Caernarfon railway station

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Coordinates: 53°8′15″N 4°16′19″W / 53.1375, -4.27194

Caernarfon

Location

Place

Caernarfon

Local authority

Gwynedd

Operations

Managed by

Ffestiniog Railway

Platforms in use

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A view of the station from the pedestrian overbridge in August 2005.

Welsh Highland train, hauled by Ffestiniog Railway locomotive 'Prince' departs Caernarfon station.

Caernarfon is the new northern terminus of the extended narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway from Dinas and the station was opened on 11 October 1997. The railway between Caernarfon and Dinas was formerly part of the standard gauge Carnarvonshire Railway, later LNWR and LMS, ^[1] between Caernarfon and Afon Wen, which was closed by British Railways in December 1964, and the tracks lifted.

The present Caernarfon station is on the old standard gauge trackbed adjacent to St. Helen's Road, opposite the former locomotive works of De Winton & Co. and beneath the high retaining walls of Segontium Terrace, which can be reached from St. Helen's Road by a pedestrian overbridge. The station buildings accommodate the booking office, a tourist shop and passenger facilities. In the winter of 2005/06 the passenger platform and run around loop at Caernarfon was lengthened to permit the operation of trains up to 10 coaches long.

The narrow gauge line was built from Dinas to Caernarfon in 1997 thus providing the narrow gauge extension to Caernarfon of the Welsh Highland Railway that was originally authorised by Act of Parliament but not built. Between Caernarfon and Dinas, the new Welsh Highland line shares the old standard gauge trackbed with the 'Lôn Eifion' tourist cycle track. The new narrow gauge line is operated by the Ffestiniog Railway under the provisions of The Caernarfon Railway Light Railway Order 1997 made 8 October 1997 ^[2].

The line was extended from Dinas in 2000 on the old Welsh Highland Railway route, following the complete reconstruction of the railway, to Waunfawr and again in 2003 to Rhyd Ddu. The reconstruction of the Welsh Highland Railway southwards from Rhyd Ddu to Porthmadog started in 2005. The train services are operated by the Ffestiniog Railway Company.

Northwards of the present Caernarfon station, the former standard gauge line ran through a tunnel, which is now used by a public road, to the site of the original Caernarfon station. The LNWR was under an obligation to build a station on this site (below Segontium Terrace), however the town corporation waived its claim to this station ^[3].

[edit] References

^ Conolly, W.P. (1967) Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazeteer, 5th Ed. Repr. 1997, Ian Allen, p. 19, ISBN 0-7110-0320-3
^ The Caernarfon Railway Light Railway Order 1997
^ Rear, W.G. (1996) Caernarvon and the lines from Afonwen and Llanberis, Scenes from the past No. 28: Railways of North Wales, Foxline Publishing, ISBN 1-870119-42-8

Boyd, J.I.C. (1988) Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire: Volume 1, The British Narrow Gauge Railway Series No. B4A, The Oakwood Press, ISBN 0-85361-365-6. (Reprint of 1972 edition)
Boyd, J.I.C. (1989) Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire: Volume 2, Welsh Highlands, The British Narrow Gauge Railway Series No. B4B, The Oakwood Press, ISBN 0-85361-383-4
Johnson, P. (2002) An Illustrated History of the Welsh Highland Railway, Oxford Publishing Co., p. 93-97, ISBN 0-86093-565-5