Duffws (FR) railway station

Duffws (FR)
Duffws (FR) station, believed to be around 1900
Location
Place	Blaenau Ffestiniog
Area	Gwynedd
Coordinates	52°59′42″N 3°56′05″W / 52.9949°N 3.9348°W / 52.9949; -3.9348Coordinates: 52°59′42″N 3°56′05″W / 52.9949°N 3.9348°W / 52.9949; -3.9348
Grid reference	SH 702 459
Operations
Original company	Festiniog Railway
Platforms	1[1]
History
January 1866	Opened
1 January 1923	Closed
1 January 1925	Reopened
1 June 1931	Closed[2]
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Duffws was the Festiniog Railway's (FR) second passenger station in Blaenau Ffestiniog, then in Merionethshire, now in Gwynedd,Wales. This station is not to be confused with the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway's (F&BR) Duffws (F&BR) station which stood some distance away on the opposite side of Church Street. During that station's life from 1868 to 1883 passengers travelling from (say) Festiniog on the F&BR to Tan-y-Bwlch on the Festiniog would walk between the two stations much as passengers walk between the standard gauge and narrow gauge in modern-day Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Context

The complex and confusing evolution of Blaenau's passenger stations is expanded here.

Station name

Several sources comment on the name "Duffws", which is not a Welsh word but a corruption. What it is a corruption of is unclear, with some sources saying it is mangled "Diffwys"^[3] others saying it is related to "Diphwys"^[4] and most making no comment. The station first appeared in Bradshaw on opening in January 1866 as "Diffwys", being changed to "Duffws" from 1867.^[2] Tickets largely used "Duffws",^[5] though an example bearing "Diphwys" is recorded.^[2]

History

The station opened in January 1866 for passengers to Portmadoc and points between. It joined the first steam-hauled passenger service in Britain to use tracks of less than Standard Gauge, with the line carrying a quarter of a million people in its first year of operation.^[6]

The previous year the FR had opened Dinas (FR) station further from the centre of the town. Trains from Portmadoc alternated between the two stations,^[7] but Duffws was better sited for passenger traffic, so Dinas closed to passengers in 1870.

Station layout

The station platform was almost nominal, as the carriages were very low to the ground no height was needed.^[8][9] There were two running lines through the station, the "Passenger Line" which ran past the platform with the other for goods and workmen's trains.^[10] The other two lines visible on photographs were a run-round loop for passenger locomotives and a siding.

Closure

The station closed throughout 1923-4, then closed for good in 1931, the last train having called the previous Autumn. The service was cut back to terminate at the joint GWR/FR station. Slate traffic continued past the station building.

The FR closed progressively, the final axe falling in 1946, though quarries continued to use the line through the station to get ever-diminishing quantities of product to the exchange sidings at the two standard gauge stations. The station itself was eventually fenced off and its surrounds landscaped to become a car park.^[11] This process continued until 1962^[12] with the eventual removal of all lines through the Duffws site when the quarries either closed or switched to using lorries to take slates to customers.

Afterlife

The preserved station building

By 2015 the station building had been converted to use as a public toilet. It had also been Grade 2 Listed.

Gallery

• "The station about 1901". Francis Frith. 
• "The station in its early days". Festipedia. 
• "James Spooner at the station in its early days". Chasewater Stuff. 
• "Welsh Pony at Duffws 1881". Ffestiniog Railway. 
• "An American's tour of the FR and F&BR in 1873". Catskill Archive. 
• "Duffws (FR) walled off". Old UK Photos. 
• "A view from the station site in 1961". Penmorfa. 
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog Central, Duffws (FR) & Tan-y-Manod". Britain from Above. 
• "Manod, Tan-y-Manod, Blaenau Ffestiniog Central & Duffws (FR)". Britain from Above. 
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog North & Central, Duffws (FR) & Gelly Viaduct". Britain from Above. 
• "Blaenau Ffestiniog Central with trains". Britain from Above. 
• "Duffws (FR)". Britain from Above. 

• 

  Ffestiniog Railway engine "Welsh Pony" at Duffws (FR) station, 1886

References

Sources

• Boyd, James I.C. (1988) [1972]. Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire - Volume 1. Headington, Oxford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0-85361-365-7. OCLC 20417464. 
• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199. 
• Jones, Ivor Wynne; Hatherill, Gordon (1977). Llechwedd and other Ffestiniog Railways. Blaenau Ffestiniog: Quarry Tours Ltd. ISBN 0-9502895-9-0. 
• Neale, Andrew (1991). Welsh Narrow Gauge Railways: From Old Picture Postcards. Brighton: Plateway Press. ISBN 1 871980 08 9. 
• Prideaux, J.D.C.A. (1982). The Welsh narrow gauge railway: A pictorial history (2nd ed.). Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 8354 X. 
• Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC 612226077. 
• Richards, Alun John (2001). The Slate Railways of Wales. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-689-4. 
• Southern, D. W. (1995). Bala Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog. Scenes from the Past, Railways of North Wales. Stockport: Foxline Publishing. ISBN 1 8701 19 34 7. No. 25). 
• Stretton, M.J. (1999). Ffestiniog Railway in Camera: One Hundred Years 1871-1971. Penistone, South Yorkshire: Challenger Publications. ISBN 1 899624 40 6. 
• Welbourn, Nigel (2000). Lost Lines: British Narrow Gauge. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-2742-0. 

Other material

• Butter, Roland (April 2003). Smith, Martin, ed. "The Festiniog in Light Railway Days". Railway Bylines. Radstock: Irwell Press Limited. 8 (5). 

External links

• "The station site on a navigable OS Map". National Library of Scotland. 
• "The station and line". Rail Map Online. 
• "The station's history". Festipedia.