Tan-y-Bwlch railway station
Encyclopedia
Ffestiniog Railway
The Ffestiniog Railway is a narrow gauge heritage railway, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park....
, which was built in 1836 to carry dressed slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog
Blaenau Ffestiniog
Blaenau Ffestiniog is a town in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It has a population of 5,000, including Llan Ffestiniog, which makes it the third largest town in Gwynedd, behind Caernarfon & Porthmadog. Although the population reached 12,000 at the peak of the slate industry, the population fell due to...
to Porthmadog
Porthmadog
Porthmadog , known locally as "Port", and historically rendered into English as Portmadoc, is a small coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd, in Wales. Prior to the Local Government Act 1972 it was in the administrative county of Caernarfonshire. The town lies east of...
for export by sea. The station lies off the B4410 former turnpike road
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
from Maentwrog
Maentwrog
Maentwrog is a village and community in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, lying in the Vale of Ffestiniog, within the Snowdonia National Park. The River Dwyryd runs alongside the village...
to Llanfrothen and Beddgelert
Beddgelert
Beddgelert, or in older English spelling often Bedgellert, is a village and community in the Snowdonia area of Gwynedd, Wales. It is reputed to be named after the legendary hound Gelert. Population 617.- History:...
, which the railway crosses on a fine cast-iron skew bridge (made at Boston Lodge
Boston Lodge
This article is about the locomotive works. For the station see Boston Lodge Halt.Boston Lodge is situated at Penrhyn Isa, Minffordd, Penrhyndeudraeth, on the A487 road about 1 mile SE across the Afon Glaslyn causeway from Porthmadog, Gwynedd in north-west Wales.It has a station on the Ffestiniog...
foundry in 1854 and surmounted by 'gothic' balustrades).
Tan-y-Bwlch is at a height of 430 ft (131.1 m). and at a distance of just under 7.5 miles (12.1 km) from Porthmadog.
Hafod y Llyn
From 1863 until 1873, the only regular passing station for trains was at the former horse stage at Hafod y Llyn, a few hundred yards, down route, south west, from Tan-y-Bwlch. Hafod y Llyn opened for passengers on 6 January 1865 but was very difficult of access. It is just over 7 miles (11.3 km) from Porthmadog, and horses were changed there from 1836 to 1863 as well as at several other lineside stables. There is little to see of the location now, apart from a widening of the formation, and a gate into the woods.History
Hafod y Llyn was replaced by the new station at Tan-y-Bwlch which opened in July 1873 and closed to passengers on 15 September 1939.Passenger service to Tan-y-Bwlch was resumed on 5 April 1958, and the station was the terminus of the railway until was reopened in 1968. However, Tan-y-Bwlch continued as the main station for the upper part of the line for years afterwards, as Dduallt had very limited facilities and no road access.
Station house
Mr and Mrs Will Jones have long been associated with Tan-y-Bwlch station. They lived in the station house from their marriage in 1929 to their retirement in 1968. In the 1930s and again in the 1950s and 1960s, the late Bessie Jones gained world-wide fame as the station-mistress wearing traditional Welsh costume and serving teas in the station house. Will Jones was a well-respected track man and passed on some of his skills to countless volunteers over the final 14 years of his employment.Features and facilities
In addition to the station house, Tan-y-Bwlch has an original wooden station building, a modern water tank (built in the early 1990s) and a 1970s building intended as a signal boxSignal box
On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...
(now containing the telephone exchange and the relays for the automatic crossing equipment).
The former stone built goods shed
Goods shed
A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train.A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built alongside a track with possibly just a canopy over the door...
now serves as a shop, café and information centre with modern extensions housing kitchens and passenger amenities. Car parking and a picnic area is provided. The present footbridge provides access to the central platform, and replaces an earlier bridge, some 15 yards (13.7 m) away, which was on the original Roman road and in turn had replaced a level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
.
A feature of the station for many years was the long white paling fence observable in early photographs. This fence 900 ft long was recreated in 1970 by volunteers. The 89 ten-foot panels were replaced in 1995 and in late 2006 the entire fence was in turn replaced, again by volunteers, using 74 similar twelve-foot panels and new gates - but creosoted, rather than painted. A reconstruction of 1999 is a static replica of the early-style slotted post semaphore signal
Railway semaphore signal
One of the earliest forms of fixed railway signal is the semaphore. These signals display their different indications to train drivers by changing the angle of inclination of a pivoted 'arm'. Semaphore signals were patented in the early 1840s by Joseph James Stevens, and soon became the most...
that dominated the station in Victorian times. This early type of signal is no longer used on the Ffestiniog Railway, which now uses more modern equipment for train control.
Tourist facilities include a nature trail through woodlands leading to Llyn Mair
Llyn Mair
Llyn Mair is a artificial lake located at in North Wales. It lies in the area of Tan-y-Bwlch, a little above Plas Tan-y-Bwlch, and is in the catchment area of the River Dwyryd...
("Mary's Lake") as well as longer signposted walks. There is also a play area at the station.
External links
- The Ffestiniog Railway Company's website
- Interactive Route Map on Live.com
- Ffestiniog Railway Timetables
- Multimap Map of Tan-y-Bwlch