Caernarfon railway station is the northern terminus of the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Welsh Highland Railway The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR; ) is a restored Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. It runs from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passes through a number of popular tourist destinations includi ...

, located in the town of

Caernarfon Caernarfon (; ) is a List of place names with royal patronage in the United Kingdom, royal town, Community (Wales), community and port in Gwynedd, Wales. It has a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the easter ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It was opened on 11 October 1997 when the line was constructed from Dinas.

History

The railway between Caernarfon and Dinas was formerly part of the standard gauge

Carnarvonshire Railway The Carnarvonshire Railway was a railway connecting Caernarvon (terminus of the Bangor and Caernarvon Railway line from Bangor) with Afon Wen. History The Carnarvonshire Railway was absorbed into the LNWR in 1869. At the grouping of ...

, later

LNWR The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

and LMS, between Caernarfon and Afon Wen. It was closed by

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

in December 1964 and the tracks were lifted. 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 Caernarvon railway station. The

was under an obligation to build a station on this site (below

Segontium Segontium () is a Roman fort on the outskirts of Caernarfon in Gwynedd, North Wales. Etymology The fort probably takes its name either directly from the Afon Seiont or from a pre-existing British settlement itself named for the river. The name ...

Terrace), however the town corporation waived its claim to this station. The original line continued on to a junction with the

Chester and Holyhead Railway The Chester and Holyhead Railway was an early railway company conceived to improve transmission of government dispatches between London and Ireland, as well as ordinary railway objectives. Its construction was hugely expensive, chiefly due to ...

just south of the

Britannia Bridge Britannia Bridge () is a bridge in Wales that crosses the Menai Strait between the Isle of Anglesey and city of Bangor, Gwynedd, Bangor. It was originally designed and built by the noted railway engineer Robert Stephenson as a tubular bridge of ...

, terminating at the now-demolished Menai Bridge station.

Opening

The present station is sited on the former 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 via a pedestrian footbridge. 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 were lengthened to permit the operation of trains up to ten carriages long. The narrow gauge line was built from Dinas to Caernarfon in 1997, thus providing the extension to Caernarfon of the Welsh Highland Railway that was originally authorised by Act of Parliament, but never built. Between Caernarfon and Dinas, the new Welsh Highland line shares the old standard gauge trackbed with the '

Lôn Eifion Lôn Eifion is part of Lôn Las Cymru, the Welsh National Cycle Route, which is about long. History of the section Lôn Eifion is the section which runs for from Caernarfon to Bryncir along most of the former Caernarfon to Afon Wen line. T ...

' tourist cycle track. This section of line is operated by the

Ffestiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway () is a heritage railway based on Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia#Snowdonia National Park, Snowdonia National Park. The ...

under the provisions of The Caernarfon Railway Light Railway Order 1997 made 8 October 1997.Statutory Instrument 1997 No. 2534
/ref> A new station to a modern design was built during 2018-19 and was first used for ''Sion Corn'' (Santa Claus) trains in December 2018.

Gallery

File:Caernarfonstation.jpg, A view of the station from the pedestrian overbridge in August 2005. File:WHR-Garratt-at-Segontium.jpg, NGG16 No.138 at Caernarfon below the walls of Segontium Terrace. File:S1 BWH10-8-02.JPG, Train hauled by Ffestiniog Railway locomotive ''Prince'' departs Caernarfon station, October 2002. File:WHR NG87 Caernarfon station.jpg, 87 at Caernarfon waiting to depart

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

* ttp://www.festrail.co.uk Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways Homepagebr>Rebuilding The Welsh Highland Railway - an independent site

Multimap Map of Caernarfon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caernarfon Railway Station Heritage railway stations in Gwynedd Welsh Highland Railway Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1997 Caernarfon Railway stations built for UK heritage railways