The Vale of Llangollen Railway was built as a spur from the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway south of Ruabon to the town of

Llangollen Llangollen () is a town and community, situated on the River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Bea ...

. The line was built along the northern side of the Dee Valley and authorized by an Act of Parliament on 1 August 1859. It was initially opened for goods only on 1 December 1861 and to passenger traffic on 2 June 1862, and was worked from the outset by the Great Western Railway. The line ran from Llangollen Line Junction (0 miles 54

chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

) and served Acrefair, Trevor (and Sun Bank Halt from 1905), before terminating at a temporary station in the east of Llangollen. In 1865 the line was extended by another Great Western Railway-backed line, the Llangollen & Corwen Railway, with the line using a new permanent station in

. The Vale of Llangollen Railway Company was amalgamated with Great Western as from 1 July 1896 by means of the Great Western Railway (Additional Powers) Act 7 August 1896.Vale of Llangollen Railway Company: Miscellaneous books and records and minutes of the Vale of Llangollen Railway Company
Dates: 1854-1896 ''discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk'', accessed 17 April 2021

The line today

The disused trackbed between Ruabon (the former Llangollen Line Junction) and the eastern outskirts of Llangollen is still visible and largely intact. However, there is little trace of the line on its approach to Llangollen station, as a number of apartments, new houses and a health centre have been built on the formation. The extension of the Vale of Llangollen Railway from Llangollen to Corwen, which opened in 1865, still exists as the preserved

Llangollen Railway The Llangollen Railway () is a volunteer-run heritage railway in Denbighshire, North Wales, which operates between Llangollen and Corwen. The standard gauge line, which is long, runs on part of the former Ruabon – Barmouth GWR route that c ...

References

Railway lines in Wales Early Welsh railway companies Railway lines opened in 1861 Standard gauge railways in Wales 1861 establishments in Wales {{UK-rail-transport-stub