World’s First Rail Passengers Rolled on the Good Swansea and Mumbles Railway

An early photo of open car horse drawn service on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway.  Probably a vary pleasant hour or so on a lovely spring day, but undoubtedly miserable in Wales's snowy winters.

Over the years this blog has covered many firsts relating to railway history.  That’s because I am fascinated with transportation history in general and rail history in particular.  Maybe it comes from growing up in a railroad town like Cheyenne, Wyoming, playing with electric trains, or listening all of my life to all of those songs about lonesome whistles, getting’ on down the line, and hobos.  But somehow I missed the very first rail passenger service in the world, which was inaugurated way back on March 25, 1807 on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales.  I know, it sounds like a line made up by J.K. Rowling for some fantastic adventure.

It started out, as most railroads did, as freight service.  Specifically it was charted in 1804 by Parliament as the Committee of the Company of Proprietors of the Oystermouth Railway or Tramroad Company for the purpose of hauling limestone from quarries by the Swansea Canal a little more than 7 miles to a fishing village called Oystermouth, a harbor at the mouth of the River Tawe.  Mumbles was the end station in Oysterouth, and the line was thus called the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, or just called the Mumbles Train by the suitably rustic locals. 

Construction on the roadbed and the laying of rude iron-strap rails was completed in 1806.  Freight operations commenced with no dedication or ceremony.  None-the-less, it quickly boosted the economy of both of its terminals.  With the addition of a mile-long spur from Blackpill up the Clyne Valley to Ynys Gate it also facilitated the development of coal pits at Blackpill.  Limestone, coal, and other freight was all carried in single open carts and horse drawn over the rugged course.  Speed was not a priority.

There being no road between the termini other than a rude foot path, the Proprietors soon decided that since the damn railway was just sitting there anyway, they might as well add passenger service. One of the original proprietors, Benjamin French, offered to pay the company the 20£ for the right to haul paying customers for a year.  Suitably uncomfortable open coaches thus began making regular trips on this date in 1807 without need of much further investment.  The Mount at Swansea became the world first railway station.  Actually anyone could do what Mr. French did.  By the arcane terms of the original charter the railroad was just that—the roadbed—and operated like a turnpike or canal.  Anyone could use the rails for a fee or toll as long as they provided their own compatible equipment.  It is unclear who or how many exercised that option.

Eventually seven stations including the termini were built which became the center of small hamlets and served the narrow valley running through the Welsh hills.

In the 1820’s a turnpike was built parallel to the rail line that cut into passenger traffic so that the only operator of cars at that time, Simon Llewelyn, suspended operations in 1827.

The re-introduction of passenger service in 1866 brought these more comfortable cars.

Over the next couple of decades the roadbed was re-laid and standard gauge flanged rails were used.  George Byng Morris, the son of one of the original proprietors and a local developer of coal pits, took control of the line, made more improvements, and re-introduced horse-drawn passenger service in 1866, when most British rail had already converted to steam.

The first steam service on the line began in 1877 when Henry Hughes’s patent tramway locomotives owned by the Swansea Improvements & Tramways Company began to use part of the line.  But because of the archaic charter and various disputes, the owner of the rail line, then a John Dickinson had to continue to use horse cars for some services.  There was a complicated web of companies owning all or parts of the line over time and/or operating on it.

It wasn’t until 1896 that the last horse car left service.  About that time a new company, the Mumbles Railway & Pier Company extended the line in Oystermouth to a new pier they built in the harbor and established and new terminal station, Mumbles Head.  Trains operated over both lines and occasionally during business disputes passengers were forced to change trains at the old Mumbles station.

A tank steam locomotive drawing double-deck cars arrives in Oystermouth Station in the early 20th Century.

By the turn of the 20th Century the tram engines had gone the way of the horse cars and a motley assemblage of small conventional tank locomotives were in use.  One early experiment with battery powered electric engines had already failed.

In 1904 to celebrate the centennial of the railway charter, the line finally got the ceremonial attention it never got in the beginning.  King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited Swansea for the ceremonial cutting of the first sod of the new King’s Dock in July.  They rode in a gutted and re-fitted battery electric car suitably fancied up and drawn by a steam engine.  The line received a second Royal visit in 1920 when King George V officiated at the opening of the new Queen’s Dock.

