Category: News

Wednesday August 30th 2023 was notable for promising not just a super moon, the largest of the year, but also a blue moon.

On a more local scale it was also notable for the arrival at the Corris Railway of its new steam locomotive No. 10, the Falcon, from the workshops of Alan Keef Ltd based in the village of Lea near Ross-on-Wye. It was the second newly constructed steam locomotive to be built for the revival of the oldest narrow gauge railway in Mid Wales following the delivery of Tattoo No. 7 in 2005. The new arrival will mean that there will be two steam locomotives permanently based in the Maespoeth Junction locomotive shed since 1948.

The arrival of the Falcon marks a final stage in a project that has taken over twelve years and four hundred thousand pounds to take it from a proposal to completion. Many thanks goto the folk at Alan Keef’s for their patience and phasing of the construction as funds were raised and the quality of their workmanship. Some components were made commercially in Bradford, the East and West Midlands and Kent whilst others are the outcome of the engineering skills of some Corris Railway Society volunteers. Thanks are due to all concerned on that front and also to the people who have made financial contributions, bought sales goods from stands at shows or bought raffle tickets. Everyone concerned can look at No. 10 and think – I helped to make that possible.

The new locomotive will make its public debut over the weekend of September 9th and 10th heading passenger trains that will leave Corris station at 11.00, 12.00, 13.30, 14.30 and 15.30. Tickets can be booked from www.corris.co.uk/tickets in the next couple of days. The Railway’s shop and museum at Corris station will be open.

Other operating dates planned for No. 10 will be September 16th, 17th, 23rd and 24th, 30th and October 7th, 14th and 21st at the same times as above. Note that on October 21st the 15.30 train will be diesel worked.

Any enforced variance from these plans will be notified online.

There is a separate special event being held by our friends and near neighbours at the Talyllyn Railway on September 23rd and 24th at which the Corris’ diminutive battery electric locomotive No. 9 will be a guest there whilst No. 10 works at Corris.

There will of course be some final invoices to be paid and any help with these will be appreciated either via the Falcon section of this website or by cheque, payable to Corris Railway, sent to Rosie Guest, 38 Underwood Close, Callow Hill, Redditch, B97 5YS.

On the 20th of August 1948 a short freight train made its way up the Dulas Valley on the narrow gauge line between Machynlleth and Aberllefenni. The route was once the Corris Railway but it was by then a small branch line operated on three days a week by British Railways who were keeping an eye on the way bank erosion of the River Dyfi was encroaching on the lineside at Machynlleth. As concern grew the decision was made that the railway would have to close and that small train was to be the last.

Over the following months the tracks were lifted and it looked as though the Corris was lost for ever. More happily the two steam engines found a new home at the Talyllyn Railway where they have worked for seven decades along with the brake van from that last train.

However thanks to the patient work of the volunteers and many years of fund raising trains will be running between Corris Station and Maespoeth Junction on August 20th this year. Passenger trains, headed by steam locomotive No. 7, a descendant of the 1921 built No. 4 now at the Talyllyn, will leave Corris Station at 11.00, 12.00, 13.30, 14.30 and 15.30.

A week later the Corris Railway Society’s annual Model Railway Exhibition will be held at Y Plas in Machynlleth on August 26th and 27th. This year’s event will, perhaps appropriately, feature a large number of narrow gauge layouts in various scales but there will also be a range of exhibits in other scales. For those in a nostalgic mood one layout will feature Hornby Dublo, still going strong six decades after the famous marque was discontinued and another will see Tri-ang Big-Big trains running on their plastic track. In addition to the layouts there will be a variety of sales stands and refreshments will be on sale. Car parking is available nearby.

Trains will be running from Corris Station on both days whilst the Exhibition is on.