Flag
On what line? .................................. Ruabon-dolgellau Built by? ................................... Bala & Dolgelly Railway Opened? ................................................... June 21 1898 Current status? ..................... Restricted opening, now Bala Lake Railway Road access? .............................................................. No Nearest town? .......................................................... Bala
Here’s a remote station that will suit two very different layouts from very different eras. First, the history: this was a private station, across Llyn Tegid from the estate of GWR director Sir Watkin Williamswynn. When he wanted to use the station, a flag was raised and a boat put on to ferry him across the water. The GWR listed it in the timetable as Flag station in 1931 (a halt from 1938) but BR re-christened it Glan Llyn Halt. It’s a great location – deep in Snowdonia, close to the waters of a lake – but what makes it particularly special is that you can model it in one of two guises: there’s the GWR/BR period, with typically Cambrian motive power. Or you could go with how it looks today, as part of the Bala Lake Railway. The BLR has rebuilt Flag, and uses it as a Santa’s Grotto at Christmas and as a haunted house at Halloween. But as the BLR is home to five operational ‘Quarry Hunslets’, it’s the perfect way to use Bachmann’s forthcoming ‘OO9’ model.