Blaenau Ffestiniog (Pantyrafon) railway station

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Blaenau Ffestiniog (Pantyrafon)
General information
Location Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd
Wales
Coordinates 53°00′13″N3°56′36″W / 53.0036°N 3.9433°W / 53.0036; -3.9433 Coordinates: 53°00′13″N3°56′36″W / 53.0036°N 3.9433°W / 53.0036; -3.9433
Grid reference SH 696 469
Platforms1 [1] [2]
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original company London and North Western Railway
Key dates
22 July 1879Opened
1 April 1881Replaced by permanent station [3]

Blaenau Ffestiniog (Pantyrafon) was the London and North Western Railway's (LNWR) first passenger station in Blaenau Ffestiniog, then in Merionethshire, now in Gwynedd, Wales. It opened on 22 July 1879 as a temporary structure for use until the company's permanent station opened on 1 April 1881, when the temporary structure closed. It was situated within yards of the southern portal of Ffestiniog Tunnel. [4]

Contents

Context

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

The station's name

Different sources refer to the station as "Blaenau Festiniog", [5] "Pantyrafon", [6] "Blaenau Festiniog (1)", [3] or give descriptions, such as "a temporary station at the 'town' end of the tunnel", [7] "the first temporary station", [1] or "a temporary terminus near the foot of the Llechwedd incline". [8]

Whatever it was called, the station served workers living in the Conwy Valley and working in the quarries north west of Blaenau, but was half a mile from the town itself.

The station today

No trace of the station survives. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

Preceding station Disused railways Following station
Terminus  London and North Western Railway   Roman Bridge

Related Research Articles

Blaenau Ffestiniog railway station Railway station in Gwynedd, Wales

Blaenau Ffestiniog railway station serves the slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales, and is the passenger terminus of the Conwy Valley Line from Llandudno Junction. Transport for Wales Rail operate through services to Llandudno Junction and Llandudno. The station is a joint station with the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway, which operates primarily tourist passenger services to Porthmadog throughout most of the year. A feature of the standard gauge service is the availability on trains and buses of the popular "Gwynedd Red Rover" day ticket.

Festiniog and Blaenau Railway

The Festiniog & Blaenau Railway (F&BR) was a narrow gauge railway built in 1868 to connect the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog in Wales with the slate quarries around Tanymanod and the village of Llan Ffestiniog, 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) to the south. At Blaenau Ffestiniog it made a direct connection with the Festiniog Railway (FR) with which it was closely associated during its fifteen-year life. The railway was purchased by the Bala and Festiniog Railway in 1883 and converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge to extend the Bala Ffestiniog line, a branch of the GWR's line from Ruabon to Barmouth.

Frongoch railway station Disused railway station in Gwynedd, Wales

Frongoch railway station served the village of Frongoch on the Great Western Railway's Bala Ffestiniog Line in Gwynedd, Wales.

Capel Celyn Halt was a solely passenger railway station which served the rural area of Capel Celyn west of Bala. It was on the Great Western Railway's (GWR's) Bala Ffestiniog Line in Gwynedd, Wales.

Maentwrog Road railway station Disused railway station in Gwynedd, Wales

Maentwrog Road railway station was on the Great Western Railway's Bala Ffestiniog Line in Gwynedd, Wales.

Manod railway station Disused railway station in Gwynedd, Wales

Manod railway station served the village of Manod which then stood on the southern edge of Blaenau Ffestiniog in Gwynedd, Wales. By 2015 urban spread had resulted in Manod being subsumed by its neighbour.

Tan-y-Manod railway station

Tan-y-Manod railway station was a railway station approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Blaenau Ffestiniog, in Gwynedd, North Wales.

Bala (New) railway station Disused railway station in Gwynedd, Wales

Bala railway station was on the Great Western Railway's Bala Ffestiniog Line in Wales. It replaced the first Bala station which was further away from the town, on the Ruabon–Barmouth line.

Tyddyn Bridge Halt was a solely passenger railway station which served a rural area west of Frongoch, near Bala. It was on the Great Western Railway's (GWR's) Bala Ffestiniog Line in Gwynedd, Wales.

