CEC Tour August 2021
Page 5 - Dolgellau – Blaenau Ffestiniog
1. Crosville summer 1953 tt showing Dolgellau-Blaenau Ffestiniog services
2. The Gwynedd-tendered Dolgellau-Blaenau route 35 had variants added, such as along Station Road, Trawsfynydd. Arriva Lynx 1727, ex-Colchester, was making the double run in September 2003. (AM)
3. North of Trawsfynydd the nuclear power station was opened in 1965. On 3rd September 1989 at an open day, Crosville Cymru Olympian DOG 193 stands at the power station entrance (AM)
4. Crosville made an agreement to provide buses for the power station’s construction phase through the builders’ subsidiary APC. Forty one of them were from the CMS fleet (derived from PSV Circle Publications PC15 (1981) and PC30 (2018))
5. One of the Crosville vehicles which passed to Atomic Power Constructions was AEC sd TA9, here seen at Barmouth. (Les Long)
6. The remains of Crosville’s 1926 depot, Bowydd Buildings, on High Street, Blaenau Ffestiniog, seen in 2019. The bevelled end of the building behind the two black cars is the right hand side of Bowydd Buildings. To its left, now disappeared, was the arch into the depot, and further left the office. (AM)
7. Bowydd Buildings : everything left of the bevelled wall was demolished in the 1960s and the Co-op built on the site. Two sds are just visible inside the arch.
8. Bowydd Buildings : Bristol LL6B SLB 185 emerges from the depot onto the High Street presumably just before the opening of the new depot ; a “For Sale” notice is over the arch ; it cost £2500 in 1926.
9. Leyland PS1 KA244 on the yard just west and below the old CMS depot, along with a highbridge DTO-class PD2 on 27th March 1955. The Festiniog Railway’s Duffws station, closed in 1939 (now the toilets) is behind. One surviving narrow gauge line, leading to the first Bowydd incline heads uphill in the centre left. (H A Townley)
10. CMS LL6B KW 291 by the Queens Hotel, opposite the old depot, with a rather mixed bag of destination information, presumably before the May 1958 fleet renumbering. (J Fozard).
11. Traditionally the key Pwllheli-Blaenau service extended the full length of the town to terminate at the north end at the LMS Railway Station. DLB 737 is backed by the now-demolished station buildings. Presumably taken after the 1959 route re-numbering. Photographer not known.
12. The retaining wall of the old LMS station is on the right of this view. Crosville SMG 393 was working the service that connected Blaenau Ffestiniog and the temporary Tan-y-Bwlch terminus of the Festiniog Railway, probably in the mid-1970s. The entry to the post-1964 CMS depot is further down the road (David Flett)
13. A O Davies, Tanygrisiau, bought this 32-seater Vulcan VWBL FF 3452 in April 1932 for his local service into Blaenau Ffestiniog, seen at Dolydd Terrace before the business was sold to Crosville on 15th March 1937.
