Bala reveals town-centre station plan

The Bala Lake Railway has revealed bold plans for its new station in the centre of the north Wales town.

The unveiling of the plans formed part of a highly successful ‘Bala Rerailed’ event staged by the railway on 12th-13th June on the site of the future town-centre station.

Temporary 2ft gauge track was laid on the site, on which quarry Hunslet ‘Winifred’ and a Penrhyn quarryman’s carriage gave rides, the first steam rail loco in Bala for 56 years. The railway’s extension plans enjoy wide support in the town.

The station project, all of which is subject to gaining planning permission, centres on a two-storey building inspired by Cambrian Railways buildings at Oswestry and Llanidloes, with a neat touch the incorporation of the original Bala town clock into the frontage. It will house toilet facilities, a cafe, shop and offices.

The building will lead onto a twoplatform layout with a long carriage shed alongside. The layout will also include a signal box, the BLR hoping to acquire a suitable redundant box from Network Rail, and a locomotive shed with a castellated facade frontage recalling the goods shed at Bala’s original standard gauge station.

The unveiling of the scheme follows a further boost to the extension plans when on 19th May Natural Resources Wales (NRW) was granted planning permission by Snowdonia National Park Authority to upgrade flood defences around the town.

NRW has been a major supporter of the BLR extension project by agreeing to design and incorporate additional civil engineering required for the railway, to be laid on top of the defences along the north shore of the lake.

A successful fund-raising campaign which raised more than £71,000 in little over a month has allowed the Bala Lake Railway Trust to enter into an agreement with NRW to pay for the additional engineering work.

This flood defence scheme will cover almost a third of the extension route. Work is set to begin towards the end of 2021.

With NRW’s planning permission now granted, the BLRT intends to imminently submit the planning application for the full 1200 metres of the extension.

Photo: Russell Prince/BLR Top: The station will include an impressive building and loco and carriage storage. Right: The ‘Bala Rerailed’ event at the station site on 12th-13th June saw quarry Hunslet ‘Winifred’ giving rides.

Diagrams courtesy BLR Below: The station building has been inspired by Cambrian Railways structures. Below right: A castellated front on the loco shed will recall Bala Town station’s goods shed.

Photo: Donald Brooks n The final return train on the first-ever day of public operation on the Astley Green Colliery Railway, hauled by 4wDH ‘Newton’, passes through symbolic open gates, newly installed as part of the security for the Greater Manchester museum complex. The railway opened on 30th May – a detailed report of the event is on page 15.