Although Tylwch was fairly remote and isolated, the railway line and the small station supplied a link with the whole Victorian railway network for local people and goods.

The accident there happened on 16th September, 1899. A mail train which had just arrived at the station was hit by an excursion train on the same track.
This train had left Builth early in the morning on a one day outing to Manchester. A young woman aged only 24, who had got on the train at the last station with her boyfriend, was killed in the collision with the mail train.

Five other people from the Llanidloes area were seriously injured in the accident.
This old photograph shows the passenger train carriages crushed together nearest to the camera. Further back you can see the two steam locomotives facing each other, and they don't seem to be damaged very much.
If you have seen any old steam engines you will know that they were very solid pieces of engineering, and it was clear that the carriages took all the damage in the impact.
There is more about the Tylwch accident on the next page...

More about the train crash of 1899...

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