Revived Llangollen is in ‘healthy financial state with no debts’ – trust
STEAM was back on the Llangollen Railway when GWR 2-8-0 No. 3802 hauled the line's Remembrance Sunday special on November 14.
The privately-owned locomotive, which had returned from a visit to the recent Great Central Railway gala, hauled the line's four-coach suburban rake on a sunlit journey down the Dee Valley, with the autumnal colours at their best.
The train timetable was adjusted to accommodate the Remembrance service in Llangollen. However, only two of the coaches were full.
Afterwards, essential engineering work commenced in Llangollen station in readiness for the Santa Special season starting on December 4/5, when No. 3802 will again be in action. The specials will also run on December 11/12, 18/19 and 22-24, with Mince Pie Specials on December 27/28 and January 3/4.
DMUs prove worth
In the absence of steam, DMUs proved to be a revelation on the highly-scenic line since the railway's plc – which earlier this year plunged into administration with debts of £350,000, leading to the enforced sale of assets including rolling stock – was relaunched by the independent Llangollen Railway Trust. As previously, reported, the first public trains operated by the trust were by the Class 108 railcar to Berwyn, a throwback to the late 1980s. Loadings were strong for such a modest operation, from moderately loaded to extremely busy, with more than 700 single journeys on one day. Onwards to Glyndyfrdwy in mid-August, the Wickham came into play, and later, a hybrid DMU, comprising the blue Class 104 DMBS and green Class 104 trailer (see picture, page 101), came into play. On trial on October 30 was a ‘Berwyn Belle' shuttle, comprising Class 08 No. 13265 propelling the line's GWR Toad brake van, the former disabled coach and an open wagon to offer a novel train experience for family groups with little time and limited cash for the short journey to Berwyn and back.
Altogether, the DMU fleet, with trains and crew supplied by Llangollen Railcars, ran on 86 operating days and 23,000 single passenger journeys were made.
The trust's first annual general meeting since the plc went into administration was held on October 29, and board members reported that the line was now in a healthy financial state with no debts and minimal creditors and a positive bank balance.
The December 31, 2020, accounts showed a small loss of £7252 after write-offs of £220,000, mostly in connection with the plc trading arm now in administration, but no further write-offs in that respect will be required.
Grant funding
Finance director Phil Freeth reported the up-to-date position showed that the bank balance had increased significantly since thanks to a mixture of generous donations from supporters and the general public, grants, delays in re-hiring staff, operating fewer steam
trains, relying on DMU and diesel for midweek operations in particular, and passenger loadings having been about 10% above forecast.
“We would like to take the opportunity to again thank all our supporters and members of the public who have made generous donations and visited the railway since we reopened in July,” said Phil. “We also wish to thank again the Welsh Assembly Government and Denbighshire County Council for their support, and the media without whose generous coverage and supportive stance our plight would not have reached so wide an audience.”
Meanwhile, trust officials were waiting to learn the exact amount of funding its Corwen project will receive from the successful
£15 million Levelling Up Fund Bid for Clwyd South, announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on October 27.
The bid, sponsored by Clwyd South Conservative MP Simon Baynes, includes grant aid towards the canopy at the new Corwen station, which is scheduled for opening in 2022. However, it was also unclear as to whether the grant – estimated at about £200,000 – would include a match-funding element.
The ballasting of track in Corwen station got underway in October with the dropping of stone chippings on the track in the approach to the station area, as the start of the final phase of work to complete the project to extend the line into a purpose-built terminus station situated in the centre of the town.
A special engineering train of four ballast wagons was worked into the site from the ballast mound near Bonwm. In a 90-minute operation, the initial drops were made in the area opposite the Corwen signalbox, where the pointwork allows access to the station loop and the siding. The track here has to be brought up to a required height to allow the points to be connected, with the lineside switching mechanism already in situ.
Volunteers – of the average age of 68 – were on hand to operate the dropping mechanism on each wagon as the train edged forward to provide a good spread. Others at ground level stood ready with shovels to pack the stone between the sleepers. The use of the plough on the Shark van helped spread the stone along the tracks when propelled by the diesel shunter, but the main effort at this stage was manual. The total ballast dropped was upwards of 500 tons; the drops on both sides of the platform are complete through to the Green Lane buffer stop, and initial levelling up is underway.
Significant step
The trackwork has been in place since December 2019 when a golden fishplate was fitted with some ceremony by the railway's president Bill Shakespeare MBE and vice president Gordon Heddon, but the Covid 19 lockdowns prevented earlier ballasting of the layout.
Project leader Richard DixonGough said: “The ballast drop was a huge lift for the volunteers and it is the beginning of a long, expensive process. The ballasting is a significant step towards bringing an operational railway back into the centre of Corwen. There are still a number of critical steps required before the station can open, and dozens of non-critical tasks to be done before the job can be considered complete.”
After Christmas, No. 3802 is to visit West Coast Railways' workshop at Carnforth for tyre reprofiling.