Corris Railway

The Corris Railway () is a narrow gauge railway based in Corris on the border between Merionethshire (now Gwynedd) and Montgomeryshire (now Powys) in Mid-Wales.

The line opened in 1859 as a horse tramway, running from quays on the River Dyfi at Morben and Derwenlas, through the town of Machynlleth and then following the Dulas Valley north to Corris and on to Aberllefenni. Branches served the slate quarries at Corris Uchaf, Aberllefenni, the isolated quarries around Ratgoed and quarries along the length of the Dulas Valley. In 1878, the railway was rebuilt and steam locomotives were introduced. It was taken over by the Great Western Railway in 1929 and closed in 1948.

A preservation society was formed in 1966, initially opening a museum at Corris. A short section of line between Corris and Maespoeth was re-opened to passengers in 2002. The railway now operates as a tourist attraction. Two new steam locomotives have been built for the railway, in 2005 and 2023. Two of the original locomotives and some of the original rolling stock are preserved on the nearby Talyllyn Railway.

The railway has the unusual gauge of which was shared by only three other public railways in the United Kingdom: the Talyllyn Railway and the short-lived Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway in Mid Wales, and the Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway in Scotland.

History

Commercial history

Precursor schemes: 1850 to 1858

thumb|right|Lithograph showing a horse-drawn train on the Corris Railway crossing the Dovey Bridge, probably drawn in the late 1860s

Before 1859, slate from the quarries at Corris, Corris Uchaf and Aberllefenni was hauled by horse-drawn carts and sledges to wharves on the banks of the River Dyfi. The first proposal to construct a railway connecting the quarries to the coast came in August 1850, when the owners of the Aberllefenni, Abercorris, Gaewern and Hengae quarries met with engineer Arthur Causton to propose the Abercorris and Aberdovey Railway. By November 1850, the name had changed to the Corris, Machynlleth & River Dovey Railway or Tramroad which was planned to run down the Dulas Valley and then along the north shore of the Dyfi past Pennal to Pant Eidal, near the later main-line Gogarth Halt. A bill was submitted in early 1851, withdrawn, then resubmitted in December. The bill specified the tramroad's gauge as ; due to the narrow gauge selected, the House of Lords committee imposed a restriction in the bill that forbade the use of locomotives.

This 1851 scheme was authorised in the (15 & 16 Vict. c. clxvi) but was not constructed, and was followed by two further proposals in the early 1850s. Following the plans for a railway along the Dyfi valley, these early proposals were shelved.

In December 1857, a fourth bill was set before Parliament to create the Corris, Machynlleth and River Dovey Tramroad (CM&RDT). This was similar to the 1851 scheme, except that it proposed to cross the Dyfi near Machynlleth and then follow the south bank of the river, and proposed a tramway from the "machine house" (i.e. the slate mill) at Aberllefenni, down to the wharf at "Cae Goch on the River Dovey" (Cae Goch was near to the later main line Glandyfi station). The gauge specified for the tramroad was increased to , and the same restriction forbidding locomotives was imposed. This bill was passed on 12 July 1858, becoming the (21 & 22 Vict. c. xcv).

The Tramroad Era: 1858 to 1878

After more than eight years of proposals, the 1859 scheme was the one that was built. Construction proceeded quickly, and by April 1859 the tramroad opened between Machynlleth and Corris. The section from Aberllefenni to Corris was built later that year. The section from Machynlleth to Morben was opened later. It is thought that the tramroad never extended beyond Morben.

On 3 January 1863, the standard gauge Newtown and Machynlleth Railway had opened, followed on 1 July of the same year by the Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway's (A&WCR) line from Machynlleth to Borth. These two lines became part of the Cambrian Railways by August 1865. The opening of the standard gauge line to Borth made the section of the from Machynlleth to Morben obsolete. It was much easier to transship slates to the main line at Machynlleth and most of the lower section of the tramway was abandoned, probably in 1869. By February 1879 it had been joined by the other two that had been ordered and all three had begun work. Although the carriages arrived in 1878 it was not until 1883 that the Corris Railway Act 1883 was secured to allow the formal commencement of passenger services. A semi-official passenger service had been running since the early 1870s using adapted waggons  to convey quarry workers and visitors.

