Footnotes:
[2] The reader sufficiently interested in statistical details and comparative tables will find further particulars concerning some of these points in an appendix at the end of the book.
[4] An admirable sketch of the late Mr. Davies’s career appeared from the pen of an old friend in the “Barry Dock News” at the time of the opening of the Barry Docks in July 1889 and was reprinted in summarised form in his obituary notice in “Bye Gones,” July 1890. Besides his connection with the Cambrian, it gives details of his many other activities, including his representation of Cardigan Boroughs in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1885, and on the merging of the boroughs into the county, at that date, for Cardiganshire till 1886, when he was defeated on becoming an opponent of Mr. Gladstone’s Irish policy; his services on the Montgomery County Council, and his magnificent generosity to the Calvinistic Methodist Churches and in aid of the cause of Welsh higher education, a liberality which has since been continued in fullest measure by his family.
[8] This phrase of Shirley Brooks’s was probably applied rather to the suspension bridge, which Telford planned to carry the London and Holyhead road over the Straits, and which was opened on January 30th, 1826, but it not less accurately describes Stephenson’s famous railway tubular bridge, begun in 1846 and completed in 1850, at a cost of about £600,000.
[16] See “Minutes of the proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers,” published June, 1889. He died on March 24th, 1888, having been engaged on nearly all the railways started in North and Central Wales, and later on the Sardinian railways, where he formed a close intimacy with Garibaldi. He returned to Marchwiel Hall, near Wrexham, where he laid out one of the finest cricket grounds in the Kingdom. He was a J. P. for Denbighshire and declined many invitations to enter Parliament.
[20] The original station at Newtown was a wooden shed still in the station yard, but now used as a coal merchant’s office.
[34] Mr. Howell’s yeoman services in promoting these local lines was appropriately recognized by his fellow-citizens in tangible fashion. The Howell family have in their possession a silver inkstand, bearing the following inscription:—“Presented by the Inhabitants of the Town and neighbourhood of Welshpool To Abraham Howell, Esq., In grateful acknowledgement of his exertions in obtaining a railway through the County of Montgomery, July, 1855.”
[40] A mysterious measurement arrived at, according to Mr. F. S. Williams, an authority on the history of railway construction, on no scientific data, but due to the fact that the old “way leaves,” or wooden rails, put down to economise the wear and tear of colliery trains, were so adapted to admit of the wagons passing through five feet gateways.
[42] Mr. Abraham Howell’s evidence before Lord Stanley’s Committee, 1862.
[43] Afterwards called Buttington.
[51] The rebuilding of this bridge, only completed last year, was the last large engineering work accomplished on the Cambrian system prior to its amalgamation with the Great Western.
[54] The Board given in “Bradshaw’s Shareholders’ Guide” for 1860 is Earl Vane (Chairman); Sir W. W. Wynn (Vice-Chairman); Mr. Robert Davies Pryce, Cyfronydd, Montgomeryshire, and Mr. John Foulkes, Aberdovey, with Mr. David Howell, secretary, Messrs R. and B. Piercy, engineers, and Messrs. Howell and Morgan, Machynlleth, solicitors.
[63] The Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway Company, of which the original directors were Messrs. David Williams, Deudreath Castle, (Chairman); Jasper Wilson Johns, 46, Cumberland Street, Hyde Park, London, and Rhiwport, Welshpool, (Vice Chairman); William Lawrence Banks, Walton House, Brecon; Wm. Gray, The Grove, Lee, Kent; and Henry Gartside, Wharmton Towers, Greenfield, Saddleworth; and the Secretary, Mr. W. Roberts, 9 A, Bridge Street, Westminster.
[91] The little train so smoothly glides
Along our lovely valley,
And faster than the lightning flash
It travels on its journey.
We leave Llangynog town at nine
Without a darkening frown,
And fleeter than the cuckoo’s flight
At three reach London town.
[94] See head of this Chapter.
[114] Later the colours were changed to cream and green, with yellow and red lines, until January, 1909, when, for economical reasons, following the examples of some other railways, the Cambrian repainted all their coaches entirely in dark green, with yellow lines.
[118] For some years Earl Vane had a private saloon on the railway, painted in the family colours, yellow and lilac, with his coat of arms on every door, and fitted with a water tank on the roof, but it was found too cumbrous for continued use on the main line, and was afterwards converted into an ordinary carriage, and still runs, in this more mundane form, on the Tanat Valley branch.
[131] See “Some Earlier Branches.”
[132] See “Some Earlier Branches.”
[133] On Mr. Herbert Jones’s retirement at the end of 1918, the offices of locomotive superintendent and engineer were combined, and have since been jointly occupied by Mr. G. C. McDonald.