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“The Potts Line: The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway”. A talk by Graham Davies.

 

Graham Davies brought a deep knowledge of the Potts line to his talk which was very well illustrated by his collection of photographs many of which were made available at very reasonable prices to attendees, and some of which this reviewer had never seen before.

 

Graham outlined the history of the Potts as one essentially divisible into four distinct phases; firstly, the early days of the wildly optimistic Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway that notoriously reached neither North Wales nor the Potteries!; secondly, the long period of dereliction from the 1880s to 1911; thirdly, the famous Colonel Stephens era of the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway; and fourthly, the War Department era from 1941-60.

 

Graham emphasised how the line’s failures, notably in the 1880s and the by the late 1930s, were caused by overly optimistic assumptions about the economic potential of the land through which the line passed. There simply wasn’t enough industry to support steady goods traffic in most years nor a viable population to justify a passenger timetable even before the noticeable increase in road traffic from the 1920s. Ironically, it was that very rural nature that gave rise to easily the busiest time in the line’s history when the War Department populated its route with munitions stores and the personnel to operate them.

 

Graham’s talk made sense of the convoluted story of the line by building it around the routes from Shrewsbury Abbey station to Llanymynech and the branch from Kinnerley, the ‘Crewe’ of the line, to Criggion Quarry revisiting the key periods and themes as he took us along the routes. The story was peppered with anecdotes about individuals such as the complaining Vicar of Criggion and his lambasting of his journey on the diminutive ‘Gazelle’. In fairness to the vicar his complaints did lead to a more satisfactory outcome for passengers in the form of a replacement passenger trolley. He would surely have been amazed that Gazelle is still with us (or at least in Kent) 115 years later!

 

Graham finished his talk with a look at the only part of the Potts where track remains that is in the Tanat Valley around Nantmawr. This was a section of the PS&NWR that the Colonel never managed to acquire. Enthusiasts visiting Kinnerley in the 1930s would surely feel a sense of familiarity looking at the eclectic collection of rolling stock at Nantmawr lying around in such a railway arcadia. The Potts continues to delight its enthusiasts, and Graham Davies’ talk was a very welcome overview of its fascinating history.

 

Reviewed by Phil Scoggins.