Welshpool railway station

Welshpool railway station on the Cambrian Line in Powys, mid-Wales, serves the town of Welshpool (Y Trallwng).HistoryBuilt by the Oswestry and Newtown Railway, the original station opened on 14 August 1860. The line was initially operated by the London and North Western Railway before being absorbed by the Cambrian Railways, which became part of the Great Western Railway at the grouping which came into effect on 1 January 1923.Midland Counties Dairy bought and operated the creamery at Cilcewydd. A siding from the station gave access for milk trains to the creamery.About 100 metres north of the station were exchange sidings with the narrow gauge Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway which opened for freight traffic in 1903 and closed in 1956 with a separate station serving passenger traffic until 1931. By 2017 the only remains are part of the cattle dock which has mixed gauge track embedded into concrete track bed. All other remains of this station and the site of the railway were obliterated by the construction of the new A483 road.PresentThere was some severe rationalisation of services under the Beeching Axe in the 1960s, with the old Cambrian main line to Whitchurch via closed to passengers in January 1965 and most local stations towards Aberystwyth following suit later that year. Two of the four platforms at the old station were later taken out of use. Subsequent development of the A483 road Welshpool bypass (opened in July 1993) required the railway line to be shifted to the south. To enable this the original station was closed, and a new single island platform constructed by British Rail south of it, to allow realignment in May 1992.