Blaenau Ffestiniog North railway station

Blaenau Ffestiniog North (initially named plain "Blaenau Festiniog", without a second f) 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 North
Blaenau Ffestiniog North in the late 1950s
General information
Location	Blaenau Ffestiniog,^[1]^[2]^[3] Gwynedd Wales
Coordinates	52°59′45″N 3°56′39″W / 52.9957°N 3.9443°W / 52.9957; -3.9443Coordinates: 52°59′45″N 3°56′39″W / 52.9957°N 3.9443°W / 52.9957; -3.9443
Grid reference	SH 696 460
Platforms	1^[4]
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	LMSR
Key dates
1 April 1881	Opened as "Blaenau Festiniog", replacing Blaenau Ffestiniog (Pantyrafon)
18 June 1951	Renamed "Blaenau Ffestiniog North"
8 May 1968	Renamed "Blaenau Ffestiniog"
22 March 1982	Replaced by a new Blaenau Ffestiniog nearer town centre^[5]^[6]

v t e Conwy Valley line
Legend
Llandudno Deganwy North Wales Coast Line to Holyhead Llandudno Junction North Wales Coast Line to Crewe Glan Conwy Tal-y-Cafn Dolgarrog North Llanrwst Llanrwst Betws-y-Coed Pont-y-Pant Dolwyddelan Roman Bridge Ffestiniog Tunnel Blaenau Ffestiniog (Pantyrafon) Ffestiniog Railway to Porthmadog Harbour Blaenau Festiniog Junction Blaenau Ffestiniog North Blaenau Ffestiniog Trawsfynydd nuclear power station Bala & Festiniog Railway to Bala Junction

Context

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

Line extensions

The station opened on 1 April 1881, extending the line by 50 chains (1,000 m) from its temporary terminus next to the mouth of Ffestiniog Tunnel.^[7][8] The temporary terminus thereby became redundant and closed, it had served since the line south of Betws-y-Coed opened in 1879.^[9]

Blaenau Ffestiniog North was the southern passenger terminus of what has become known as the Conwy Valley Line from Llandudno. It remained so for 100 years until it was replaced by the modern Blaenau Ffestiniog on 22 March 1982. The line to the new station extended the Conwy Valley Line by 21 chains (420 m) east of the site of Blaenau Ffestiniog North. In May 1982 the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway completed its return to Blaenau by opening its part of the new station.^[8] Both standard and narrow gauge parts remain open today.

The station and wharves

Blaenau Ffestiniog North only ever had one platform, situated to the south of the tracks. The station site was, however, extensive,^{[10][11][12][13][14]} because it provided for conventional goods traffic and a wharf for interchange traffic with the Ffestiniog Railway, notably for slate working, but for other goods besides, particularly incoming coal. The site was bordered on one side by a huge slate waste tip,^[15] as shown above right, and on a second side by a near-vertical cliff face.^[16]

Three sets of tracks entered the triangular wharf and yard:^[17]

• Standard gauge from the north west
• Narrow gauge from Oakeley Quarries, also from the north west, and
• Narrow gauge from Maenofferen and Votty & Bowydd quarries from the southeast, having passed through Duffws (FR)^[18]

There were two goods sheds, one with an awning over a lone standard gauge track and an adjacent, much larger, enclosed building with a standard gauge track and a narrow gauge track running through portals at each end. This structure contained three cranes and defined the railway skyline from the passenger platform.^[19][20]

The scene at ground level was dominated by the exchange sidings of standard and narrow gauges, with waist high narrow gauge tracks for manual transfer of slates^[21] leading to high level transfer sidings nearest the passenger platform. These were raised higher than a man at their northern ends^[22] The visual impact was topped by slates stacked in vast numbers in alternating directions giving a striking chequerboard effect.^[23][17] The GWR, the LNWR (and the Padarn Railway) built fleets of transporter wagons with narrow gauge tracks set on top. Loaded narrow-gauge wagons were rolled onto the tracks on the larger wagons, locked into place then carried pick-a-back to a narrow-gauge railhead in the GWR's case, to Port Dinorwic by the Padarn and by the LNWR to Deganwy- which the company expensively and unprofitably expanded for slate traffic.^[24] The GWR and Padarn tracks were set longitudinally on the host wagons,^[25] so narrow gauge wagons were end-loaded. The lines on the LNWR's transporter wagons were set at a right angle to their direction of travel, so the narrow gauge wagons were pushed on and off from the side, three per host wagon.^{[26][27][28][29][30][31]}

