Place Gellifelen Grid reference SO213122 6 January 1958 (1958-01-06) Closed | Area Monmouthshire 6 September 1933 (1933-09-06) Opened Platforms in use 2 | |
Original company London, Midland and Scottish Railway | ||
Gelli Felen Halt railway station was a station on the London and North Western Railway's Heads of the Valleys line near the settlement of Gellifelen in the Welsh county of Monmouthshire.
Contents
History
The first section of the Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway from Abergavenny to Brynmawr was opened on 29 September 1862. The line was leased and operated by the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR) which acquired the smaller railway company on 30 June 1866. The L&NWR was itself amalgamated into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in the 1923 Grouping.
Gelli Felen Halt was opened by the LMS on 6 September 1933. It was situated to the west of the twin-bore Gelli Felen Tunnel (Down 386 yards (353 m); Up 352 yards (322 m)) from which the station was reached on a sharp left-hand curve where flangeless 0-8-4T locomotives had in the past derailed. At this point the line ran along the sheer rock face of the cutting side which was reinforced with engineering brick. Gelli Felen railway halt was in an isolated location on a 1 in 38 gradient on a sharp curve requiring check rails to prevent derailment. Short staggered platforms were provided with a barrack-like brick huts as passenger shelters. To the west of the station there had been a signal box, crossover and siding but these had gone by 1931; the signal box was opened on the Up side in 1898 and was known as Gellavalln.
As a result of decline in the local industry and the costs of working the line between Abergavenny and Merthyr, passenger services ceased on 4 January 1958. The last public service over the Merthyr line was an SLS railtour on 5 January 1958 hauled by GWR 6959 No. 7912 Little Linford Hall and LNWR Coal Tank No. 58926. Official closure came on 6 January.
Present
The platform shelters have survived in an overgrown state and the trackbed through the station is part of National Cycle Route 46.