A banquet was held in the Victoria Hotel to celebrate the arrival of the first steam train into Pembroke Dock in August, 1864.The South Wales Pembroke and Tenby Junction Railway Company had been formed in 1859 and had been granted permission by an Act of Parliament to build a railway. The intention was to link Pembroke Dock, Pembroke and Tenby with Brunel’s railway near Narberth. Not surprisingly, the company soon shortened its name to Pembroke and Tenby Railway! It took two years to raise enough capital to start work so construction wasn’t started until 1862. The Pembroke to Tenby stretch of the railway was completed in July 1863, and work continued on the Pembroke to Pembroke Dock stretch which, at that time, terminated close to Hobbs Point. Work to extend the railway line into the Dockyard followed quickly, thus making the importing of raw materials much easier and allaying some longstanding concerns that the Dockyard was just in the wrong place. The present Pembroke Dock Railway Station on Apley Terrace opened in 1865, and the rail connection through to Whitland followed in 1866.