Jump to content

Glynllifon Street railway station

Add links
Coordinates: 52°59′36″N 3°56′02″W / 52.9934°N 3.9338°W / 52.9934; -3.9338
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by BrownHairedGirl (talk | contribs) at 02:21, 18 May 2020 (populating subcats of Category:Railway stations in Great Britain by year of opening/closing, replaced: Category:Railway stations opened in 1883 → Category:Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1883, [[Category:Railway stations cl). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Glynllifon Street
General information
LocationGwynedd
Coordinates52°59′36″N 3°56′02″W / 52.9934°N 3.9338°W / 52.9934; -3.9338
Platforms0
History
Original companyFestiniog and Blaenau Railway
Key dates
July 1882Opened
5 September 1883Last passenger train called[1]
10 September 1883Replacement standard gauge Blaenau Festiniog station opened[2]

Glynllifon Street railway station was a temporary northern terminus station of the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway (F&BR), sited next to the street of the same name in Blaenau Ffestiniog in what was then Merionethshire, now Gwynedd, Wales.

Context

The evolution of Blaenau's passenger stations was complex with five different railway companies providing services to the area.

History

From April to September 1883 the 1 ft 11+3⁄4 in (603 mm)[2] narrow gauge F&BR was rebuilt as a standard gauge line. Narrow gauge services continued throughout the rebuilding by laying a third rail on the sleepers. At the line's northern end, however, the scale and complexity of replacing the line's Duffws (F&BR) terminus and goods yard made it impossible to continue to meet passengers' needs, so a temporary terminus was provided at Glynllifon Street, approximately 10 chains (200 m) short of Duffws.

Glynllifon Street station is only mentioned in one published source, which refers to a published postcard showing a train at the station.[3] No hint of its existence is given in the standard work on the F&BR.[4]

The station had no platforms, in common with all other F&BR stations. Carriages were very low to the ground, so passengers boarded from and alighted to the trackside.

Closure

Narrow gauge trains ceased running on 5 September 1883 with standard gauge services beginning on 10 September 1883. Glynllifon Street station was closed permanently when the narrow gauge ended, being replaced by a permanent terminus initially known as "Blaenau Festiniog" on the site of the former Duffws (F&BR) terminus. The terminus was renamed Blaenau Ffestiniog Central in 1951, closed to passenger traffic in January 1960 and closed completely in January 1961.

The line reopened

The line through the site of Glynllifon Street station closed in 1961 but it was mothballed pending building the long-discussed cross-town link to enable trains to run along the Conwy Valley Line, through Blaenau and on to Trawsfynydd nuclear power station which was then being built. The line through the site reopened on 24 April 1964, but none of the station's facilities were brought back to life. The line closed again in 1998 as the nuclear plant was being decommissioned. Once more the route was mothballed in case a future use is found.

The station site in the 21st Century

By 2011 no hint of the station remained. In Spring 2016 the mothballed single track line still ran past the site to the former nuclear flask loading point.

The future

Between 2000 and 2011 there were at least two attempts to put the mothballed line through the site to use. In 2011 there were proposals to use the rails as a recreational velorail track. Neither this nor the earlier idea came to anything. The possibility remains that the surviving line could see future preservation or reuse by the nuclear industry.[5]

To considerable local surprise fresh moves to reopen the line from Blaenau as far south as Trawsfynydd began in September 2016, with the formation of The Trawsfynydd & Blaenau Ffestiniog Community Railway Company. On 21 September at least one regional newspaper reported that "Volunteers are set to start work this weekend on clearing vegetation from the trackbed between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Trawsfynydd." The company was quoted as saying "We have been given a licence by Network Rail to clear and survey the line."[6]


Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Terminus   Festiniog and Blaenau Railway
Narrow gauge 		  Tan-y-Manod
Line and station closed

References

  1. ^ Boyd 1988, p. 68.
  2. ^ a b Boyd 1988, p. 47.
  3. ^ Glynllifon Street temporary terminus, via Festipedia
  4. ^ Boyd 1988.
  5. ^ Pagnamenta 2016, p. 38.
  6. ^ Crump 2016, p. 15.

Sources

  • Boyd, James I.C. (1988) [1972]. Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire – Volume 1. Headington: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0-85361-365-7. OCLC 20417464.
  • Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
  • Crump, Eryl (21 September 2016). "Back on Track. Dream of reopening railway moves step closer". Daily Post. Wales.
  • Pagnamenta, Robin (23 May 2016). "Rivals line up to build small nuclear plants in Snowdonia". The Times. London.
  • Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway & Canal Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC 612226077.

Further material

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glynllifon_Street_railway_station&oldid=957287473"