The Corris Railway?s Grand Re-Opening on Saturday June 7th 2003 will be celebrated by the return of the railway?s original steam locomotive ? courtesy of the neighbouring Talyllyn Railway.
To mark the formal re-opening of the railway, and the 125th birthday of the railway?s original steam locomotive, a complete Corris Heritage Train is being loaned to the railway from the Talyllyn, where the equipment was preserved after the Corris closed in 1948. Along with the locomotive, Corris No.3 (which has carried the same number in the rosters of the Corris Railway, Great Western Railway, British Railways and the Talyllyn Railway), the train is made up of a passenger carriage, a coal waggon, and a brake van.
Locomotive No.3 was built at the Falcon Works in Loughborough in 1878 by the Hughes?s Locomotive & Tramway Engine Works Ltd, as one of a trio of saddle tank locomotives constructed for the Corris Railway. With the scrapping of the other two in 1930, it is the sole survivor of the class. After seventy years of service at Corris, it has since spent fifty-two years on the Talyllyn after being purchased to help solve that railway?s motive power problems when the preservationists took over in 1951.
The bogie carriage, No.17 in the Talyllyn?s stock list but probably originally Corris No.8, was built by the Metropolitan Railway Car & Wagon Company Ltd in 1898, and is one of only two remaining from the Corris? original eight vehicles. The other survivor is a static exhibit in the Corris Railway Museum. The Talyllyn Railway rebuilt No.17 in the late 1950s after it had served for twenty-eight years as a greenhouse and garden shed.
The coal waggon is an example of two large iron bodied waggons with end doors that ran on the Corris and were sold to the Talyllyn in 1951.
The brake van was built by the Falcon works for the Corris in 1878, and originally carried the number 12 in the Corris fleet. It became Talyllyn No.6 in 1951.
An intensive service of trains, using the heritage train in rotation with the railway?s regular diesel service, will run every Saturday and Sunday during the month of June. Apart from the Grand Re-Opening Day, other themed events are being planned for each weekend, and further details will be released when available.
This will be the first time that steam-hauled public passenger trains have been run on the Corris since 1930. However, the trains are not just a taste of the past, but also a foretaste of the future, as the Corris Railway?s new steam locomotive is steadily taking shape and will be available to run services in the not-too-distant future.
Please note ? the visit of the Heritage Train is subject to satisfactory completion of legal and insurance requirements.