The layout was all the more striking because it was multi-level, with narrow gauge lines at ground level, at an intermediate level for transferring slates by hand horizontally from narrow gauge wagon to standard gauge wagon and at higher level for pushing wagons off and onto hosts.^[32] Conversely, there was a standard gauge siding at a higher level to enable coal and other goods to have gravity on their side as they were transferred to narrow gauge tubs or road vehicles for distribution.^[33]

The site included a hand-operated turntable and a combined standard gauge engine and carriage shed,^[34] opened in 1881. The locomotive part was closed on 14 September 1931 and given over to carriage storage, the building was subsequently demolished.^[35] The whole site was overseen by a large and very tall signalbox which had been replaced by a much more modest affair by 1949.^[36][37][38]

The single passenger platform ended with cattle pens and a "Landing" for driving animals off and onto cattle trucks from the end.^[39][40] Stables were provided near the site's road entrance.

Station buildings

The original wooden station building was large,^[41][42] in proportion with the LNWR's hopes for profit from their very costly investment, not least in cutting Ffestiniog Tunnel for over two miles through sold rock. The company also built the North Western Hotel nearby with similar aspirations; it was sold off in 1906.^[43] The station building burnt down in 1951,^[44] being replaced with temporary buildings^[45] until a permanent structure was completed in 1956.^[46][47][48] This building was much smaller than the timber version, but still generous with goods and parcels traffic in steep decline.

The station as an interchange

The LNWR sought to tap custom not only from Blaenau Ffestiniog itself, but also its hinterland. From the outset it co-operated with the Ffestiniog Railway (FR) who built their Blaenau Festiniog Junction station (known locally as "Stesion Fain") on the opposite side of North Western Road.^[49] Timetabling was sympathetic; in 1910, for example, three of the FR's four non-workmen's trains from Porthmadog Harbour arrived between 27 and 42 minutes before an LNWR train headed north, giving a traveller from (say) Minffordd a good chance of getting to Dolwyddelan even if his first train was 15 minutes late.^[50] The LNW station boasted a very large station nameboard proclaiming "BLAENAU FESTINIOG CHANGE HERE FOR NARROW GAUGE LINE TO MINFFORD AND PORTMADOC".^[51] Stesion Fain ("Narrow station") closed in 1939, but the mantle of interchange traffic was picked up by buses which began operating from the area of the erstwhile cattle dock.^[52]

Stations' names

In 1951 the two surviving stations in Blaenau were renamed. The ex-GWR station became Blaenau Ffestiniog Central and the ex-LNWR station became Blaenau Ffestiniog North. The nameboard which replaced the one quoted above was changed to the new corporate style, bearing the words "BLAENAU FFESTINIOG STATION".^[53][54] This became accurate on 6 May 1968 when, eight years after Blaenau Ffestiniog Central closed, Blaenau Ffestiniog North took on its third name, becoming plain "Blaenau Ffestiniog".^[43] Research continues into which other UK stations' nameboards have included the word "Station". As statuary next to the modern Blaenau Ffestiniog station records, the station was sometimes referred to locally as "Stesion London".