The line was now in its settled form and began to operate a full service under Dix's energetic management. The railway was widely promoted to visitors as the best route to Tal-y-llyn Lake and Cader Idris (ignoring the claims of the rival Talyllyn Railway). The initial passenger service ran from to , with new stations at and opening in 1884. The track was upgraded beyond Corris so that passenger services could reach the line's northern terminus at , with services starting on 25 August 1887, and in the same year stations were also opened at and .

thumb|Horse-drawn charabancs owned by the Corris Railway pass [[Tal-y-llyn Lake on the "Grand Tour"]]

The railway developed a network of horse-hauled road services, including providing a link between Corris station and Abergynolwyn station on the Talyllyn Railway. This was promoted as part of a circular "Grand Tour" which took in the two narrow gauge railways and the Cambrian service between Tywyn and Machynlleth.

In 1892, control of Imperial Tramways moved to Bristol and George White of Bristol Tramways became chairman and Clifton Robinson became managing director. In the 1900s, Bristol motor buses were sent by the parent company to run the road services.

The closure of Braichgoch Quarry in 1906 brought the railway its first loss, and although the line continued on through subsequent decades, serving the quarries around Corris and Aberllefenni, it never again showed a profit. The bridge over the River Dyfi was rebuilt that year replacing the second timber viaduct with a steel bridge on slate piers.

Decline: 1907 to 1930

Following a dispute with the directors, Dix was dismissed in June 1907, and replaced by John J O'Sullivan (formerly of the Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway). A new station building at Machynlleth was completed towards the end of 1907. As well as slate and passengers, the line hauled timber extracted from the Dyfi forest in the 1910s through 1930s. There was also a constant traffic in coal and general goods to the quarries and communities served by the railway.

After World War I, the decline in slate traffic continued as cheaper foreign slate and alternative roofing materials became popular. O'Sullivan had died in office in 1917; the parent company's Secretary, Frederick H Withers, acted as manager until a new manager, Daniel J McCourt (who had worked on Imperial's Middlesbrough system until that was taken over by the local municipality) took over in 1921 and was responsible for developing and extending the connecting bus services as partial compensation for the decline in rail traffic.

Takeover and nationalisation: 1931 to 1948

In late 1929, Imperial Tramways sold the Corris to the Great Western Railway (GWR), who by that time were the owners of the main line serving Machynlleth, whose primary interest was taking control of the railway's bus routes. After running a bus in direct competition with the railway in 1930, the railway's passenger service was withdrawn at the beginning of 1931. While the did not relish owning another Welsh narrow gauge line, they did perform some track maintenance, and on at least two occasions the rolling stock was repainted.

In 1951, the Talyllyn Railway became the first railway in the world to be preserved. The Talyllyn purchased the two remaining locomotives, which had been stored out of use at Machynlleth, along with several goods waggons  and the brake van – see List of Talyllyn Railway rolling stock. In 1958, the Talyllyn also purchased one of the Corris carriages, which had been in use as a summerhouse in a garden in Gobowen.

Preservation

Early days: 1966 to 1980

thumb|The Corris Railway's own steam locomotive, No. 7, at Corris on 28 October 2006

In the early 1960s a group of volunteers from the Talyllyn Railway, led by Alan Meaden, began visiting Corris. They wanted to establish a museum for the line and formed The Corris Society in December 1966. Another group, the Corris Railway Preservation Society, was set up in the West Midlands around the same time. The two groups merged, forming the Corris Railway Society in 1968 with the aim of preserving what was left of the railway, opening a dedicated museum, and to explore reviving some or all of the line. Many of the founding members of the Society were volunteers on the Talyllyn.

Other than at Aberllefenni and Braichgoch quarries, no rails remained in situ along the Corris route. Initially the Society sought to purchase Machynlleth station for its museum, but when this proved impossible it turned its sights elsewhere. The main buildings of Corris station were demolished in 1968 leaving only the adjacent railway stable block standing, and these buildings – badly in need of maintenance – were acquired, along with a short section of trackbed leading southwards. In 1970 the first part of the building was opened as the Corris Railway Museum. A short length of "demonstration" track was laid in 1971.

During the 1970s, the Society undertook lengthy negotiations with the relevant authorities to establish the requirements for re-opening the line for passengers, while steadily building up funds and equipment In 1974, planning permission was received to re-open the line from Maespoeth Junction to Corris station. and No. 7 in October 2011. It hauled a few charter trains and played a part in the TR's Corris Weekend, when it ran with the two surviving ex Corris engines; No. 4 (Edward Thomas) and No. 3 (Sir Haydn) and stock.

