On 10 September 1883, the Bala and Festiniog Railway (B&FR) and the Festiniog Railway (FR) opened what would be known as an interchange station in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Merionethshire, Wales. Merionethshire is now part of the county of Gwynedd.
The station was initially named plain "Blaenau Festiniog" (without a second f), being renamed Blaenau Ffestiniog Central in 1951. It closed to passengers on 4 January 1960 and closed completely a year later. The B&FR was part of the Great Western Railway in all but name, becoming vested in the GWR in 1910.
Context The evolution of Blaenau's passenger stations was complex, with five different railway companies providing services to the area.
Origins The Festiniog Railway's narrow gauge line from Portmadoc to ran through the future site of Blaenau Ffestiniog Central from 1865, but there was no platform or stopping place. In 1868 the narrow gauge Festiniog and Blaenau Railway (F&BR) opened a line the three and a half miles from Llan Ffestiniog to Blaenau, making a junction with the FR a short distance west of the future Blaenau Ffestiniog Central, this junction - named Dolgarregddu Junction - was for goods only. The F&BR opened their Blaenau passenger terminus almost exactly in the site of the future Blaenau Ffestiniog Central; it was named . From 1868 to 1883 there were therefore two wholly separate "Duffws" stations a short distance apart on opposite sides of Church Street. Passengers wishing to travel from (say) Bala to could travel by horse-drawn coach to Llan Ffestiniog, then buy a through ticket, changing trains in Blaenau by walking the couple of hundred yards between the two Duffwses.
The standard gauge Great Western Railway (GWR), through the nominally independent Bala and Festiniog Railway, reached Llan Ffestiniog from Bala in 1882. A passenger from (say) Bala to Tan-y-Bwlch could buy a through ticket and change at Llan Ffestiniog by walking a short distance between the standard gauge GWR platform and the narrow gauge F&BR platform, then, on reaching Blaenau, change once more by walking from to .
Later in 1882 the GWR (through the Bala and Festiniog Railway) set about replacing the narrow gauge Festiniog and Blaenau Railway with standard gauge tracks, this was relatively straightforward because the F&BR line had been built on narrow gauge tracks but within standard gauge infrastructure. Narrow gauge services continued until four days before change over by laying a third rail between the new standard gauge tracks. There were only two difficult areas - the wooden viaduct between Tan-y-Manod and Blaenau Ffestiniog Central-to-be.
The wooden viaduct was too flimsy and had to be replaced with a masonry structure.
The terminus posed a different set of problems; essentially, it was in the way. A temporary F&BR terminus was opened at , a couple of hundred yards short of Duffws, which was closed and razed to the ground to enable the new interchange station and sizable goods and slate-transfer yard to be built.
Although the new station was not finished, it was sufficiently ready to open on 10 September 1883. Dolgarreg Ddu Junction was no more because the FR and the line from Bala were different gauges, nevertheless, the passenger from Bala to Tan-y-Bwlch would henceforth merely change platforms at the new "Blaenau Festiniog".
The station and slate wharves The standard gauge platform was longer than the F&BR station it replaced and the narrow gauge platform was a new feature, but the passenger facilities were scarcely more than before. The goods facilities were another matter. The new platform featured a cattle loading dock at its southern end, but the goods yard was transformed. The site's footprint was constrained by the FR lines, the siding to Newborough Mills and existing buildings, so a great deal was crammed into a confined area, made tricky operationally because the standard gauge lines converged at a single, short headshunt at the northern end and a single track at the southern end. At where narrow gauge met LNWR standard gauge the two sets of lines were laid so they never crossed, like sticking two table forks into each other end-to-end. The GWR/FR yard, by contrast, had standard gauge lines crossing, parallel to and abutting narrow gauge lines, this last because the slate transporter wagons used by the GWR were end-loading.
The goods yard was dominated by a goods shed with one narrow gauge line and one standard gauge line.
Three tracks stood opposite the standard gauge platform: the platform line, a run-round loop and a siding frequently used to house workmen's coaches. All three, the goods shed and the FR line were originally controlled by three signalboxes, one FR, north of its lines, one GWR and one GWR/FR joint, situated on the Vee platform. Operationally the FR became a Light Railway in 1923, sharply reducing its signalling infrastructure, so in 1926 the GWR replaced its original 'box and the joint 'box with the structure which survived until final closure in 1961.
To save space at Blaenau the engine shed for the north end of the line was three quarters of a mile away at .
As nearby statuary records, the station was sometimes referred to locally as "Stesion Gret".
The station as an interchange As well as the three short-lived termini at , and there have been four passenger interchanges in Blaenau: from 1868 to 1883 the FR and F&BR partially co-ordinated timetables so passengers could make connections via a brisk walk between and stations the modern makes sustained efforts to provide for and promote traffic between the Conwy Valley Line and the revived FR the adjacent stations and Blaenau Festiniog (LNWR, later LMSR) made demonstrable efforts from 1881 to 1939 the best-equipped of the three was the GWR/FR joint station but those companies' efforts to promote interchange traffic were the feeblest.
