Tan-y-Manod railway station

Tan-y-Manod
The station around 1875
Location
Place	Blaenau Ffestiniog
Area	Gwynedd
Coordinates	52°59′21″N 3°55′45″W / 52.9893°N 3.9292°W / 52.9893; -3.9292Coordinates: 52°59′21″N 3°55′45″W / 52.9893°N 3.9292°W / 52.9893; -3.9292
Grid reference	SH 705 452
Operations
Original company	Festiniog and Blaenau Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Platforms	0[1]
History
29 May 1868	Opened
5 September 1883[2][3]	Station closed to passengers[4]
10 September 1883	Standard gauge service and engine shed opened[5]
1906	Engine shed closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
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Festiniog & Blaenau Railway
to Porthmadog Harbour Dolgarregddu Junction Duffws (FR) Duffws (F&BR) inclines to quarries Glynllifon Street wooden viaduct Tan-y-Manod to Graig Ddu and Manod quarries Tyddyngwyn Festiniog
Key  Ffestiniog Railway Festiniog & Blaenau Rly quarry lines

Bala & Festiniog Railway
Conwy Valley line to Llandudno Ffestiniog Railway to Porthmadog Harbour Blaenau Ffestiniog North Stesion Fain Blaenau Ffestiniog( FR & GWR ) Ffestiniog Railway to Duffws (FR) Duffws (F&BR) Glynllifon Street(F&BR) Former wooden viaduct Tan-y-Manod(F&BR) Craig Ddu Quarry Pengwern Quarry Tyddyngwyn(F&BR) Manod Teigl Halt Festiniog Maentwrog Road Line to south dismantled Trawsfynydd power station loading point Trawsfynydd Lake Halt Trawsfynydd Camp Trawsfynydd Llafar Halt Bryn-Celynog Halt Cwm Prysor Viaduct Cwm Prysor Halt Arenig Capel Celyn Halt Section flooded by Llyn Celyn Tyddyn Bridge Halt (under dam wall) Frongoch Bala (New) Bala Junction Ruabon–Barmouth line to Llandderfel Bala (Penybont) (original Bala Lake Halt) Bala Lake Railway to Llanuwchllyn Ruabon–Barmouth line to Barmouth

Tan-y-Manod railway station was just under one route mile south of the present day Blaenau Ffestiniog station in what was then Merionethshire, now Gwynedd, Wales.

Narrow gauge days

The station was on the 1 ft 11 ³⁄₄ in (603 mm)^[6] narrow gauge Festiniog and Blaenau Railway (F&BR); it opened with the line on 29 May 1868.^[6] The F&BR ran the three and a half route miles from its southern terminus at Llan Ffestiniog to a junction with the Ffestiniog Railway (FR) at Dolgarregddu Junction near what is nowadays Blaenau Ffestiniog station.^[7]

The station site served three purposes:

• a passenger station, whose main but not sole traffic was quarrymen travelling to and from work
• a passing loop, and
• a place where inclines from slate quarries met the F&BR

In common with all other F&BR stations there were no platforms, carriages were very low to the ground, so passengers boarded from and alighted to the trackside. The station had a single-storey building on the eastern, outer, side of the sharply curving track. No details of its facilities have been published.^[8][9] In common with Festiniog and Tyddyngwyn stations, the only published photographs were taken from a distance, they lend the buildings the appearance of corrugated iron. The sole close-up photo is of the line's northern terminus - Duffws (F&BR).^[10] This shows the building to bear a striking resemblance to 21st Century PVC weatherboarding. If the line's other stations were made of the same material that would explain their corrugated mien.

In F&BR days the gauges of the quarries, the F&BR and the Ffestiniog Railway were sufficiently close to allow trucks to pass between the three, with the F&BR being near enough to FR standards to enable FR locos and wagons to use F&BR metals to reach Tan-y-Manod if needed, which they were until F&BR locos arrived some time after the line opened, and occasionally thereafter. Loaded wagons would descend the inclines from Manod and Craig Ddu slate quarries to Tany-y-Manod then be hauled northwards to the FR, who forwarded them to customers or to ships at Porthmadog Harbour.

Services

The February 1878 narrow gauge timetable shows that all trains called at all stations on the line, with

• Northbound ("Up")
  • four public trains running Monday to Saturday
  • an unadvertised morning workmen's train running Monday to Saturday
  • two public evening trains on Saturdays only
    • The journey time from Tan-y-Manod to Duffws (F&BR) was 7 minutes.
• Southbound ("Down")
  • four public trains running Monday to Saturday
  • a morning workmen's train running Monday to Saturday
  • two public evening trains on Saturdays only
  • a teatime workmen's train on Saturdays only
    • The journey time from Duffws (F&BR) to Tan-y-Manod was 3 minutes.
• There was no Sunday service.

