Template:Featured article/January 2012

A simple layout plan of the junction from 1924.

Croesor Junction lies just 20 chains (¼ mile) to the north of Ynysfor, and 50 chains (⅝ mile) south of Ynys Ferlas. It is the point at which the WHR historically joined the route of the Croesor Tramway, following it southwards from here to Porthmadog.

This location was — and is — bleak and featureless, being on the original flood plain of the Glaslyn, and had no road access. Despite what might appear to be a grand name, it was simply a junction (later with a loop). Few pictures exist of this location in WHR times; given that there was no halt here, and no access, this should not be surprising. One such picture, though, taken in 1925, appears in Branch Lines around Portmadoc, 1923-46 (see references).

John Stretton, in The WHR Volume 2, states "Due to the elaborate loop and pointwork at the junction, a station was not provided there." A more logical reason for the lack of any station was the total lack of need. The only access was by way of a footpath from Erw Fawr and along the track of the Tramway from Pont Garreg-Hylldrem, but even so anyone at the Junction would surely only be there on railway business for nearby farms were served by the adjacent halts, as named above. (more...)

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