The Most Isolated Station in Wales - Dovey Junction

Memories of two conversations the one time I changed trains at Dovey Junction, back in 1952 when I was 10 years old:

1. Before alighting from the train:
Commercial traveller: "Have you ever been to Dovey Junction?"
Reply from my father: "No."
Commercial traveller: "It's a filthy hole."

2. In the waiting shelter (newly built at the time):
Elderly lady, clearly feeling very proud of the new shelter and gently stroking the metal structure of the bench: "Feel - these seats are heated with
el-ectricity."
(The weren't - the metal had simply been warmed by the sun streaming through the glass.)

I am travelling that way next weekend and I am considering jumping an earlier return train on Sunday so I can get off there and have a look around, perhaps take some photographs.

A lot of views about a remote railway station. Excellent. But not so remote as you explained about the footpath to the road.

As someone from Aberystwyth, Dyfi Junction is quite normal to me, but seeing this video makes me realize just how weird it is. It really is just this... thing near Borth.

how do people pay their fare if there's no ticket machine on the platform?

Rewatching has sparked a question. Could this station be the greatest distance between bars & arrows station sign and the platforms? The only other contender I could imagine would be Stanlow & Thornton if there was one on the main road outside the refinery

The station is on a very well-used walking and cycling route, Mawddach Trail starts at Dolgellau and splits at the station one across the Bridge into Barmouth, the other into Fairbourne where you can catch a narrow gauge train and ferry into Barmouth. And the model railway at Fairbourne narrow gauge station.

Similar to the transfer platform between the Yellow Line and eBart.

They used to run a sleeper from Aberystwyth to euston until it was withdrawn at the later than the manchester/ preston / newcastle and preston sleeper

Today I realised that 10 minutes would not get me, running, from the junction sign, to the platform. Thank you for noting the distance, .6 miles. And on return the remote track would have to be walked in the dark. What fun though.

Yecllxxexteo5eox

1:52 The 197's are coming to the Birmingham-Shrewsbury-Aberwystryth/Pwhelli and Birmingham-Shrewsbury-Holyhead/Llandudno/Chester line as the last batch because they need to feature ETCS, which is why only the 158 150 and 153's serve B'ham with TFW, 175s did not have ETCS and did not operate this route. The last197s will feature ETCS to be able to operate this line

"I'm all by myself," as 100,000 plus people watch me. I think I have been to the other two stations in this video.

I’m sure I saw a huge bed of Japanese Knotweed here at the point where the track splits??
I wonder who is responsible for this and whether it will cause serious damage to the track bed?

Why four carriages going to Aberystwyth? Use this service every 2 months or so plus see the train at Aber. Haven’t seen that many carriages since The Cambrian Coaster.

Anyone there in 2024

This video is looking awesome.

Love the vids! It's a similar situation in Manulla Junction over here in Ireland. You cannot enter or exit the station. The station is there to help those going to Foxford, Ballina, Westport or Dublin to get their connecting train.

From platform to entrance is a killo meter!

Geoff, you’re videos got me through a very difficult time last winter. I’ve set up my own Community Chess organisation, to bring people together through the power of chess. I’m looking to do an event on a train or at a train station and I’ve been contacting TFL. They are interested. I wonder if you would be interested too. It feels wrong to do something on a train without reaching out to the great train guru.

The litter bin you could not see was just a few feet away, behind the clear perplex shelter which you were sitting in! What was the yellow box by its side?

If you're going there.. Take a stove.. Lovely place for a cuppa.

Even the conductors wont kick you off at Dovey

I stopped at Dovey Junction on my way to Outward Bound

No video filmed in Wales, is complete without rain .... good video as your latest one on barmouth bridge 😊😊😊😊.....

I didn’t know about that passing loop but it is good to know one has been installed. The legendary footpath away from this junction station remains obscure ,,,,,,,for the moment.

Wow - my favourite station - make sure I pass through it every time I visit the UK from Canada. Thanks for sharing this, Geoff. First visited there while travelling between Aberystwyth and Tywyn on a sunny day back in 1982 - loved the location, with the sunlight playing on the hillsides and the constant ocean breeze. The station building was still there and tokens were still being exchanged. Visited again in 2017 with my son - we were staying at a nearby B&B, our host drove us to the footpath and we hiked to the station. In 2022, I was volunteering at the TR and my wife was arriving from Canada, but she first wanted to visit a long-time friend in Aberystwyth. Dovey Jct. was a great spot to surprise her on the train. Of course, we visited the station again last year during TR/FR volunteering stints. We'll return in 2025.

