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Maespoeth Junction is a railway location to the south of Corris in Gwynedd. It lies in the historic county of Merionethshire/Sir Feirionnydd, in the valley of the Afon Dulas. It is known principally as a railway junction on the historic Corris Railway, and is also the site of a small number of residential dwellings.
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Origins
Maespoeth was where the horse-hauled Upper Corris Tramway from the slate quarries around Corris Uchaf met the main line (opened in 1859) of the Corris Railway coming from Aberllefenni. The place name, which translates as "Hot Field", is shared with a nearby house.
Development of engine sheds
The site was merely the meeting place of the two lines until 1878. In that year the Corris Railway Company identified Maespoeth as the site for its new engine shed, planned as part of the introduction of steam engines, which commenced operating later that year.
Constructed in the vee of the two lines, the new shed held the railway's three steam locomotives and was equipped to handle all but the heaviest repairs to the locomotives and rolling stock. Immediately to the north of the engine shed is a small stream. At an unknown date a section of the stream was lined with slate and a wood-framed dunny or latrine was built over it to provide toilet facilities with constant running water. Although this remains in situ it is no longer used by railway staff.
In the early 1920s the arrival of a fourth locomotive exceeded the capacity of the engine shed, and a small wooden building was built against the south wall of the engine shed and initially used to store one of the railway's original three locomotives. This building was later used to store carriages under repair. It disappeared in the early 1930s.
A smaller stone building was later constructed to the south of the engine shed, and used as a stable and store for the Signals & Telegraph (S&T) department. A wooden signal cabin with a stone chimney was built to protect the lever frame controlling the points and signals at the south end of the site.
Much of the engineering machinery was removed after the line became part of the Great Western Railway in 1930, but the engine shed and associated structures survived the closure of the railway in 1948 and subsequently served as a winter working base for the Forestry Commission.
Preservation
From 1966 onwards a group of volunteers has been working on the preservation of the Corris Railway's infrastructure. In 1981 the Maespoeth Junction site was returned to railway ownership under the auspices of the Corris Railway Society and the engine shed now once again serves its original purpose as a home for the railway's locomotives, and as its engineering headquarters. The engine shed is a Grade II listed building, and successfully attracted a large Heritage Lottery Fund grant to fund re-roofing of both the engine shed and the associated S&T shed.
The original S&T shed to the south of the engine shed also survives, now being used as a volunteer's mess and as a small museum. Originally this building was separate from the engine shed, but the space between the two has now been roofed to provide a toilet block.
The original signal box did not survive, but a new signal box was built in the 1990s on the same site as the original. This now controls points and signals around the junction.
In 2009 a large new carriage shed, largely built by volunteers from the Corris Railway Society, was opened on the east side of the site. This building is now the headquarters of the railway's passenger carriage construction programme, as well as being a base for the overhauling of freight and engineering vehicles.
Passenger station
The original railway did not have a passenger station at Maespoeth, although most up-trains halted there to take water from a pipe overhanging the track, fed from a slate water tank inside the engine shed, supplied via a cast iron pipe from a mountain stream several hundred yards away. The heritage railway has built a platform at Maespoeth and this currently serves as the southern terminus of the partially restored line.
The station is still referenced as Maespoeth Junction, even though the Upper Corris Tramway no longer exists. The actual junction track work is still in place, and the first hundred yards of the tramway's track remains in place, rising sharply to meet the neighbouring roadway. This last spur of the old tramway is still occasionally used as a facility for transferring engines and rolling stock to flatbed lorries for road transportation.