Rhiw Goch is a passing point 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 ...

north of the village 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 ...

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 ...

. It was originally a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

and an exchange point for the horses that worked the line, opening in 1836. Horses were stabled overnight at Rhiw Goch farm, which adjoins the line further south nearer to the village. When the railway converted to using

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s in 1863, Rhiw Goch passing loop was no longer needed and was closed. The passing loop was reinstated at Rhiw Goch in 1975. Its location, approximately equidistant from and stations, allows maximum flexibility in timetabling, permitting up and down trains to cross with minimum waiting. The location provides a long passing loop which accommodates full length Ffestiniog trains. This is the only former 'horse station' at which it is still possible to pass trains, although Cae Ednyfed, lies within the current Minfford station limits. In 1989 the box was taken out of use, with the signal heads being removed and the token instrument from Tan-y-Bwlch, and the although

trap points Catch points and trap points are types of turnout which act as railway safety devices. Both work by guiding railway carriages and trucks from a dangerous route onto a separate, safer track. Catch points are used to derail vehicles which are ou ...

(from Minffordd) were installed at the Tan-y-Bwlch end of the loop, they were never commissioned. During this period, the

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 ...

was only usable as a

refuge siding A refuge siding is a single-ended, or dead-end, siding off a running line, which may be used to temporarily accommodate a train so that another one can pass it. For example, a refuge siding might be used by a slow goods train to allow a fast passen ...

, and it was not possible to cross passenger trains. In 1999 the box was recommissioned, with replacement signal heads being installed, the Tan-y-Bwlch end trap points were removed and new power cabling was installed. Rhiw Goch has the only regularly manned

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'' ...

on the railway and the 1974 vintage box was replaced by a new enlarged box during 2006/7. This included provision for the bats which have made the signal box their home. Although trains regularly stop here to wait for a train travelling in the opposite direction to pass, passengers can not alight from or join trains here. There is no public access to Rhiw Goch except by train.

Sources

* * {{Ffestiniog Railway Ffestiniog Railway