Abermule railway station

Abermule railway station served the village of Abermule in Wales. Served by the Oswestry and Newtown railway, it was situated on the English border. Until 1956 it was the junction for the short branch to Kerry, which had a passenger service until 1931 but was largely built for the local timber traffic.

Abermule
Abermule railway station in 1953
Location
PlaceAbermule
AreaPowys
Operations
Original companyOswestry and Newtown Railway
Pre-groupingCambrian Railways
Post-groupingGreat Western Railway
Platforms3
History
14 August 1860[1]Opened
14 June 1965[1]Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain
A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z
Remains of the station in 1994

History

Opened by the Oswestry and Newtown Railway in 1860 (as a temporary rail head - the line to Welshpool not being ready until the following year) and then run by the Cambrian Railways, it became part of the Great Western Railway during the Grouping of 1923.[2] The Kerry branch was opened in July 1863, with Abermule acting as the terminus for the passenger service. This was infrequent under Cambrian management (as few as one a day each way), though the GWR tried to improve loadings by opening two intermediate halts and increasing the service frequency after the grouping. By the late 1920s though, the timetable had shrunk back to just two return trips each weekday and these finally ended in February 1931.

The line then passed on to the Western Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. Freight traffic on the Kerry branch ended on 1 May 1956 and it was subsequently dismantled. The station was then closed by the British Railways Board on 14 June 1965 (along with many other wayside stations) as a result of the Beeching Axe.[2]

Abermule train collision

The Abermule train collision was a head-on collision which occurred between Abermule and Newtown on 26 January 1921, killing 17 people. The crash arose from misunderstandings between staff which effectively over-rode the safe operation of the Electric Train Tablet protecting the single line. A train departed carrying the wrong tablet for the section it was entering and collided with a train coming the other way.

The site today

Trains pass through the site on the Cambrian Line, but the only surviving structure is the former station house. The platforms, waiting shelters and signal box have all been demolished, with the level crossing here now automated.[2]

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References
  1. Butt 1995, p. 12.
  2. Disused Stations - Abermule Disused Stations Site Record; Retrieved 31 July 2017

Sources
  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • Jowett, A. (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas. Atlantic Publishing. ISBN 0-906899-99-0.

Further reading
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2008). Shrewsbury to Newtown. Middleton Press. figs. 89-99. ISBN 9781906008291. OCLC 228374968.
Preceding station Historical railways Following station
Montgomery
Line open, station closed		   Cambrian Railways
Oswestry and Newtown Railway		   Newtown
Line and station open
Disused railways
Terminus   Cambrian Railways
Kerry Branch		   Ffronfraith Halt
Line and station closed


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