Bryn Oer Tramway

Infobox rail
railroad_name=Bryn Oer Tramway
gauge=convert|3|ft|6|in|mm|0|abbr=on
start_year=1815
end_year=1865
length=8 miles
hq_city=Talybont
locale=Wales
successor_line=Abandoned

The Bryn Oer Tramway (also known as the Brinore Tramroad) was an early horse-worked British narrow gauge railway built in 1814.

History

The Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal was built under an Act of Parliament of 1793. The Act allowed the canal company to build feeder railways up to eight miles (13 km) in length to transport freight to the canal for transshipment. The Bryn Oer Tramway was built under this act in 1814, opening in 1815. It was a horse worked plateway that served the Bryn Oer collieries and the Trefil limestone quarries. An extension was also built to serve the Rhymney ironworks in the Rhymney Valley.

By the 1830s the growth of local railways had begun to complete with the tramway, especially with the introduction of steam locomotives which were too heavy to work on the fragile plateway. By 1860 most of the tramway's traffic was being sent by railways in it closed in 1865.

The tramway today

In 2006, much of the route of the Bryn Oer Tramway is in use as a public bridleway, and stone sleepers remain in place in several places.

References

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ee also

* British industrial narrow gauge railways