I have actually got off a train close to the old Glandyfi station. After travelling along the estuary with the water up to rail height, the train stopped short of Dovey Junction with it being announced that the water was up to the platforms and the train would have to wait until it went down, that is until the tide started ebbing. After a few minutes it was decided a coach made more sense, so the train reversed back to Glandyfi where we all climbed down using the wooden steps carried for the purpose and walked back to the road.

About 54 trains stop there every day!

I'm a local in Shrewsbury (even though I live in the outskirts of the town) and I must admit I knew about the exit from Dovey Junction into the main road to the next stop which is Borth, where I've stopped for a few days' holiday. The proof is that if you can look outside on the left-hand side from the train windows you can see it. Believe me, I've been past Dovey Junction before and even changed trains there from Borth to Tywin and vice versa.

There is a rumour that once upon a time, RagAberRag had a "Dovey Junction Challenge" - take the last train out in the evening, camp on the platform overnight, then take the first train in the morning back...

The first timee I saw Dyfi Junction it was asmall island platform no longer than 2-3 coaches long. You can imagine the confusion every Sturday in summer monthsThere used also to be Gogarth that was nothing but a corrugated iron lean to. It was blown awy one stormy night never to be seen again!

There's already a pair of 2car 197's based at Machynlleth shed for driver training and fettling with the ERTMS signalling system to get it working so TFW can give their 158's the boot.

@6:30 I cycled there with my friend at the end of a four day bike packing trip across wales. We started from Knighton station which is pretty much on the border and cycled to Dovey Junction, nearly all off road. I am glad that we did not have the common belief that there was no access, otherwise we may not have done the trip! It was an epic bike ride i will remember it forever.

Interesting video!

Two DELTA five three, Geoff 🙂

It's spelt "Dyfi Junction" And pronounced "duh-vee"

Enjoyed your video - you missed a real treat not having time to visit he Osprey Project - a great reserve and excellent cafe there. My first visit to Dyfi junction was in 1961 on the Cambrian Coast express which I believe in those days used to actually be split at Dyfi, part went on to Abeystwyth and part to Pwllheli. We were going on holiday to Barmouth.

When I was growing up my dad had a friend that lived in Dovey Junction (we lived a few towns over and it’d take about an hour to get there maybe shorter) and I always remember passing the train station wondering why there even was one because it was the tiniest place, my dad’s friend lived up a hill in a solitary house surrounded by fields and stuff and it was always muddy. I was just always excited to see his and his wife’s black lab called Jet

Cheers for the video Geoff. I was a guard based at Machynlleth back in the early 2000s and worked every single one of the TfW 158s! The video brought back some great memories. I'm not sure if anyone lives in the house over the viaduct on the Pwllheli branch anymore, but certainly back in my time on the Cambrian there was and they had to get permission from the signaller to walk over the bridge. I remember picking up the person who lived in that house on Wednesdays to go to Machynlleth market. Basically they had their own private railway station!

Drove past the sign to this earlier and everyone in the car was thrilled that I'd watched this video days earlier and could tell them all the facts they didn't know they needed to know 🤓

I love the name of the station!

Is that not a bin bag at 07:15 or is it in a transparent tube to prevent it from getting caught in the wind?

Thanks Geoff. If possible try and get hold of a book called "Stopping Train Britain" by Alexander Frater from 1983. It has a feature on the Dovey Junction to Pwllheli line and relates how the line had, (maybe still has) serious flooding issues at Dovey at the highest of tides. There's a tale about how a signalman there decided it was time to get out, so pulled all the signals to danger and rapped out the Section Obstructed signal, then made off on hands and knees on the Aberystwyth route, waves breaking about his ears, to the safety of the nearest hillside!

i'm not from UK. (correct me if i'm wrong) but i love how isolated, little or least used statios most of the time are served by sprinters <3

As a regular user of the Aberystwyth line, would be lovely to have some 197s though the 158s are also quite nice.

@6:28 You may not have realised but Dovey Junction is the western end of a major off-road bikepacking route called the TransCambrian Way. People will ride from Knighton to Dovey Junction! Many will then head back into Machynlleth for a bed/food and onward connections but you will find a lot of folks arriving by mountain/gravel bike!