Colwyn Bay

Some views of the Colwyn Bay area before the town and the railway were changed forever by the building of the A55 Expressway

25323 at Colwyn Bay 15/07/77 (s1236.jpg)

25323 approaches Colwyn Bay station with a train for Penmaenmawr on the evening of 15th July 1977. At this time Colwyn Bay had up and down platform loops, and the signal controlling the down loop and the start of the loop itself can be seen in this shot. The loop was removed as part of the Expressway works.

24057 at Colwyn Bay 15/07/77 (s1237.jpg)

Almost immediately, from the opposite direction, 24057 appeared on the 17:55 Bangor - Crewe parcels service. The Colwyn Bay stop had been removed from this train a couple of years previously and it was nominally non-stop to Rhyl. A group of people watch in the gloom of Platform 2 as the train leans on the heavbily canted track through the platforms.

24023 at Colwyn Bay 11/07/78 (s1739.jpg)

24023 works the 16:42 Llandudno - Crewe on the 11th July 1978 and approaches Colwyn Bay. The track formation was particularly wide here and was used for the new A55, with the railway moved to an entirely new formation, quarried out of the rock behind the trees to the right.

25220 at Colwyn Bay 07/09/78 (s1778.jpg)

25220 heads west from Colwyn Bay on 7th September 1978, on the 1330 from Manchester Victoria to Llandudno. This section of track is now covered by the A55 expressway, the railway having been moved to make room for the road. Behind the loco can be seen the track of the down slow line, at this time only in use as the headshunt for the goods yard. In the distance, the semaphore signals control the divergence of the up platform loop.