Services

The regular service to Llandudno Junction went over to DMUs in March 1956, though goods, specials and charter trains remained steam-hauled for some years.^[55][56][57] General freight ended on 4 May 1964, but wagonload traffic continued until 1982.^[43]

External influences

Two external events threw the station a lifeline in the 1950s. In 1957 Liverpool Corporation was granted powers to dam the Afon Tryweryn, thereby creating Llyn Celyn and flooding part of the Bala to Blaenau Line, That line closed to passengers in January 1960 and closed altogether in January 1961, taking Trawsfynydd off the railway map. The immediate impact on Blaenau Ffestiniog North station was minimal, but around the same time the decision was made to build Trawsfynydd nuclear power station. This would require a rail connection to transport nuclear materials. With the line through Trawsfynydd closed the southern end of the Conwy Valley Line would be connected to the northern end of the closed Bala line at the site of Blaenau Ffestiniog Central. In effect this subsidised the Conwy Valley Line. The connection was opened in 1964, its physical effect on Blaenau Ffestiniog North was to shave a corner off the eastern end of the platform so the new cross-town chord could continue along the erstwhile FR trackbed.^[58][54]

The Ffestiniog Railway returns

The preserved Ffestiniog Railway progressed back towards Blaenau throughout the 1970s, raising the question of where its new Blaenau terminus would be. The half-buried Stesion Fain site was closely considered, which would have made Blaenau Ffestiniog North's future secure by reviving its long-ceased role as an interchange station with the narrow gauge. As a marker and statement of intent the FR installed their locomotive "Princess" on the Stesion Fain site.^[59][60] In the event British Railways (BR) and the FR agreed that a wholly new interchange in the middle of Blaenau would be best. There would be no case for both the new station and the ex-LNWR station to co-exist a quarter of a mile apart, so when the BR part of the new station opened on 22 March 1982, the erstwhile Blaenau Ffestiniog North closed the same day. The FR part of the new station opened on 25 May 1982. Just as there was no case for two standard gauge stations there was no case for two narrow gauge stations. the track through Stesion Fain was reinstated, but no station, a commemorative flower bed marks its location.

Special trains

Until 1982 loco-hauled specials had to perform convoluted shunting movements in the rationalised station to get the loco to the right end of the train for the journey back to the coast, otherwise freight, occasional passenger specials and trackwork trains to Trawsfynydd continued to pass the station site until 1998 when all nuclear material had been removed from the power station. The line south of the new BR/FR station was then mothballed, which remains the case today. Passing trains comprises standard gauge DMUs along the platform edge and narrow gauge behind, with occasional special trains on the standard gauge.^[61] The railways of Blaenau are freight-free.

The site today

After the station closed in 1982 it was boarded up and left to decay for some years,^[62] eventually being demolished.^[63] The wharf area was progressively de-tracked from the early 1960s,^[64] then parts and finally all but the railway corridor to the new station were fenced off and built on. This remained the situation in 2016.

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Terminus		London Midland Region of British Rail Conwy Valley Line		Roman Bridge

