llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!

After a short trip on West Midland Trains, I arrived at my first station of the day. Colwall was my first station to tick off for the day. I had about a 35 minute wait here so as it was so hot, I decided to head into the village and see if there was a shop to get a cold drink and an Ice Cream. I was quite surprised by the beauty of the village, I was in an area where I had no idea what to expect, whatever it was I expected - it was not this… Even the shop was beautiful! When people ask why I want to get off at every station, the answer is -this is why - beautiful surprises when you least expect them. Anyway, armed with a drink in my bag and an ice cream in my hand I headed back to the station. At the station I knew I was going to be on an IET and the backdrop looked perfect for a photo but the question was would there be enough time to get from photo location to train before it departed. I was about to do a test run of the time it would take to run but some other passengers arrived and I decided to chicken out of embarrassing myself running and doing a roly-poly down the steps. Instead I just took a gamble and stayed for the photo. I’m really pleased I did.

Anyway, on to my next station, after the realisation that I was going to have to walk through 3 carriages as only the back 3 carriages would be opening at Ledbury. Now at Ledbury I had about 25 minuets to wait for my next train, but on this occasion decided to just chill at the station and do some people watching, can’t beat a bit of people watching. The time seem to fly by. Had a catch up with the other half on the phone, chatted with a few mates on social media. One thing I did notice at Ledbury was the amazing little ticket office, it looked more like a garden shed if I’m honest with you with a till in the corner, it got me wondering was this a hint of what the village was like? Had I made a mistake not taking a walk into Ledbury? Is it worth adding it to my notepad for a revisit in the future? 

Anyway, it was time to head to Hereford with West Midland Railways where I had decided I would change my plan, I did this for two reasons. I could cover south of Hereford as part of doing South Wales next year, but also it was a cost saving exercise. By speaking to the kind guard on the train to Shrewsbury I was able to use my advance ticket on an earlier train. I didn’t really have any time to look around the station or even leave the station itself. I’m fairly confident I will be back to Hereford one day as part of this challenge, if not this challenge almost certainly a future challenge (Yes that is a hint that the Every Last franchise will be continuing after Every Last Station). Off to Shrewsbury I go. 

Now on the way to Shrewsbury I came up with a new plan on my phone for the afternoon. Now unfortunately the plan was deleted at Shrewsbury due to the Aberystwyth service being overcrowded. I know there is currently an issue with the amount of available carriages in Wales so had expected to experience this problem at some point, maybe not so early in the trip though (spoiler, this was to be the only time this would happen). After a quick look at the departure boards I noticed a service that would be heading north in about 15 minutes so decided to hop out and take a picture of the station from the front as I remember thinking how impressive it was when I saw the All the Stations video there and upon seeing it for myself, it was impressive. I’m glad I went and had a look for myself. Back to the station for my train north bound to tick off the three stations between Shrewsbury and Wrexham. 

First up it was up to Ruabon station where I decided that I didn’t want to venture too far from the station given that I was only going to have 25 minutes so I decided to just sit on the one and only bench that was in the shade. Remember that cold bottle of pop I bought at Colwall? Well I’d actually forgot all about it, when I eventually took it out of my bag it was hotter than drinking a brew! Anyway, the time passed uneventfully and quickly. Before I knew it, my train arrived and took me down to my next station.

On arrival to Gobowen it was quite clear there was quite a lot of abandoned lines kicking around. This will be used as an #AbandonedTuesday feature in the coming weeks, keep your eyes peeled to twitter people. I knew I only had 5 minutes here so I knew there was no time to hang about on the southbound platform due to the level crossing and once that came down I’d of been snookered. Once on the north bound platform I took a few quick pics, made a note to remember all the abandoned tracks around the station before my next train arrived to take me to my final station of the day.

Chirk was to be my last station of the day, now at Chirk I had been told that I had time to make sure I went and have a look at the Aquaduct and the Railway Viaduct. Both was magnificent. Love a good canal, love a good viaduct. Both together I was quite impressed. Must return when the viaduct doesn’t have scaffolding on it. After my walk I headed back to the station where I had a good hunt about and took plenty of photo’s. There were flowers everywhere, it was rather nice, it had a very country feel to it. I could tell I was going to enjoy the rest of my week in North Wales. Anyway. After a brief sit down in the little shade my final train of the day arrived to take me to Rhyl where I was basing myself for the remainder of the week. 

