Waunfawr is a station on the narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway, which was built in 1877 as the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways Moel Tryfan Undertaking to carry dressed slate to Dinas Junction on the London and North Western Railway. Passenger services ceased on 26 September 1936 and the station was reopened on 7 August 2000 following the reconstruction of the railway from Dinas to Waunfawr. The train services are operated by the Festiniog Railway Company.
In 2000, in order to remodel the layout of the station, the old building was carefully taken down. Although carefully deconstructed by the WH Heritage Group, the numbered and stored stone was inadvertently used as fill for the embankments by the contractor. A rebuild is planned in NWNG style but altered internally to suit 21st century requirements, when funds become available.
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 Rhyd Ddu by special train.
The station flower and shrub beds were laid out and are maintained by the local community enterprise charity, Antur Waunfawr. The Snowdonia Park Hotel adjoins the station and was built originally as the station master's house. Entrance to and exit from the station platform is by way of the hotel car park. The station footbridge links with a car park and a caravan park. Snowdonia Sherpa Bus services call at the station.
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Down train arriving at Waunfawr from Rhyd Ddu, powered by diesel locomotive "Castell Caernarfon" on 26 May 2004
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NG143 at Waunfawr water tower
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Train with NG143 heading for Caernarfon
Famous quotes containing the words railway and/or station:
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn’t love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)