# Why Wales' quietest station, Sugar Loaf, got busier



## caravanman (Dec 12, 2018)

Sugar Loaf station was the least used in Wales, this explains why it lost that "crown".  :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46209535

Ed.


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## jis (Dec 12, 2018)

I have passed through it when I traveled the Heart of Wales line last year.


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## cpotisch (Dec 12, 2018)

It’s really officially called Sugar Loaf? That is some name.


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## Devil's Advocate (Dec 12, 2018)

cpotisch said:


> It’s really officially called Sugar Loaf? That is some name.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf

It was probably related to sugar refining when the name was first established.  There's a snooty suburb of Houston called Sugarland that sounds silly today but was once the site of a major sugar refining operation before it was redeveloped with a bunch of soulless McMansions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Land,_Texas


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## greatwestern (Dec 13, 2018)

The station is located one mile to the north-east of a small but prominent knoll known as Sugar Loaf.

A Sugarloaf was the traditional form in which refined sugar used to be produced and a number of hills/mountains resembling that shape are named/nicknamed because of that resemblance.


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## caravanman (Dec 13, 2018)

greatwestern said:


> The station is located one mile to the north-east of a small but prominent knoll known as Sugar Loaf.
> 
> A Sugarloaf was the traditional form in which refined sugar used to be produced and a number of hills/mountains resembling that shape are named/nicknamed because of that resemblance.


You beat me to it, greatwestern!

Indeed, the name of the hill, and hence the station, comes from the shape of old sugar lumps, in the old days one had to hack or break off a small lump of sugar from a larger "loaf".

There is a well known Sugar Loaf mountain in South Africa.

Ed.


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## flitcraft (Dec 13, 2018)

And one outside Rio de Janeiro.  You can take a cable car (two consecutive ones, actually) to the top of Sugar Loaf.  The views from there are superb!


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## cpotisch (Dec 13, 2018)

caravanman said:


> You beat me to it, greatwestern!
> 
> Indeed, the name of the hill, and hence the station, comes from the shape of old sugar lumps, in the old days one had to hack or break off a small lump of sugar from a larger "loaf".
> 
> ...


So it was basically just a giant sugar cube?


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## trainman74 (Dec 13, 2018)

cpotisch said:


> So it was basically just a giant sugar cube?


More like this shape (this is the actual Sugar Loaf that gave its name to the station):


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