Pontyberem railway station was opened in 1909 to timetabled passenger services however services for miners began in 1898. Carmarthenshire, LIII.8, Revised: 1913, Published: 1915
/ref> It continued to serve the inhabitants of the

Pontyberem Pontyberem () is a village and community situated in the Gwendraeth Valley halfway between Carmarthen and Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Wales. As of the 2001 Census, the population was recorded as 2,829, reducing to 2,768 at the 2011 Census. The ...

area and hinterland between 1909 and 1953; it was one of several basic stations opened on the

Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway :''Note: During most of the period of operation of the BP&GVR the anglicised spellings of Welsh place names were in use, and for consistency are used in this article. The Company's registered name included the incorrect spelling ''Gwendreath'' due t ...

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

, Wales.

History

station was opened on 1 February 1909 by the

on the

Kidwelly Kidwelly ( cy, Cydweli) is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, southwest Wales, approximately northwest of the most populous town in the county, Llanelli. In the 2001 census the community of Kidwelly returned a population of 3,289, inc ...

and Cwmmawr section of the line and was closed by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

on Saturday 19 September 1953. It was on the

The railway was originally a freight only line apart from passenger trains for miners, but stations were established due to pressure from the public. The freight service continued for coal traffic until 1996 by which time the last of the local collieries had closed down.SN40SW - A, Surveyed / Revised:Pre-1930 to 1963, Published:1964
/ref>

Infrastructure

The station stood some way to the east of the village centre and had a single platform, a waiting room and ticket office built with corrugated iron and a passing loop with the through line for freight traffic. In 1915 the signal box stood at the eastern end of the platform and the station stood on the southern side of the line. Two water tanks were present in the station area. Carmarthenshire XLVII.11, Revised:1913, Published: 1915
/ref> A goods shed stood to the west of the level crossing and a line ran off to a spoil heap to the north-west. To the east lay the extensive rail network of the Pont-y-Berem Slants Colliery. By 1964 Pont-y-Berem Slants Colliery had closed, as had the station. The line was partly built on the old

Kidwelly and Llanelly Canal The Kidwelly and Llanelly Canal was a canal and tramroad system in Carmarthenshire, Wales, built to carry anthracite coal to the coast for onward transportation by coastal ships. It began life as Kymer's Canal in 1766, which linked pits at Pw ...

, however incline planes were located at several sites such as Ponthenri.Bowen, R.E. (2001). ''The Burry Port & Gwendreath Valley Railway and its Antecedent Canals.'' Usk : The Oakwood Press. . p. 156. BP&GVR

Remnants

The section south of Pinged, between Burry Port and Craiglon Bridge Halt is now a footpath and cycleway, however other sections of the line have formal and informal footpaths on the old trackbed. At Pontyberem the station area has been built on and the trackbed is partly footpathed.

Routes

References

External links