Trawsfynydd’s Nuclear Rail Traffic

Between April 1964 and April 1997, spent fuel rods from Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station in Wales were regularly transported by rail to Sellafield in Cumbria. Following the end of these operations in 1997, the line was taken out of service and officially mothballed. The last nuclear-related train ran to the power station’s loading point on 17 October 1998, marking the final chapter of nuclear freight on the route. This brief visit in 1994, captures one of those movements, with a pair of Class 31 locomotives hauling a train into the facility. Since 2016, heritage groups such as the Trawsfynydd Railway Company, along with Network Rail volunteers, have been working to clear vegetation and restore the trackbed—hoping to one day see rail traffic return to the line.