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A 1930s 1" map of where?
Please send your answers to raildate.co.uk@gmail.com
A brooding image of a Derby Lightweight (M79126 nearest) in 1958. The passengers are mostly in long coats, despite it being August. Image credit: Unknown. [Not M71962 as originally published]
Answer: Blaenau Ffestiniog. Congratulations are due to the following for their correct answers: Dave Goodyear, Simon Wass, Colin Penfold, Richard Maund, Jim Allwood, Andrew Treves, John Lacy, Mike Rapp, Tony Fox, Bryn Pitcher, Brian George, Bob Joshua, John Musselwhite, Ian Bromley, Chris Gibbard, Jeremy Harrison, John Gilby, Bernard Gudgin, Paul Hopper, Tony Harker, Bob Hart, John Czyrko, Andy Foster
The town at the heart of North Wales' slate quarrying industry had three termini. They have since been consolidated into one station in the town centre on the site of the former GWR station - marked in brown on the lower map. We see a service for Llandudno waiting to depart away from us at the former L&NWR station (blue on the map). A mountain of slate waste is ahead. The Ffestiniog exchange station is out of sight to the left, across a street still named North Western Road to this day. The goods yard to the right was entered by standard gauge tracks from the northwest, 1' 11½" Ffestiniog gauge from the northwest and east.
Tracks, though overgrown, are still in place on the former GWR route to Bala as far as Trawsfynydd, site of a Magnox power station - remarkably, built in a National Park - that closed in 1991 after 26 years of operation. The line has been out of use since the last spent fuel rods were removed in 1997. The former nuclear power station is the largest employer in the area, with up to 500 people involved in decommissioning. The target date for completion is 2083 i.e. 92 years since closure. The cooling lake Llyn Trawsfynydd was famously kept warm by the power station, but I have swum in it and survived.
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© Matthew Shaw 2024