In 1928 the line was electrified and converted to an overhead wire tram style for the passenger service making it one of the few services in the world to have employed horse drawn, steam, and electric service.  Several double-decker cars built by the Brush Electrical Company of Loughborough, in Leicestershire—the largest ever built for service in Britain—were used.  Each could seat 106 passengers and were frequently operated in pairs with a seating capacity of 212 per train. That is a hint of the surprisingly heavy usage of the short run line.

These handsome and striking red double-deck overhead tram cars serviced the line for decades.  This one is approaching the Mumbles Pier in the last days of the line.

Freight service, which diminished with the closing of several coal pits and the short branch lines built to serve them, was handled for a while with gasoline powered engines which proved under-powered and finally with diesel locomotives.

The railroad got national attention in Britain once again when it celebrated its 150th Anniversary in 1954.  A replica of an early horse drawn passenger coach was constructed and ceremonially run on the line with newsreel and BBC coverage.

But it was almost a swan song.  In 1958 the railroad’s greatest competitor, The South Wales Transport Company, which was the principal operator of bus services in the Swansea area, bought out the two operating companies and the underlying but dormant road bed company.  Since the railroad had never been integrated into the nationalized rail system and still operated under the arcane 1804 charter, the bus company petitioned Parliament for permission to abandon the line.  The Conservative government of Prime Minister Harold McMillan was glad to oblige.

Under the South Wales Transport Act 1959 despite the voracious protests and objection of local residents the Swansea and Mumbles Railway was closed down in two stages.  The last ceremonial run was driven by Frank Duncan, who had worked on the railway since 1907, on January 5, 1960.  Work began immediately to tear down some stations to make way for bus terminals, tear up the track for scrap, and dismantle most of the rolling stock.  

What was then the oldest railway in the world with continuous service was no more.

The last intact car sat for years awaiting restoration but deteriorating on a Leeds siding. Seen in 1966, it was destroyed by fire soon after.
 

One car was saved for preservation by members of Leeds University in Yorkshire and was stored awaiting work at the Middleton Railway in Lees but it was heavily vandalized and eventually destroyed by fire. The front end of car no. 7 was also saved for preservation at Swansea Museum and was initially restored in the early 1970s by members of the Railway Club of Wales.  It is now on display in the Tram Shed by the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea’s Maritime Quarter.

But there was dim hope of a restoration of service.  In 2009 the City and County of Swansea began a long process of looking at the feasibility of tram service for the Swansea bay area again perhaps using the old roadbed.  The Environment, Regeneration and Culture Overview Board created by the Council to conduct the survey began a process of setting up a private charitable corporation.  But with many obstacles to overcome no cars are yet running.

 

The Good Ol’ Swansea and Mumbles Railway Where World’s First Rail Passengers Rolled

An early photo of open car horse drawn service on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway.  Probably a vary pleasant hour or so on a lovely spring day, but undoubtedly miserable in Wales's snowy winters.

Over the years this blog has covered many firsts relating to railway history.  That’s because I am fascinated with transportation history in general and rail history in particular.  Maybe it comes from growing up in a railroad town like Cheyenne, Wyoming, playing with electric trains, or listening all of my life to all of those songs about lonesome whistles, getting’ on down the line, and hobos.  But somehow I missed the very first rail passenger service in the world, which was inaugurated way back on March 25, 1807 on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales.  I know, it sounds like a line made up by J.K. Rowling for some fantastic adventure.

It started out, as most railroads did, as freight service.  Specifically it was charted in 1804 by Parliament as the Committee of the Company of Proprietors of the Oystermouth Railway or Tramroad Company for the purpose of hauling limestone from quarries by the Swansea Canal a little more than 7 miles to a fishing village called Oystermouth, a harbor at the mouth of the River Tawe.  Mumbles was the end station in Oysterouth and the line was thus called the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, or just called the Mumbles Train by the suitably rustic locals.  

Construction on the roadbed and the laying of rude iron-strap rails was completed in 1806.  Freight operations commenced with no dedication or ceremony.  None-the-less it quickly boosted the economy of both of its terminals.  With the addition of a mile-long spur from Blackpill up the Clyne Valley to Ynys Gate it also facilitated the development of coal pits at Blackpill.  Limestone, coal, and other freight was all carried in single open carts and horse drawn over the rugged course.  Speed was not a priority.

