The ‘RED WHARF BAY’ Branch
Situated on the east coast of the island of Anglesey, North Wales, ‘Red Wharf Bay and Benllech’ Station was the terminus of a 6 3/4 mile branch line which left the Anglesey Central Railway at Holland Arms.
After various schemes were proposed throughout the 1880s and 1890s to construct lines to the eastern side of Anglesey, construction finally started in 1907 though even then there were disagreements over whether the final terminus should be at Red Wharf Bay then a minor sea port, or the then popular and expanding seaside resort of Benllech. The final result being a single platform station by a road junction in the middle of nowhere, about a mile from each of the places it claimed to serve!
The line finally opened in June 1908, and at first traffic levels were quite encouraging, however, with the rise of the motor-bus and lorry after the First World War, the station’s isolated location did it no favours and passenger traffic tailed off rapidly from the mid 1920s. Regular passenger services were withdrawn at the end of September 1930, though ‘specials’ continued right through to the outbreak of the Second World War to cope with the holiday traffic (due to restrictions on the Menai Suspension Bridge the largest busses on Anglesey were 20 seaters) and on Thursdays for Llangefni market days. Freight traffic fared a little better with a daily service continuing until closure of the line in April 1950.
Click here for the Exhibition Manager's Information pack for this layout.
