W&LLR RUNS A ONE-CHILD ‘SANTA SPECIAL’!

With the A458 Shrewsbury – Welshpool road closed by snow and police advising motorists not to travel, no-one could have blamed the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway for pulling the plug on its December 10 Santa trains. But General Manager Charles Spencer decided that with sufficient volunteers and train crews billeting overnight at Llanfair Caereinion to enable trains to be run on Sunday, he would keep the railway open, and if any of their 500 pre-booked passengers turned up, he would run trains for them. In the event, 25 passengers did – and in a move that elevates the W&LLR to giddy heights in the area of public relations, the railway ran five Santa trains (hauled by Beyer Peacock 0-6-0T The Earl), including one train which carried just one adult and one child. “It was fantastic,” chirped the W&LLR General Manager. “The lad had Santa all to himself for half an hour. “We just took the view that if passengers could make it, then great, but if not, we would add more coaches to our Santa trains the following weekend (December 16/17), and try to find seats for everyone on those. In the event, about two thirds of those who couldn’t get to us on December 10 were happy to come the following weekend, which has left us to refund around £2,000 to the other passengers. That’s quite a loss to a small charity such as ourselves, but we’ll get through it.” The five trains that ran (against a schedule of only four), covered a cleared one-mile section of the line as far as Mill Curves, with a diesel attached at the rear to bring the train back to Llanfair. The regular Santa run is from Llanfair Caereinion to the run-round at Cyfronydd.