Historical background
The Talyllyn Railway runs for 11.67km (7.25 miles) from Tywyn
to near Abergynolwyn, though only the first 5.17km runs within
the Dysynni historic landscape. It was financed and built by
the McConnel brothers of Manchester, and opened in 1866 to
carry slate from the Bryneglwys quarries to the standard gauge
railway at Tywyn, and to operate passenger trains, making it
the first narrow gauge railway (in this case 0.686m – 2' 3”
gauge) in Britain authorised to carry passengers by steam.
The quarries shut in 1946 but the railway survived as a passenger
carrier and tourist attraction; it was not nationalised in
1948 and in 1951 it became the first railway in the world to
be preserved as a heritage railway by volunteers, initially
under the management of Tom Rolt. Effective control of the
railway is now in the hands of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation
Society. In 1976 an extension was opened along the former mineral
line from Abergynolwyn to the new station at Nant Gwernol.
The railway has seen a steady increase in passengers carried
since 2000, with nearly 95,500 passenger journeys recorded
in 2006, although this figure is still only around half the
peak figure carried in 1973.
From
1952 the railway has also maintained a Narrow Gauge Railway
Museum at Tywyn Wharf station which displays exhibits from
the United Kingdom and
the Republic of Ireland . The present substantial museum building
and station extension was opened in 2005.
Key historic landscape characteristics
Victorian narrow gauge steam railway.
This landscape area is characterised by many of the buildings
and structures associated with the railway's opening in 1866,
and as such constitutes a remarkable survival. The ambience
of the 1860s survived practically unaltered into the early
preservation era (1950s onwards) but has since then been compromised
by the exigencies of running a railway that responds to modern
tourist needs and to the requirements of the railways inspectorate.
This is reflected in the building of breeze-block and modern
corrugated workshops and infrastructure, particularly at Tywyn
Pendre. The new museum building at Tywyn Wharf station uses
red brick and slate to match the 1866 station building nearby
but is considerably greater in scale. The smaller stations
up the line (Rhyd yr Onnen and Brynglas both lie within the
Dysynni historic landscape area) preserve the sense of a small
rural railway of the nineteenth century.
Back to Dysynni
Landscape Character Map
