| 2 | WLL | Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway | The Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway is a 2' 6\" gauge line in rural Wales. It was conceived as a general carrier and passenger railway, but mainly carried agricultural produce from the local farms along the route from Llanfair Caereinion down to the mainline and canal at Welshpool, a distance of about 9 miles. The line opened in 1903, and was operated from the outset by the Cambrian Railways. It came into the GWR fold at the 1923 grouping. The passenger service was suspended in 1931 and the coaches later scrapped. The GWR rebuilt ("Swindonised") the locos as was their habit and supplied some more goods stock and the railway settled down into a bucolic existence serving the local farming community. It became part of British Railways and was finally closed in 1956. The railway was then taken over by a preservation society and since 1960 has progressively reopened from Llanfair. In the early 1980s, the railway once more reached the outskirts of Welshpool at Raven Square. | GB | TRAFFIC |