There being no road between the termini other than a rude foot path, the Proprietors decided quickly that since the damn railway was just sitting there anyway, they might as well add passenger service. One of the original proprietors, Benjamin French, offered to pay the company the 20£ for the right to haul paying customers for a year.  Suitably uncomfortable open coaches thus began making regular trips on this date in 1807 without need of much further investment.  The Mount at Swansea became the world first railway station.  Actually anyone could do what Mr. French did.  By the arcane terms of the original charter the railroad was just that—the roadbed—and operated like a turnpike or canal.  Anyone could use the rails for a fee or toll as long as they provided their own compatible equipment.  It is unclear who or how many exercised that option. 

Eventually seven stations including the termini were built which became the center of small hamlets and served the narrow valley running through the Welsh hills.

In the 1820’s a turnpike was built parallel to the rail line that so cut into passenger traffic that the only operator of cars at that time, Simon Llewelyn, suspended operations in 1827.

The re-introduction of passenger service in 1866 brought these more comfortable cars.

Over the next couple of decades the roadbed was re-laid and standard gauge flanged rails were used.  George Byng Morris, the son of one of the original proprietors and a local developer of coal pits, took control of the line, made more improvements, and re-introduced horse-drawn passenger service in 1866, when most British rail had already converted to steam.

The first steam service on the line began in 1877 when Henry Hughes’s patent tramway locomotives owned by the Swansea Improvements & Tramways Company began to use part of the line.  But because of the archaic charter and various disputes, the owner of the rail line, then a John Dickinson had to continue to use horse cars for some services.  There was a complicated web of companies owning all or parts of the line over time and/or operating on it.

It wasn’t until 1896 that the last horse car left service.  About that time a new company, the Mumbles Railway & Pier Company extended the line in Oystermouth to a new pier they built in the harbor and established and new terminal station, Mumbles Head.  Trains operated over both lines and occasionally during business disputes passengers were forced to change trains at the old Mumbles station.

A tank steam locomotive drawing double-deck cars arrives in Oystermouth Station in the early 20th Century.

By the turn of the 20th Century the tram engines had gone the way of the horse cars and a motley assemblage of small conventional tank locomotives were in use.  One early experiment with battery powered electric engines had already failed.

In 1904 to celebrate the centennial of the railway charter, the line finally got the ceremonial attention it never got in the beginning.  King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited Swansea for the ceremonial cutting of the first sod of the new King’s Dock in July.  They rode in a gutted and re-fitted battery electric car suitably fancied up and drawn by a steam engine.  The line received a second Royal visit in 1920 when King George V officiated at the opening of the new Queen’s Dock.

In 1928 the line was electrified and converted to an overhead wire tram style for the passenger service making it one of the few services in the world to have employed horse drawn, steam, and electric service.  Several double-decker cars built by the Brush Electrical Company of Loughborough, in Leicestershire—the largest ever built for service in Britain were used.  Each could seat 106 passengers and were frequently operated in pairs with a seating capacity of 212 per train. That is a hint of the surprisingly heavy usage of the short run line.

These handsome and striking red double-deck overhead tram cars serviced the line for decades.  This one is approaching the Mumbles Pier in the last days of the line.

Freight service, which diminished with the closing of several coal pit and the short branch lines built to serve them, was handled for a while with gasoline powered engines which proved under-powered and finally with diesel locomotives.

The railroad got national attention in Britain once again when it celebrated its 150th Anniversary in 1954.  A replica of an early horse drawn passenger coach was constructed and ceremonially run on the line with newsreel and BBC coverage.

But it was almost a swan song.  In 1958 the railroad’s greatest competitor, The South Wales Transport Company which was the principal operator of bus services in the Swansea area, bought out the two operating companies and the underlying but dormant road bed company.  Since the railroad had never been integrated into the nationalized rail system and still operated under the arcane 1804 charter, the bus company petitioned Parliament for permission to abandon the line.  The Conservative government of Prime Minister Harold McMillan was glad to oblige.

Under the South Wales Transport Act 1959 despite the voracious protests and objection of local residents the Swansea and Mumbles Railway was closed down in two stages.  The last ceremonial run was driven by Frank Duncan, who had worked on the railway since 1907, on January 5, 1960.  Work began immediately to tear down some stations to make way for bus terminals, tear up the track for scrap, and dismantle most of the rolling stock.  

The last intact car sat for years awaiting restoration but deteriorating on a Leeds siding. Seen in 1966, it was destroyed by fire soon after.

What was then the oldest railway in the world with continuous service was no more.

