Mold Railway

Mold Railway
Legend
North Wales Coast Line Chester Wirral Line Shrewsbury to Chester Line Saltney Ferry North Wales Coast Line Broughton & Bretton Kinnerton Hope & Pen-y-ffordd Hope Exchange Low Level High Level Borderlands Line Penyffordd Sidings Padeswood and Buckley Llong Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway Mold Mold & Denbigh Junction Rly

The Mold Railway was a railway line in northeast Wales which linked Mold to Saltney Junction near Chester. It was later included as part of the Chester to Denbigh line which also included a section between Mold and Denbigh, originally built by the Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway.

History

The Mold Railway was first opened in 1849 between Saltney Junction and Mold railway station with services operated by the Chester and Holyhead Railway, later part of London and North Western Railway from 1859.

The Mold to Denbigh route was opened by the Mold and Denbigh Junction Railway in 1869, with services operated by the LNWR from the outset. A further service running to Brymbo via Ffrith and Coed Talon opened in 1870 and began passenger operations in 1892. Passengers could change at Brymbo for GWR services to Wrexham General until that service was withdrawn in 1930. The LNWR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923 when eleven trains per day ran to both Chester and Denbigh and four to Brymbo.

Decline

Services to Brymbo were gradually curtailed in 1950 following the nationalisation of British Rail in 1948, and passenger numbers across the Mold Railway declined throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. All passenger services to Mold and Denbigh were withdrawn in 1962

Llong station in June 1980

The line between Hope Low Level railway station on the Wrexham - Bidston line and Saltney Junction was lifted almost immediately, but freight trains continued to use the spur from the Wrexham-Bidston Line at Penyffordd to serve a chemical factory north of Mold until March 1983, and the last remnant of the line was lifted in 1985. The site of Mold Railway Station is now occupied by a Tesco supermarket.^[1]

References

Coordinates: 53°8′21″N 3°1′28″W / 53.13917°N 3.02444°W / 53.13917; -3.02444