The Carmarthenshire Railway was a horse-worked

plateway A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later. Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange o ...

built in

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

in 1803.

History

The Carmarthenshire Railway or Tramroad was authorised under an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

of 3 June 1802 – the first granted for a public railway in Wales – to acquire the existing Carmarthenshire Dock at

Llanelly Llanelly ( cy, Llanelli) is the name of a parish and coterminous community in the principal area of Monmouthshire, within the historic boundaries of Brecknockshire, south-east Wales. It roughly covers the area of the Clydach Gorge. The popula ...

and its feeder tramroad built by Alexander Raby by 1799, thus incidentally becoming the world's first dock-owning public railway company. The first from Cwmddyche ironworks down to the sea was open in May 1803 – the first stretch of public railway in use in Britain – and construction ceased in 1805 when the line had reached

Gorslas Gorslas is a village and a community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, located on the A476 road northwest of Cross Hands. The village population at the 2011 census was 4,066. Neighbouring villages are Cefneithin and Penygroes. The community is border ...

. The engineer was named James Barnes and the gauge was approximately . The line ceased to operate in or before 1844 and portions of its course were utilised by the

Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Railway The Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Railway was authorised in 1875. It made use of part of the long defunct Carmarthenshire Railway or Tramroad of 1801. The older line began running trains in 1803, and was a plateway of about 4 feet gauge, with horse t ...

, opened in 1881.

References

4 ft gauge railways in Wales Early Welsh railway companies Transport in Carmarthenshire Rail transport in Carmarthenshire Railway lines opened in 1803 Horse-drawn railways Railway lines closed in 1844 {{UK-rail-transport-stub