Sugar Loaf railway station

Sugar Loaf
Welsh: Dinas y Bwlch
Location
Place	Sugar Loaf Mountain, Llandovery
Local authority	Powys
Coordinates	52°04′55″N 3°41′13″W / 52.082°N 3.687°WCoordinates: 52°04′55″N 3°41′13″W / 52.082°N 3.687°W
Grid reference	SN844438
Operations
Station code	SUG
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	1
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	84
2011/12	120
2012/13	144
2013/14	240
2014/15	110
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Sugar Loaf from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Sugar Loaf railway station is a railway station in Powys, Wales, and is the most remote station on the Heart of Wales Line. It is located one mile to the north-east of a small but prominent knoll known as Sugar Loaf, around which the A483 road loops.^[1] The line through here was opened by the Central Wales Extension Railway in 1868; the station was closed to passengers in 1965 but subsequently reopened to traffic in 1984.^[2]

This station is a request stop used mainly by trekkers and cyclists, since it is the nearest stop to the Sugar Loaf vantage point,^[3] although it was originally built to serve a number of cottages occupied by railway workers (such as signalmen & track gangers).^[4] South of the station the line passes beneath the hills via the 1,001-yard (915 m) Sugar Loaf tunnel, which is 820 feet (250 m) above sea level and is approached by gradients as steep as 1 in 60 on each side. It then descends steadily for the next 8 ¹⁄₂ miles (13.7 km) down to Llandovery. The climb up to the summit here was a challenging one for train crews in steam days (especially northbound) and the use of banking locomotives was commonplace.

The station sees very few passengers - in 2010/2011 an estimated 84 passengers used the station and in 2014 it was reported that the station was averaging five passengers per month.^[2]

Services

All trains serving the station are operated by Arriva Trains Wales. There are four trains a day in each direction (towards Swansea and Shrewsbury) from Monday to Saturday, and two services on Sundays. Being a request stop, passengers have to give a hand signal to the approaching train driver to board or notify the guard when they board that they wish to alight from the train there.

References

1. Sugar Loaf (Map). 1:25,000. OS Explorer. Cartography by Ordnance Survey. Streetmap.co.uk. Retrieved September 19, 2012.
2. "Britain's forgotten railway stations". Telegraph.co.uk. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
3. "Sugar Loaf". Heart of Wales Line. Retrieved September 19, 2012.
4. Heart of Wales Travel Guide Doughty, Audrey, Llandeilo Past & Present; Retrieved 6 July 2016