50th birthday appeal to rebuild Corris station
To mark its 50th anniversary, the Corris Railway Society has launched a £300,000 appeal for a station building at its Corris terminus. The original station, with its unusual overall roof, was demolished after the railway closed in 1948. The new building will not be a replica of the original but will incorporate an overall roof in a similar style, as well as a booking office and toilets. Since passenger services started in 2002, passengers have been served from the nearby museum created in the railway’s old stable block, and there has been no covered waiting area near the trains. The station will accommodate trains of four bogie carriages, but with the site constrained by the need to retain vehicular access to a school and a farm, a traverser will be used to transfer the locomotive from one track to the other when running round. The railway owns the land concerned and has planning permission for the development. £300,000 will enable it to renew the track, create a new platform and run-round facilities, and erect the new building. Applications for grant aid have been made, but the support of members and the public is still needed. Donations can be made via the railway’s website, www. with any surplus funds to be used on the railway’s southern extension. The second phase of the railway’s Pont-y-Coedwig deviation, a quarter of a mile from its depot at Maespoeth, was completed before Christmas. The 500yd deviation is required after the realignment of the parallel trunk road took up part of the trackbed. The final phase of the work is spoil tipping to form an embankment, but the railway is caught up with changes in local authority management; it is expected that it will have to pay both of the planning authorities concerned, Gwynedd Council and the Snowdonia National Park Authority, just to discuss its proposals before it makes any formal applications. David Coleman, for many years the railway’s chairman, has retired, being replaced by Richard Hamilton-Foyn. Mr Coleman remains on the management council and continues to manage the Pont-y-Coedwig deviation project.