Cambrian Crossing

The crossing where the Croesor Tramway crossed the standard gauge GWR line in Portmadoc was - prior to 1923 - regarded as a simple occupation crossing, the crossing keeper living in the adjacent cottage. The narrow gauge tramway was horse worked until this date and paid nothing for the use of the crossing.

From June 1923, however, upon the opening of the Welsh Highland Railway to loco.-hauled passenger trains, the GWR had intended to replace the controlling arrangements with a full signal box. The Ministry of Transport's inspector, however, found this unnecessary. Instead, telephone circuits were installed (in place of mechanical gongs by which messages had previously been exchanged with Portmadoc (East) GWR signal box) at a cost (which they sought to recover from the WHR) of £150 (approximately £6375 in '2008' money although it was also the income expected of a Gentleman and Lady with no child ), as well as a contribution to the costs of manning the crossing. This led to an on-going dispute - through the Chancery Court after the WHR went into Receivership in 1927. In the end, the matter was only finally settled in 1938 - after the line had closed - and the outcome was that the WHR never paid any of the charges that had been raised: they had had "free" use of the crossing. Nevertheless, the possibility that the GWR might prevent passenger trains using the crossing if they were not paid (they could not prevent free use for narrow gauge goods trains as this had been established when the crossing came into being in 1867) prompted the opening of a new platform to the north of the crossing. This is often erroneously categorised as a separate station, but public access was through Portmadoc New (1923) station of which it was a "supplementary" or "auxiliary" platform. For the summer seasons 1929 to 1933 inclusive all through passengers had to cross the GWR line to Portmadoc New (1923) on foot. Regular passenger crossings resumed in 1934 for the three years of leased operation by the Festiniog Railway (although some trains did still turn back at the north platform).

After the first couple of years of the period of dispute, costs (albeit never actually paid by theWHR) were kept down by using GWR staff only for brief periods when required for the passage of goods trains, rather than employing full-time staff: the crossing was never completely "closed" until narrow gauge trains ceased in 1937.

For more detail regarding the present crossing, see Cae Pawb and the CTRL page.

References

Mitchell, Vic; Keith Smith. Branch Lines Around Porthmadog 1923-46. Midhurst, Sussex, England: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-873793-13-8. OCLC 30306827. 

¹ Measuring Worth
² Relative Value of Sums of Money
³ Maund, Richard (2009). Chronicles of Croesor Crossing. Welsh Highland Railway Heritage Group. ISBN 978-1-906205-39-3. 

See also

• Cae Pawb
• CTRL