Corwen railway station

Corwen railway station was a railway station on the Ruabon to Barmouth Line, located in the town of Corwen in Denbighshire, Wales.

Corwen
Station building in January 2010
LocationCorwen, Denbighshire
Wales
Platforms2
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyLlangollen & Corwen Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Western Railway
Post-groupingGreat Western Railway
Western Region of British Railways
Key dates
1 Sept 1865Opened
2 Nov 1964Closed to goods [1]
14 Dec 1964Closed to passengers
The main station building in 1992, showing the demolished wings and central section, about to be redeveloped as a showroom

Original station

The first station to open was a temporary station to the east of the town, when the line from Denbigh opened in October 1864. A permanent station was opened by the Great Western Railway in May 1865.

The station had two platforms and a signal box, and was a passing place on the single track line. Corwen was also the southern terminus of the Denbigh, Ruthin and Corwen Railway (DR&CR), which ran from Rhyl via Denbigh and Ruthin to Corwen, opening in 1864. According to the Official Handbook of Stations, the following classes of traffic were being handled at this station in 1956: G, P, F, L, H and C and there was a 1-ton 10 cwt crane.[2]

The former DR&CR route officially closed in 1963, although the line south of Ruthin was abandoned several years earlier after a landslide. Corwen station itself was scheduled to close under the Beeching Axe to passengers on Monday 18 January 1965, but it closed prematurely on Monday 14 December 1964 due to flood damage west of the station.

The main station building and site survives mainly intact today, in private use since 1990 as a showroom for Ifor Williams Trailers; the trackbed was infilled, both main building wings and the toilets were demolished, and the central section was rebuilt to accommodate a showroom.

New station (Llangollen Railway)

In 2011, the preserved Llangollen Railway began work to re-construct the 2 1⁄2-mile (4.0 km) section of permanent way past the site of Bonwm Halt to Corwen. As the original Corwen station is now in private use, and the track bed in between also sub-divided, a new station (Corwen Central) is being built alongside the town.

The first stage of the project saw the extension of the line to a temporary station at Corwen East, which opened in October 2014. There was a formal opening ceremony on St David's Day, 1 March 2015, followed by the first full season of trains. Corwen last saw main line passenger trains in 1964.[3] As a final stage, in early 2019 the temporary structure at Corwen East was removed and the line is being extended a further 200 metres to the new permanent station, Corwen Central, constructed next to the town's main car park. The new station features an island platform with two platform edges (accessed via a pedestrian underpass), a headshunt, and a small siding on the same alignment as, and accessed from, the run-round loop. The new station is planned to open in 2021.[4]

Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Bonwm Halt   Great Western Railway
Ruabon to Barmouth Line		   Cynwyd
Gwyddelwern   London and North Western Railway
Denbigh, Ruthin and Corwen Railway		   Terminus

References
  1. Clinker, C.R., (1978) Clinker’s Register of Closed Stations, Avon Anglia ISBN 0-905466-19-5
  2. 1956, Official Handbook of Stations, British Transport Commission
  3. "corwen-station". corwenstation-new.co.uk.
  4. "Timetables". Llangollen Railway. Retrieved 10 July 2019.

Further reading
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2010). Ruabon to Barmouth. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 44-52. ISBN 9781906008840. OCLC 651922152.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2012). Branch Lines around Denbigh. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 69-73. ISBN 9781908174321. OCLC 814270878.

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