Don’t Want Landmark With 58-Letter Name Sold : Welsh Town’s Plea: Spare Their Train Station

Residents of a Welsh town whose tongue-twisting name has 58 letters pleaded with the government today not to sell its train station to foreigners who could ship it overseas like the London Bridge.

State-owned British Rail put the station on the market Thursday. Residents fear that the 100-year-old station could go the way of the bridge, which an American millionaire bought and moved to Arizona in 1968.

The residents, already beset each year by 250,000 tourists to their Anglesey Island town, fear that further publicity will bring foreign millionaires out of the woodwork.

“We don’t know whether publicity’s good or bad,” townsman Alan Mummery said, adding that while it may bring forward buyers, it also adds to the tourists, who can buy $15 shares in a corporation residents hope will save the station.

He said that more than $19,000 has been raised so far. Visitors want to own a share certificate with probably the world’s longest company name:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

It means Church of St. Mary’s Pool White Hazel Nearer to the Rapid Whirlpool of (Saint) Tysilio near the Red Cave.