Both the surviving original locomotives have visited the Corris since its reopening. In 2012, No. 3 featured in a steam Gala over May Bank Holiday weekend along with the railway's resident steam loco No. 7. No. 3's boiler ticket expired on 17 May 2012 and the loco was on static display at Maespoeth until February 2013, when the loco left the Corris to tour heritage railways and museums in the UK to raise awareness of the Talyllyn and to raise funds for its overhaul.

About the railway

thumb|right|Corris station in the 1890s

The Corris Railway had several unusual features:

The gauge is rare, shared by only three other public lines in the UK: the nearby Talyllyn Railway and Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway and the Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway in Scotland. The Glyn Valley Tramway between Chirk and Pontfaen is being rebuilt to 2ft 3in to allow for stock transfer at gala events.
Its origins as a horse tramroad and ascent through the narrow and winding Dulas valley meant it had exceptionally tight curves. Its original passenger carriages were simple 4-wheelers derived from urban horse-drawn tramway designs with end balconies; they rode poorly and were quickly rebuilt into longer bogie carriages by placing two of the original bodies end-to-end on a longer underframe.
The stations were exceptionally narrow, again because of the geography of the line, and all were on the east side of the rails, so the carriages and locomotives had doors on that side only, as on the Talyllyn Railway.
The vertical trestle waggons for carrying large slabs of slate from the quarries were also rarely found on other railways, notable exceptions being the Ffestiniog Railway and the nearby Hendre-Ddu Tramway.
Corris Station and the original Machynlleth Station had overall roofs, features which were rare on a British narrow gauge railway. At Corris, the roof was over the main running line and trains for Aberllefenni passed under it; at Machynlleth the rear of the train rested under the station roof while the front was in the open air. The original Machynlleth station was demolished and replaced in 1907 with the building that still stands alongside the A487 trunk road north of the main-line railway overbridge. The track bed continued under the main-line railway overbridge alongside Heol Y Doll, through its own arch that was closed with stone blocks until it was re-opened in 2023/24 as part of the new Dyfi bridge project. Beyond the overbridge, a Texaco petrol station is sited on the former route.

Route

thumb|upright=1.5|right|Map of the Corris Railway

Stations and halts

Morben Cei (or Quay) Ward was the wharf on the River Dyfi that was the main transshipment point for the original tramroad. Closed in 1869. An extension of the line beyond Cei Ward was planned, but never built.
Llwyngwern quarry – connected to by its own tramway
Rhiw'r Gwreiddyn quarry – not directly connected, but slate was carted to and loaded onto Corris trains.
Era quarry – connected to by its own tramway
Abercorris quarry – connected to Maespoeth Junction by the Upper Corris Tramway
Gaewern quarry – connected to the Upper Corris Tramway, subsequently worked together with Braichgoch.
Braichgoch quarry – connected to the Upper Corris Tramway
Abercwmeiddaw quarry – the main Broad Vein quarry in the Corris area. Connected to the Upper Corris Tramway.
Aberllefenni quarries – connected via internal tramway at Aberllefenni
Cambergi quarry – not directly connected, but output carried by cart to Aberllefenni
Cymerau quarry – connected to the Ratgoed Tramway
Ratgoed quarry – connected to the Ratgoed Tramway

The railway also served Y Magnus (Matthew's Mill), a slate enamelling works situated between Aberllefenni and Garneddwen with its own tramway.

Locomotives

Original railway

Three locomotives were supplied in 1878, and partially rebuilt between 1883 and 1900 from s to s. By the 1920s the locomotives were badly worn. A new locomotive, No. 4, was supplied in 1921. In 1923, parts from Nos. 1 and 3 were combined to produce one working locomotive, which carried the number 3. The remaining original locomotive, No 2, was held in reserve until 1928. A report dated 12 October 1929 stated that locomotives 1 and 2 had been "marked off for some time as scrap" and the remains of both engines were handed over to a local scrap merchant and excluded from the assets taken over by the GWR.

