Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway

It adopted the track network of the defunct Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway that had closed in 1880; the S&MLR opened in 1911.

Running through sparsely inhabited terrain, it struggled to achieve financial stability, and following a serious deterioration of maintenance conditions, it closed to passengers in 1933, continuing with a basic goods and mineral service.

The title indicated the far-reaching ambitions of the company, but in fact it only stretched from Shrewsbury to Llanymynech, Nantmawr and Criggion, a network of 28 miles.

[1] The line never attracted enough business to make a profit, and basic maintenance was cut back due to the lack of cash.

[11] Passenger operation beyond Melverley ceased in October 1932, due to the unsafe state of the bridge over the River Severn.

As there was no run-round facility at Melverley, now a terminus, the train from Kinnerley propelled a single coach on the outward trip.

The Criggion quarry train ran weekly, and occasional ordinary goods traffic served the intermediate stations.

[12] It appears that the Shropshire Railways Company continued in existence as owner of the former Potts system, suggesting that the S&MLR was a tenant.

[15] However the Criggion branch remained outside the scope of War Department control; there was a daily train conveying granite from the Breidden quarries.

At first the wagons were pushed up to and over the bridge by the quarry company's vertical-boilered Sentinel locomotive, to be collected on the Kinnerley side by the S&MLR engine.