Notes: Pant Glas station was situated on the Menai Bridge – Afon Wen line which opened in stages between 1852 and 1871. It was in a sparsely populated area west of the Caernarfon and Porthmadog Road. On 29 July 1862 the Carnarvonshire Railway (CR) was authorised to build a line between Caernarfon and Afon Wen. In October 1866 the largely completed CR was inspected, but its opening was not approved until 2 September 1867 by which time all work was finished.

On 1 January 1923 Pant Glas became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). By 1928 they were running nine up and five down trains on weekdays. A few years later in the summer of 1932 there were nine up and six down trains. With the outbreak of the Second World War an emergency timetable was introduced from 11 September 1939, and Pant Glas had only three trains in each direction on Monday-to-Saturday. The service was improved from 1 January 1940 when six trains ran in each direction on Monday-to-Saturday.

On 1 January 1948 Pant Glas became part of the British Railways London Midland Region. The summer 1948 timetable showed seven up and seven down services Monday-to-Friday as seen in the table below. On Saturdays there were six up and seven down.

In 1939 Billy Butlin built a holiday camp at Penychain on the former Cambrian line to the west of Afon Wen. Due to the war it did not open for holidaymakers until the summer season of 1947

although it was used during the war by the Royal Navy. The opening of the holiday camp brought a lot of extra traffic in the form of holiday specials to the Menai Bridge – Afon Wen line during the summer months, and the specials were much longer than the routine service trains. On 2 June 1952 Pant Glas was closed to goods, and it is likely that the siding would

have been lifted shortly after.

Scheduled services had improved by the mid 1950s. The summer timetable for 1955 showed seven up and seven down trains Monday-to-Saturday as seen in the table below.

At the north end of the platform a lever frame controlled the level crossing and the signals that protected it. They were in the open and therefore exposed to the elements. In summer 1956 British

Railways built a simple brick hut with a flat roof over the lever frame to afford the frame and its operator some protection. The work was also probably carried out to facilitate the closure of Pant Glas station which was not well situated and therefore not well used. On 7 January 1957 British Railways withdrew the passenger service. A railway employee was still required to

operate the level crossing, but the lever frame hut provided shelter and therefore the station building could be demolished; it had gone within a year of the station closing.

Passenger and goods services continued to pass through Pant Glas until 7 December 1964 when the line closed completely. The track remained in situ for a few years after closure.

The station house passed into private ownership and, for a period, the site was used by an aviation museum. This had gone by 2012, but a holiday caravan was available for rent at the site. The lever frame hut was still standing in May 2012.

Tickets from Michael Stewart route map drawn by Alan Young

Sources:

• Bangor to Portmadoc including the Llanberis lines – V Mitchell & K Smith – Middlewood Press 2010
• Bradshaws Rail Times December 1895 - Middlewood Press 2011
• Bradshaws Rail Times July 1922 - Guild Publishing 1986
  
• British Railways (London Midland Region) Timetable Summer 1948
• British Railways (London Midland Region) Timetable Winter 1956/7
• British Railways (London Midland Region) Timetable Summer 1962
• From Chester to Holyhead: The Branch Lines – B Rear - OPC 2003
• LMS Time Table Summer 1932
• Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain a Chronology - M Quick - Railway and Canal Historical Society 2009

To see the other stations on the Menai Bridge - Afonwen line click on the station name: Menai Bridge, Treborth, Port Dinorwic (1st), Port Dinorwic (2nd), Griffiths Crossing, Caernarvon, Carnarvon Pant, Dinas, Llanwnda, Groeslon, Penygroes, Brynkir, Ynys, Llangybi, Chwilog & Afonwen