I hadn’t even planned anything properly for this trip to North Wales. It was quite literally a plan as I got sort of day. With that in mind, the previous evening I had a look at what train to catch from Rhyl and noticed that the first train in the morning was actually quite a bit later than I first thought, so a quick look at bus times I learnt that I could be at Llandudno a whole 30 minutes earlier than if I used the train. Ultimately use the bus and make the connection for the Conwy Valley line or use the train and miss the connection by half hour. 

It was well worth the effort of getting up at 5am to catch the 5.45 bus to Llandudno. The scenery from the empty upper deck of bus travelling along the North Wales coast was beautiful. Arriving in Llandudno I headed to the station to catch the train to Llandudno Junction. Before catching the Blaenau Ffestiniog train, I was only going one stop down the line to Glan Conwy. Once I got Glan Conwy I decided to take a little walk into the village to see what there was. There was a shop. Snacks and drinks purchased for the remainder of the morning. Back to the station and to the lovely little single platform request stop. After a wander around taking some photos I took a seat in the waiting shelter, it had started to rain. It was Wales after all. 

Now I got very lucky with the week that I choice to visit North Wales, there was a festival on at Llanrwst so Transport for Wales had laid on a few extra services as far as North Llanrwst. I was able to use this to save myself a lot of waiting around at rural stations. Instead of having a two hour wait I only had a one 40 minute wait at Glan Conwy before the additional service arrived to take me down to the next station on the line which was Tal-Y-Cafn. At this little station I was due to only have a half hour wait, while the service I got off went to Llanrwst, swapped ends and returned. I was expecting a station with absolutely nothing around it, I was not expecting to find the quaintest of little stations, with an even more quaint manual level crossing that was operated by a friendly crossing keeper. I was absolutely amazed to see that not only was it a manual level crossing, it was even a manual signalling system to let the driver know he could continue, the crossing keeper had to wave a green flag to tell the driver the crossing was ok to cross. I’ve not seen this anywhere else; I’d be interested to know of any other crossings like this. I assume there might be some on the Heart of Wales line? 

The crossing keeper then started chatting to me asking why I’d got off there as very few people do. I explained the basics of my challenge and he was very interested. After being invited into the staff room where I was offered a coffee, I was asked a few more questions before he then went on to explain that he used to look after a crossing on the North Wales main line before it was modernised and he was relocated to the Conwy Valley where he is much happier, mainly because there is so few trains as apposed to the high frequency of trains on the main line. After a really decent chat, I went out, took my usual photos and then waited for my train watching the manual crossing system again with interest. Said my fair wells and hopped on the train that conveniently for me was going through to Holyhead.

That was now the Conwy Valley finished. Time to sit back and enjoy the journey to Llanfairfechan. Now at Llanfairfechan I had planned to have a quick look at the sea front but being my usual self I decided to take what I thought was a short cut, it was a dead end. This gave me no time to see the sea front. So back it was to the station where I was just in time to get a photo of a Virgin Trains voyager heading towards London form Holyhead. Walking down the west bound platform I came across a dead seagull, reported to TfW so they could get it removed, I then took my usual photos and then waited for the next train to take me towards Bangor. 

Bangor is a station I did on my last visit to Wales but I was revisiting for two reasons, the first was there was a Wetherspoons and that 5am alarm was starting to catch up on me so I decided a Wetherspoons breakfast was in order. The 2nd reason was I needed to find the bus station which would take me to the 4th station of the day.

My fourth station of the day was quite a novelty station. A request stop on the Isle of Anglesey, it might have been a request stop but it was the station with the longest station name in the UK. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, or as said by most people Llanfair PG. The station platforms were full of tourists all taking pictures of the station buildings and station signs. There was even a coach in the station car park so some tourists from abroad could take some pictures. It was rather quite interesting seeing them all wandering about, I was also trying to work out what all the fuss was, now to be honest it is just a station name, you don’t see anyone making a big fuss over one of the three lettered station names… After watching and thinking this over I decided I best join in and take some photos of the station signs and platforms. I then worked out that with the amount of people wanting to board the train I’d have time to stand on the footbridge and take a quick photo of the train arriving, I got the added bonus of people putting their arms out to request it. Anyway, it was time to hop on the train and head to my final station on the North Wales Main Line. 