The station was central to the town. It was level and V-shaped, with a single line for each company on each side of the V, giving interchange passengers the easiest possible transfer between platforms. In 1910, however, just one train from Portmadoc called, at 09:19. This connected with the 09:35 GWR train to Bala. No FR trains called in the opposite direction, connecting or otherwise.
The position had improved by 1922, when trains called from Portmadoc at 09:24 and 14:33, connecting with GWR trains departing at 09:30 and 14:35 respectively. In the opposite direction the GWR train terminating at 12:33 connected with the sole call on the FR platform at 12:37. Whether trains were held for late connections is not recorded. The FR's 1936 timetable for "Tourist" trains stated they "formed suitable connections with the L.M. and S. and G.W. Coys. in both directions at Blaenau Festiniog."
There was no discernible attempt to co-ordinate times so that someone travelling from (say) Bala to could avoid a long sojourn in Blaenau, whether walking or using the FR to travel between the GWR and LNWR stations. 1950s evidence of station usage on the GWR line suggests the numbers were likely to have been very small anyway.
This bleak analysis hides the area's biggest passenger flows - workmen's trains - which did not appear in public timetables. In F&BR days these formed the bulk of passenger traffic and the railway's revenues. The GWR and BR(W) provided workmen's trains up to closure in 1960, as did the FR until its closure in 1939, evidence of these services meeting at the station is sought.
Services In 1931 the FR platform became the company's Blaenau terminus with the closure of , this led to an increase in trains, but the service remained very limited as the FR struggled with declining traffic. The FR closed completely on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Their passenger line became progressively overgrown, but their erstwhile goods line remained in use by the quarries, using their own staff and locomotives, to transport slate to the exchange yard at what would become . This petered out over years, finally ending on 3 November 1962, after which the ever-decreasing amounts of slate were put onto lorries.
From 1939 the GWR and from 1948 the BR(W) were the sole users of the station. The goods yard held narrow gauge wagons throughout the 1950s, but evidence is sought whether they were active at any time after 1939.
The September 1959 timetable shows Northbound three trains calling at all stations from Bala to Blaenau on Monday to Saturday an extra evening train calling at all stations from Bala to Blaenau on Saturday a Monday to Friday train calling at all stations from Bala to Trawsfynydd The journey time from Bala to Blaenau was just over an hour and a half. Southbound three trains calling at all stations from Blaenau to Bala on Monday to Saturday two extra trains calling at all stations from Blaenau to Bala on Saturday an extra train calling at all stations from Blaenau to Trawsfynydd on Saturday evening a Monday to Friday train calling at all stations from Blaenau to Bala, except Llafar, Bryn-celynog and Cwm Prysor Halts The journey time from Blaenau to Bala was around an hour and a quarter. There was no Sunday service.
After the Second World War most trains were composed of two carriages, with one regular out and back run comprising just one brake third coach of which a quarter was given over to space for the guard, his equipment and space for goods and parcels. At least one train along the line regularly ran as a mixed train, with a second between Bala and Arenig. By that time such trains had become rare on Britain's railways. Workmen's trains had been a feature of the line from the outset; they were the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway's biggest source of revenue. Such a service between Trawsfynydd and Blaenau Ffestiniog survived until the line's closure to passengers in 1960. Until 1930 at the earliest, such services used dedicated, lower standard, coaches which used a specific siding at Blaenau where the men boarded from and alighted to the ballast. A photograph from 1937 has been published which shows a train of six-coaches standing at the platform. Five of the coaches were clerestory, suggesting the service was at least partly for workmen.
The station handled some tourist traffic, one destination being Cynfal Falls a mile from .
The line from Bala to Trawsfynydd was designated in the restrictive "Blue" weight limit, with the section from Trawsfynydd to Blaenau limited even more tightly to "Yellow". The literature conjectures on overweight classes being used on troop trains, but no solid claim or photograph has been published. Only three steam age photos of the line show anything other than an 0-4-2 or 0-6-0 tank engine, two being of GWR 2251 Class 0-6-0s taken in the 1940s. with a third being on a Dean 0-6-0 on a troop train in GWR days. As the 1950s passed "5700" and "7400" 0-6-PTs stole the show, exemplified by 9610 at Festiniog in the 1950s. 0-4-2T engines "..suffer[ed] from limited tank capacity and power."
Closure and reopening By the 1950s the line was deemed unremunerative. A survey undertaken in 1956 and 1957 found that the average daily numbers of passengers boarding and alighting were:
Blaenau Ffestiniog Central 62 and 65 Manod Halt 7 and 4 Teigl Halt 5 and 5 Festiniog 28 and 26 Maentwrog Road 8 and 6 Trawsfynydd Lake Halt 1 and 1 Trawsfynydd 28 and 24 Llafar Halt 2 and 2 Bryn-celynog Halt 2 and 2 Cwm Prysor Halt 3 and 3 Arenig 5 and 5 Capel Celyn Halt 7 and 8 Tyddyn Bridge Halt 4 and 6 Frongoch 18 and 15 Bala 65 and 58
Military traffic had ended and, apart from a finite contract to bring cement to Blaenau in connection with the construction of Ffestiniog Power Station freight traffic was not heavy, most arriving and leaving Bala did so from and to the south and that to Blaenau could be handled from the Conwy Valley Line northwards.