Nantlle railway station

Nantlle was a railway station located in Talysarn, a neighbouring village to Nantlle, in Gwynedd, Wales.

Nantlle
Nantlle railway station c 1875
Location
PlaceTalysarn
AreaGwynedd
Coordinates53.0522°N 4.2577°W / 53.0522; -4.2577
Grid referenceSH 487 529
Operations
Original companyLondon and North Western Railway
Post-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway
Platforms1[1]
History
1 October 1872Opened
1 January 1917Closed as a wartime economy measure
5 May 1919[2] or July 1919[3]Reopened
8 August 1932Closed to passengers
2 December 1963Closed completely[4][5][3]
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

From 1828 the narrow gauge, horse-drawn Nantlle Railway ran from wharves at Caernarfon through Penygroes and through the site of the future Nantlle station to slate quarries around the village of Nantlle. In the 1860s the Carnarvonshire Railway built a new standard gauge line southwards from Caernarfon to Afon Wen, replacing the Nantlle Railway's tracks as far south as Penygroes. The Nantlle quarries and railway were very much still in business, so they continued to send their products to Caernarfon by transhipping them onto the new railway at Tyddyn Bengam a short distance north of Penygroes.

This arrangement continued until 1872 when the LNWR repeated the earlier process and built a standard gauge branch partly on the Nantlle Railway trackbed from Penygroes to Talysarn, where it built a wholly new passenger station which it called Nantlle, though in reality the branch only reached half way to the village of Nantlle. This station included a locomotive servicing area at its eastern end.[6]

From then onwards products were transshipped from the quarry wagons onto standard gauge wagons in the goods yard[7] at "Nantlle" station. The narrow gauge wagons were manoeuvred by horse and by hand, a way of working which, remarkably, survived until 1963, becoming British Railway's last horse-drawn line.[8][9][10]

Passenger traffic along the branch, which was less than a mile and a half long, was not heavy. The station closed to normal passenger traffic in 1932, though excursion traffic (mostly outbound from Nantlle) continued until 1939.

The station closed completely in 1963. The station building was still standing in 2012, though most other infrastructure had long been built over.[11]

References
  1. Mitchell & Smith 2010, Photos 53-59 & Map XV.
  2. Quick 2009, p. 284.
  3. Turner 2003, p. 13.
  4. Butt 1995, p. 166.
  5. The station, via Disused Stations
  6. Griffiths & Smith 1999, p. 197.
  7. "Nantlle (Talysarn) exchange sidings". flickr.
  8. Welbourn 2000, pp 107-8 & rear cover.
  9. Rear 2012, pp. 47-8.
  10. Christiansen 1976, p. 124.
  11. Shannon & Hillmer 1999, pp. 22-23.

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.
  • Christiansen, Rex (1976). Forgotten Railways: North and Mid Wales. Newton Abbot, Devon: David and Charles. ISBN 0 7153 7059 6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Griffiths, Roger; Smith, Paul (1999). The Directory of British Engine Sheds and Principal Locomotive Servicing Points: 1 Southern England, the Midlands, East Anglia and Wales. OPC Railprint. ISBN 978-0-86093-542-1. OCLC 59458015.
  • Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2010). Bangor to Portmadoc: Including Three Llanberis Lines. Country Railway Routes. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 978 1 906008 72 7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC 612226077.
  • Rear, W.G. (2012). Caernarvon & the Lines from Afonwen & Llanberis: 28: Scenes from the Past Railways of North Wales. Nottingham: Book Law Publications. ISBN 9 781907 094781.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Shannon, Paul; Hillmer, John (1999). North Wales (British Railways Past & Present) Part 2. Kettering: Past & Present Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-85895-163-1. No 36.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Turner, Alun (2003). Gwynedd's Lost Railways. Catrine, Ayrshire: Stenlake Publishing. ISBN 9781840332599.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Welbourn, Nigel (2000). Lost Lines: British Narrow Gauge. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-2742-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further material
  • Clemens, Jim (2003) [1959-67]. North Wales Steam Lines No. 6 (DVD). Uffington, Shropshire: B&R Video Productions. BRVP No 79.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Dunn, J.M. (September 1958). Cooke, B.W.C. (ed.). "The Afonwen Line-1". The Railway Magazine. London: Tothill Press Limited. 104 (689).
  • Smith, Martin, ed. (May 2011). "The Nantlle Tramway". Railway Bylines. Vol. 16 no. 6. Clophill, Bedfordshire: Irwell Press. pp. 306–313. ISSN 1360-2098.
Preceding station Historical railways Following station
Terminus   London and North Western Railway   Penygroes
Line and Station closed
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