Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway

This suggested to the Welsh companies the possibility of an alternative to the GWR-dominated connection, if a line could be built to join the LNWR route.

It was said that not only would a line between Whitchurch and Oswestry serve local districts, but it would link the Newtown group of railways with Crewe, Manchester and the industrial northwest of England.

Extraction of coal was developing rapidly in districts near Ruabon and Ffrith, near Brymbo, and branches from the future line that could serve those locations too were being proposed.

[2]: 49–56 The Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway Bill went to the 1861 session of Parliament; it was supported by the LNWR and strenuously opposed by the GWR.

Fierce argument raged in the committee stages over the advantages of other rival schemes, but it was the OE&WR Act that was passed on 1 August 1861; a GWR alternative was rejected.

The company had to ask the Oswestry and Newtown Railway to make the payment, taking OE&WR shares in exchange.

[1]: 153 [3][5][2]: 49–56 Work started on the 7+1⁄2-mile (12 km) section west from Ellesmere to Oswestry on 4 September 1862, three days after the date permitted in the original Act.

[2]: 49–56 The OE&WR realised that its small size and dependence on other railways made it vulnerable, and it negotiated with other lines for amalgamation.

The London and North Western Railway was increasing its interests in the area, and wanted a link to its system from Wrexham.

There was a triangular junction at Ellesmere, but the Oswestry-facing curve was not much used until after 1911, when iron ore flows to and from South Wales were important for a few years.

A Sunday school excursion was returning from Barmouth to Royton in Lancashire; it was a long and heavy train, pulled by two locomotives with tenders.

In his report he said, I walked over the line... and found that the majority of the old sleepers were so much decayed or split that they afforded but little hold to the spikes...

It has been suggested that the original displacement of the road, was caused by the Lancashire and Yorkshire van, and that this was the first to leave the rails, pulling the tender and carriages after it.

But most careful consideration of all the circumstances confirms me in the belief, that this most serious accident was certainly caused due to the dislocation of the permanent way produced by the high speed and the consequent oscillation of the two heavy engines and tenders of the train, that the second tender was probably the first vehicle to leave the rails and that the derailment would have occurred even if the van had not been present... From what I have said above it is evident that the condition of the road demands the immediate attention of the Cambrian company.