Snowy Christmas first for ‘oldest’ railway

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SNOW covered the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway when it held its first-ever Christmas event at the site of the former Cynheidre Colliery on Sunday, December 10.

Train rides ran every 15 minutes over a recent running line extension and the event proved extremely popular with visitor numbers hitting over 200 over the course of the day.

Sentinel diesel hydraulic shunter No. 10222 Peter J Griffiths was donated to the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway by Hanson Aggregates of Machen quarry in 2001. It had previously worked at Hirwaun stone quarry. Named after a local historian who has supported the railway’s revival, it headed the line’s first-ever Santa specials, coupled to a brakevan. LMMR

Santa himself and the chairman of Llanelli Rural Council, Coun John Evans, opened the event by arriving into Cynheidre station just before 11am, before heading to the on-site grotto, ahead of a day of lots of mince pies, presents and plenty of Christmas cheer along the way. Nia Griffith MP also lent her support to the event with a visit during the course of the day.

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Project director Des Thomas said: “The feedback received from our first open day in September gave us a real motivation to make a Christmas event a reality.

“It has been a huge team effort since then to get everything into place. What a fantastic day it has been and we’ve even managed to pick a day where snow arrived.

Read more in Issue 237 of HR – on sale now!

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