Author: John Simms

For most of the last twenty years the annual Santa Special trains on the Corris Railway have been headed by “Tattoo” steam locomotive No. 7, built new for the Railway in 2005 and as seen in the photograph above. However in 2024 a newer engine will be taking a starring role at the head of the trains and no doubt featuring in family photographs and videos.

This is Corris No. 10, a “Falcon” class machine delivered new to the Corris in 2023. After a spell as Britain’s newest steam loco it has had a busy 2024, starring in gala events on both the Corris and the Talyllyn Railways and also taking a leading role in the TR’s “Awdry Weekend” where it assumed the guise of “Sir Handel” from the “Thomas the Tank Engine” books.

The new build carriages, built by the Corris Railway’s volunteers, headed by No. 10, will give passengers a taste of everyday travel in the Dulas Valley at the start of the 20^th Century as they are based on the Edwardian originals which ran until 1930, whilst the first “Falcon” locomotives were built for the Corris in 1878. The journey is from Corris station to Maespoeth Junction where Santa will be waiting with presents for the children whilst his helpers will have seasonable refreshments for everyone. The round trip will take around an hour.

There are four trains scheduled to run on December 7^th and 8^th, leaving Corris at 11.00, 12.30, 2.00 and 3.30. Fares are £7.50 for adults and £10.00 for children. With 70 seats available on each train early booking is advisable, particularly if planning your day around a particular train time. Advance booking can be done online via www.corris.co.uk/tickets

The Museum and Shop at Corris station will be open on both days allowing visitors to see artifacts from the history of the Railway, which once linked Machynlleth and Aberllefenni, and the area generally or to buy some late items of clothing, books, cards or children’s gifts ahead of the festive season and 2025. The range of children’s books includes “Hugh Goes Sliding” by Christopher Awdry, author of some of the “Thomas” tales, plus other children’s books written by a Corris Railway volunteer.

As the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the Corris Railway Society back in 1966 approaches, 2026 should see first class travel on the Mid Wales narrow gauge line available for the first time in nearly a century.

The volunteer carriage building team, working in the sheds at Maespoeth Junction, will have the latest new build coach, number 24 fully primed and ready for painting by the end of October. Recent work prior to that has been mainly completion of the vestibule panels and etched glass for the end of the first class compartment which has been created. Further drawings are being produced for outstanding parts.

The new vehicle will be the second of the new build carriage fleet to feature a clerestory roof and the ventilators for this feature have now been produced. This style of roof added a large amount of work to both the fabrication of the steel skeleton and the many timber capping sections that enclose the structure of number 24, but it means that along with the similar clerestory on number 22 and the elliptical roofs on numbers 20, 21 and 23 the modern day Corris trains have similar profiles to their pre-1930 counterparts.

The construction of numbers 22 to 24 has been funded by a Corris Railway Society member and carried out by the engineering volunteers.

First class travel was a feature of the CR from the official commencement of passenger services in 1883. The original steam hauled carriages were tramcar styled four wheelers which led to an interesting episode when the original bogie coach entered service. This was a third class vehicle but was such a more comfortable ride than the four wheeled first class offering that passengers who had paid the higher fare class regardless.

After the GWR withdrew passenger services after taking over the Corris in 1930 the withdrawn carriages were scrapped apart from two bodies which survived near Gobowen. One is restored and is in service on the Talyllyn Railway and the other resides in the Museum at Corris station. There are no plans to return it to service.

The main 2024 operating season on the Corris Railway will end on Saturday October 26^th when trains will leave Corris Station for a journey along part of the Dulas Valley at 11.00, 12.00. 13.30, 14.30 and 15.30. As usual the Railway’s Museum and Shop will be open at Corris station. However there will still be the Railway’s traditional Santa Trains to come on December 7^th and 8^th, for which bookings are already coming in online.

Looking back over the last 10 months much has been achieved with the revival of the line which was closed in 1948. Work has progressed with building the new embankment which will eventually extend the length of the journey along the Valley. Further work is going ahead with planning the necessary bridge over the Nant Goedwig waterway.

The surviving member of the original trio of steam locomotives which were delivered to the Corris in 1878, No. 3, returned for a month long visit in June, its visit including a successful Gala Day when for the first time in over a century three steam engines were working on the line together. The other pair in action were “Tattoo” class No. 7 and No. 3’s much younger classmate No. 10, which became a resident of the locomotive shed at Maespoeth Junction in 2023.

