Penrhyn railway station on the

Ffestiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Ffestiniog) is a heritage railway based on narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park. The railway is roughly long an ...

is located on a restricted site at Pen-y-Bwlch above the town of

Penrhyndeudraeth Penrhyndeudraeth (; ) is a small town and community in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The town is close to the mouth of the River Dwyryd on the A487 nearly east of Porthmadog, and had a population of 2,150 at the 2011 census, increased from 2,0 ...

(Penrhyndeudraeth means ''Headland between two beaches''). Beyond Penrhyn station, the railway crosses the A4085 Penrhyndeudraeth to Llanfrothen road on the line's only remaining gated and staffed level crossing. Because of the layout of the crossing, three privately owned terraced houses are between the two crossing gates.

History

The station opened on 6 January 1865 at the commencement of passenger services, and was rebuilt in 1879 using components from the original Porthmadog Harbour Station—externally it has changed little since. Originally called Penrhyndeudraeth, during the 1870s the name of was shortened to Penrhyn, in order to avoid confusion with the station on the Cambrian Railways coast line at the lower end of the town. The station is at a height of 160 ft (50 m) and a distance of 3 miles 8

chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

(5.0 km) from

Porthmadog Porthmadog (; ), originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a Welsh coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies east of Criccieth, south-west of Blaenau Ffest ...

. Penrhyn station closed to passenger traffic on 15 September 1939.

Restoration

The station was specially reopened on Monday 12 November 1956 when the General Manager of

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

( Western Region) Mr. K. W. C. Grand visited the Ffestiniog Railway and travelled from Porthmadog Harbour by the first passenger train to Penrhyn since 1939. The public passenger service was resumed on 20 April 1957. Penrhyn served as a temporary terminus until the line was re-opened to Tan-y-Bwlch in 1958, a run round loop being squeezed into the site for the purpose. The loop at Penrhyn continued in use as a passing loop for timetabled trains until 1974. Much of the station building is now occupied by the volunteers hostel which was officially opened in 1972. Complete renovation by volunteers was followed on 3 May 1992 by an official re-opening.

Rhiw Goch

From 1975 Penrhyn was replaced for normal timetable purposes by a new passing loop at Rhiw Goch from Porthmadog. Although trains regularly stop for passing purposes, Rhiw Goch is not a passenger station, there is no public access and passengers are not permitted to alight there. However, tourist trains do on occasion terminate and reverse at Rhiw Goch.

Services

References

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External links