Dolygaer railway station (alternatively, Dol-y-gaer railway station) was a station serving the hamlet of Dol-y-gaer and the area adjacent to Pen-twyn Reservoir (now incorporated into the Pontsticill Reservoir) in

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

, Wales.

History

The station was opened on 19 March 1863 when the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway commenced operations between and . In 1866 the service through the station was 3 trains in each direction on weekdays only. The line through Dolygaer station was single track, without passing facilities, and there was one platform with a single storey building. The station was staffed until 1932. The line and station was closed to passengers on 31 December 1962 and to goods on 4 May 1964. Dolygaer became a temporary terminus on the

Brecon Mountain Railway The Brecon Mountain Railway (Welsh: ''Rheilffordd Mynydd Brycheiniog'') is a narrow gauge tourist railway on the south side of the Brecon Beacons. It climbs northwards from Pant along the full length of the Pontsticill Reservoir (also called ...

(BMR) when the re-opened line was extended in 1995 to a new site south of the original station, with permanent way subsequently extended (by 2000) through the original station site also. This arrangement ceased in 2014 when the BMR further extended passenger services to

Torpantau Torpantau railway station is a station in the Welsh county of Brecknockshire (now in Powys), and the northern terminus of the narrow gauge Brecon Mountain Railway. It had previously been a station on the standard gauge line from Merthyr to ...

Current use

The site of the station is today operated as the ''Plas Dolygaer'' Scout centre, with accommodation for Scout groups of up to 40 people. The centre incorporates the station platform, although this is now out of use. The line through the station site was re-opened in 1995 by the

, a tourist railway. A short platform has been constructed to narrow-gauge dimensions immediately beside the Plas Dolygaer Scout centre (on the original standard gauge dimension platform level), but the platform is unused, and the station remains closed to railway operations. A short distance to the south of Dolygaer station, on the opposite side of the ''Nant Callan'' river, the railway company has installed the Dolygaer

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 ...

Related attractions

The station has an adjacent cave, the Dolygaer Station Cave, or Ogof Dolygear, popular with

cavers Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is ...

References

Bibliography

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History

Current use

Related attractions

References

Bibliography

Further reading