Gilfach Ddu railway station

Last updated

Gilfach Ddu (LLR)
Station on heritage railway
'Dolbadarn' at Gilfach Ddu station.jpg
Loco Dolbadarn at Gilfach Ddu station
Location Llanberis, Gwynedd
Wales
Coordinates 53°07′21″N4°06′54″W / 53.122507°N 4.115131°W / 53.122507; -4.115131 Coordinates: 53°07′21″N4°06′54″W / 53.122507°N 4.115131°W / 53.122507; -4.115131
Grid reference SH 585 604
Platforms1 [1]
History
Original company Llanberis Lake Railway
Key dates
28 May 1971Opened
Llanberis Lake Railway
BSicon uexCONTg.svg
BSicon uexHST.svg
Pen-y-Llyn
BSicon uKHSTxa.svg
Penllyn
BSicon uPSL.svg
BSicon uHST.svg
Cei Llydan
BSicon ueHST.svg
Gilfach Ddu
BSicon uHST.svg
Gilfach Ddu
BSicon ueKRWgl.svg
BSicon uexKRW+r.svg
BSicon uBUE.svg
BSicon uexSTR.svg
BSicon uBUE.svg
BSicon uexKBSTe.svg
BSicon uhbKRZWae.svg
BSicon uKHSTe.svg
Llanberis
(LLR)
BSicon exKHSTa.svg
Llanberis
(LNWR)
BSicon exSTR.svg
BSicon uKHSTa.svg
Llanberis
(SMR)
BSicon exSTR.svg
BSicon uCONTf.svg
BSicon exCONTf.svg

Gilfach Ddu (LLR) railway station is an intermediate station on the Llanberis Lake Railway (LLR), [2] located in Llanberis, Gwynedd, Wales.

Contents

Most of the LLR was laid around 1970 on part of the trackbed of the closed and lifted Padarn Railway. The line opened between Gilfach Ddu and Cei Llydan on 28 May 1971, being extended northwards to Penllyn (LLR) in 1972. [3] For thirty years Gilfach Ddu was the new line's southern terminus, situated a short distance south of the site of the Padarn Railway's former workmen's station, also named Gilfach Ddu. [4] In 2003 a wholly new extension was opened south westwards, with Llanberis (LLR) station as the line's new southern terminus. With this extension Gilfach Ddu (LLR) changed from a terminus to a through station.

The line and station primarily serve tourists and railway enthusiasts. [5] [6]

The station has one platform.

Preceding station HR icon.svg   Heritage railways Following station
Llanberis (LLR)   Llanberis Lake Railway   Cei Llydan

Related Research Articles

Llanberis Lake Railway

The Llanberis Lake Railway is a 1 ft 11 12 in narrow gauge heritage railway that runs for 2.5 miles (4 km) along the northern shore of Llyn Padarn in north Wales in the Snowdonia National Park. The starting point is the village of Llanberis at the eastern end of the lake, with the western terminus at Pen Llyn in the Padarn Country Park. The return journey takes around 60 minutes.

National Slate Museum Mining museum in Gwynedd, Wales

The National Slate Museum is located at Gilfach Ddu, the 19th-century workshops of the now disused Dinorwic quarry, within the Padarn Country Park, Llanberis, Gwynedd.

Padarn Railway

The Padarn Railway was a narrow gauge railway line in North Wales, built to the unusual gauge of 4 ft. Its purpose was to carry slate the seven miles (11 km) from Dinorwic Quarry (53.1213°N 4.1152°W) to Port Dinorwic (53.1859°N 4.2090°W). The line replaced the previous Dinorwic Railway from 3 March 1843, initially using horses, converting to steam haulage on 23 November 1848. The railway was formally titled the Dinorwic Quarries Railway or Dinorwic Quarry Railway, but the informal "Padarn Railway" stuck and was widely used.

Porthmadog Harbour railway station

Porthmadog Harbour railway station in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, North Wales. It is the passenger terminus of two narrow gauge railways: the Ffestiniog Railway, which was opened in 1836 to carry dressed slate from the Quarries around Blaenau Ffestiniog to the sea port of Porthmadog, for export by sea; and the Welsh Highland Railway, incorporated in 1923, which ran to Dinas. After rebuilding in 1997-2011, the other terminus is at Caernarfon, in sight of the Castle.

Dinas railway station

Dinas is a station on the narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway, which was built in 1877 as the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways Moel Tryfan Undertaking to carry dressed slate for trans-shipment to the LNWR. Passenger services ceased on 26 September 1936 until which time Dinas had been a joint station, known as Dinas Junction with the LNWR and later the LMS. In 1951, British Railways closed their part of the station but the line through the station remained open until the line from Caernarvon to Afon Wen was closed in 1964. The trackbed was subsequently developed as the Lôn Eifion tourist cycle route.

