Penyffordd is now the only signalbox between Wrexham (Croes Newydd) and Dee Marsh and has a crossover and rarely used sidings.  These sidings once formed a connection to the Chester- Mold - Denbigh line.

37250 and 37040 on the climb to the line's summit at Buckley as they
near Penyffordd.  20th October 1992

56107 drifts south towards Wrexham on May 1st 1997.  Penyffordd
distant signal is just visible above the rear of the train.

Celebrity class 40 No. 40122, the original D200 and now preserved, heads the Conwy Crusader 2 railtour into Penyffordd on 21 April 1984.  The train is bound for Crewe via the Mersey Docks line through Birkenhead, a route no longer in existence.  Earlier in the day the train had visited Llandudno, Blaenau Ffestiniog and Holyhead.  Notice the steam from the heating system issuing out of the back of the rear coach.  The original tour proved so popular that this re-run was arranged.

101694 in Strathclyde Transport livery is on a Bidston service in August 2000.
  A number of these units were rendered surplus in Scotland and transferred
to Longsight depot, Manchester where they saw out their final days on lines
such as Wrexham to Bidston.

37608 and 602 on the railhead treatment train at Penyffordd, 15-11-2005.

56045 passes through towards Wrexham on April 15th 1998.

66219 on a coal train to Castle Cement on the evening of 4th June 2001.

60081 making for Shotton, 17 10 1994.

The diagram in Penyffordd signalbox in 1993.  The former connection to
the Mold line is on the left and the Castle Cement sidings are on the right.
Wrexham is to the left and Bidston to the right.

In a photo taken from the signalbox, 31188 makes for Wrexham in May 1993 on a train of empty cable drum wagons.  The cables had been laid as part of the Merseyrail resignalling scheme.  The former connection to the Denbigh - Chester line is seen at the bottom left.   In the background the level stretch of track was
once the site of Hope Exchange station and the platforms are clearly seen from passing trains.  A short
distance further on, on the left, is the connection to Castle Cement's Padeswood works.

Return to the main page