Category: News

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