Nantlle Railway

The Nantlle Railway was a Welsh narrow gauge railway. It was built to carry slate from several slate quarries across the Nantlle Valley to the harbour at Caernarfon for export by sea. The line provided a passenger service between Caernarfon and Talysarn from 1856 to 1865. It was the first public railway to be operated in North Wales.

Hendre-Ddu Tramway Defunct narrow gauge railway in Wales

The Hendre-Ddu Tramway was a 2 ft narrow gauge industrial railway built in 1867 in Mid-Wales to connect the Hendre-Ddu slate quarry to Aberangell station on the Mawddwy Railway. It consisted of a main line 3 12 miles (5.6 km) long and several branch lines and spurs serving other quarries, local farms and the timber industry.

The Dinorwic Railway was an early 2 ft narrow gauge industrial railway connecting the slate quarry at Dinorwic in Caernarvonshire with the coastal port at Y Felinheli. The line is sometimes referred to as the Dinorwic Tramroad or the Dinorwic Tramway.

Dinorwic quarry Former slate quarry, now museum, in North Wales

The Dinorwic quarry is a large former slate quarry, now home to the Welsh National Slate Museum, located between the villages of Llanberis and Dinorwig in North Wales. It was the second largest slate quarry in Wales, indeed in the world, after the neighbouring Penrhyn quarry near Bethesda.

Eigiau Tramway

The Eigiau Tramway might refer to the Eigiau Quarry Tramway or to the Eigiau Reservoir Tramway.

<i>Fire Queen</i>

Fire Queen is an early steam locomotive built by A. Horlock and Co in 1848 for the Padarn Railway. It is the only surviving locomotive from that railway, and it is preserved at the Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum.

Dinorwic Alice Class

The Dinorwic Alice Class is a class of eleven narrow-gauge 0-4-0ST steam locomotives built specifically for the Dinorwic Slate Quarry. These locomotives were built by the Hunslet Engine Company between 1886 and 1904, and were designed and supplied specifically to work the many galleries of the quarry at Llanberis, North Wales.

Graig Ddu quarry

Graig Ddu quarry is a disused slate quarry near Blaenau Ffestiniog, in Gwynedd, North Wales. Although output was only about 3,000 tons a year, it reputedly has 36 saw tables and the same number of dressing machines on site. As with others in the area, the quarry suffered from a lack of water, resulting in the siting of the mill some distance away, at a lower level.

Llanberis railway station (Llanberis Lake Railway)

Llanberis (LLR) railway station is the southern terminus of the Llanberis Lake Railway (LLR), located in Llanberis, Gwynedd, Wales. The line and station primarily serve tourists and railway enthusiasts.

Cei Llydan railway station

Cei Llydan is an intermediate railway station on the Llanberis Lake Railway (LLR), located in Llanberis, Gwynedd, Wales.

Penllyn railway station (Wales)

Penllyn (LLR) railway station is the northern terminus of the Llanberis Lake Railway (LLR), located near Llanberis, Gwynedd, Wales. The station has no platforms and passengers are not allowed to board or alight.

Carnarvon Castle railway station

Carnarvon Castle railway station was opened in 1856 by the narrow gauge Nantlle Railway near the foot of what is today the Allt Y Castell which slopes down to Caernarfon's harbour area. It was the line's northern terminus and was the closest of Caernarfon's ultimately five stations to the historic town centre.

Blaenau Ffestiniog North railway station

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 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.

Gilfach Ddu

Gilfach Ddu are a series of well preserved Grade I listed industrial buildings built to serve the Dinorwic slate quarry near the Llanberis in Caernarfonshire, North Wales. The workshops are a complex of repair and maintenance buildings, that were built in 1870 to build and maintain the machinery used in the quarry. The complex includes saw sheds, patternmaking shops, a foundry with copula, blacksmiths shops, fitting shops, stores, engine sheds, a canteen, the chief engineers house, a hand operated crane and two waterwheels which provided the site with its power. Since 1972 the buildings have housed the National Slate Museum.

References

Sources

  • Boyd, James I. C. (1986). Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire, Volume 3: The Dinorwic Quarry and Railways, Great Orme Tramway and Other Rail Systems. The British Narrow Gauge Railway. Usk: The Oakwood Press. ISBN   978-0-85361-328-2. OL   8284745M. B5C.
  • Carrington, D.C.; Rushworth, T.F. (1973). Slates to Velinheli : The Railways and Tramways of Dinorwic Slate Quarries Llanberis. Bury: Maid Marian Locomotive Fund. OCLC   931344595.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2010). Bangor to Portmadoc: Including Three Llanberis Lines. Country Railway Routes. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN   978-1-906008-72-7.
  • Yonge, John; Padgett, David; Szwenk, John (2013). Gerald Jacobs (ed.). British Rail Track Diagrams - Book 4: London Midland Region (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. ISBN   978-0-9549866-7-4. OCLC   880581044.