Did you know even before the 1840's, Llangollen was a popular place for tourists ?

From 1848, visitors could travel by train to the nearest station (Ruabon - Llangollen Road) which was on the Shrewsbury to Chester line. From Ruabon visitors could then reach Llangollen and other places along the road to Holyhead by coach. The area around Llangollen also supported goods traffic. This included slate, coal produced at Acrefair and lime at Trevor.

In the late 1840s / early 1850s a number of schemes were proposed to connect Llangollen to the rail network. One scheme, proposed by the LNWR, even included the Llangollen Canal being turned into a railway. These were all rejected.

However one proposal, put forward by the 'The Vale of Llangollen Railway' and backed by the GWR, succeeded.
The engineer for this scheme was Henry Robertson, and the bill for this railway received Royal Assent on 1st August 1859.

The Vale of Llangollen Railway line was born.

The VoLR is approximately 5¼ miles long. It leaves the Shrewsbury to Chester main line just over ½ mile south of Ruabon Station. The line was initially built as a single track but on a trackbed wide enough for double track. The line consisted of just two intermediate stations, Acrefair (where it crossed the Pontcysyllte Tramway) and Trevor.

The line was doubled from Ruabon Junction to Llangollen Goods Junction Signal Box in 1898.

The Closure

On the 18th January, 1965, the line was closed to Passenger traffic.

For the next 3 years, the line continued to serve general goods traffic. However from January 1st, 1968 only the coal traffic survived. The line was finally closed to all traffic on the 1st April 1968