Railway Research Trip; Corris Railway

This has been on the 'to visit' list for quite some time, the Corris Railway in mid-Wales. With the garden railway being heavily inspired by the real line (seen only through books), I'd been wanting to shoot some pics here for years. Finally the stars aligned and we'd be in Wales during one of their running days.

After a week of sunshine, the day naturally dawned gloomy and miserable. Still, we'd pre-booked tickets, so headed off.

Corris village was amazing. Very pretty, and very friendly. A proper post office in a library, and a proper little village shop and cafe in the centre. Very pleasantly old-fashioned.

Inside the rather Tardis-like station/museum was this impressive model.

I remember seeing this in the Railway Modeller way back, and liking how it looked. It's presented very nicely in a display case in a corner of the book area.

In rolled the train, Hughes-style newbuild (a replica of one of the original locomotives; the surviving original machine is now over on the Tallylyn Railway in the next valley). In fact this whole train is a beautiful example of modern technology, all the coaches are new-builds in the styles of the originals.

The carriages were one of the main things we were there to see, and they are truly lovely.

One for our editor at GR, who recently built a garden-scale out house.

Love a workshop, and this one is terrific. Very modern, light, and airy.

More potential fodder for articles.

Loco running-round.

Old waterwheel at the end of the platform.

Staffordshire blue bricks. Would love some of these at the house.

Pretty much everything in this shot has been built by the preservation society, and it's truly impressive.

Back to Corris, and the museum.

Atmospheric, though shame about the weather, especially with the sun and blue skies that were just around the metaphorical corner.

Final thoughts? Loved this line. The vols were incredibly friendly, the trains are impressive, and the railway has grand ambitions- that, on the evidence of what they've achieved so far, should be very achievable.