References

1. Conolly 1998, Map 19 F3.
2. Jowett 2000, Map 44.
3. Yonge, Padgett & Szwenk 2013, Map 37D, shown as "Old Station".
4. Rear 1991, Plates 10-28 & 159.
5. Butt 1995, p. 36.
6. Quick 2009, p. 89.
7. Rear 1991, Plate 30.
8. Yonge, Padgett & Szwenk 2013, Map 37D.
9. Rear 1991, Opposite Plate 4.
10. "The station and wharves from the mountain". COMMONS.
11. Rear 1991, Map opposite Plate 15.
12. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Diagram XX.
13. Clemens 2003, 55 mins from start.
14. Clemens 2014, 1 hr 07 & 1 hr 11 mins from start.
15. Cooper 2021, p. 39.
16. Whitehouse 1983, p. 17.
17. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Plate 61.
18. Stretton 1999, pp. 15 & 70.
19. Rear 1991, Plates 11, 12 & 25.
20. Prideaux 1982, p. 43.
21. "Blaenau Ffestiniog North slate transfer (image 7)". Daily Post. 16 October 2014.
22. Cooke 1964, p. 824.
23. Rear 1991, Plate 20.
24. Jones & Hatherill 1977, p. 18.
25. Prideaux 1982, p. 27.
26. Gray 1994, p. 17.
27. Williams 1987, p. 256.
28. Rear 1991, Plates 152, 153 and 3.
29. Jones & Hatherill 1977, Photo on p.18.
30. Messenger 2008, p. 73.
31. "LNWR and GWR Transporter Wagons". Goods & Not So Goods.
32. Rear 2003, pp. 107–109.
33. Stretton 1999, pp. 19–21.
34. Rear 1991, Plate 1.
35. Griffiths & Smith 1999, p. 194.
36. Rear 1991, Plates 2, 10, 12 & 19.
37. Hornby & Browne 1978, p. 34.
38. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Plate 63.
39. Green 1996, p. 59.
40. Rear 1991, Plate 3.
41. Rear 1991, Plates 10-17.
42. Stretton 1999, pp. 19–20.
43. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Plate 62.
44. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Plate 59.
45. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Plate 60.
46. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Plates 62 & 65.
47. Rear 1991, Plates 23, 24 & 159.
48. Stretton 1999, pp. 48–49.
49. "Both stations in 1950". Newton Abbot Rly Studies.
50. Bradshaw 1968, pp. 471 and 477.
51. Rear 1991, Plate 16.
52. Rear 1991, Plates 27 & 28.
53. Rear 1991, Plates 22 & 23.
54. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Plate 65.
55. Rear 1991, Plate 26.
56. Rear 1979, p. 96.
57. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Plate 64.
58. Rear 1991, Plates 23, 25 & 159.
59. "Princess on a plinth on the station site". flickr. June 1976.
60. "Princess and water tower at the station site". Geograph.
61. "Two Black 5s haul a special past the closed station". Penmorfa.
62. "The closed station". Geograph.
63. "The demolished station". NW Rail.
64. "The closed slate wharf". Archive Images.

Sources

• Bradshaw, George (1968) [April 1910]. April 1910 Railway Guide. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4246-6. OCLC 30645.
• Bradshaw, George (1985) [July 1922]. Bradshaw's General Railway and Steam Navigation guide for Great Britain and Ireland: A reprint of the July 1922 issue. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-8708-5. OCLC 12500436.
• 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.
• Conolly, W. Philip (1998). British railways pre-grouping atlas and gazetteer (9th impression; 5th ed.). Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0320-0. OCLC 221481275.
• Clemens, Jim (2003) [1959]. North Wales Steam Lines (DVD). The Jim Clemens Collection No.6. Uffington, Shropshire: B&R Video Productions. Vol 79.
• Clemens, Jim (2014) [1959]. Steam to North Wales (DVD). Uffington, Shropshire: B&R Video Productions. Vol 136.
• Cooke, B.W.C. (November 1964). Cooke, B.W.C. (ed.). "3 Reprieved - 38 Condemned". The Railway Magazine. London: Tothill Press Limited. 110 (763). ISSN 0033-8923.
• Cooper, Paul (July 2021). Roden, Andrew (ed.). "A Railtour to the Conway Valley". Steam World (409). ISSN 0959-0897.
• Gray, Adrian (Winter 1994). Karau, Paul; Beale, Gerry (eds.). "GWR Slate Tram Transporter Wagons". British Railway Journal. Didcot: Wild Swan Publications Ltd (50). ISSN 0265-4105.
• Green, C.C. (1996) [1983]. North Wales Branch Line Album. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7110-1252-3.
• Griffiths, Roger; Smith, Paul (1999). The Directory of British Engine Sheds and Principal Locomotive Servicing Points: 1 Southern England, the Midlands, East Anglia and Wales. OPC Railprint. ISBN 978-0-86093-542-1. OCLC 59458015.
• Hornby, Frank; Browne, Norman (1978). London Midland Region Steam. Railways in view. New Malden: Almark Pubrishing Co Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85524-298-5.
• Johnson, Peter (1995). North Wales (Celebration of Steam). Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7110-2378-9.
• Jones, Ivor Wynne; Hatherill, Gordon (1977). Llechwedd and other Ffestiniog Railways. Blaenau Ffestiniog: Quarry Tours Ltd. ISBN 978-0-9502895-9-5.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• Messenger, Michael (2008). Slate Quarry Railways of Gwynedd. Truro: Twelveheads Press. ISBN 978-0-906294-68-0.
• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2010). Bala to Llandudno: Featuring Blaenau Ffestiniog. Country Railway Routes. Midhurst: Middleton Press (MD). ISBN 978-1-906008-87-1.
• Prideaux, J.D.C.A. (1982). The Welsh narrow gauge railway: A pictorial history (2nd ed.). Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-8354-4.
• 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.
• Rear, W.G. (1991). Conway Valley Line - Blaenau Ffestiniog to Llandudno Junction. Scenes from the Past, Railways of North Wales. Stockport: Foxline Publishing. ISBN 978-1-870119-14-6. No. 12.
• Rear, W.G. (2003). From Chester to Holyhead : The Branch Lines. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-0-86093-569-8.
• Rear, W.G. (1979). London Midland steam in North Wales. Truro: D Bradford Barton Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85153-225-7.
• Richards, Alun John (2001). The Slate Railways of Wales. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 978-0-86381-689-5.
• Southern, D. W. (1995). Bala Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog. Scenes from the Past, Railways of North Wales. Stockport: Foxline Publishing. ISBN 978-1-870119-34-4. No. 25.
• Stretton, M.J. (1999). Ffestiniog Railway in Camera: One Hundred Years 1871-1971. Penistone: Challenger Publications. ISBN 978-1-899624-40-9.
• Whitehouse, Patrick B. (1983). Branch line memories, London Midland & Scottish. Vol. 2. Redruth: Atlantic Transport & Historical Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-09-0.
• Williams, Mike (Winter 1987). Karau, Paul; Beale, Gerry (eds.). "LNWR Diagram 7 Slate Truck Wagons". British Railway Journal. Didcot: Wild Swan Publications Ltd (15). ISSN 0265-4105.
• 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.

