Category: News

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.