Abergynolwyn railway station
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Abergynolwyn railway station is a station on the
Talyllyn Railway The Talyllyn Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Talyllyn) is a narrow gauge preserved railway in Wales running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1865Drummond 2015, page 17 ...
near
Abergynolwyn Abergynolwyn ( en, Mouth of the River with a Whirlpool) is a village in southern Gwynedd, Wales, located at the confluence of the Nant Gwernol and the Afon Dysynni. The population of the community which is named after the village of Llanfiha ...
,
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 ...
, in
Mid-Wales Mid Wales ( cy, Canolbarth Cymru or simply ''Y Canolbarth'', meaning "the midlands") or Central Wales refers to a region of Wales, encompassing its midlands, in-between North Wales and South Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the Senedd ...
. It is from . The name 'Abergynolwyn' means 'Mouth-of-the-River-with-a-Whirlpool'.


History


Pre-preservation


Operation

Abergynolwyn was the original passenger terminus. A mineral line extended south-west to the
incline Incline, inclined, inclining, or inclination may refer to: *Grade (slope), the tilt, steepness, or angle from horizontal of a topographic feature (hillside, meadow, etc.) or constructed element (road, railway, field, etc.) *Slope, the tilt, steepn ...
up to the
slate quarry The slate industry is the industry related to the extraction and processing of slate. Slate is either quarried from a ''slate quarry'' or reached by tunneling in a ''slate mine''. Common uses for slate include as a roofing material, a flooring ma ...
at
Bryn Eglwys Bryn Eglwys quarry was a slate quarry and mine near Abergynolwyn, in Merionethshire (now part of Gwynedd), Wales. More than 300 men worked at the site, making it the principal employer in the area. Two veins of slate, known as the Broad Vein ...
. The railway's first locomotive shed was at Ty Dwr, west of the station. This location was chosen as it had a plentiful water supply from the local stream, and was close to the quarry, which supplied some of the building materials. From February 1867, passenger trains started from instead, where the railway's permanent locomotive shed had been built. The siding leading to the locomotive shed at Ty Dwr was removed, but the water column was retained, and was still used until the early 1950s.''Talyllyn News'' – the quarterly magazine of the TRPS – issue number 260.


Buildings and Station layout

The original station building was built for the opening of the railway to passenger services in 1867. It was of timber construction – like the station building at (which was the only other passenger station on the railway when the railway was opened). The station was not built out of slate, like all the other stations on the railway, because it was built before the railway's construction finished, when there was no slate from the Bryn Eglwys quarry to build it out of. A platform was provided for passengers, on the north side of the line. A siding was provided at the west end of the station, just before the start of the run-round loop. The date at which this was first laid is unknown, but it was between 1889 and 1901; it was taken out of use shortly before the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The siding was reinstated during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
to load pit props from nearby forests to be taken down to Tywyn. The siding was removed again in the early 1950s. In the 1930s, the station building was replaced, because the original building was in need of extensive repairs which would have been uneconomical to do. The new building was built out of
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
blocks, like most of the other buildings on the railway. The west end of the building was used as a lookout post for the
Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...
during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and gunports were cut in the west wall of the station.


Post-preservation


Operation

The watering point at Ty Dwr fell out of use in the early 1950s, shortly after preservation. In 1955, the tower was removed as the slate was needed to build a retaining wall at the site of a major landslip approximately south of . In December 2018, a project was launched to re-build the water tower. In 1976, the -long mineral extension to the foot of the
Alltwyllt incline The Talyllyn Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Talyllyn) is a narrow gauge preserved railway in Wales running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1865Drummond 2015, page 17 ...
was re-opened for passenger services. was built at the new terminus. Abergynolwyn remains the principal station at the eastern end of the line as it has better passenger facilities than Nant Gwernol.


Buildings

The station building was replaced again in 1969, with a larger building, also constructed out of slate, as the 1930s structure was both in need of much repair and too small to serve the increasing tourist traffic being carried. This newest building has since been extended to the west, the extension looking externally similar to the original wooden station building. When the railway was extended to Nant Gwernol, it became necessary to accommodate two trains simultaneously, so the platform was extended to long, believed to have been the longest
platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...
on
narrow gauge railway 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 structur ...
in Britain at the time. A signal box with a 14-lever
lever 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 also constructed at the same time. The base of the signal box was constructed out of slate blocks salvaged from derelict buildings in the
Bryn Eglwys quarry Bryn Eglwys quarry was a slate quarry and mine near Abergynolwyn, in Merionethshire (now part of Gwynedd), Wales. More than 300 men worked at the site, making it the principal employer in the area. Two veins of slate, known as the Broad Vein a ...
. On 6 May 1991, a toilet block was opened just to the north-east of the station building.


In fiction

In
The Railway Series ''The Railway Series'' is a series of British books about a railway known as the North Western Railway, located on the fictional Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry. Twen ...
by
Rev. Wilbert Awdry Wilbert Vere Awdry (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997) was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He was best known for creating Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas and several other characters he created appeared i ...
, Skarloey station on the
Skarloey Railway The Island of Sodor is a fictional island featured as the setting for ''The Railway Series'' books by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry (and his son Christopher), begun in 1945, and for the popular ''Thomas & Friends'' television series since 1984, alth ...
was based on this station.


Gallery

File:A train in Abergynolwyn station on the Talyllyn railway NLW3363937.jpg, A train in Abergynolwyn station, with the original station building, looking east circa 1885. File:Abergynolwyn station geograph-3278277-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg, A train in Abergynolwyn station, with the station's second, slate, station building, looking west. 3 August 1951. File:Abergynolwyn station geograph-3278206-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg, A train in Abergynolwyn station, looking east, 26 September 1953. File:Talyllyn Railway train at Abergynolwyn station - geograph.org.uk - 1657343.jpg, A train in Abergynolwyn station, looking east, 29 December 2009 The newest station, with its western extension, is visible on the left. File:Abergynolwyn Signal Box.jpg, The new signal box at Abergynolwyn.


References

*Talyllyn Railway Guide Book * * *


External links


Station on navigable O.S. map
{{Gwynedd railway stations Heritage railway stations in Gwynedd Talyllyn Railway stations 1866 establishments in Wales Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1866 Abergynolwyn