Afon Wen was a railway station in

Afon Wen Afon Wen is a small hamlet on the Llŷn peninsula in the Welsh principal area of Gwynedd. Location It is located at the mouth of the Afon Wen river, half a mile from the village of Chwilog and midway between Pwllheli and Cricieth. History ...

, Gwynedd, Wales. The station formed a junction between the

Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway The Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway was a standard gauge railway company, running a line along the west coast of Wales. The railway was planned to run between Anglicised place name spellings were used during most of the history of the line ...

and the

Carnarvonshire Railway The Carnarvonshire Railway was a railway connecting Caernarvon railway station (terminus of the Bangor and Caernarvon Railway line from Bangor) with Afon Wen. History The Carnarvonshire Railway was absorbed into the LNWR in 1869. At the gro ...

and opened to traffic in September 1867.

History

Trains on the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway line were operated by the Cambrian Railways, then absorbed into the Great Western Railway. Trains from the

were operated by the London and North Western Railway and so passed to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The station was host to a GWR camp coach from 1934 to 1939. The station passed on to the

Western Region of British Railways The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex-Great We ...

on nationalisation in 1948 (later passing to the London Midland Region in 1963). It was then closed by the

British Railways Board British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

on 7 December 1964 (concurrently with the line from Caernavon, both as a result of the Beeching Axe).Disused Stations - Afon Wen
Fifoot, L and Wright, P ''Disused Stations Site Record''; Retrieved 2 August 2017 In addition to local services Afon Wen was served by trains from both London Paddington and London Euston. Those from Paddington would reach it on Cambrian rails through Machynlleth and Porthmadog, proceeding onward to terminate at Pwllheli. From Euston the train would travel via Crewe, Bangor and Caernafon: at Afon Wen the front portion of the train would proceed forward to terminate at Porthmadog and the rear carriages would be detached for Pwllheli. Afon Wen is often quoted as a defining feature of the Great Western Railway in Wales, namely its inheritance of junctions in unlikely and inconvenient locations. Other examples are Moat Lane Junction,

Talyllyn Junction Talyllyn Junction was a railway junction located east of Brecon, Powys, opened in 1869. The junction was triangular, with north, east and west chords, station platforms being sited at the western junction and also, until 1878, at the eastern j ...

, Dovey Junction and Barmouth Junction (renamed Morfa Mawddach in 1960). The signal box and passing loop initially remained in use after the station closed, but after the lifting of the Caernafon line, these were decommissioned in 1967 and removed three years later (leaving only the old westbound platform line in use as the running line to Pwllheli). Demolition of the surviving buildings and westbound platform followed by the late 1970s.

The site today

Trains on the Cambrian Line pass the site of the former station. The only evidence of the junction that can now be seen from Cambrian Coast trains is the earthworks of the line heading north and the island platform, although the branch side has been filled in.

In popular culture

* Afon Wen station is known to many through the song ''Ar y Trên i Afon Wen'' (On the train to Afon Wen) by the popular Welsh pop group, Sobin a'r Smaeliaid, fronted by

Bryn Fôn Bryn Fôn (born 27 August 1954) is a Welsh actor and singer-songwriter. He also became the first ever artist to play live on BBC Radio Cymru in 1977. Biography Bryn Fôn was born in Llanllyfni, Caernarfonshire. He attended Ysgol Gynradd Lla ...

.Sain Records
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References

Sources

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Further material

External links

The station site on a navigable OS Map, via ''National Library of Scotland''

The station and line, via ''Rail Map Online''

The line CNV with mileages, via ''Railway Codes''

The line DJP with mileages, via ''Railway Codes''

Images of the station, via ''Yahoo''

The station and line, via ''LNWR Society''

By DMU from Pwllheli to Amlwch, via ''Huntley Archives''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Afon Wen Railway Station Disused railway stations in Gwynedd Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1867 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964 Former Cambrian Railway stations Llanystumdwy