The locomotives that ran on the original Corris Railway between 1878 and 1948 (none carried names on the Corris) were:

{|class="wikitable"

!Number

!Image

!Builder

!scope="col" style="width: 65px;" | Wheel arrangement

!Works Number

!Built

!Notes

!Current Status

!Current location

|150px

|Hughes Locomotive Company, in Falcon Works

|324

|1878

|Originally built as an , scrapped 1930

|Scrapped

|N/A

|Hughes Falcon Works

|322

|1878

|Originally built as an , scrapped 1930

|Scrapped

|N/A

|150px

|Hughes Falcon Works

|323

|1878

|Originally built as an . In 1927 it was rebuilt using parts from all three Hughes locomotives. Purchased by the Talyllyn Railway in 1951, and named Sir Haydn.

|Operational

|Talyllyn Railway

|150px

|Kerr Stuart

|4047

|1921

|Tattoo class locomotive, purchased by the Talyllyn Railway in 1951. Then given the name Edward Thomas.

|Operational

|Talyllyn Railway

Preserved railway

Locomotives brought to the restored Corris Railway since 1967 have been numbered in the original locomotive numbering series, from 5 onwards. They are:

{|class="wikitable"

!Number

!Image

!Name

!Builder

!scope="col" style="width: 65px;" | Wheel arrangement

!Works Number

!Built

!Notes

!Current Status

!Passenger train certified (Air braked)

|150px

|Alan Meaden

|Motor Rail Simplex

|22258

|1965

|Purchased in 1974, ex-Staveley Lime Products, Hindlow, Derbys. Formerly gauge. Named in honour of the Society's founder.

|Operational

|No

|150px

|Ruston and Hornsby

|518493

|1966

|Purchased in 1982, ex-British Copper Refiners, Prescot, Merseyside. Converted from gauge.

|Operational

|Yes

|150px

|Winson Engineering and Drayton Designs

|17

|2005

|Built for the railway, based on the Kerr Stuart "Tattoo" class design of No. 4

|Operational

|Yes

|Hunslet

|7274

|1973

|Ex-Houghton Main Colliery, Barnsley. On long-term loan from the National Coal Mining Museum

|Not economically restorable so returned to owners

|No

|150px

|Aberllefenni

|Clayton

|B0457

|1974

|Ex-Aberllefenni Slate Quarry. Donated and named by Wincilate Ltd

|Operational

|No

|10

150px

|Alan Keef Ltd and Corris Railway

| 91

|2022

|Based on the original Hughes locomotives. Built by Alan Keef Ltd and members of the Corris Railway Society.

|Operational

|Yes

|11

|Vlad

|Orenstein & Koppel

|25721

|1957

|Purchased in 2015 from Austria, rewired, regauged and repainted in Romania May 2015

|Operational

|Yes

Usage

, locomotives 7 and 10 are the only steam engines, and share passenger duties. Locomotive 11 is the main diesel motive power unit for both works trains and out of season passenger trains, supported by the lighter diesel locomotives 5 and 6, which are currently the main works and shunting units.

Carriages

Historic

The CM&RDT carried passengers from as early as 1860, despite this being explicitly prohibited by its authorising Act. Until 1874, passengers travelled in open waggons attached to the quarry trains. From October 1874, the railway ran separate, timetabled passenger trains. Around 1875, at least two wagons were converted to crude, almost windowless closed carriages.

In November 1878, ten four-wheel, tramcar-like carriages were delivered from the Falcon Works, Loughborough. They were numbered 1 to 10, with a brake van from the same source taking the number 11. The first bogie carriage, also from Falcon, which looked like two four-wheel bodies mounted on a single chassis, received number 12, and the four-wheelers were rebuilt over a five-year period on new chassis to form five bogie vehicles. A renumbering had the rebuilds as 1 to 5 and the former 12 becoming 6.

Two all-new carriages to a similar design were built by the Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd and numbered 7 & 8. Nos. 1 to 6 disappeared, presumed scrapped, after 1930; however Nos. 7 and 8 were used by a GWR employee at his home in Gobowen and subsequently preserved. No. 8 (used as a greenhouse-cum-garden shed) was recovered in 1958 and rebuilt for use on the Talyllyn Railway as their No.17 while No.7 (used as a chicken coop) was recovered ten years later and is on display in the Corris Railway Museum. The brake van was also preserved on the Talyllyn but has been substantially rebuilt after being damaged in a fire.

{|class="wikitable"

|+ Carriages of the historic Corris Railway (1859–1948)

!Sequential Number

!Number Old CR system

!Number New CR system

!Wheel type

!Body type

!Builder

!Fate

|align="center"|1

|align="center"|

|align="center"|4-wheel

|align="center"|Short tram

|align="center"|Falcon Works