Abergele & Pensarn was to be my next stop, again, there was nothing of real importance to note here. I was not here for long, took my few snaps, headed to the Co Op across the road to grab some lunch before heading to the bus stop to catch a bus into Rhyl to save myself some time.

Conveniently at Rhyl, the bus station is attached to the side of the train station, meaning a quick run meant I was in time to hop on a delayed Virgin Trains service that would take me to Chester. At Chester I was planning on doing another Bus connection, now this unfortunately was a bad move, for two reasons. The first being trying to board and showing my Ranger ticket the bus driver tried arguing with me about the ticket not been valid on the busses. After a heated discussion he finally gave in and let me on. This left me with a lot of annoyance though. This isn’t an isolated incident either. I regularly have issues with bus drivers not knowing what a ranger ticket is. If anyone from Arriva Bus reads this, I’d say you should invest some time into making sure driver knowledge is better. Not just Arriva I want to add, it’s the same with Stagecoach in Cumbria. The second reason this became a bad idea was there was road works, and when I mean road works part of the route was completely closed. The bus journey took what seemed like an eternity. 

Despite the never-ending bus journey I finally arrived at Hawarden, unfortunately due to the delays on the bus journey I missed my train. Welcome to a 50 minute wait at a station I would have been happy to of not been stuck at. Anyway, I found the local shop, got myself a drink and found a very comfy bench in the shade where without knowing it I drifted off. Thankfully my phone rang and woke me up 10 minutes before the train was due, fortunately I was still alone on the platform. I got up, stretched, rubbed my eyes and waited for the train to arrive. Off to my next station on the line, my second to last station of the day. Gwersyllt where I had like a 10 minute connection to take me back up the line one stop to Cefn-y-Bedd. With Cedn-y-Bedd now visited that was the Borderlands line now complete. The three stations on this line had been planned to of been done on my previous trip to Wales but unfortunately due to a lorry hitting a bridge this did not happen.

Time to head down to Wrexham where I had the option of either just getting first train back to Rhyl or going and finding some food. Some food turned out the winner, located McDonalds on my phone and went in search. But then something wonderful happened, I stumbled upon a Wetherspoons that sells Pies!!! These are few and far between so that was where I headed. A couple of pints later and a tasty pie for dinner I headed back to the station to head back to my hotel in Rhyl. 

And there was a chance to tick off a couple of stations arose. I managed to convince my partner quite easily that I should tick off a couple of stations as one of the stations happened to have a big castle at it. We hopped on a bus that would take us to Harlech. I don’t often recommend busses over trains, but if you are visiting Harlech castle using public transport then the bus is worth considering, mainly because the bus takes you right up into the village centre. The train is quite a substantial walk up a very steep hill.

After a short walk through the village we found the castle and off we went. First thing we did was climb the tallest tower that you could access. We all got to the top and I decided to stay at the top for a while. Mainly because there was a tremendous view of the surrounding area with the train line running straight through the middle, I also knew there was a train due in the next 15 minutes and I knew it was going to make a cracking photo. (See photo at top of page).

After further exploring the castle it was time to head home, of course I was going to get two stations on the way. Obviously the first station was Harlech station before we headed back to Porthmadog where we stopped for an hour to get some delicious fish and chip, or Pie and chips in my case, if I see a chip shop does Pukka pies then that’s it, nothing beats a Pukka pie. We then hoped on a bus to Bangor and then jumped on a train back to Rhyl from here. All in all a fantastic day out. In fact the day out to Harlech was responsible for me spending the whole next day on the Cambrian Coast Line.  

There was no set plan for this day so I was making the plan up as I went along. After a quick look at realtime trains I decided to take the quick trip down the line to Talsarnau. I only had about 10 minutes here so time to explore was limited so predominantly stayed on the platform and waited for the next train to take me to Penychain.

Penychain, which is Located near to a Haven holiday camp, was very busy when I got there with people finishing their week away, after all it was the school holidays. I took my pictures as normal and headed down the lane towards the main road. Now if google maps was correct there should be a bus in the next few minutes. If there was, then I would be able to catch the bus to Abererch. As it was the bus decided to be running 5 minutes late. I was about to bail and head back to Penychain when I saw the bus coming in the distance. Driver no problem about my ticket, but totally confused as to why I was only wanting to go down the road a couple of stops when I could have just got the train. To be fair, most people that don’t know about the challenge would be confused. 

