Glan Llyn Halt in

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, was a

railway halt A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a Rail transport, railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passenger train, passengers, freight rail transport, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one r ...

on the

Ruabon to Barmouth line Ruabon ( cy, Rhiwabon ) is a village and Community (Wales), community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The name comes from ''Rhiw Fabon'', ''rhiw'' being the Welsh word for "slope" or "hillside" and ''Fabon'' being a mutation from Mabyn, St M ...

on the south shore of

Bala Lake Bala Lake ( cy, Llyn Tegid ) is a large freshwater glacial lake in Gwynedd, Wales. The River Dee, which has its source on the slopes of Dduallt in the mountains of Snowdonia, feeds the long by wide lake. It was the largest natural body o ...

, and is a limited-use station on the

Bala Lake Railway The Bala Lake Railway ( Welsh: ''Rheilffordd Llyn Tegid'') is a narrow-gauge railway along the southern shore of Bala Lake in Gwynedd, North Wales. The line, which is long, is built on a section of the former standard-gauge Ruabon–Barmouth ...

which operates over part of the same route.

History

It was opened as Flag Station Halt in 1868, a private station built for

Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 6th Baronet Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 6th Baronet (22 May 1820 – 9 May 1885) was a Welsh Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1841 to 1885. Biography Williams-Wynn was born at the family's London property, the eldest son of ...

but which could be used by the public by his consent. It was officially advertised as Flag Station from 14 September 1931, the name given as Sir Watkin or his staff would stop the train by raising a

flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

.Jones, Mark: ''Lost Railways of North Wales'', page 78. Countryside Books, 2008 It gained the 'Halt' suffix from 4 July 1938 and finally became Glan Llyn Halt on 25 September 1950. There was never a

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

, passing place nor freight facilities here. It closed in 1965. The Bala Lake Railway opened in 1972, but did not reach Glan Llyn until the following year.Steam '81 directory, edited by Roger Crombleholme and Terry Kirtland, published 1981 by Allen & Unwin (London), , entry 304. The station here remained closed, and was not re-opened until the early part of the twenty-first century when the station was chosen to play a role in special " Santa Special" trains.

Facilities

There is no public access to the station by road, and regular service trains do not stop here. However, a large station building has been opened, and from the early part of the twenty-first century Glan Llyn has served as the

Haunted house A haunted house, spook house or ghost house in ghostlore is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the prope ...

and as

Santa's Grotto Santa's Workshop is the legendary workshop where Santa Claus and his elves are said to live and make the toys and presents given out at Christmas. The exact "location" of Santa's workshop varies depending upon local culture. There are at least e ...

for special trains operated each year at

Hallowe'en Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

and

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

References

External links

Glan Llyn Halt on navigable 1946 O.S. map
Beeching closures in Wales Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1931 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1965 Disused railway stations in Gwynedd Llangywer Former Great Western Railway stations {{Wales-railstation-stub

History

Facilities

References

Further reading

External links