Sunday August 20th will see passenger trains operating on the revived section of the Corris Railway, leaving Corris station for Maespoeth Junction, seventy five years to the day from when the last service ran on the original line between Machynlleth and Aberllefenni. Unlike other lines’ finales there was no junketing, speeches, or special trains to mark the original closure in 1948. The final working was a short goods train headed by locomotive No. 3 as part of the thrice weekly freight service which the service had been reduced to during the Second World War. Passenger trains had ceased at the end of 1930.
One reason why the last train went unmarked was that no-one knew it would be the last although British Railways, which had acquired responsibility for the Corris eight months earlier at the start of 1948 when nearly all of Britain’s railways were nationalised, had become concerned about erosion of the trackbed where the line crossed the River Dovey/Dyfi. Further erosion occurred, although in fact the line was never severed, and the decision to close the route and transfer the traffic to road vehicles was taken. The line was taken up and that appeared to be that. The two remaining steam engines, some waggons and rail eventually went to the Talyllyn Railway.
However thanks to the efforts of the Corris Railway Society a works train headed by a small diesel locomotive worked into Corris station and passenger trains resumed in 2002. Steam hauled passenger trains began again on August 20th 2005 headed by a newly built locomotive.
With the passage of seventy five years it is inevitable that very few people can now remember the original line. Earlier this year Selwyn Humphreys died. He was the son of the last regular footplate man on the old line and took an interest in the revival including visiting the Open Day at the workshops of Alan Keef Ltd in 2022 where he stepped aboard the footplate of the next new steam loco being built for the Corris Railway. When visiting the line he would check that the slate wall by the engine shed doors at Maespoeth Junction still bore the name he had carved into it when a child. It does.
A more formal commemorative plaque has now been affixed to the wall of the carriage shed at the Junction marking the passing of Gwyn Briwnant Jones who wrote and compiled a number of books about the Corris amongst other works. His father was the Chief Clerk for the Corris and moved to a similar position at Machynlleth station after the GWR take over in 1930. This gave Gwyn opportunities to explore and get to thoroughly know the narrow gauge line and the people who worked and used it. This knowledge was put to particular use in his book Great Western Corris. He was hugely supportive of the revival, becoming Vice President of the Corris Railway Society, and many activists received his thoughtful letters of thanks and appreciation for their work.