Teifi Valley Railway

As I understand it, a limited company must have at least one director, shareholder and a company secretary. However they can all be the same person.

I traveled on the TVR a few years ago.Very sad to learn of the difficulties.

 

Oh and BTW, we had an engineer that used to be a volunteer that offered to make that track up to the standard this year and would only of taken 4 weeks He was threatened in Henllan carpark that if he got out of the car he would be assalted

 

Make your own minds up what the leaseholder want's to do with the place!

WE WILL NOT GIVE UP!

We are meeting the Heritage Railway Association on Aug 4th

 

If all of this is true, then the next logical and most important step is to get the locomotives out of Henllan as quickly as possible before something terrible happens to them as well!

 

Very sad. It's 20+ years since I visited the Teifi and it didn't seem to go anywhere much, but it didn't deserve this.

 

I'm afraid pmh_74 that you are wrong, in the last 13 years we have built a 3/4 mile extension to the river and built a brand new station on the site of the original GWR one in the carpark at Henllan, both to the full approval of the ORR and designed by me. Restored two steam loco's and 1 diesel with a new cab. The problem SpudUk in getting the loco's out is that they and the coaches are mostly owned by the "society" which are behind the lease holder, however as I understand it they are trying to sell Alan George which cannot happen as she is owned by a consortium and not wholly by the society!!!!

 

There is now another issue with Sgt Murphy as the Boiler smith has done the work, not been paid and is holding on to the boiler

 

Ah I remember when Sgt Murphy was on the Ffestiniog Railway, privately owned by the MD or GM can't remember position now.

 

Gordon Rushton, General Manager

 

It would seem that whoever had the money to pay the boilermaker might then have a claim on owning the boiler, giving them a good handle to purchase the rest of Sgt Murphy and save it from whatever the new land train people might have in mind...?

 

No doubt we'll see Sgt Murphy's body mounted on a tuk-tuk chassis before long

 

Another blow for South Wales railway preservation. Things had been going well with the welsh train project the extension on the gwili and continuous improvement on the pontypool and blaenavon railway.

 

I see your point thb17, but as none of the equipment (as far as I am aware) has a historical connection with South Wales, I wouldn't says it's a blow to the area's railway preservation per se. The work at Gwili is significantly more important to the regions history

 

I understand, however I think it is a blow because it gets children and adults involved in a heritage railway and therefore simply it's existence is important to preserve the track bed and the stories of the line. I just hope those who feel alienated can maybe help the gwili in the future?

 

That's the one positive to this, that the Gwili might see an increase in volunteers, visitors or even funding

 

Anyone interested in a consortium to buy Sgt Murphy (assuming whoever owns it wants to sell)?

 

I see the road train is now on the website, together with the promise track will begin to be relaid in October, so that the steam train can begin operating once more in 2015.

Patrick

 

I suppose that's the philosophy that Michael Draper advocated for years: reduce the number of steam railways and concentrate on developing a small number of lines to a very high standard. To some extent the Gwili has already benefited from this philosophy, as I gather the influx of volunteers and track materials from the Swansea Vale Railway gave their extension a real fillip a few years back. Perhaps Mr. Draper is watching all this, laughing and saying "I told you so"?

 

Difficult not to have some sympathy for Draper's views, though they failed to anticipate two things in my view:
1. The shear tenacity of individuals and the attractiveness of being part of something more personal than that "well developed line"
2. The advent of significant lottery grant aid - I worry that this aid has hidden some financial situations that would otherwise have become significant problems at some lines, and I also wonder what would happen if it went away (which isn't too likely in the medium term fortunately). Many will continue to muddle through - some less successfully than others.

The most important thing is not the preservation of the TVR, but the continued security of the equipment.