Corris Trackbed

I can't imagine the locos of either the TR or Corris being well suited to such a line, though the latter line's carriages would have been bearable. In his book Railway Adventure, Tom Rolt mentioned a suggestion, at the first TRPS meeting, of the possibility of working the TR by hydro electricity provided by Dolgoch Falls! Had the great scheme materialised..... who knows?

I've dug out 'A Return to Corris', and the relevant map shows 'Tir stent'[sic] as the northern terminus of a propsed extension of the Upper Corris branch, for which powers to construct seem to have existed. Assuming the map to be fairly 'to scale', this is a good three miles north of the eastern end of Talyllyn (lake), which lies much closer to Upper Corris than I thought. IIRC, John Scott Morgan's tome on the CR includes gradient profiles.

I recall one of Mr O'Sullivan's other ideas on taking control... Sunday services. That went down as well in rural north Wales as you'd have expected back then!! Even during the early 70s when I stayed at Barmouth, the Cambrian Coast Line on Sundays featured just ONE service, a holiday summer only working from (IIRC) Birmingham, presumably with crews from outside Wales, which terminated at Barmouth. No Sunday buses either. Ne'er a pub, off license or supermarket booze dept open on the Sabbath either (although locals could get religiously plastered in the Working Men's club!).

It all seemed to suit the Ffesterbahn quite nicely.... they used to make a killing on Sunday buffet services!! As I was 11 at the time, it was just the no trains bit that miffed me, but the Fairbourne always came to the rescue!

If I get back to North Wales, the Corris is right at the top of my "must see" list. Obviously, it was consigned to mere memory the last time I was up that way. I'm so glad that is no longer true. The frequent updates and unfailing good humour on their extremely well presented and very functional website means I'm even more well disposed to a line which has always fascinated me.

 

I've sometimes wondered whether the modern-day TR and/or CR might run such services again. Certainly, I think many would agree that the TR's biggest handicap is that it lack a meaningful destination (at least for passengers starting their journey at Tywyn). I appreciate that running a bus service would not be without costs, both in terms of financial resources and staff/volunteer time, but it would still be a very much easier solution to that problem than trying to extend the railway to the lake!

Admittedly for Corris the idea might not be so attractive, since all passengers currently start their journey in Corris - anyone arriving from the North would almost drive past the lake to get there anyway. Still, perhaps on high days and holidays one could revive the concept of the "Grand Tour" - a circular tour taking in the the CR, TR, and the Tywyn-Machynlleth section of the Cambrian coast line, with buses filling in the gaps.

Ideally one would want a vintage bus or charabanc to run it...make sure that the bus ride is as attractive as the train journey, really part of the experience.

But I suppose it is all just WIBN...

 

Various add-ons have been tried by the TR over the years, but I doubt the demand was there, even 30 years ago, and the Crosville service was never very frequent. See attached specimen tickets for example.

 

Well, I've learned something - thanks for sharing!

Nevertheless, I still think that it might be possible to stimulate demand by marketing a heritage service, rather the simply offering tickets for ordinary service buses. Frankly, I think that travel on ordinary buses - particularly in rural areas where the services are infrequent - would be considered an unappealing prospect by many visitors. But if you can offer an attractive heritage bus to travel in, and provide a service specially organised by the railway - and which people can therefore be confident will connect conveniently and reliably with the trains - you might stand a better chance.

 

The "Grand Tours" of yesteryear were aimed at folks with no independent transport. I suspect a revived service could work, if designed specifically to be attractive to car driving passengers. The one key factor is convenience. No cross-town yomping with sprogs & hound in tow.

Car>Train>Coach>Train>Car. Insert 'attractions' at any point, providing it's a hop-on/hop-off service. If that's not feasible, neither I fear is much beyond one-off events.

 

I think the attraction of the TR is the lack of attractions. Doesn't help the passenger figures though and it wasn't packed last week (and neither was the FR or WHR, I can't think what they were thinking of running massive nearly empty trains.....three or four coaches and Princess or siblings would have suited me fine)

 

I'm not sure you'd have got very far with "Princess"...

Steve B

 

Oh, I dunno.... bit of a shove till just past T-y-G and she'd be fine for 'down' services as far as Blodge!

 

Now there's an idea for the next "Quirks and Curiosities"...

Steve B

 

'Spose the tender could be adapted as a "dandy-cart" ..... Better get my coat!

 

we didn't get very far with DLG as it was....well we did eventually.