Llandudno Junction railway station

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Llandudno Junction railway station

llandudno_junction_stationMost railway stations are named after towns, but here the town was named after the station! Railways from all four points of the compass meet at Llandudno Junction, where the station and ancillary rail facilities were a once major employer.

The upper photo shows the station before the First World War. The RAF aerial photo, courtesy of the Welsh Government, was taken in 1945.

When the Chester & Holyhead Railway opened its line from Chester to Bangor in 1848, no station was needed by the marshland at the eastern end of the newly enlarged Cob. Conwy, at the other end of the Cob, was the main town. However, Llandudno soon began to grow rapidly, and in 1856 the CHR prepared to build a branch line there. The track would lead trains from Llandudno into Conwy station.

Aerial photo of Llandudno Junction station in 1945The company soon realised that the station site inside the walled town of Conwy would be too cramped for the expected numbers of passengers. Therefore the Llandudno branch, opened in 1858, was built with the connection to the main line facing the opposite way. A basic station, called Llandudno Junction, was erected where the lines forked to enable passengers to change between main line and Llandudno trains.

In 1863 a branch line to Llanrwst (and later Blaenau Ffestiniog) opened, diverging west of the station.

One of Llandudno Junction’s first station masters was David Hughes, who died in 1864. One newspaper said his brief illness “was aggravated and hastened by the manner in which he was deprived, after a service of near 17 years, of his situation by the directors of the London & North Western Railway”.

By 1897 Llandudno Junction had grown to such importance that the London & North Western Railway (which had taken over the CHR) rebuilt the station on its current site, with six lines for trains to pass through and dead-end bay platforms at each end. The locomotive depot south of the station (where Cineworld and nearby fast-food outlets are now sited) was greatly enlarged in 1899.

All railways radiating from Llandudno Junction survived the Beeching axe of the 1960s, and the station remains a busy railhead and interchange. The road network replicates the railway junctions, with the north-south A470 passing under the east-west A55. Similar routes are evolving for cyclists, with the Conwy Estuary strategic route meeting National Cycle Network Route 5 at Llandudno Junction.

Postcode: LL31 9NB    View Location Map

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