In July No. 10 accompanied No. 3 to the Talyllyn Railway where it headed selected trains for a month including a Gala Event and the Awdry Weekend. It worked well on the longer line and was well liked by the Talyllyn’s loco crews.

Volunteers have continued to improve the machine shop area inside the locomotive shed with new walling and the delivery of a milling machine which is a considerable upgrade on the one previously in use and will enable more engineering work to be done in-house. In the carriage shed work continues on the construction of the next new carriage which, once complete, will allow the Corris to offer first class travel.

Although the line will be closed for public trains during the winter, after the Santa Trains have run, work will continue on the routine but necessary work of track maintenance, vegetation control, building maintenance and more. Extra volunteers are more than welcome and details of how to volunteer can be seen at www.corris.co.uk from where tickets for the Santa Trains can also be booked.

Looking to the future, including the day when track laying begins on its Southern Extension, the Corris Railway has agreed to purchase three ballast waggons from the Talyllyn. With siding space at something of a premium on the Corris Railway, even allowing for the carriage shed and waggon shelter at Maespoeth Junction, the Corris has also agreed to donate three of its existing fleet to Glyn Valley Tramway revivalists at Chirk, which shares the Mid-Wales twenty seven inch gauge at this stage of its history.

The waggons due to depart are a trio of Robert Hudson waggons numbered 205, 206 and 219 in the Corris lists. The first pair have been on the line since 1984 whilst the latter arrived in 1996 from the Ripon Valley Railway. It had previously been based at the Yaxham Light Railway, situated next to Yaxham Station on the Mid Norfolk Railway.

The Corris Railway’s waggon restoration team, the “Tuesday Gang”, will be taking on the task of merging the usable parts of a quartet of waggons which have been in storage with a view to producing one, or possibly two, usable vehicles for the future. The Gang has spent time in the summer months producing new steps for the Maespoeth Junction signal box, utilising their metal working and carpentry skills. The steps will take the place of the existing ones during the winter work programme although it is to be decided if this will precede or follow the Santa Special Steam Trains which will run on December 7^th and 8^th.

A side door waggon from the Aberllefenni slate quarry has been sent to the Vale of Rheidol for riveting to be carried out.

September is here and the children are going back to school for a term that will end shortly before Christmas. The year is in its final third, the cricket season is coming to an end for another season and the autumn tints are appearing quietly in some of the trees.

Not long before the schools break up the Corris Railway will be running its annual Santa Trains on Saturday December 7^th and Sunday December 8^th offering visitors a short journey in our recreated Victorian carriages along the Dulas Valley from Corris Station to Maespoeth Junction. There Santa and his helpers will be waiting with presents for the children and light refreshments with a seasonal touch.

There are four trains scheduled to run on each day, leaving Corris at 11:00, 12:30, 14:00 and 15:30. Fares are £7.50 for adults and £10.00 for children. With 70 seats available on each train early booking is advisable, particularly if planning your day around a particular train time.

The Railway Museum and Shop at Corris station will be open on both days allowing visitors to see artifacts from the history of the Railway, which once linked Machynlleth and Aberllefenni, and the area generally or to buy some late items of clothing, Books, Christmas Cards or children’s gifts ahead of the festive season and 2025. The range of children’s books includes “Hugh Goes Sliding” by Christopher Awdry, author of some of the “Thomas” tales about steam locomotives on the Corris and tales about the Friendly Engines written by one of our volunteers.

One of the regular August Bank Holiday Weekend events in Machynlleth is the annual Model Railway Exhibition staged by the Corris Railway Society at Y Plas. This year’s show will take place on Saturday August 24th and Sunday 25th.

Organiser Bill Newton aims to make the event as varied as possible and including something to keep younger visitors interested while the adults are looking at layouts or browsing at the sales stands. To that end the 2024 event will include a Brio trains layout to offer a hands on experience. At the other end of the age range older visitors will be able to enjoy some nostalgia looking at a layout featuring items from the great days of the O gauge Hornby tinplate marque.

As may be expected, given that the Corris is a narrow gauge railway, there will be models depicting aspects of the narrow gauge in miniature form. Scale-wise these range from the most popular scale, 009, through to the large 16mm models. Look out for the 009 set-up using a toilet bowl (scrupulously clean!) to mount the track. Other layouts will represent standard gauge railways, modelled in N, 00 and O scales.

