Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway
The area of Flintshire, on the south bank of the River Dee near Buckley, had considerable deposits of coal, iron and also of other minerals.
A large number of early wagonways were built to take the minerals to the river; the earliest were wooden railways, and in later years plateways were constructed.
This had been dug since about 1750, but with the coming of the railway age, the demand for bricks had increased greatly and a means of conveying them to market was essential.
The existing tramroads were in effect a monopoly, and their failure to modernise limited the transport opportunities for new mineral works.
Several prospective companies were formed to transport these minerals, and the battle for authorisation in Parliament was reduced to a GWR-supported scheme, and the Whitchurch, Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway (WWM&CQR), promoted by Benjamin Piercy.
[8] After considerable argument in Parliament, the WWM&CQR was passed, but reduced to the area from Wrexham northwards.
c. ccxxi) received royal assent on 7 August 1862, and recognising the reduction in geographical extent, its title was the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway (WM&CQR).
[1][9][10] The line opened for goods and mineral traffic on 1 January 1866; stations at first were Wrexham, Gwersyllt, Cefn-y-Bedd, Caergwrle, Hope Junction (later renamed Penyffordd), and Buckley.
[1][9] After improvements required by the Board of Trade inspecting officer, chiefly platforms on passing loops, the line opened for passengers on 1 May 1866.
[12] In the latter half of the decade, the WM&CQR attempted to obtain authorisation for extensions, notably into the Wirral.
[1] The WM&CQR directors continued to believe that the commercial success of their line lay in expanding the network, most particularly in crossing the River Dee and reaching Birkenhead.
Connah's Quay Docks was served by a branch by a riverside line from Shotton High Level.
This ran from the end of the Hawarden loop at Shotton to the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) network at Chester Northgate.
The MS&LR was a participant in the CLC and this gave the company access from the WM&CQR lines to its own network further east.
A Chester Northgate to Wrexham passenger service of three trains a day was started, worked by the MS&LR.
Instead the MS&LR and the WM&CQR built the line from Hawarden Bridge to Bidston, on the Wirral Railway.
[1] The GWR and WM&CQR, (and its successor the Great Central) fought for traffic at Vron colliery, high in the hills about a mile from Brymbo.
This was one of the few branches on which the Great Central ran steam railmotors, but they did not provide the traffic hoped for and the service was withdrawn in 1917.
In 1954 a new connection was put in with the GWR branch at Plas Power and the link to Brymbo Works was re-opened to goods.
[6] In 1897 the WM&CQR went into receivership, brought about by financial manipulation by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR).
[1] The WM&CQR network was heavily dependent on mineral workings, and as those declined so inevitably did the success of the railway operation.
The profile of the post 1890 WM&CQR route shows a climb at 1 in 80 from Gwersyllt to Ffrwd Junction, then falling at 1 in 86.
After some undulations there is a climb at 1 in 84 from Caergwrle to a summit at Buckey Junction, then falling continuously at 1 in 53 to Connah's Quay.
