Talyllyn Junction was a railway junction located east of

Brecon Brecon (; cy, Aberhonddu; ), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the coun ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

, opened in 1869. The junction was triangular, with north, east and west chords, station platforms being sited at the western junction and also, until 1878, at the eastern junction. The Junction took its name from the adjacent tiny hamlet. The junction was created where the Brecon and Merthyr Railway from the south met the

Mid-Wales Railway The Mid-Wales Railway was conceived as a trunk route through Wales connecting industrial areas in north west England with sea ports in south west Wales. The company was prevented from reaching its goal by competing proposals in Parliament, and i ...

from the north-east. Both railways were to serve Brecon, and to achieve this the latter had running powers over the former from Talyllyn into Brecon. The eastern spur of the triangle permitted through running from South Wales to mid-Wales and also to Hereford. The northern side of the triangle followed the course of the 1816 ''Hay Railway'', a tram-road worked by horses connecting the town of

Hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

with the

Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal ( cy, Camlas Sir Fynwy a Brycheiniog) is a small network of canals in South Wales. For most of its currently (2018) navigable length it runs through the Brecon Beacons National Park, and its present rural ...

. At the western end lay a tunnel which required widening and deepening for use by standard gauge trains. Talyllyn Junction is often quoted as a defining feature of the Great Western Railway in Wales, namely its inheritance of junctions in unlikely and inconvenient locations. Other examples are Moat Lane Junction, Dovey Junction,

Afon Wen Afon Wen is a small hamlet on the Llŷn peninsula in the Welsh principal area of Gwynedd. Location It is located at the mouth of the Afon Wen river, half a mile from the village of Chwilog and midway between Pwllheli and Cricieth. History ...

and Barmouth Junction (renamed Morfa Mawddach in 1960). All the railways at Talyllyn Junction were closed to passengers in 1962.

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