One car was saved for preservation by members of Leeds University in Yorkshire and was stored awaiting work at the Middleton Railway in Lees but it was heavily vandalized and eventually destroyed by fire. The front end of car no. 7 was also saved for preservation at Swansea Museum and was initially restored in the early 1970s by members of the Railway Club of Wales.  It is now on display in the Tram Shed aby the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea’s Maritime Quarter.

But there is dim hope of a restoration of service.  In 2009 the City and County of Swansea began a long process of looking at the feasibility of tram service for the Swansea bay area again perhaps using the old roadbed.  The Environment, Regeneration and Culture Overview Board created by the Council to conduct the survey is in the process of setting up a private charitable corporation.  But there are many obstacles to overcome before any cars yet run again.

Visiting Big Boy—A Blast from a Cheyenne Past

The Union Pacific's Big Boy 4014 engine in West Chicago.

Last Sunday afternoon my wife Kathy Brady-Murfin indulged the sentimental Old Man and drove down to West Chicago to visit an old friend.  Union Pacific 4014, a massive Big Boy steam locomotive was on display at the Larry S. Provo Union Pacific Training Center there.  The great beast roared into the town on Friday as part of 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad Tour. 

Ol’ 4014 was built in 1941 at the American Locomotive Company shops in Schenectady, New York.  Of the 25 Big Boy engines built all but eight have long ago been sent to scrap.  Seven are in railroad museums or otherwise on static display.  Only 4014 is operable and once again rolling. 

The Big Boy engines were specifically designed to haul exceptionally long trains—up to three miles long—over the Wasatch mountains between Ogden, Utah, and Green River, Wyoming.  In 1947 they were reassigned to run from Nebraska over the hump of Sherman Hill between Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming—the highest elevation on the UP route and were based in Cheyenne.

A Big Boy engine hauling freight through Echo Canyon, Utah.

In the special nomenclature of steam engines they were articulated 4-8-8-4 steam locomotives—a four-wheel leading truck for stability entering curves, two sets of eight driving wheels and a four-wheel trailing truck to support the large firebox.  The engines were 85 feet long and with the firebox were a total of just under 133 feet.  The engine weighed 762,000 lbs. and with the addition of the firebox a total of 1,250,000 lbs.  In every aspect they were the biggest, heaviest, and most powerful steam engines ever built.

They were originally designed to haul 3,600-ton trains over steep grades.  In operation they proved capable of much more and load limits were raised several time finally running at 4,200 tons.  They were capable of speeds in excess of 80 miles an hour over level ground and routinely operated at 60 mph.  The engines were efficient money makers for the UP eliminating the need add extra engines—double head—to get over steep grades which required making up and breaking up trains on each side of the grade.  Engine crews admired them for being sure-footed and easy to handle despite the rugged terrain it covered.

The Big Boys were well maintained and had years of service ahead when the UP decided to remove them from service only because the railroad wanted close their Wyoming mines which provided the bituminous soft coal they used for fuel.  They were last run in regular revenue service on July 21, 1959 and officially retired them all by 1962.

They were replaced by diesel and gas turbine-electric locomotives.  Several locomotive units had to be attached at each end of a long train in a push-pull operation to duplicate a single Big Boy.

Enough of the train geek stuff.  My connection to the mighty behemoths was much more personal.  Stop me if you have heard the tale before.

When we first moved to Cheyenne we stayed at the Lincoln Court Motel.  Across Highway 30 I could see the Union Pacific yards.

We moved to Cheyenne in 1953 from Canyon City, Colorado when my father, W. M. Murfin got a new job as Secretary of the Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce.  We move temporarily into the Lincoln Court Motel by the Hitching Post Inn on U.S. 30 while my folks searched for a house.  It was only supposed to be a few days, but my twin brother Tim and I came down with a virulent case of the measles—so serious that there was evidently fear for our four-year old lives.  We were quarantined in the tight motel room for several days.  

After the fever broke I spent long hours in my bed looking out the window across the highway to the busy UP humping yards.  I was fascinated by the trains and what seemed like constant bustle.  My favorites were the little steam switch engines busily moved cars in the yards making and unmaking trains.  I called them baby trains.  But more impressive was the mighty rumble of the Big Boy engines and the blasts from their horns as the came in from Sherman hill or gathered steam for the push to the summit going the other way.

