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The Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s smallest steam locomotive will be a big star over the August Bank Holiday weekend, appearing at the Shrewsbury Steam Rally and travelling there in a very heritage manner.

Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 tank locomotive ‘Dougal’ will be taken from Welshpool to the rally site at Onslow Park, Shrewsbury, on a trailer hauled by a steam traction engine. Then on 5^th September it will return to make a grand entrance at the railway’s own Steam Gala event.

While highly unusual today, the occasion will replicate the manner in which such locomotives would have been delivered to work sites by road, in the days before the rise of the articulated lorry, a time when steam ruled the roads as well as the rails.

The plan is for Dougal to depart from the Llanfair Line’s Welshpool Raven Square station during the latter part of August, for the 15-mile trip to the rally site – the exact date and time of departure is still to be finalised but will be published on the railway’s website, Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Hauling the trailer will be no ordinary traction engine, but ‘Wolverhampton Wanderer’, a crane engine built in 1929 by the well-known manufacturer of steam locomotives for both road and rail, John Fowler. The engine is finished in the livery of its owner, freight transport specialist Leonard Crane of Wolverhampton, and has even been the subject of a Corgi Toys model.  

Wolverhampton Wanderer will be driven by John Glaze, renowned in the railway industry as a designer and inspector of boilers, while among the support crew will be W&LLR volunteers Gareth Jones, John Travis and Sam Billmore. Together with fellow volunteer James Newby, they have masterminded the expedition to Shrewsbury.

Dougal will be on show throughout Sunday and Monday (30^th-31^st August) at the rally. This is one of Shropshire’s biggest events of the year with more than 1,000 exhibits and attractions for the whole family. The loco will be the centrepiece of a W&LLR stand, which will be promoting the railway’s Steam Gala which is being held on 5^th-6^th September.

Following the end of the rally Dougal will spend a week in secure storage near Welshpool, and then on the eve of the Gala, on the evening of Friday 4^th September the loco will arrive back at Welshpool Raven Square. This time haulage will be provided by another Fowler steam road loco, ‘Foremost’, built in 1911 and recently restored to award-winning standard by Joe Walker.

The combination will spend the night at Raven Square and then at about 9am on Saturday morning they will set off to travel to the other end of the railway at Llanfair Caereinion. On arrival, a journey that is expected to take around two hours, Foremost and Dougal will form a major part of the yard displays at Llanfair as part of the Gala, these displays also including a Sentinel steam lorry and a steam car.

Dougal’s road adventure adds yet another aspect to the W&LLR’s Gala which already boasts a number of new attractions this year, including the visit of an articulated steam locomotive that formerly worked in Indonesia, ‘Pakis Baru No 5’.

“Dougal has been out of service for a while as the loco needs some boiler repairs,” said W&LLR spokesman Andrew Charman. “This excellent initiative by our members will both keep the loco in the public eye while promoting both the Shrewsbury Steam Rally and our own Gala, in an innovative and exciting way which is sure to attract the attention of many enthusiasts.”

More details of Shrewsbury Steam Rally, including advanced ticket booking facilities, can be found at www.shrewsburysteamrally.co.uk   More details of our own Gala will be available on this website shortly.

The Statfold Barn Railway’s Orenstein & Koppel 0-4-4-0T Mallet locomotive ‘Pakis Baru No. 5’ is to visit the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway this summer, appearing as the star attraction at the mid Wales line’s annual Gala.

The 2ft 6in gauge loco, built in 1905 and repatriated from an Indonesian sugar mill by Statfold in 2004, is one of only two examples of a Mallet in a gauge above 10.25in currently working in the UK, the other 2ft gauge example also at Statfold.

Pakis Baru is scheduled to be in operation throughout the Gala, on 5th-6th September, working several demonstration trains and playing a major part in the traditional Saturday evening photography session, which this year will be choreographed, at Llanfair Caereinion.

The visiting locomotive is just one of a number of innovations at the W&LLR’s annual enthusiast event, with several new items planned alongside the most popular regular happenings that have long made the Gala so popular.

A team of W&LLR staff and volunteers has recently refurbished the run-round loop at Cyfronydd station, which will allow a much more intensive timetable – this including freight and mixed trains. The loop will also be used by a photographers’ special, to be hauled by Kerr Stuart 0-6-2T ‘Joan’ (4404/1927) and which will drop snappers off at Heniarth halt and Cyfronydd station in time to catch run-pasts by the heritage mixed trains, returning them to Llanfair afterwards.

Welshpool Raven Square station will play a major role in the event – Kitson-Meyer 0-4-4-0T ‘Monarch’ (3024/1953) will be on show outside as will the line’s Sierra Leone Railway bogie carriages, forming the backdrop to a display by the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum’s UK support group. The space released in the display shed will be occupied by a ‘Little Layouts’ model railway exhibition. There will also be traders present at Welshpool.

