Penygroes railway station was located in Penygroes,

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. The

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 ...

, horse-drawn

Nantlle Railway The Nantlle Railway (or Nantlle Tramway) was a Welsh narrow gauge railway. It was built to carry slate from several slate quarries across the Nantlle Valley to the harbour at Caernarfon for export by sea. The line provided a passenger service ...

had a station near the site from 1856. From the outset timetables appeared regularly in the "Carnarvon & Denbigh Herald" and in Bradshaw from October 1856.Example timetable in ''Bradshaw''
/ref> In 1865 the narrow gauge line was closed, to be replaced and updated to standard gauge with contemporary facilities. It reopened in its eventual form in 1867 and closed in December 1964. The station served as the junction station for the short branch to which was overlain in 1872 on part of the former Nantlle Railway route, but its main purpose was for traffic on the former

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 ...

line from to and beyond. When the line and station were first opened in 1867 a locomotive was hired from the

Cambrian Railways The Cambrian Railways owned of track over a large area of mid Wales. The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904. The Cambrian connected with two larger railways with connections to the ...

. A Cambrian driver, who had never been over the line before, was retained to drive the first directors' inspection special from to . On the return journey the loco ran short of coal and ran out of steam at Penygroes. There was some peat in a nearby field, which the crew dug and the directors carried to the engine enabling steam to be raised. The passenger service along the Nantlle Branch was withdrawn in 1932, though excursions continued until 1939. The station and line closed on 7 December 1964 as recommended in the

Beeching Report Beeching is an English surname. Either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames' ...

. The station building and footbridge remained in place, but increasingly derelict, until at least 1970.

References

Sources

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Further material

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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''

Images of the station, via ''Yahoo''

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

By DMU from Pwllheli to Amlwch, via ''Huntley Archives''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penygroes Railway Station Beeching closures in Wales Disused railway stations in Gwynedd Llanllyfni Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1867 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964 Former London and North Western Railway stations