Manod railway station

Manod
Location of the station in 2001
Location
Place	Manod, Blaenau Ffestiniog
Area	Gwynedd
Coordinates	52°58′55″N 3°55′53″W / 52.9819°N 3.9314°W / 52.9819; -3.9314Coordinates: 52°58′55″N 3°55′53″W / 52.9819°N 3.9314°W / 52.9819; -3.9314
Grid reference	SH 704 444
Operations
Original company	Festiniog and Blaenau Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Platforms	1
History
29 May 1868	Opened as narrow gauge "Tyddyngwyn"
10 September 1883	Opened as standard gauge "Manod"
2 April 1917	Closed
1 May 1919	Reopened
4 January 1960	Closed to passengers
27 January 1961	Closed completely
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Manod railway station served the village of Manod which then stood on the southern edge of Blaenau Ffestiniog in Gwynedd, Wales. By 2015 urban spread had resulted in Manod being subsumed by its neighbour.

The 1 ft 11 ¹⁄₂ in (597 mm) narrow gauge Festiniog and Blaenau Railway (F&BR) opened Tyddyngwyn station on 29 May 1868 to serve the then small community of Manod. That station was named after a house nearby. The F&BR's primary traffic was passengers, and workmen in particular, with goods traffic small by comparison. Receipts in 1879, for example, included £1409 from passengers against £416 for goods. Some slate was loaded at Festiniog, but the biggest single source was Craig Ddu Quarry which built a striking four-pitch incline to meet the F&BR near its Tan-y-Manod station, half a mile north of Tyddyngwyn station.

On 1 September 1882 the GWR standard gauge Bala Ffestiniog Line reached Llan Ffestiniog from the south. The following year the narrow gauge line was converted to standard gauge but narrow gauge trains continued to run until 5 September 1883 using a third rail. The standard gauge line's official opening was on 10 September 1883; Manod station had been completed just in time to open with the line. Manod station was very slightly south of Tyddyngwyn station, which it replaced.

The September 1959 timetable shows

This timetable refers to "Manod Halt", as the station had been reduced to an unstaffed halt in 1955.

After the Second World War at the latest most trains were composed of two carriages, with one regular turn comprising just one brake third coach. 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 called at Manod and survived to the line's closure to passengers in 1960. Up to 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.