By the late ‘50’s we were settled into a house on Cheshire Drive by the long runway of the airport.  In the summertime in those long-gone days a boy was free to roam anywhere his legs or bicycle could take him as long as he was home when Mom rang the dinner bell.  Sometimes I would go all the way across town and sneak in the rail yards.  Well, maybe not sneak.  Most of the switchmen and other yard workers ignored a curious boy and I was only once in a while yelled at or shooed by a conductor or yard bull.  Engineers high up in their cabs in striped overalls, puffy topped caps, and impressive gauntlets would wave and sometime toot whistles.

Watching a Big Boy take water was an awesome sight.

If a Big Boy was making up, I made for the water tower and watched the crews swing the boom and let loose Niagaras of water down the top hatch to the insatiable boilers.  It seemed that the huge tank could not hold enough water to satisfy the thirsty beast.

On some cool summer nights Tim and I would sleep out in the back yard in our father’s World War II Army mummy bags under the spectacular array of the Milky Way.  On still nights we could hear the freight trains crest the high plateau at Pine Bluffs and hear it until it went over Sherman Hill.  It was a lovely, lonesome sound sometimes punctuated by the distant howl of a coyote. 

Cheyenne was still as much a railroad town as anything our next door neighbor on Cheshire was a U.P. fireman and the father of my brother’s best friend Aubrey Mumpower was an engineer on the Big Boys.

In 1962 the UP gifted Big Boy 4004 to the city of Cheyenne for display in Holliday Park.  We gathered one day to what the huge engine being moved from the yards down Lincolnway—U.S. 30—to its new home.  The busy highway was closed.  Workmen carefully laid rails in front of the engine which crept forward under its own power.  They picked up the rails left behind and moved them to the front in a slow leapfrog operation.  It took hours.  Finally at the Park it rolled down an embankment to its new home.

The Big Boy in the park then set on its rails completely in the open.  Tim and I would visit it and climb all over the engine.  I would sit in the engineer’s seat with my head and elbow out the window with my other hand on the throttle.  Somewhere there are little Kodak Brownie snapshots of the heroic pose.

Big Boy 4004 on static display at Cheyenne's Holiday Park was already surrounded by a chain-link fence when it was flooded in 1984,

Eventually, long after I left town, the old Big Boy was caged behind a chain-link fence.  It had suffered at the hands of scrambling children like me, vandals, and souvenir hunters.  Exposed to the elements it rusted and deteriorated.  Over the last two years dedicated local volunteers completed a cosmetic restoration of 4004 to its former glory and are currently working on restoring a UP caboose to put on display with it.

Seven other Big Boys were donated to various railroad museums or cities.  All but two have been displayed outdoors and are in various states of repair.  Two are undercover at the Forney Transportation Museum in Denver and the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  4014 was long on display at the Fairplex RailGiants Train Museum in Pomona, California.

In 2013, the Union Pacific re-acquired 4014 and brought it home to Cheyenne for a complete restoration project at their Steam Shop.  Its huge driving wheels were sent to be repaired by the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania and the boiler had to be adapted to fire No.5 Diesel fuel instead of coal.  After more than two years work the boiler was successfully test fired on April 9, 2019 and on May 1, it moved under its own power for the first time in more than 59 years. The next evening, the locomotive made its first test run—a round trip from Cheyenne to Nunn, Colorado. 

Restored Big Boy 4014 by historic Union Station ready to leave Cheyenne.

4014 was official designated for excursion service and made its first run to and from Ogden Utah for that city’s Heritage Day Festival.  Then in July it began a Midwest tour hauling a rolling museum in a restored mail car with stops in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

If you live in these parts and you are nimble you might catch that Big Boy on the move.  It is scheduled to leave West Chicago this morning at 8:30 with stops at Rochelle, Clinton and Wheatland, Iowa before stopping overnight at Cedar Rapids.  There will be several other stops in Iowa and Nebraska before 4014 comes back home to Cheyenne.  For a complete schedule check here.

Interestingly in addition to excursion service, the UP indicates that 4014 is designated to haul revenue freight during ferry moves.  So the old warrior might occasionally be put back to real work. 

The Old Man and Big Boy, united at last.

On our quick visit to West Chicago, throngs were overwhelming the Provo Training Center.  Neither local police nor the UP seemed quite prepared for the crowds.  Clear signage pointing to the somewhat out-of-the-way and to parking was sorely lacking.  So were directions on the ground leaving many folks wandering about trying to find out how exactly to access the display at ground level.  We huffed and puffed back and forth a long viaduct and around the grounds before we finally could get up close.

The Old Man lay his hands on the old engine.  He was, as they say, verklempt.