Duffws was the F&BR's Blaenau station and would become the site of the town's later GWR station, but it was not the Festiniog Railway's Duffws (FR) station. Through passengers from Tan-y-Manod to Porthmadog Harbour would alight at the F&BR's Duffws station and walk across Church Street in Blaenau to the Festiniog Railway's completely separate Duffws station. Most trains were timetabled to make this process workable, if tight. Whether connecting trains were held in the case of late running is not recorded.^[11]

In the line's early days trains many trains ran "mixed", but this was stopped in 1877.^[12] Unlike most railways in the area passengers were the line's mainstay. In 1879 - a typical year - passenger receipts were £1406 compared with £416 for goods.^[11] No figures have been published specifically for Tan-y-Manod.

The standard gauge approaches

On 1 September 1882 the standard gauge Bala and Festiniog Railway reached Llan Ffestiniog from the south, enabling a passenger from (say) Bala to Tan-y-Manod to transfer from a standard gauge train to a narrow gauge train by walking a few yards, much as modern-day passengers transfer between Conwy Valley Line and Ffestiniog Railway trains at Blaenau Ffestiniog.

From April the following year the narrow gauge line was converted to standard gauge. Narrow gauge trains continued to operate during the conversion, using a third rail and a diversion around the wooden viaduct north of Tan-y-Manod, which was demolished and replaced by a stone version.^[13][14][15] Narrow gauge trains ceased running on 5 September 1883 with standard gauge services beginning on 10 September 1883.

Standard gauge days

The site was quite restricted, being on a curved embankment bounded by hillsides. The Bala and Festiniog Railway, then later the Great Western developed Tan-y-Manod's facilities and priorities, they

• removed the passing loop
• demolished the passenger station building, and
• never provided passenger services

in their place they installed:

• a single "road" (track) engine shed with a water crane
• a 45 feet (14 m) turntable
• a siding, and
• two slate transshipment sidings.^[16][17]

Each transshipment siding (sometimes referred to as a transfer dock or a wharf or a loading bank) had either one or a pair of narrow gauge lines raised on a platform meeting a standard gauge line end-to-end. The standard gauge transporter wagons (sometimes called "host" wagons) were flat wagons with narrow gauge tracks set on top.^[18] The heights of the tracks meant that six slate wagons could be manhandled 'pick-a-back' onto each transporter wagon in pairs, side by side.^[19][20] They were made up to trains then hauled to Blaenau Ffestiniog where either the above process was reversed with the narrow gauge wagons being manually propelled onto the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway or they were unloaded, sorted and transshipped into GWR standard gauge wagons.^[21][22] When the latter happened they ended up travelling southwards past Tan-y-Manod on the way to their final destination.^[23] The layout of at least the most northerly of the raised sidings lent itself to unloading slates conventionally, side-by-side from narrow gauge wagons to standard gauge, but use in this way is not described in sources.^[24]

The GWR, like the LNWR and the FR, provided the quarry owners with free use of narrow gauge wagons in an attempt to promote the use of their own route.^[25] A batch of 50 were ordered from Swindon in 1899, a survivor was on public display at Llechwedd Slate Caverns in 1977.^[20] Slate traffic using the transporter wagons continued until Craig Ddu quarry closed in 1945, after which the transfer sidings lay disused.

The engine shed - a sub-shed of Croes Newydd - closed as long ago as 1906, but it was clearly in use for some purpose in 1936.^[26] The building was demolished between 1936 and 1959 except for the walls towards the rear which supported the water tank which served the water crane, with the buffer stops being moved forwards outside the site of the shed.^[27][28] Walls, tank, crane and turntable remained in use to the last train on 27 January 1961.^[29] It was custom and practice for all locomotives which arrived at Blaenau to be sent to Tan-y-Manod to be watered, serviced and turned. They then returned to Blaenau for their next train southwards, sometimes shunting coal wagons at Blaenau gas works on the way.^[30]

The line reopened

The line closed in 1961 but it was mothballed pending building the long-discussed cross-town link to enable trains to run along the Conwy Valley Line, through Blaenau and on to Trawsfynydd nuclear power station which was then being built. The line past the site of Tan-y-Manod station, the engine shed and transshipment sidings reopened on 24 April 1964, but none of Tan-y-Manod's facilities were brought back to life. The line closed again in 1998 as the nuclear plant was being decommissioned. Once more the route was mothballed in case a future use is found.

The station site in the 21st Century

By 2011 the whole site had been completely demolished. In Spring 2016 the mothballed single track line still ran past the site to the former nuclear flask loading point.