Llafar Halt was an unstaffed solely passenger railway station which served the rural area of Glanllafar, east of Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd, Wales.

Cwm Prysor Halt railway station Disused railway station in Gwynedd, Wales

Cwm Prysor Halt was a railway station which served the remote rural area of Cwm Prysor, east of Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd, Wales.

Glynllifon Street railway station was a temporary northern terminus station of the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway (F&BR), sited between the street of the same name and Cwmbowydd Road in Blaenau Ffestiniog. It was never named.

Dinas station was built by the Festiniog Railway (FR). It was the first passenger station in Blaenau Ffestiniog, then in Merionethshire, now in Gwynedd, Wales. This station is not to be confused with Dinas some miles distant on the Welsh Highland Railway; nor is it to be confused with the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway's northern terminus in the centre of Blaenau Ffestiniog which was sometimes referred to colloquially as "Dinas".

Duffws railway station (Festiniog Railway)

Duffws was the Festiniog Railway's (FR) second passenger station in Blaenau Ffestiniog, then in Merionethshire, now in Gwynedd, Wales. This station is not to be confused with the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway's (F&BR) Duffws (F&BR) station which stood some distance away on the opposite side of Church Street. During that station's life from 1868 to 1883 passengers travelling from (say) Festiniog on the F&BR to Tan-y-Bwlch on the Festiniog would walk between the two stations, much as passengers walk between the standard gauge and narrow gauge in modern-day Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Blaenau Festiniog Junction railway station was the Festiniog Railway (FR)'s third of eventually five passenger stations in Blaenau Ffestiniog, then in Merionethshire, now in Gwynedd, Wales.

Blaenau Ffestiniog North railway station Disused railway station in Gwynedd, Wales

Blaenau Ffestiniog North was the London and North Western Railway's (LNWR's) second passenger station in Blaenau Ffestiniog, then in Merionethshire, now in Gwynedd, Wales.

Blaenau Ffestiniog Central railway station

On 10 September 1883 the Bala and Festiniog Railway (B&FR) and the Festiniog Railway (FR) opened what would be known as an interchange station in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Merionethshire, Wales. Merionethshire is now part of the county of Gwynedd.

Blaenau Ffestiniog passenger stations

North west Wales experienced a slate boom in the first half of the nineteenth century. Three sites stood out as experiencing the most explosive growth: Dinorwic near Llanberis, Penrhyn near Bethesda and Blaenau Ffestiniog.

The Merionethshire Railway (MR) was a proposed 1 ft 11+3⁄4 in and 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in dual gauge railway in south Caernarfonshire North Wales, United Kingdom. It was incorporated by an Act of Parliament on 29 June 1871. Powers to build the line lapsed in 1885 and were abandoned on 12 July 1887. Work to build the line never started, though parliamentary extensions of time to do so were obtained in 1876, 1879 and 1882.

Diphwys railway station was on the same site as the later Great Western Railway station in the heart of Blaenau Ffestiniog in what was then Merionethshire, now Gwynedd, Wales.

References

  1. 1 2 Rear 1991, Plate 30.
  2. ↑ Linsley 2000, p. 59.
  3. 1 2 Butt 1995, p. 36.
  4. ↑ Johnson 1995, p. 70.
  5. ↑ Quick 2009, p. 88.
  6. ↑ Richards 2001, p. 119.
  7. ↑ Southern 1995, p. 5.
  8. ↑ Jones & Hatherill 1977, p. 17.
  9. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 2010, Plates 67 & 68.
  10. ↑ Rear 1991, Plate 158.
  11. ↑ Richards 2001, p. 110.
  12. ↑ "Ffestiniog Tunnel mouth in 1993". Penmorfa.
  13. ↑ "Ffestiniog Tunnel mouth: no trace of Pantyrafon station". Sutherland.
  14. ↑ "Pantyrafon station site". flickr.
  15. ↑ "Ffestiniog tunnel, no trace of station remains". flickr.

Sources

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