Other material

• 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.

External links

• "The station site on navigable OS maps". National Library of Scotland.
• "The station and line". Rail Map Online.
• "The station on line LJT1". Railway Codes.
• "The Conwy Valley line". NW Rail.
• "Stations in Blaenau". Festipedia.

Photos and video

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blaenau Ffestiniog (LNWR) railway station.

• "The slate wharf in LNWR days". Old UK Photos.
• . Ffestiniog Railway. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog Central, Junction (Stesion Fain) and North in 1955". YouTube.
• "Stesion Fain and Blaenau LMSR". Archive Images.
• "The station around 1960". flickr.
• "The working station with a DMU". RCTS.
• "The station and goods shed around 1960". COMMONS.
• "DMU at Blaenau Ffestiniog North about 1960". flickr.
• "Earthworks near Blaenau Ffestiniog North in 1963, Image PMB0678". RCTS.
• "Views of Blaenau Ffestiniog North in 1960s" (PDF). Jaggers Heritage.
• "Early work on the cross-Blaenau line". digiDo.
• "The station after 1963". pinimg.
• "The station in 1966". Hall Royd Junction.
• "The station in 1976". 2D53.
• "The station in 1979". 2D53.
• "100th Anniversary". 2D53.
• "Class 40 at Blaenau Ffestiniog North in 1980". flickr. 27 September 1980.
• "Gunpowder train at Blaenau Ffestiniog North". Derby Sulzers.
• "The closed station". Geograph.
• "The closed station". flickr.
• "The closed station". flickr.
• "Closed station and reduced wharf area". flickr.
• "A Class 40 hauls a special past the closed station". Honda Wanderer.
• "A Class 47 hauls a special past the demolished station". NW Rail.
• "An 8F hauls a special past the demolished station". NW Rail.
• "Tunnel mouth, Blaenau Ffestiniog North & Stesion Fain". Britain from Above.
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog North". Britain from Above.
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog Central, North & Duffws (FR)". Britain from Above.
• "Tunnel mouth, Blaenau Ffestiniog North & Stesion Fain". Britain from Above.
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog North". Britain from Above.
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog North & Central, Duffws (FR) & Gelly Viaduct". Britain from Above.
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog North to Manod". Britain from Above.
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog North & Stesion Fain". Britain from Above.