Stalls-wise Kate Packham returns from South Devon with her jewellery and decorative items made from recycled glass and Ian Cross will be selling second-hand railway books at bargain prices. Other vendors will be offering railwayana and models old and new.

Profits from the Model Railway Exhibition help with the revival of the Corris Railway and trains will be running from Corris station on both days, leaving at 11.00am, 12.00pm, 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 3.30pm.

Tickets for both the Model Railway Exhibition at Y Plas, Machynlleth and the passenger train services at Corris may be pre-booked online on the Corris Railway web site here.

Light refreshments will be available at the show and there is parking close to Y Plas. The Exhibition opening hours are 10.00am to 4.30pm on each day with admission for adults costing £4.00 for adults and £2.00 for children.

During one of the heavy showers which punctuated the Corris Railway’s Gala Day visitors who took shelter in the carriage shed at Maespoeth Junction had their eyes caught by a very unusual item of rolling stock. It has now been moved to its planned home in the Museum at Corris Station.

The four wheeled wooden bodied vehicle is the reconstructed velocipede, bringing back a small vehicle which was once used by the permanent way workers on the Mid Wales narrow gauge line in its original incarnation. The work on this recreation was carried out by the current Corris’ “Tuesday Gang” who have steadily been reviving and recreating the waggon fleet.

Known to former Corris Railway staff as the Manrider it is believed that the velocipede was towed at the rear of a train proceeding along the line until it reached the work site where it was detached. Once the train had been left tools were unloaded and after that the body and then the wheels were removed from the rails. At the end of the working day the vehicle was reassembled with the body turned through 180 degrees, tools reloaded and gravity saw the vehicle and the workers return home, control being managed by a simple brake acting on one of the four wheels. There was a facility to allow the velocipede to be pedalled along if required but a combination of very basic axleboxes and the Corris’ gradients and curves would not have made this a popular practice. One curiosity which will now probably never be explained is that the wheels have six spokes on one side and four on the other.

After the line was closed in 1948 the Forestry Commission took over the locomotive shed at Maespoeth Junction and the vehicle was dumped in the inspection pit inside the shed. The Corris Railway Society was able to acquire the remains and they were taken to Corris to await reconstruction.

One difficulty was that only one picture exists of the velocipede, so the reconstruction has been based around those remains and calculations based on them and the photograph. These were two solebars, the brake anchor and the wheelsets. The pedalled axle had suffered damage and it and the wheels required specialist welding in Machynlleth. This was not helped by the original Victorian casting of the iron being less than perfect with an excess of sand inclusion.

Working from the surviving parts and the photograph the joiners in the Gang ordered the wood and set about reconstructing the body. The seat was created and positioned after some consultation as in the best place to work the pedals and a new rimmed platform was created as the likely way to carry the tools. A new brake was created to suit the 2 feet diameter wheels and other metal work was also carried out in-house.

Following on from producing a series of kits of the Corris carriages and brake van for 7mm scale Iconic Rail will be adding a ready to run model “Falcon” to their range of products.

Pre-orders are being taken for the first batch with delivery due in a couple of months time. The model has a metal chassis and gearbox so should have plenty of weight beneath what is promised to be a well detailed plastic body. The cab will be that as carried by No. 10, rather than the one John Bate fitted to “Sir Haydn” at the Talyllyn. The livery will be as per No. 10, which should certainly be accurate as Iconic Rail is the work of Graham French who lined-out No. 10 earlier in 2024.

There is definitely the beginning of an upsurge in ready to run 7mm narrow gauge models. Lionheart has produced items based on the ubiquitous in all scales Lynton and Barnstaple and now Bachmann has entered the field with various Quarry Hunslets, waggons and some buildings. It’s good to see the Corris getting a look-in rather than some of the bigger concerns.

The Iconic “Falcon” can be seen at www.iconicrail.co.uk and orders for the model which will retail at £250 can be placed via sales@iconicrail.co.uk

Saturday June 15^th was a day of variable weather in Mid Wales with good spells of sunshine interspersed with some very heavy, albeit generally of short duration, showers. Despite the downpours this year’s Corris Railway Gala was a successful day with full trains and good sales in the Railway’s shop.

It was a day of historic events. The schedule of trains leaving Corris station at half hourly intervals was the most intensive timetable ever to operate over the section of line to Maespoeth Junction and for the first time in living memory three locomotives were in steam. Expecting a good turn-out for the event the Corris had decided not to run any demonstration freight trains and to concentrate on its passenger services. There had been a spate of online bookings during the day and on the evening of the 14^th as well as walk-up sales on the day.

