The history of the valley over the last 300 years has been dominated by the fact that it lies on the western edge of the South Wales coal field. The anthracite coal deposits were relatively close to the surface which permitted the use of slant mining methods (where entrance to the mine is via a slanted tunnel rather than a vertical shaft) and more recently open cast mining. The coal available here is characterised by being very hard and high in carbon and by the fact that coal gas was always a major danger to the miners. Unfortunately, the history of the mines is shadowed by a number of major accidents where the gas exploded, killing many miners over the years.
With such mineral wealth potentially available it is not surprising to find that much enterprise was engaged to recover it from an early date. Here in the valley are the remains of the first canal in Wales ever authorised by an Act of Parliament (Khymer’s Canal, 1765). This was repeatedly developed until the final Kidwelly and Llanelli Canal stretched from Bury Port through to Cwm Mawr by use of not only standard locks but also a number of Inclined Planes which effectively hauled up the canal boats on what could be compared to a modern cliff railway. Also, the sea ports in the area were repeatedly developed, starting at Kidwelly, then at Pembrey and finally at Burry Port.
However, even as the new canal was being completed, new railways were beginning to appear in the area and in of particular interest was the Llanelli and Mynydd Mawr Railway which could tap the same coalfield from the valley immediately south of the Gwendraeth. Realising this, the Port and Canal Company decided to convert the canal to a railway and an Act of Parliament was obtained on 5 th July 1865 to authorise the building of of the Kidwelly & Lanelly Canal to a railway. Due to an error in the spelling on the Act the railway became known as the Burry Port and Gwendreath Valley Railway (BP&GVR).
By 1869 the new railway was completed from Burry Port through to Pontyberem although the final stretch to Cwm Mawr with its severe gradients took until June 1886 to complete. Due to the fact that the company effectively built the railway along the old canal (using towpaths where possible and the bottom of the canal where headroom necessitated), the resulting railway had some interesting features. It consisted of some very level and straight sections interspersed with some very steep gradients, some incredibly tight curves and a very tight loading gauge (11ft 9in). The worst of the gradients were on the Pontyberem to Cwm Mawr section where the old inclined planes had resulted in gradients of 1 in 14 and 1 in 15 for short stretches and a vicious bank of 1 in 40 for over 1000 yards on the approach to Cwm Mawr. These gradients were one of the reasons for the purchase of some very early Fairlie patent locomotives.
Connections were provided with the adjacent Gwendraeth Valleys Railway at Kidwelly, and an extension was built through to Llanelli in 1891 where it could link with the Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr lines at Llanelli docks. Initial connection with the Great Western Railway was not possible due to the fact that the GWR was still using the 7ft broad gauge and an independent station was eventually built just south of the GWR station. At the turn of the century, the BP&GVR had some 21 miles of track to its name of which 13 miles comprised the main line from Burry Port to Cwm Mawr.
In 1880, the Pontyberem Colliery Company was forced to close as a result of the collapse of the West of England Bank. The resulting loss of income to the BP&GVR was such that a receiver had to be appointed in 1881 and it took over a decade of financial restructuring, internal economies and finally recovery of trade before the company could be discharged from Receivership (1898).
Between 1900 and 1907, a number of 0-6-0 tank locomotives were purchased to supplement the somewhat decrepit stock from the early years.
At this time the line was officially a goods only line with some 95% of its income resulting from coal traffic and the remainder coming from the transportation of other minerals and general merchandise. However, in 1898 the local collieries requested the BP&GVR provide a workmen’s train service. Under an agreement whereby the colliery companies provided the passenger stock these commenced with the BP&GVR claiming a weekly haulage charge of £2 10s 0d (£2.50) per coach. Needless to say, it didn’t take long before the miners’ wives began availing themselves of the opportunity to travel. To maintain “legality” for the service, the wives were considered to be travelling for free, so long as they paid 6d (2.5p) for the carriage of their shopping basket! Also, excursions were run on holiday to the seaside at Burry Port, the trains consisting of cleaned out coal trucks with benches added.
Unfortunately, this unofficial carriage of passengers brought trouble when an alleged workmen’s train was involved in a collision with a light engine and at the subsequent enquiry, the Board of Trade made no bones about the fact that a number of the passengers on the train were definitely not workmen! The Company was very fortunate to escape with only a severe censure.
At this point, serious thought was given to upgrading the line to allow legitimate carriage of the general public. The outcome was that a Light Railway Order was obtained for the rebuilding of the line to one more suited for passenger services. It was at this point that the doyen of the light railway construction, Lt-Col. H. F. Stevens, was called in to act as engineer.
The work largely entailed relaying with 75lb rails and realigning to get rid of the worst of the tight curves. The line re-opened to Pontyberem in August 1909 with the final stretch to Cwm Mawr reopening on 29 th January 1913. This last section needed a completely new alignment to deal with the former vicious gradients inherited from the canal on this section. Even so, the approach to Cwm Mawr was still on a climb of 1in 44.
The start of the new passenger service resulted in the purchase of second hand carriages. Due to the tight loading gauge, those acquired could be loosely classified as former underground/commuter stock from various London railways. At his time the Metropolitan Railway had a surplus due to the ongoing electrification of services at that time. Other sources were the L&SWR and the North London Railway. Accommodation provided by this “new” stock was third class only, and that best described as somewhat Spartan.
In 1922 the BP&GVR became part of the GWR system. As time went on, new locomotives were provide for the line along with some 4 wheeled carriages which appear to have been ex-GER stock. However, by 1939 these were in severe need of replacement and new “low height” stock had to be specially constructed due to the very restrictive loading gauge.
Passenger services continued through into the British Rail era, but with the inevitable loss of passengers to the competing bus services the line closed to passenger traffic on 21 st September 1953. Nevertheless, the coal traffic was still healthy and in 1965 cut down 03 class diesel hydraulic shunters were introduced. Due to the need to multiple head the trains a number of these were permanently coupled with hydraulic control to allow one driver to control both units. Even so, coal trains usually needed three units (two at front and one banking on trains to Cwm Mawr and triple heading on the return) to successfully navigate the greasy rails on the steeper sections near Cwm Mawr.
By 1983, most of these units were life expired and so the drastic action of restoring the old and disused to Kidwelly was taken and the section to Burry Port finally closed and lifted. Cut down 08 shunters were brought in to replace the 03’s. These worked to the washery at Coed Bach where a class 37 took over.
The line was finally closed in 1996 following the demise of the last open cast mines in the area. Most of the track on the final 8 miles of main line are still in place albeit somewhat overgrown or reverted to its original canal status.
While there have been a number of abortive attempts at preservation in the past, the current project is well under way to re-establish the line between Cwm Mawr and Kidwelly, with future options to restore the lifted section back to Burry Port.
The first stage of the project is to commence services between Pont Yates and Pontnewydd Stations while also restoring other stations, such as Pontyberem and Pont Henry in preparpation of extension of services up the valley. These projects are commencing Summer 2008.