Raglan Station was a station along the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway

Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway

The Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway was a standard gauge railway of which ran between Monmouth to Pontypool. It was opened in 1857, passenger services were withdrawn in 1955...

. It was not an original station on the line built in 1876 to replace two previous stopping places, Raglan Footpath

Raglan Footpath railway station

Raglan Footpath was a station on the former Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway. It was opened in October 1857 with the rest of the line and located 6 miles and 43 chains from Monmouth Troy. It was intended to serve the village of Raglan, Monmouthshire. It was closed in 1876 along with...

, a small station which was situated a little further west of Raglan and Raglan Road, an unofficial halt which closed in July 1876 and was reopened as 'Raglan Road Crossing Halt' in November 1930 by the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

. The station was 6 miles and 34 chains from Monmouth Troy

Monmouth Troy railway station

Monmouth Troy was one of the two former stations at Monmouth. It was built in 1857 by the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway and was used by several other branch lines as the local rail network expanded...

 and was intended to improve the railway facilities at the nearby village of Raglan

Raglan, Monmouthshire

Raglan is a village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, United Kingdom. It is located some 9 miles south-west of Monmouth, midway between Monmouth and Abergavenny on the A40 road very near to the junction with the A449 road...

, which was the site a large castle

Raglan Castle

Raglan Castle is a late medieval castle located just north of the village of Raglan in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales. The modern castle dates from between the 15th and early 17th-centuries, when the successive ruling families of the Herberts and the Somersets created a luxurious,...

 which provided a steady stream of tourist traffic. It was closed in May 1955 due to a train drivers strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

 and was never reopened though a couple of special services continued to run along the stretch of track over the next few years, including a centenary special organised by the Stephenson Locomotive Society

Stephenson Locomotive Society

The Stephenson Locomotive Society was founded in the UK in Autumn 1909 for the study of rail transport and locomotives.It was originally named The Stephenson Society in honour of George Stephenson. In late 1911 the professional engineers seceded from the Society to form the Junior Institution of...

 in 1957.

Facilities

Though the station provided access to the fair-sized village of Raglan and its castle, traffic figures were quite modest, in the Edwardian era, around 10,000 passenger tickets were issued which steadily declined until it's closure; by 1930 only 1,190 tickets were issued. Goods traffic also decreased between 1929 and 1935 by 354 tons but then took a dive downwards and by 1938 goods traffic handled had dropped by 3,458 tons to only 1,511 tons of freight being passed through the station.

The station facilities consisted of little more than a single platform on the up side of the line, a small goods yard which included a little coal wharf and a cattle loading dock. The station was made of red bricks and the design was typical of the GWR at the time, a low-pitched, roof and a small canopy which projected out towards the platform. Raglan also had a small Great Western corrugated pagoda, constructed in 1910 which was used to lock up parcels and other small goods items. By 1912 the station had a small crane which could handle about 4 tons which was shown in the 'Handbook of Stations', published by the Railway Clearing House

Railway Clearing House

The British Railway Clearing House was an organisation set up to manage the allocation of revenue collected by numerous pre-grouping railway companies...

 - although this had gone by the 1930s.

The staff at the station consisted of three until the 1930s when the GWR reduced the staff to two in order to try and make the station profitable.

Goods Yard

The goods yard at Raglan had two goods sidings, one of which was a loop with connections to the main railway line at either end and the other ended at the coal wharf. Both sidings were controlled by ground frames. There were two wharves which were rented to local businesses, the largest of which was used for coal and was approximately 41 square yards, it was used by Messrs Davies, Jones & Clench Ltd. The other wharf was about 25 square yards and was mainly used for agricultural purposes.