Frongoch railway station served the village of

Frongoch Frongoch is a village located in Gwynedd, Wales. It lies close to the market town of Bala, on the A4212 road. It was the home of the Frongoch internment camp, used to hold German prisoners-of-war during First World War, and then Irish Rep ...

on the Great Western Railway's

Bala Ffestiniog Line The Bala and Festiniog Railway was a , standard gauge, railway backed by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in north-west Wales. It connected Bala with Blaenau Ffestiniog. History The railway originally connected Bala with Llan Ffestiniog ...

in Gwynedd, Wales. The station closed to passengers in January 1960, and to freight a year later, with the last revenue-earning train on 27 January 1961.

Origins

In 1882 the

Bala and Ffestiniog Railway The Bala and Festiniog Railway was a , standard gauge, railway backed by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in north-west Wales. It connected Bala with Blaenau Ffestiniog. History The railway originally connected Bala with Llan Ffestiniog ...

opened the line from to a temporary terminus at , Frongoch was one of the stations opened with the line. At Festiniog passengers had to transfer to

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

trains if they wished to continue northwards. To do this people travelling from Bala to Blaenau or beyond walked the few yards from the standard gauge train to the narrow gauge train much as they do today between the Conwy Valley Line and the Ffestiniog Railway at . The following year the narrow gauge line was converted to standard gauge, but narrow gauge trains continued to run until 5 September 1883 using a third rail. Standard gauge trains first ran through from Bala to Blaenau Ffestiniog on 10 September 1883. The line was taken over by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1910. The station remained part of the GWR through the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923. It passed 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 and was closed by the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...

, primarily because the line was to be flooded by damming between and Frongoch to create Llyn Celyn.

Description

The single platform carried both a station building and a signalbox. A siding ran off from the Blaenau end of the platform leading to a goods warehouse and cattle pens. The line crossed the

Afon Tryweryn The Tryweryn is a river in the north of Wales which starts at Llyn Tryweryn in the Snowdonia National Park and after joins the river Dee at Bala. One of the main tributaries of the Dee, it was dammed in 1965 to form Llyn Celyn, drowning the ...

by a metal bridge a short distance from the Bala end of the platform. The station was the archetypal country station, but served three short-lived unusual traffics: * in the last years of the Nineteenth Century

whisky Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ca ...

was conveyed from a distillery near the station. * in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

German prisoners of war were carried to and from a camp in Frongoch, and * after 1916 Irish Republican internees were carried to and from the same camp, now redesignated as the

Frongoch internment camp Frongoch internment camp at Frongoch in Merionethshire, Wales was a makeshift place of imprisonment during the First World War and the 1916 Easter Rising. History 1916 the camp housed German prisoners of war in a yellow distillery and cru ...

, the Germans having been moved elsewhere. Despite Royal connections the whisky venture is said to have failed in part because it was founded at the height of "chapel building mania" in North Wales.

Passenger services

The September 1959 timetable shows * Northbound ** three trains calling at all stations from Bala to Blaenau on Monday to Saturday ** an extra evening train calling at all stations from Bala to Blaenau on Saturday ** a Monday to Friday train calling at all stations from Bala to

Trawsfynydd Trawsfynydd (; Welsh for "across hemountain") is a linear village in Gwynedd, Wales, near Llyn Trawsfynydd reservoir, and adjacent to the A470 north of Bronaber and Dolgellau and 10 km (6 miles) south of Blaenau Ffestiniog. The total com ...

* The journey time from Bala to Frongoch was around 6 minutes. * Southbound ** three trains calling at all stations from Blaenau to Bala on Monday to Saturday ** two extra trains calling at all stations from Blaenau to Bala on Saturday ** an extra train calling at all stations from Blaenau to Trawsfynydd on Saturday evening ** a Monday to Friday train calling at all stations from Blaenau to Bala, except Llafar, Bryn-celynog and Cwm Prysor Halts * The journey time from Blaenau to Frongoch was around 70 minutes, except for one Saturdays Only train which took longer because it sat at Trawsfynydd for 25 minutes. * There was no Sunday service. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

at the latest most trains were composed of two carriages, with one regular turn comprising just one brake third coach. At least one train along the line regularly ran as a

mixed train A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, service ...

, with a second between Bala and Arenig. By that time such trains had become rare on Britain's railways. Workmen's trains had been a feature of the line from the outset; they were the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway's biggest source of revenue. Such a service between Trawsfynydd and Blaenau Ffestiniog survived to the line's closure to passengers in 1960. Up to 1930 at the earliest such services used dedicated, lower standard, coaches which used a specific siding at Blaenau where the men boarded from and alighted to the ballast.

Closure

The station closed in January 1960 but freight services between Bala and Blaenau continued for a further year, the last train of all passing on 27 January 1961. The track though the station was lifted in the 1960s. In 1964 the line reopened from Blaenau southwards to a siding near the site of where a large ("Goliath") gantry was erected to load and unload traffic for the then new

Trawsfynydd nuclear power station Trawsfynydd nuclear power station ( cy, Atomfa Trawsfynydd) is a decommissioned Magnox nuclear power station situated in Snowdonia National Park in Gwynedd, Wales. The plant, which became operational in 1965, was the only nuclear power station i ...

. The main goods transported were

nuclear fuel rod Nuclear fuel is material used in nuclear power stations to produce heat to power turbines. Heat is created when nuclear fuel undergoes nuclear fission. Most nuclear fuels contain heavy fissile actinide elements that are capable of undergoin ...

s carried in

nuclear flask A nuclear flask is a shipping container that is used to transport active nuclear materials between nuclear power station and spent fuel reprocessing facilities. Each shipping container is designed to maintain its integrity under normal transport ...

s. The new facility was sixteen route miles north of Frongoch, so the reopening brought no reprieve.

Special trains

Rail enthusiasts' special trains traversed the line from time to time, notably the "last train" from Bala to Blaenau Ffestiniog and return on 22 January 1961.

The station site in the 21st Century

In 2015 the station building and signal box were in use as a private residence. The station building was converted to a holiday home during the early 1970s when it was rescued from complete dilapidation.The station after closure, via ''Forgotten Relics''
/ref> Initially the signal box was converted and the local council agreed that 2½ people could sleep in it. The main station had a small extension added to the end to house a bathroom and the goods warehouse was demolished to make way for several homes. In 2015 the trackbed in both directions from the station was clearly defined both on satellite imagery and on the ground.

The future

Since 2000 there have been at least two attempts to put the mothballed section of the line to use, but none of these came close to Frongoch. As the line of route to the west has been severed by Llyn Celyn the prospects of revival must be very remote.

Origins

Description

Passenger services

Closure

Special trains

The station site in the 21st Century

The future

References

Sources

Further material

External links