The future

Between 2000 and 2011 there were at least two attempts to put the remaining line to use. In 2011 there were proposals to use the rails as a recreational velorail track.^[31] Neither this nor the earlier idea came to anything. The possibility remains that the surviving line could see future preservation or reuse by the nuclear industry.^[32]

To considerable local surprise fresh moves to reopen the line from Blaenau as far south as Trawsfynydd began in September 2016, with the formation of The Trawsfynydd & Blaenau Ffestiniog Community Railway Company.^[33] On 21 September at least one regional newspaper reported that "Volunteers are set to start work this weekend on clearing vegetation from the trackbed between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Trawsfynydd." The company was quoted as saying "We have been given a licence by Network Rail to clear and survey the line."^{[34][35][36][37]}

Gallery

• "Blaenau Ffestiniog North, Manod & Tan-y-Manod". Britain from Above. 
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog Central, Duffws (FR) & Tan-y-Manod". Britain from Above. 
• "Tan-y-Manod". Britain from Above. 
• "Manod, Tan-y-Manod, Blaenau Ffestiniog Central & Duffws (FR)". Britain from Above. 
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog North to Manod". Britain from Above. 
• "Manod & Tan-y-Manod". Britain from Above. 

References

Sources

• Boyd, James I.C. (October 1959). Mansell, K.G., ed. "Bala & Festiniog Section - W.R.". Railway World. London: Railway World Limited. 20 (233). 
• Boyd, James I. C. (1988) [1972]. Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire – Volume 1. Headington: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0-85361-365-7. OCLC 20417464. 
• 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. 
• Coleford, I. C. (October 2010a). Smith, Martin, ed. "By GWR to Blaenau Ffestiniog (Part One)". Railway Bylines. Radstock: Irwell Press Limited. 15 (11). 
• Crump, Eryl (21 September 2016). "Back on Track. Dream of reopening railway moves step closer". Daily Post. Wales. 
• 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. 
• Hatherill, Gordon; Hatherill, Ann (2009). Slate Quarry Album. Garndolbenmaen: RCL Publications. ISBN 9780953876389. 
• Messenger, Michael (2008). Slate Quarry Railways of Gwynedd. Truro: Twelveheads Press. ISBN 978 0 906294 68 0. 
• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2010). Bala to Llandudno: Featuring Blaenau Ffestiniog. Midhurst, West Sussex: Middleton Press (MD). ISBN 978 1 906008 87 1. 
• Pagnamenta, Robin (23 May 2016). "Rivals line up to build small nuclear plants in Snowdonia". The Times. London. 
• Prideaux, J.D.C.A. (1982). The Welsh narrow gauge railway: A pictorial history (2nd ed.). Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 8354 X. 
• 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. 
• Richards, Alun John (2001). The Slate Railways of Wales. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-689-4. 
• Southern, D. W. (1995). Bala Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog (Scenes from the Past, Railways of North Wales, No. 25). Stockport: Foxline Publishing. ISBN 1 8701 19 34 7. 

Further material

• Baughan, Peter E. (1980). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 11 North and Mid Wales (1st ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7850-3. OCLC 6823219. 
• Christiansen, Rex (1976). Forgotten Railways: North and Mid Wales. Newton Abbot, Devon: David and Charles. ISBN 0 7153 7059 6. 
• Coleford, I. C. (November 2010b). Smith, Martin, ed. "By GWR to Blaenau Ffestiniog (Part Two)". Railway Bylines. Radstock: Irwell Press Limited. 15 (12). 
• Ferris, Tom (2004) [1961]. British Railways Volume 4 - Bewdley To Blaenau (DVD). demanddvd. DEMDVD084. 
• Green, C.C. (1996) [1983]. North Wales Branch Line Album. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0 7110 1252 0. 
• Jones, Ivor Wynne; Hatherill, Gordon (1977). Llechwedd and other Ffestiniog Railways. Blaenau Ffestiniog: Quarry Tours Ltd. ISBN 0-9502895-9-0. 
• Morton Lloyd, M.E. (April 1961). Cooke, B.W.C., ed. "Farewell to Bala-Blaenau Branch". The Railway Magazine. London: Tothill Press Limited. 107 (720). 
• Turner, Alun (2003). Gwynedd's Lost Railways. Catrine, Ayrshire: Stenlake Publishing. ISBN 9781840332599. 

External links

• The station site on a navigable OS Map, via National Library of Scotland
• The site on a navigable 1953 OS map, via npe Maps
• The station and line, via Rail Map Online
• The line LJT2 with mileages, via Railway Codes
• Reminiscences by a local railwayman, via Forgotten Relics
• Driver's view through the station to Blaenau, via YouTube
• Several photos of the line, via Penmorfa
• Several photos of the line, via Penmorfa
• The line in 2009, via The Railway Muddler
• A special along the line, via 2D53
• Details of Summer 1989 excursions through the station, via Six Bells Junction
• Details and photos of 22 Jan 1961 railtour, via Six Bells Junction
• Photos of 22 Jan 1961 railtour, via Robert Darlaston
• The 22 Jan 1961 last train special, via YouTube
• An inspection saloon ride on the line, Part 1, via YouTube
• An inspection saloon ride on the line, Part 2, via YouTube