Moat Lane Junction was a railway junction in

Montgomeryshire Montgomeryshire ( ) was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was named after its county town, Montgomery, Powys, Montgomery, which in turn was named after ...

near to the village of

Caersws Caersws (; ) is a village and community (Wales), community on the River Severn, in the Wales, Welsh county of Powys; it was formerly in Montgomeryshire. It is located west of Newtown, Powys, Newtown, halfway between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury. ...

in mid-Wales. It was the junction where the

Newtown and Machynlleth Railway The Newtown and Machynlleth Railway was a railway company in Wales. It built a line from a junction with the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway near Caersws to the market town of Machynlleth; the line opened in 1862. Newtown had become the hub of ...

opened in 1863 diverged from the

Llanidloes and Newtown Railway The Llanidloes and Newtown Railway (L&NR) was a railway company between Llanidloes and Newtown in Montgomeryshire, Wales. It was promoted locally when plans for trunk railways passing through the locality were cancelled; local people saw that a ...

which opened four years earlier. Although having only three through platforms, by rural standards it was a busy interchange station and in its heyday possessed a refreshment room. Moat Lane 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 Afon Wen,

Talyllyn Junction Talyllyn Junction was a railway junction located east of Brecon, Powys, 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 j ...

Dovey Junction Dovey Junction ( ; ) is a railway station on the Cambrian Line in Wales. It is the junction where the line splits into the line to and the Cambrian Coast Line to . Passenger services are provided by Transport for Wales. There is a single islan ...

and Barmouth Junction (renamed Morfa Mawddach in 1960).

History

The first station at Moat Lane, opened in 1859, was located a short distance to the south-west of the later junction station, and was intended to serve

. On the opening of the Machynlleth line in 1863 a new station was built in the ‘V’ of the junction and replaced the original station. This had a single straight platform face serving Llanidloes trains and a curved platform serving the new line. Since the latter was now the major route, an island platform was also provided on the curve, providing three platforms trains to/from the Machynlleth direction. Both originating railways became part of the

Cambrian Railways The Cambrian Railways owned of Railway track, track over a large area of mid Wales. The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904. The Cambrian connected with two larger railways with c ...

. Beyond Llanidloes, 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 ...

to Brecon was opened in 1864, but was operated separately until 1888, passengers needing to change at Llanidloes. From that date, trains ran through from Moat Lane Junction. Reflecting the lower status of the earlier Llanidloes line, through running of passenger trains from Newtown to the Mid-Wales line eventually ceased, and the original single platform sufficed throughout its life. The station closed on 31 December 1962 together with passenger services to Llanidloes and Brecon. Shortly after closure the station was demolished apart from a small section of platform, now occupied by farming equipment. The first station (closed in 1863) became a private house.

History

References

Further reading