After a very short journey we arrived at the roundabout at the end of the road that leads towards Abererch station. The bus dropped me off on the other side of the roundabout which was slightly frustrating as time was very tight. When I got off the bus I had a quick look at Real Time Trains and realised the train had been delayed by two minutes leaving Pwllheli for some reason. I took this as hope that I would make the connection. Now I am grateful the roads were quite, I ran straight across the middle of the roundabout and straight down the lane. I actually ended up on the platform with two minutes to spare. Connections like this are not ones I’d want to be making very often. Running is not something I enjoy in the slightest. 

Abererch was a tiny platform surrounded by a couple of drellings on the platform side of the track, on the opposite side of the track there was just fields and then the sea in the distance. The platform was so short that only one carriage fitted on the platform, needless to say it was only one door opening by the guard here. Once the train arrived I headed to my seat and decided where my next stop was going to be. After I decided, I waited for the guard to walk down the train and requested Tygwyn, the guard rolled his eyes and walked back down the train. When getting off the train I asked why the rolled eyes and was met with he’s had a request for every single request stop between Pwllheli and Barmouth. I could understand his frustration, but the eye roll was slightly unnecessary. 

We arrived at Tygwyn to torrential rain. Thankfully there was a decent shelter and I had a 45 minute wait for the bus. I waited out the rain for a bit and eventually it eased off. I had a quick look around the immediate area and then back to the platform to take pictures. Sat on the platform for a while, and then made my way down the road to the bus stop. Walking the road was quite shaky as there was no footpath and it was quite a busy road. Anyway, made the bus stop and waited for the bus to take me to my next station. 

I decided at this point I was going to have a good long chill out on the bus. So I stayed on the bus all the way through to Llanaber. Despite ringing the bell on the bus In plenty of time the driver clearly did not know where all the bus stops were. She went straight past and left me with a 15 minute walk all up hill, I wasn’t best impressed. Despite this set back I found the path down to the station and headed down and wow. Instantly I knew I was at a new top 10 favourite station. It was beautiful. Right on the coast. Hills behind the platform. No noise other than the waves. I could have spent hours just sat on the platform relaxing and reading a book. Train was delayed by a few minutes but I really couldn’t care. I was just enjoying my time listening to the waves. Anyway, it was time to board the train and head to Llandanwg.

Llandanwg was a very rural station completely surrounded by fields on all sides. I had a very short amount of time here so took a quick run up to the road bridge to get a photo and then headed straight back down to the platform to wait for the train. I noticed at the time that the platform and shelter had definitely seen better days. I’ve since learnt that the station is due to close in the coming weeks and have some repair works done and following this will be a lick of paint for the shelter. I waited for the train to board and head down to Talybont.

Once at Talybont I spent a few minutes looking around and taking photos before taking the short walk to Dyffryn Ardudwy. The walk was along a main road again but I was grateful that this time there was a pavement all the way. When I got to the village of Dyffryn Ardudwy I found a Spar shop which meant dinner time. I went in and was disappointed to see hardly any sandwiches available. Anyway, stocked up with boiled eggs, choc and drink I headed down to the station where I would have roughly a 20 minute wait for the train to take me to my last station of the week. Was treated to a manual crossing that didn’t even have a crossing keeper. My train arrived and I headed up to my final station of the day Pensarn.

Now wait… Pensarn was my intended station, but due to a guard who decided that he wasn’t going to give anyone the opportunity to stop there I ended up missing it. Annoyed was an understatement and I made sure the guard knew how annoyed I was, I was just met with oh well, you’ll have to get off at the next station and go back. Customer service was clearly something lacking this guards skills. 

So with that station missed and a very annoyed Stuart, it was time to head home. I headed back to Shrewsbury where I had one final surprise. I ended up going on the loco hauled Gerald service from Shrewsbury to Chester which went half way to cheering me up after the let down of Pensarn. Off home I went with lots of happy memories of North Wales. 

I will be back probably early 2020 to finish the Cambrian coast and make a start on the heart of wales. Until then, see you then Wales.

Many Thanks.

Stu