The directors allowed a contractor John Dickson a free hand in building the line and when he became bankrupt the company was in a desperate financial situation.

The passenger service was withdrawn in 1962 and present-day (2017) traffic is confined to uncertain mineral business from Onllwyn to Neath.

Brecon had long been a market and agricultural town, but its location within hilly terrain discouraged early communication routes.

In 1812 the Crown Estate sold 12,000 acres of forest land in Fforest Fawr to John Christie, an industrialist and entrepreneur.

He needed a means of transport to move the heavy mineral to kilns for firing, and he determined to build what became the Brecon Forest Tramroad to do so.

However the long route over difficult terrain was discouraging, and in addition he needed to link in a source of coal for the firing process.

A modified route was adopted, from quarries lower in the Tawe Valley at 1,267 feet; this involved hauling the limestone up for the first part of the journey to the pass known as Bwlch Bryn-rhudd.

The economics of the business were imperfect: the limestone was hauled a considerable distance north-east, when the potential market for sales was in the south west.

[1] Finally in 1861 a viable scheme was put forward, and it obtained the Royal Assent on 29 July 1862 as the Dulas Valley Mineral Railway.

The purpose was to bring coal down from the Onllwyn area to the waterway at Neath, though some among the promoters saw this as part of a future through route from Swansea to Birmingham and Manchester.

[1] John Dickson became in effect the driving force of the Dula[i]s Valley Mineral Railway, and he saw that the line would only reach its potential if it extended at each end.

The Bill was accordingly pared down to omit the Swansea extremity, and the name of the proposed company changed to the Neath and Brecon Railway.

c. cccxvi) was obtained the following year, authorising a line from Devynock to Llangammarch Wells on the (as yet unbuilt) Central Wales Extension Railway.

The decision was taken to build a connecting line, and this became the Swansea Vale and Neath & Brecon Junction Railway.

c. ccxciii) on 29 July to run from Colbren, a little north of Onllwyn, to a junction with the Swansea Vale Railway at Ynysygeinon.

[1] There was considerable impropriety in John Dickson's handling of the affairs of the company, which he had been given exceptional licence to manage without much supervision.

[2] The difficulties multiplied as directors' personal involvement and commitments were disclosed, but the creditors were interested in retrieving something from the mess, and after considerable negotiation an agreement was reached, ratified as the Neath and Brecon Railway (Amalgamation and Arrangement) Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict.

In fact the Midland Railway offered to operate all trains north of Colbren Junction for one third of receipts, about £4,000 annually.

The arrangement was renewed until in 1889 the N&BR tried to negotiate better terms, at which the Midland Railway abruptly discontinued the through trains on 1 July 1889.

On 6 July 1889 the N&BR started working a skeleton train service itself, with borrowed rolling stock from the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway; Sir Edward Watkin was chairman of both companies.

[1] Adelina Patti was a famous and acclaimed opera singer; she first sang in public as a child in 1851 and her career lasted until 1914.

[1][5] Her celebrity was such that the GWR publicity department was able to use her name to advertise the Severn Tunnel, newly opened to passengers, when she was returning from London to Craig-y-nos: Madame Patti has practically opened the Severn Tunnel… It is true that very few people knew it, and perhaps Madame Patti herself did not know it, but everybody will be talking about it to everybody else.

Many people will be interested to know that the special train ran along the new route through the Severn Tunnel, and that the whole distance from Paddington to Neath was comfortably traversed in four hours and twelve minutes.

The new owners restored the station are to its original state: The station building itself has been converted into a lodge with all-electric cooking and other facilities, and the waiting room restored, and, so far as was possible, equipped with furniture appropriate to the period, Theatre handbills and murals relating to the great singer, who died at her house, Craig-y-Nos Castle, on September 27, 1919, are exhibited on the walls, and no effort has been spared to recapture the original atmosphere, upholstery and curtains being in pink and white with red carpeting.

This enabled the company to take over the working of its own coal trains on the Junction Line between Colbren and Ynysygeinon after 1 July 1903.

The issued capital of the company was £1.67 million and the net income[note 4] in 1921 was £43,159, and no dividend had been paid on ordinary shares in that year.

Additional passenger services were operated between Neath and Colbren, largely for benefit of miners and other workmen, but generally speaking the sparse service attracted few passengers and was withdrawn completely on and from 15 October 1962, the last trains running on Saturday 13 October.

The morning and afternoon departures from Neath were strengthened from two to five coaches and both trains were double-headed by ex-GWR 5700-class pannier tank locomotives, the staple motive power on the passenger service for many years.

[4] By 1970 it was the coal washery at Onllwyn that sustained that portion of the line, but between 1970 and 1977 there was some limestone traffic from the quarries at Penwyllt (Craig-y-nos).