Mold Railway

As the mineral industry developed, steelmaking at Brymbo became dominant, and the LNWR arranged with the Great Western Railway to connect to that place.

The passenger service closed in 1962, and in 1972 all rail activity ceased except for serving the Synthite factory just north of Mold; total closure followed in 1983.

The Company's capital was to be £180,000, and it would run from the junction at Saltney (west of Chester), to Mold, with a branch to Ffrith where there were large mineral deposits.

agreed to take most of his payment in shares, in effect funding the line himself, and it was opened on 14 August 1849; in common with the main part of the C&HR it was worked by the London and North Western Railway.

A branch was constructed southwards from a trailing Ffrith Junction, near Padeswood, to Coed Talon, from where a private line extended to Nerquis, where there was a coal pit.

The steeply graded branch line opened on 14 September 1849;[5] part of the Parliamentary authorisation was to continue to limestone quarries at Ffrith, but for the time being that was left in abeyance.

[9] In the investigation into an accident that took place on the 9:25 Chester to Mold service in March 1868 it was reported that the John o' Gaunt locomotive (which suffered a boiler tube failure) was hauling 12 passenger coaches.

[13] The LNWR decided to make a new connection to the pits around Coed Talon; by Act of 16 July 1866 the LNWR was empowered to build from a new junction near Mold (Tryddyn Junction) to join the former line near Tryddyn, including adoption of part of the Nerquis line, though curves wee eased.

The line opened as far as Oak Pits Colliery on 16 March 1869, and on to Coed Talon on 8 July 1870; there was a triangular junction there.

[16] In 1866 the main line of the WM&CQR opened; it ran from Wrexham to a wharf on the River Dee at Connah's Quay.

A connecting curve was provided at the intersection by the WM&CQR, enabling its trains to run towards Mold; however the LNWR did not encourage this incursion, and passenger traffic never used the line.

The Wrexham and Minera Railway was a satellite of the GWR, created to provide a route with easier gradients, and it opened in 1862.

In 1865 the W&MR got authorisation to build a line to Tryddyn, near Coed Talon; the objective was for the GWR to get access to the minerals around Mold.

In a further change of plan, the joint section only reached from Brymbo to a boundary about halfway to Coed Talon; north-west of that point the new line was totally LNWR.

[24] The Mold to Brymbo passenger trains reduced to two per day after World War II,[25] but the service was discontinued on 27 March 1950, and the line from Coed Talon to Ffrith closed completely on 1 May 1952.

[25] Ordinary goods services were progressively withdrawn in the 1960s, and after 1972 the line only carried a single specialised traffic.