More stands will be found at Llanfair where the workshops will be open with stands and displays within, while conducted tours will be undertaken of the line’s Tanllan yard and stock shed, normally not accessible to the public. And stock not normally seen in action on a public day will be demonstrated, including the ex-MOD railcar ‘The Wasp’ and Hunslet mines loco ‘Ferret’, which moved under its own power for the first time in several years on 31st May. A Real ale bar and refreshments will be open throughout the weekend.

The W&LLR is also promising a special and highly photogenic event involving its currently out-of-use Barclay 0-4-0T ‘Dougal’ (2207/1946), the precise nature of which will be revealed closer to the event.

As previously, the Gala will coincide with the separate-entry Garden Railway Show at Llanfair Leisure Centre. This event is under new management this year, well-known railway bookseller and Welsh Highland Heritage Railway management team member Steve Currin having taken on the show and promised to develop it following the untimely death in January of previous organiser Steve Warrington. A free bus service will run between Llanfair station and the Garden Railway Show.

Site entry to Llanfair will cost £3 per car – parking at Welshpool will be free.

Commenting on the impending visit of Pakis Baru, W&LLR general manager Charles Spencer said; “We are making this year’s Gala busier and more varied, and we’re very grateful to Statfold Barn for offering us Pakis Baru, which will be a great attraction.”

Henry Noon of the Statfold Barn Railway commented; " We are very pleased to be supporting the W&LLR at its Gala. We are looking forward to seeing No 5 running through the beautiful Mid-Wales countryside, a far cry from its working life in the sugar mill in mid Java!"

Further details of the Gala and the timetable will be published on this website as they become available,  and discounted online tickets will be available for visitors wishing to book in advance. Updates will also appear on the W&LLR Facebook page www.facebook.com/WelshpoolSteamRailway. For more information contact the railway on 01938 810441.

The Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway looked even more heritage than usual on Sunday 26^th April when it was visited by not one but two historic car runs.

At Welshpool members of the Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC) arrived in time to travel on the 11.15 departure. Around 20 of their cars, the oldest dating from 1918, looked a fine sight parked on the grass alongside the water tower where loco no 1 ‘The Earl’ – itself dating from 1902 – paused for refereshment.

When the train arrived at Llanfair Caereinion there were a great many more cars to see, courtesy of the Salop Yesteryear Motor Club and the Shropshire branch of the MG Owners’ Club. They were visiting the line for refreshments while on their Richard Shuker Memorial Drive It Day around the borders.

The station car park was dominated by classic and vintage cars, the majority MG models dating back to T types of the 1940s-50s, but also including a wide variety of marques, among them an E-Type Jaguar, a Renault Alpine and a TVR. They certainly provided an extra attraction for the VSCC members, who also enjoyed tours of the railway’s workshops conducted by W&LLR volunteers.

W&LLR general manager Charles Spencer said all at the railway were delighted to see so many historic road vehicles present. “Part of our mandate is to present the heritage of the railway and the area, and we are always pleased to see classic and historic cars as they add so much extra atmosphere to our railway,” he said.

Details of group travel and the discounts available, along with other information on the railway, can be obtained by calling 01938 810441, or from this website.

The trustees of the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway are delighted to announce the appointment of Charles Spencer as the railway’s general manager, succeeding Terry Turner who retired at the end of the 2014 season.

In seeking a new general manager the W&LLR was looking for broad management experience to build on the railway’s success under Terry. Advertisements placed in relevant outlets produced a keen interest in the position from candidates with a wide range of experience, both within the UK and internationally.

Canadian by birth, Charles has a broad background in business, management and leadership in volunteer organisations. In 2012 he retired from a 30-year career with the Bank of Canada, for the second half of which he was a leading member of the Currency Department, which was responsible for Canadian bank notes from design to destruction.

He was jointly responsible for a staff of 250 and gained particular experience in organizational change and in conceiving and building new initiatives. These ranged across public education and communications, ground-breaking technical research approaches, market research, heritage revitalization, organizational reviews and staff training programmes.

The W&LLR interview panel recognised in Charles a wide range of skills that will be highly beneficial to the railway going forward, as will his extensive experience of working with volunteers. He has undertaken leadership roles with a number of adult and youth volunteer organizations in music, sports, and charities, involving up to 400 volunteers and budgets in excess of a quarter of a million.

Charles is also familiar with the W&LLR, having been a regular volunteer at the line across several departments since 2008, qualifying as a locomotive fireman in 2014. He also volunteers at the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man.

Commenting on his appointment, Charles says he is relishing the challenge ahead. “I am looking forward to working with the committed board of trustees and hard-working volunteers, and to building relationships with the local community and the heritage railway sector,” he adds.

Chairman of the trustees Iain McLean wishes to thank all the candidates who applied for the position and made the eventual choice of the new general manager an exciting decision. “We are confident that Charles’s expertise in management, finance, marketing and railway matters will complement the many skills among our railway’s volunteers,” Iain says.

The trustees would also like to thank, on behalf of the membership, deputy general manager Kevin Heywood, who stepped up to the role of acting general manager over the winter. Kevin has very effectively guided the railway through the important closed period, when much essential work needs to be completed.

Charles is expected to be in post around the time trains start operating for the 2015 season.