The Ruabon to Barmouth Line – A New History

The Ruabon to Barmouth Line – A New History

Peter Dickinson

312 pages. 275x215mm. Printed on gloss art paper, casebound with printed board covers.

ISBN13 : 9781915069559

£35.00

For nearly 100 years, passengers could enjoy arguably one of the finest journeys in the British Isles from the comfort of their railway carriage. The Great Western Railway described the journey from Ruabon to Barmouth as ‘a paradise for artists and fishermen and a country rich in mountain streams, wild woods and wide far views, unbeaten in any part of Wales’. The 54-mile route carried generations of holidaymakers to the beaches of the Cambrian Coast, as well as providing a vital lifeline to the rural communities it served.

The Ruabon to Barmouth Line – A New History - Sample Images

After the BR closures in the 1960s, the town of Bala found itself cut off from the railway network. Crosville’s Bristol RELL bus OFM 12E is recorded on the High Street in Bala in the early 1970s working the D93 rail replacement bus route with a service to Corwen. Passengers were encouraged to ‘pay as you enter’. This vehicle was one of sixteen Bristol RELLs sent by Crosville to join Belfast Citybus minibus CFM 356B, fleet number SCP 2. Railway modellers may know that this particular vehicle has been produced in 1/76 scale by Oxford Diecast. Author’s collection

The water cascading over the weir is masking our the steady exhaust of the ex-GWR Mogul departing Llangollen circa 1953. This unusual view was taken from the private riverside ‘beach’ behind 23 Bridge Street and provided a grandstand view of trains arriving and departing from the station. The line’s competition is illustrated on the road immediately above the Mogul’s tender, in the form of the two Crosville buses passing the Bridge End Hotel. P.A. Waldren, Dave Waldren collection