JMP Consulting, Transport Planners and Engineers, acting for the Railway on the Transport and Works order - required before we can lay track to Corwen - have issued the attached leaflet (PDF Format) to assist with feedback on the proposed extension to Corwen.

Please read the documents (Page 1 is in Welsh, page 2 in English) and respond to JMP with your comments.

PAGE 1                                                        PAGE 2

Left: The Trackbed to the east of Corwen looking through Bridge 28A towards Bonwm Halt and Right: Detail of Bridge 28

Picture - John Rutter

Llangollen Railway Transport and Works Act Order Progress

Update issued 16th July 2007 by JMP

Following the public meeting held in Corwen on the 2nd May work on the Transport and Works Act Order for the extension of the Llangollen Railway has progressed.  A team of consultants has been appointed to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the proposals and they will produce an Environmental Statement to accompany the Order application.

Plans of the route have been updated since the public meeting, and updated plans went on display in June in both Llangollen and Corwen libraries, as well as Llangollen station.  

These plans may be subject to minor adjustments as a result of ongoing consultations with landowners along the route.   We will inform you as and when these changes are made so that you can examine any changes made.

If anyone does wish to make any comments or representations on the proposals, please remember that 31st July is the cut off date for these.

The track-bed just beyond Carrog

Left: Cartoon first published in “Steam at Llangollen” No 108 and Right: all that remains of Bonwm Halt

Above: The trackbed at Corwen where the LNWR Branch from Denbigh joined the GWR line from Llangollen. Corwen town is to the right of the picture

Above: Caer Drewen, the Iron Age hill fort on the north side of the River Dee overlooks Corwen. It has been linked with King Arthur as the home of Uther Pendragon

Above Left: The remains of the underbridge at Corwen and the trackbed towards the original Corwen Station. The rebuilt Llangollen Railway will terminate behind where the photographer is standing. The Old Fire Station is to the left of the picture. Above Right: The Old Fire Station building taken on the same day 8th May 2005.

The GWR Goods Shed at Corwen, one of the few railway buildings still standing, now part of Corwen Industrial Estate.

There is a photograph from the tender of  a locomotive standing alongside the Shed taken from a similar position as the right hand picture in “Scenes from the Past 9: Railways of North Wales - The Llangollen Line by W G Rear and N Jones.

Pictures of the volunteers clearing 43 years of re-growth from the trackbed between Carrog and Corwen to allow surveying of the route to be carried out.

Photos George Jones & John Rutter

Neil Evans Writes:

The Widnes site is being cleared for new business premises and the siding area cleared for use as a cycle track. The resultant track material has been donated to us free of charge but we have retained a contractor “Trackwork" to dismantle and transport it etc.  It is our's to be used on the railway, primarily for the extension, and we cannot sell it.

The total length of track amounts to approx one kilometre of sidings (flat bottomed rail) and 4 points which Steve Stowell has assessed and they can form the basis of our requirements for the proposed station loop at Corwen.

As regards the extension to Corwen, it has been the long term intention of the railway to get there since 1974 during which time we have reached Carrog.

We are presently coming to the end of an exhaustive and complex exercise to obtain the necessary Transport and Works Application (a combination of planning application and Railway Act) for the extension from Carrog to Corwen.

This has been done in partnership with Denbighshire County Council and the Welsh Assembly Government and we are indebted to all their help and assistance with this.

The project will cost approx £2.5m and will be heavily reliant on grant aid from our partners. If all goes well we hope to start on site some time in 2009 and the donated Widnes Track will play a great part in the works.

This works will involve the re-laying 2 miles of abandoned railway and building a new terminus station at Corwen (where the donated track will be used)

Views of the track removal operations from the site in Widnes

Photos - Tim Leather

Updated 13th October 2008 by John Rutter

Link to GOOGLE MAPS

Showing the satelite image of CORWEN.

The Railway Trackbed is the fine curved white line