National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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First Through Train from Euston to Rhyl, 1908
Rhyl celebrates as the distance between London and the north Wales resort gets suddenly smaller
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Overview
Those were the days – some sixty years before Beeching's cuts, new services were being opened and a crowd has gathered at Rhyl station to welcome the first through train service (not its first day) from London, en route to next-stop Colwyn Bay. Somewhere between its arrival and departure, the loco is hung with a handmade sign proclaiming it the 'L&NWR Through Train to North Wales…Rhyl First Stop'
This service began on 1st July, reported the 'Rhyl Advertiser' - the new daily summer-service train leaving Euston at 11.15 am, arriving at Rhyl at 3.20. The 'Rhyl Journal' said that on Friday 17th Arthur Cheetham “was busy with his cinematograph camera and obtained an excellent series of pictures of the train and the crowd”. Cheetham (1865-1937) was an entrepreneur, cinema owner and pioneer filmmaker - the first in Wales to film events for his own shows. From 1889 to at least 1919 he was based in Rhyl, and 12 of his (at least) 47 films, shot mostly from 1898 to 1904, survive in part or whole.
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