This is the only picture I have of the Corris Railway - a new build locomotive No. 9 exhibited at the Warley (Birmingham) model railway show in 2013.
The Corris Railway is the same gauge as the Talyllyn Railway which runs to Abergynolwyn. The Corris ran through Maespoeth to Machynlleth on the Cambrian Coast main line. This slate railway was included in the 1948 nationalization and came under the stationmaster at Machynlleth. The line closed in 1948. The connection to the main line at Machynlleth was over a bridge over the Afon Dyfi. There was serious flooding and the stationmaster had the presence of mind to move the locomotives to Machynlleth yard before the bridge was washed out. The locomotives were eventually acquired by the Talyllyn Railway which experienced some problems with them even though the track gauge was the same there were problems (wheel flanges, etc, I believe). A preservation society was formed in 1966 and a section is now operated as a tourist attraction.
A Corris Railway excess fare ticket dated April 19 1911
Unless you have a car Maespoeth is a little difficult to get to although it should be possible to get there and back in a day from Shrewsbury by train to Machynlleth and then bus to Maespoeth
Video of internal combustion and steam locomotives
A steam trip and switching/shunting by hand
The Society is actively working to extend the line southwards. Stay tuned
Zurich Hauptbahnhof Paul has prepared some extensive notes and photos of the Zurich Hauptbahnhof. This will be in several parts. The busiest station in Switzerland is Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB) which is used primarily by the SBB. It has 26 tracks serving almost 3000 trains daily and it is one of the busiest stations in the world. It was built in the 1870s and is a main shopping destination as well as a transport hub. There are three levels for platforms and the "Shopville" shopping plaza. The river Sihl river passes right through the station with platforms passing above and below the river. This shows the general layout of the station with the surrounding tram tracks shown in purple Tracks 3 to 18 are terminal tracks located at ground level, served by two side platforms and seven island platforms. These are used by long-distance trains from throughout Switzerland, and by international trains. Tracks 21 and 22 are underground terminal tracks, served by a single island
Tuesday 23 August Paul and I travelled to Zurich on Air Canada via Toronto. The flight from Ottawa was over an hour late - luckily we planned for this with a three hour connection in Toronto. Toronto airport was disgusting. It was overcrowded and there was nowhere for people to stand while waiting to board their flights. Obviously the Toronto airport focusses on relieving passengers of their money. Once aboard the plane things went well. There was plenty of space for carry on and the flight was excellent. It seems that the problem with airline travel is the airports rather than the flights. Our flight landed four minutes ahead of schedule (Wednesday) which was 0800. By 0820 we had cleared passport control and by 0840 we had taken a connecting internal tram and found the tram to downtown. We could have taken the SBB trains but we were in no great hurry and we enjoyed the 35 minute tram ride to close to the hotel. At Gladbrugge we passed two SBB 6/6 locomotives on the main line close by
This video, by Noel Wyler, shows what we have just missed. Last Saturday (14 September) the Oensingen Balsthal Railway organized an event to commemorate 60 years of the Re 4/4 locomotives. They brought together 24 of them and ran them as one train. Paul and I flew home on KLM from Schiphol Airport. We took a train from Den Haag directly to the airport. The trip back was marred by a couple with a young boy who was obviously teething. He cried almost continuously for the full six hours. I found I could tune him out when I dug deep into the KLM sound system and found a treasure trove of classical music. Bach violin concertos, Mozart piano concerto No. 23, Beethoven symphonies, Schuman etc. We survived the stupidities at the entrance of the Montreal airport and caught the KLM bus back to Ottawa where we arrived precisely on time. A good ending to a wonderful, tremendous, trip
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