Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway

The Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway

The Chester and Holyhead Railway was opened throughout in 1850,[1] and it was absorbed by the London and North Western Railway in 1858. The Great Western Railway was the principal competitor of the LNWR in the area, and the GWR had taken steps to reach Rhyl, an important regional centre. It hoped to do this by taking control of a series of local railways, westwards from the Vale of Llangollen Railway, which branched from the GWR at Ruabon.

In 1860, the London and North Western Railway took steps to fend off this incursion, supporting a railway through the River Wheeler valley and joining the Vale of Clwyd Railway. The Wheeler line was not built, but the Great Western Railway lost interest and the threat abated.

A local railway between Mold and Denbigh was still of value, and local interests promoted the Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway. The company was incorporated on 6 August 1861 to build a 15.75-mile (25.35 km) link railway between the Mold Railway and the Vale of Clwyd Railway. The Mold Railway connected Chester and Mold, and the Vale of Clwyd Railway connected Rhyl and Denbigh.[2][3]

Caerwys in 1986 after closure

The new company was unable to raise the funds for construction of its line, until Richard Samuel France, a railway contractor and mineowner, offered to build the line in exchange for shares. He made good progress until the national financial crisis of 1866, when he became financially embarrassed, and was unable to continue. At that time, of the £432,000 raised in share capital, only £1,360 was in the name of others than France himself. Many landowners were still owed money for the land acquired by the company, and there was much construction work still to be accomplished.

Notwithstanding the shortage of the Company's own funds, in 1866 it had obtained powers to build a line paralleling the Mold Railway to join the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway; powers for a 22 mile line to Llandudno were refused in that session. Despite the financial situation, in 1867 the M&DJR obtained a further Act of Parliament for running powers over part of the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway, and also (belatedly) to Denbigh.

Richard Samuel France now disappeared from the scene, and the only hope of completing the line lay with the LNWR, and that company funded the completion of the line.[3]

The line opened on 12 September 1869 and was worked by the LNWR, although the Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway company remained independent.[4][5][3]

Bradshaw's Guide shows the passenger train service in 1895: there were seven trains each way daily, all but one stopping at all stations.[6]

By 1919 there were two return journeys on the line by a "motor train".[7]

In 1923 the main line railways of Great Britain were "grouped" under the Railways Act 1921; the LNWR was a constituent of the new London Midland and Scottish Railway. The Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway, of course only a financial shell, was schemed into the LMS.

The LMS increased the passenger train service, with eleven trains each way between Chester and Denbigh, as well as three between Denbigh and Mold, with some of the workings extended to and from Ruthin or Corwen. A motor train worked three round trips from Denbigh.[7]

Passenger trains on the line were withdrawn on 30 April 1962, but goods and parcels traffic to Mold from Chester continued. The closure had been planned, and announced, for September 1961 but the arrangements for alternative transport were not completed, and the closure was deferred. Many local made other arrangements anyway and carryings in the final months were very low.[8] The track from Rhydymwyn to the junction with the Vale of Clwyd line just north of Denbigh was lifted in 1963. However, limestone powder traffic continued to originate at Rhydymwyn and goods trains also served the Synthite chemical works (a factory producing formaldehyde) just north of Mold.

On 1 January 1968 the line was further reduced in operational length, consisting only of a stub at Mold to the Synthite works. Access to it was made from Wrexham over the former Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway to Hope, and then by the connecting spur to the former Mold Railway there.

The line from the Synthite works to Rhydymwyn was still in place, and was revived in 1974 for the transportation inwards of oil pipe sections for the Anglesey to Ellesmere Port pipe line, which uses part of the old Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway trackbed near Afonwen. When the Synthite works transferred from rail to road haulage in March 1983 the railway activity in the area ceased completely.[3]

Mold station buildings survived until 1988, occupied by a builders' merchant. The original M&DJR station buildings at Rhydymwyn, Caerwys and Bodfari survive as private dwellings.

Mold & Denbigh Junction Railway
Mold Railway Mold Rhydymwyn Star Crossing Halt Nannerch Caerwys Bodfari Vale of Clwyd Railway Denbigh Denbigh, Ruthin & Corwen Railway

The summit of the line was on the Mold side of Star Crossing Halt, after which the line descended towards Denbigh at 1 in 80.[9]

• Mold; opened 14 August 1849; closed 30 April 1962;
• Rhydymwyn; opened 6 September 1869; closed 30 April 1962;
• Star Crossing Halt; opened 2 November 1914; closed 1 January 1917; reopened 1 July 1919; closed 30 April 1962;
• Nannerch; opened 6 September 1869; closed 30 April 1962;
• Caerwys; opened 6 September 1869; closed 30 April 1962;
• Bodfari; opened 6 September 1869; closed 30 April 1962;
• Denbigh opened 5 October 1858; replaced by permanent station December 1860; closed 30 April 1962.[10]

Carvell, Roger (2009) The Chester to Denbigh Railway, ISBN 978-1-903266-47-2