Rhyd Ddu railway station
| Rhyd Ddu | |
|---|---|
Garratt No.138 arrives in the Down Platform at the newly extended Rhyd Ddu station on 16 April 2006, during the period when the Up Platform was not available for use by carriages
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| Location | |
| Place | Rhyd Ddu |
| Area | Gwynedd |
| Coordinates | 53°03′05″N 4°07′59″W / 53.051444°N 4.133194°WCoordinates: 53°03′05″N 4°07′59″W / 53.051444°N 4.133194°W |
| Grid reference | SH571525 |
| Operations | |
| Original company | North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways |
| Managed by | Welsh Highland Railway |
| Owned by | Festiniog Railway Company |
| Platforms | 2 |
| History | |
| 1881 | Opened |
| 26 September 1936 | Closed |
| 18 August 2003 on different site | Re-opened (using shortened Down platform) |
| 8 April 2006 | Expanded (following extension of island platform, and construction of the Up platform face) |
| Stations on heritage railways in the United Kingdom | |
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | |
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Rhyd Ddu is a station on the narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway, which was built in 1881 as the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways Moel Tryfan Undertaking to carry dressed slate to Dinas Junction on the LNWR. It has also previously been named both "Snowdon" and "South Snowdon".
"Rhyd Ddu" is Welsh for "Black Ford".
In promotion of the line in the late 1880s, and knowing that there were discussions afoot to construct a railway up Snowdon from Llanberis, the Company renamed the station as "Snowdon". Some in Llanberis thought this misleading, but as contemporary literature pointed out -
"Visitors should bear in mind that in climbing Snowdon by this line (ours), they are conveyed by the "Toy" railway to a height of nearly 900 feet above sea level , so that they have quite two miles less to traverse from Snowdon station, compared to the Llanberis distance and about 800 feet less to reach the summit."
Visitors were by now alighting at this halt in droves, and nearby Beddgelert consequently received many more visitors. (Horse-drawn road vehicles provided the link to Beddgelert, the connections being included in the railway's timetable. It was largely as a consequence of this that in 1893 a deputation of interested parties from Llanberis went to see landowner Mr Assheton-Smith, of the Vaenol Estate, who had previously been opposed to any railway up Snowdon, to try and convince him that Beddgelert was fast displacing Llanberis as the main centre for ascending the mountain. Assheton-Smith was ultimately convinced, and The Snowdon Mountain Tramroad and Hotels Co. Ltd. was established in November the following year.
Prior to the line's subsequent take-over by the Welsh Highland Railway, a report by Major Spring, commissioned by the Festiniog Railway, referred to "Rhyddu [sic] or Snowdon Station". After take-over, the line was extended southwards to Beddgelert and Porthmadog in 1923, the station name at some point being changed to "South Snowdon".
Passenger services ceased to the old station site on 26 September 1936.
Following reconstruction, the section from Waunfawr to Rhyd Ddu was formally reopened by HRH the Prince of Wales on 30 July 2003. Prince Charles travelled from Waunfawr to Snowdon Ranger in the replica of a North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways coach, and from there to Rhyd Ddu on the footplate of the Ffestiniog Railway locomotive "Prince", built in 1863, which hauled the special train.
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Wikipedia