Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway

rdf:langString Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway

rdf:langString The Buckley Railway was opened from Buckley to a connection with the Chester to Holyhead main line on 7 June 1862, to convey coal and finished brickworks products from the Buckley area. Numerous short tramroads had existed in the area from the 1700s. The line was steeply graded (1 in 28 between Northop Hall and Connah's Quay) and sharply curved. The Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway (WM&CQR) was incorporated in 1862 to build a line from Wrexham to Buckley, continuing to the C&HR main line via the Buckley Railway, which it joined at Ashton's Branch Junction. It later bought the Buckley Railway. The WM&CQR had plans for extensions but was unable to raise money to bring all of them into being. Short branches to mineral workings around Brymbo were opened. The WM&CQR allied itself with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (later the Great Central Railway) which provided the finance to cross the River Dee and connect to Chester and its own system over the Cheshire Lines Committee tracks. The WM&CQR was dependent on the mineral workings, and when they declined so did the railway; but the main line from Wrexham to Hawarden Bridge (and on to Bidston) remains open to passenger and freight traffic as the Borderlands Line.