If you were to approach governing bodies these days with the proposal of running a railway with a public service using nothing but enthusiastic volunteers, you would probably be laughed out of the office. Back in 1950, when the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society was founded to do just that on a narrow gauge line in Wales, there were probably still doubters – but something about the idea captured the imagination of many. If those first days after May 14, 1951, when the society ran its first public trains, had failed, our preservation scene could have been vastly different to what we have now.
For nearly 75 years, the Talyllyn Railway has continued to pioneer the heritage railway sector and doing what it does best – transporting visitors on a journey through the Fathew Valley, with some of its original locomotives and rolling stock continuing to see use right up until today. While it has grown and changed, the heart of the railway has remained the same, which has been a vital part of the new plans to improve facilities for volunteers, engineering, and visitors combined.
Seeking to raise a minimum of £500,000 over the next five years, the newly-launched 75 Appeal, entitled ‘Preserving our Past, Building our Future’, will help fund work that is crucial to ensuring the world's first preserved railway can thrive long into the future. But just what is involved, and why does it need to happen now?
It's all about timing
The simple answer for the latter point is timing. With costs rising for a start, if a projectfor much longer, then the amount required would rise much more than it has since it was first floated a few years. Add that to the time required to deliver such a project and it makes sense to start now. As General Manager (operations) Liz Porrett told me: “It can take a long time for things to come to fruition. There are things I'm just achieving now that I aimed for when I started in 2022.
