals to be put to the Transport Users' Consultative Committee to close all the three lines into Brecon.

[37] Rhayader yard was left open for coal concentration (not rail connected) until 5 April 1965, as were the depots at Builth Wells and Talgarth.

Builth Road low level yard continued to be served by the curve from the Central Wales until 6 September 1965.

From a zero mileage at Llanidloes in the Severn Valley it climbed almost continuously at typically 1 in 77 for 7 miles (11 km) to a summit near Pantydŵr, at 947 feet (289 m) above sea level.