Knighton is an English station, and this thread is about Welsh stations. I thought it was obvious that I meant the closest Welsh station to the border
The border is between the town and the station, with the station being in Shropshire.
Since the town is in Wales, it could perhaps be argued that Knighton is a Welsh station in England.
Conwy station has an interesting view, but isn't anything special itself.
Never heard of it. There is a station called
Llanfairpwll, in the village of Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, Anglesey, which sounds similar. Maybe you meant that?
Actually...
'Llanfairpwll' has this nameboard, which means the station has a much longer name than 'Llanfairpwll', although I believe the shorter version is probably just as correct.
One of the advantages of moving to London Midland in 1963 was that the Cambrian avoided the worst of the station vandalism that was the hallmark of the Western Region post Beeching. Caersws and Machynlleth retain their original station buildings built out of the stone taken from Talerddig cutting. Caersws still has its 1897 Dutton signalbox intact albeit taken out of rail use.
Aberystwyth's station buildings have survived too of course. I rather like Aberystwyth station, but the lack of a waiting room is a let down given the potential for bus/V.O.R.R. interchange. Unfortunately it now appears to be lined up for vandalism in the form of a new canopy outside one of the entrances. One act of vandalism the Cambrian has already suffered though is Welshpool station having a major road slapped between the platform and station building, leaving passengers with bus shelters.
By the way, which organisation (BR Midland Region?) is responsible for the red, white and green colour scheme seen in both GWR land on the Cambrian (Aberystwyth being a noteable example) and LMS teriority (which I believe includes the north Wales coast)?
Whitland for me. Something about the long closed 1970s Booking office.
Long closed? Not nearly as long as I thought:
Personally, I really don't like Whitland station much at all, aside from the canopy next to the building, the layout of the place and the old-fashioned signals (ruined by the odd colour-light signal). It is a rather windy spot and the lack of waiting room means there's no protection from the wind. A suitable interchange it is not.
The local MP has even said that demolition would be preferable to what is there now. I hope it doesn't happen as I think it would be a great shame
I agree with you, and almost disagree with the MP. I don't think it'd be a great loss (unlike what would probably be my favoriate station, which I'll come to later), it has no aesthetic value in my opinion, but would be better than nothing if only they repainted the awful ATW turquoise back into Wales&West blue and un-boarded the windows. As it is, ATW's paintwork means it might actually look better with no building.
Whitland was destaffed in early 1994, however an agency took over in the August of that year (similar to Milford Haven or Newtown (Powys) currently), which lasted until summer 1998, when it closed permanently; which would make it one of the most recent destaffed stations in the country (and the most recent in Wales).
Thanks for the confirmation of clousure date.
I think I've read that demolition is now the chosen process, despite the possibility of using it for NR workmen and / or limited passenger facilities, such as a waiting room, which is what the local authorities asked for. However, as we have come to expect over the last 30 years, a plastic shelter will more than suffice as a replacement :roll:
That is grim news. Have you any more information? Seems like another letter to my local AM is in order.
The Whitland building has
...
nasty asbestos in
Yes, that's what I've heard from my local AM in the past. Rather blew my vauge and unlikely-to-come-to-fruition thoughts of voluntering to tidy the place up so a waiting room could be reopenned to shreads.
And my favoriate Welsh station? Not having visted them all, it's hard to say, but externally (both from the platforms and the main entrance) I like Cardiff Central alot. The BR/GWR benches, and the station signage too come to think of it, have not (as far as I remember, it's been a while actually) been ruined with Arriva's vibrant turquoise. The toilets are abysmal though.
And the great loss, which would probably have been my favoriate? Fishguard & Goodwick. That building (the bits you could see, the rest was falling apart behind the budliea) was wonderful, I had visions of trying to make it look like a station on a heritage railway (think Birmingham Moor Street). Instead we have a modern ATW turquoise station devoid of facilities, a worseing of bus connections (the buses went to the harbour, breifly, where there are actualy decent facilities for interchange to meet the new services, but were withdrawn to Goodwick when the new station opened) and a not-really-a-replica building with a roof which looks like it came from an industrial estate. The colour of the new building is the one thing that works for me.