For most of the visitors the major attraction was the visit of “Sir Haydn” from the neighbouring Talyllyn Railway and its initial appearance alongside its much younger classmate Corris No. 10. It was the first time two “Falcons” together had worked trains in over a century and the lunchtime double-headed pairing was a highlight of the day. No. 3 was very much at home on the railway where it ran between 1878 and 1948, its green livery contrasting with No. 10 in its Corris red paint.

The visiting engine had to come to the rescue in mid-morning when the “Tattoo”, Corris No. 7, failed in section with a steam leak on its way up the line. The 2005 built loco was returned to the Junction and spent the rest of the day on the headshunt while the pair of “Falcons” worked turn and turn about.

A number of Corris Railway Society members took the opportunity to walk down past the headshunt and onto the new embankment which has now linked up with the earthworks supporting the existing head of rail. Looking ahead to the next phase of the line’s Southern Extension plans a new appeal leaflet to raise funds for the Nant Goedwig stream had been printed and a number of visitors had picked one up and were reading it (copies can be obtained by sending an s.a.e. to CRS 42 Bluebell Close, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 3XQ or donations to the Southern Extension Fund can be made online at www.corris.co.uk). Hopefully donations may follow.

Overall it was a very satisfactory day for the Corris and thanks go to the visiting crew from the Talyllyn who worked No. 3 during the event.

With this year’s Corris Railway Gala Day less than a fortnight away the following is the plan of train workings for the day. Please note that circumstances, such as a breakdown, may cause this to change and the Corris Railway cannot accept responsibility for any changes to the following timetable.

Public service trains will leave Corris station at:

• 11:00 – Planned locomotive No. 7
• 11:30 – Planned locomotive No. 10
• 12:00 – Planned locomotive No. 3
• 12:30 – Planned locomotive No. 7
• 13:10 – Planned locomotives Nos. 3 & 10 double heading
• 14:15 – Planned locomotive No. 10
• 14:45 – Planned locomotive No. 3
• 15:15 – Planned locomotive No. 7
• 15:45 – Planned locomotive No. 10

Public service trains will leave Maespoeth Junction at:

• 11:15 – Planned locomotive No. 3
• 11:45 – Planned locomotive No. 7
• 12:15 – Planned locomotive No. 10
• 12:45 – Planned locomotive No. 3
• 14:00 – Planned locomotives Nos. 3 & 10, topping and tailing the train
• 14:30 – Planned locomotive No. 7
• 15:00 – Planned locomotive No. 10
• 15:30 – Planned locomotive No. 3
• 16:00 – Planned locomotive No. 7

PLEASE NOTE: IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO START YOUR DAY AT MAESPOETH JUNCTION. PASSENGERS MUST START FROM CORRIS STATION.

Locomotive Information

No. 3 is the surviving member of the original trio of locomotives built in Loughborough in 1878. Following the closure of the original Corris route by British Railways in 1948 it was purchased by the Talyllyn Railway in 1951 and has worked there since, being named “Sir Haydn” by our friends at Tywyn. This is the locomotive’s third visit to its original home.

No. 7 was the first steam locomotive built for the Corris Railway revival and after a chequered story around its construction – including the firm building it going out of business – entered service in 2005. It is a 21st Century classmate of a locomotive delivered from Kerr Stuart Ltd of Stoke-on-Trent in 1921 and which, accompanied No. 3 to the Talyllyn. This will be its last summer in service as a statutory overhaul falls due in 2025. To read more see the booklet The Tale of a “Tattoo” by Peter Guest.

No. 10 arrived on the revived Corris at the end of August 2023 and as visitors will see it is a classmate of No. 3, albeit some 145 years younger. It was built for us by Alan Keef Ltd, at a cost of nearly £400,000 and this Gala will see two of these “Falcon” locomotives working together for the first time in over a century. Its story is told in a booklet by John Simms.

The workshops at Maespoeth Junction will be open to the public, as will the Museum and Sales area at Corris station. Light refreshments will be available but if something more substantial is wanted it is a short walk from Corris station to the village shop and cafe or the “Slaters Arms” (which once had its beer delivered in casks rolled across the street from the railway’s waggons).

The Corris Craft Centre has a good cafe. It is possible to walk to the Railway from the Craft Centre via the zig-zag path but the return up the path is not for the unfit.