Y Lein Fach
The railway reached
Carmarthen in 1852, the Llanelli to mid-Wales line opened in 1857 and the
Carmarthen - Llandeilo link through the village of Llanarthne was opened
in 1865. Its official name was the "Central Wales to Carmarthen Junction
Railway". Its single line embankment down the valley, full of badger setts,
can still clearly be made out.
At the turn of the century farmers told the time by the trains - they
never varied for over a generation. There were half a dozen passenger
trains each way every day. The 7 am from Carmarthen brought the post, the
11 am the occasional traveller. If a stranger got off at Llanarthne the
porter ran to the school to warn the headmaster in case it was an
inspector. The 1 pm brought the school children home from the Grammar, the
"Lancastrian" and the High School on Thursdays and Saturdays and the 5 pm
brought them on other days. The 7 pm brought the visiting preachers on
Saturday nights. In addition, The Goods meandered along between 9 and 11
every morning, dropping wagons in all the stations & picking up the
empties. Flour, now being carried cheaply, resulted in the closure of many
of the small mills. Coal and lime were particularly important; supplies
were stored in little sidings such as the one at Dryslwyn, from where they
would be collected by the farmers. At 6 pm the Fish Express went through
on its way from Milford Docks to the Midlands. Cattle trucks were
collected from the Llanarthne siding on fair days.
The 12 o'clock from Llandeilo was used by travellers returning from
Llandeilo & Ffairfach marts while the 6 pm cleared the post from the
villages. The 9 pm was quite a popular train, some passengers on Saturday
night being hauled out by the porter.
It was amazing that the line kept open long enough for Dr Beeching to cut
it. If ever there were more than 12 passengers apart from the school
children, it was a fair or mart day or there were Cwrdde Mawr on
somewhere, and it was far from unknown for no fare to be charged,
particularly to the young men travelling to Llandeilo for a Saturday night
out - which finished at 9 o'clock! During the First World War many troop
trains came through, the destination of many of the passengers no doubt
being France. During the next war armaments came down from the Midlands en
route to Barry Docks ready for D Day so as to avoid more dangerous routes,
the little line standing up well to the pounding of the "Hudson Bay Triple
Four" engines.
The material for this article comes from an unpublished manuscript by
Sidney Perkins, one of the boys who travelled to the Grammar School from
his home half way between the stations of Llanarthne and Dryslwyn from
1910 to 1916. He learnt the Morse Code from Williams, the porter on
Llanarthne station, during this time and soon after was a signaller in
France. On his return he became a teacher, living in Barry, where he
celebrated his hundredth birthday in 1997. He has many memorials in the
village - the freehand maps of the valley and its villages, crammed with
fascinating detail and drawings. I hope to publish one of them in a future
issue.
first published in The Friend June 2006
Jill Davies
