William Owens - Ruabon to Barmouth Railway engine driver

[Rhianmusic]

Hi,

I am trying to research my Taid (Grandfather) William Owens, who was a engine driver on the Ruabon to Barmouth line approx 1940 until 1950, he could have started earlier on this line but I don't have enough information to confirm this.

Does anyone know anything about this line and which trains were used - perhaps there are people out there that might remember my Taid.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Rhian

[Redroger]

You might find some useful background information by Googling Ruabon to Barmouth line, and then looking at the wikipaedia entry. There is quite a lote of info which might give you a few leads. Other than that, there is always the national archives.

[mazi]

The section from llangollen to Berwyn lives on as the preserved" Llangollen Railway".
The rest of the line closed in 1965, but ran thro' stunning scenery all the way,with a fair old climb between Bala and Dolgellau. Mostly a quiet branch line operated by a small engine and a couple of coaches, on Saturdays in summer it carried a lot of traffic from the north and midlands to Butlins holiday camp at Pwlhelli, at its peak in the fifties so your taid would have had his share of overtime.  It might be worth contacting the preserved railway to see if they have any old records.
Mazi's oh

apologies if my spelling of welsh placenames is incorrect, I'm working from memory

[wyndham]

From 1 January 1923 until closure the line was part of the Great Western Railway; prior to that  it was the Cambrian Railway.

The bottom end of the line to Barmouth featured a few months back in one of the BBC's "Railway Walks" programmes with Julia Bradbury.

A book worth looking at is "Railway Ancestors - A Guide to the Staff Records of the Railway Companies of England and Wales 1822-1947".  A new edition was recently published by the National Archives at Kew.

[Rhianmusic]

Many thanks for your replies and information I have contacted Llangollen Railway and my Taids information has been past onto the historians to look up as he was supposed to have been driving the train that went into Sun Bank in 1945 sadly killing the driver