Raglan railway station was a station on the

Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway The Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway (CMU&PR) was a standard gauge railway of which ran from Monmouth to Little Mill, near Pontypool in Monmouthshire, Wales. It was intended to convey the mineral products of the Forest of Dean to th ...

. It was not opened when the line was originally built, but constructed in 1876 to replace two previous stopping places, Raglan Footpath, a small station which was situated a little further west, and Raglan Road, an unofficial halt which closed in July 1876 and was reopened as 'Raglan Road Crossing Halt' in November 1930 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 ...

.Stanley C Jenkins, ''The Ross, Monmouth and Pontypool Road Line'', revised second edition 2009, The station was 6 miles and 34

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 ...

from Monmouth Troy and was intended to improve the railway facilities at the nearby village of

Raglan Raglan may refer to: People *FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855), British Army officer, commander of British troops during the Crimean War *Raglan (surname) *Raglan Squire (1912–2004), British architect Places Australia *Count ...

, which was the site a large

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Newman, John (2000) ''The Buildings of Wales: Monmouthshire''. London: Penguin which provided a steady stream of tourist traffic. It was closed in May 1955 due to a train drivers

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

and was never reopened though a couple of special services continued to run along the stretch of track over the next few years, including a centenary special organised by the

Stephenson Locomotive Society The Stephenson Locomotive Society (SLS) was founded in the UK in Autumn 1909 for the study of rail transport and locomotives. More recently, on 1 January 2017, the SLS became a private company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales ...

in 1957.

Facilities

Though the station provided access to the fair-sized village of Raglan and its castle, traffic figures were quite modest, in the

Edwardian era The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

, around 10,000 passenger tickets were issued which steadily declined until its closure; by 1930 only 1,190 tickets were issued. Goods traffic also decreased between 1929 and 1935 by 354 tons but then took a dive downwards and by 1938 goods traffic handled had dropped by 3,458 tons to only 1,511 tons of freight being passed through the station. The station facilities consisted of little more than a single platform on the up side of the line, a small goods yard which included a little coal wharf and a cattle loading dock. The station was made of red bricks and the design was typical of the GWR at the time, a low-pitched, roof and a small canopy which projected out towards the platform. Raglan also had a small Great Western corrugated pagoda, constructed in 1910 which was used to lock up parcels and other small goods items. By 1912 the station had a small crane which could handle about 4 tons which was shown in the 'Handbook of Stations', published by the

Railway Clearing House The Railway Clearing House (RCH) was an organisation set up to manage the allocation of revenue collected by pre-grouping railway companies for the conveyance of passengers and goods over the lines (or using the rolling stock) of other compani ...

– although this had gone by the 1930s. The staff at the station consisted of three until the 1930s when the GWR reduced the staff to two in order to try to make the station profitable.

Goods Yard

The goods yard at Raglan had two goods sidings, one of which was a loop with connections to the main railway line at either end and the other ended at the coal wharf. Both sidings were controlled by

ground frame Mechanical railway signalling installations rely on lever frames for their operation to interlock the signals, track locks and points to allow the safe operation of trains in the area the signals control. Usually located in the signal box, the ...

s. There were two wharves which were rented to local businesses, the largest of which was used for coal and was approximately 41 square yards, it was used by Messrs Davies, Jones & Clench Ltd. The other wharf was about 25 square yards and was mainly used for agricultural purposes.

After closure

In the late 1960s much of the route between Usk and Monmouth was used for the new A449 dual carriageway which opened in 1970. The new road ran near to the station, and the yard became a road maintenance depot. In 2009 the owners of the site,

Monmouthshire County Council Monmouthshire County Council (or simply Monmouthshire Council) ( cy, Cyngor Sir Fynwy) is the governing body for the Monmouthshire principal area – one of the unitary authorities of Wales. The current unitary authority was created in 1996 an ...

, proposed offering the station building to

St Fagans National Museum of History St Fagans National Museum of History ( ; cy, Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru, links=no), commonly referred to as St Fagans after the village where it is located, is an open-air museum in Cardiff chronicling the historical lifestyle, cultur ...

. The proposal was approved by the council in December, with the museum expressing an interest. The station building may become a static display with track or become an active station for visitors to the museum. In October 2012 the museum formally accepted the council's offer, and the station was handed over in November. In 2014 the dismantled station was still in storage. A spokesman for the museum stated that the project remains a priority but work will not start until the current major redevelopment is completed in 2019.

References

{{Coord, 51.7630, -2.8400, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Disused railway stations in Monmouthshire Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1876 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1955