Last month (see article below) an announcement was made regarding the setting up of a charitable trust, to oversee the renovation and running of Oswestry station. Multi-million pound work on the station building has now started, and following an advertisment for applications for senior posts on the Trust, applications for volunteer posts on the Trust are now invited.

Oswestry Station Building Trust

Appointment of Trustees

Oswestry Station Building Trust will be a charitable company with the purpose of protecting and preserving the former Cambrian Railways station building in Oswestry. The building, which is currently being renovated, will serve as a tourism hub for the town and its hinterland.

Independent members from the private sector are now being sought, to complement the skills and experience of the remainder of the Board. The positions are unpaid.

If you wish to be considered for one of the posts, please send your CV with a covering letter to:

A complete oil and filter change on the engine and gear box of engines 1 and 2 was performed over the weekend, this enabled us to check out the systems of the DMU set. Unfortunately it was found that the engines compressors was not providing the compressed air that would enable us to control all the equipment from the cab.

On checking the valves at the front and rear of the first car it was discovered that the front valve was open, and was promptly closed. On checking the rear valve, air could be heard escaping that could not be stopped by closing the valve, the fact that the valve then proceded to drop off gave a clue as to why the pressure was not being raised ! Over the years in storage, the air pipe had corroded to such an extent that it had completely rotted away at the point it entered the valve.

Purchase of a suitable die nut will enable us to cut a new thread on the air pipe, and we will be able to, hopefully, raise enough pressure in the system to control the DMU, and it will then move under its own power for the first time in nearly 5 years. 

Following inspection by the Railway Inspectorate we were asked to increase the width of the ballasting over the shoulders of the running line. Once this has been done, plus a few other bits of work to the trackwork he advised us on, we should be able to start running services later this summer.

This was performed using our shunter, D3019, the two Dogfish hopper wagons and the Shark brakevan.

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The Cambrian Railways Trust has just been awarded a development grant of £49,000 from DEFRA (The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs).

This will enable us to complete the trackwork towards Penn-Y-Garreg lane in Pant, build a small station building at Llynclys Wharf which will include toilet facilities, complete the renovation of the buffet coach in the wharf station for use as a shop and snack bar, and to surface the ramp leading from the main road at Llynclys providing visitor parking facilities.

Once the line extends back to the original Llynclys station, the new building will be used as messing and storage facilities for employees and volunteers

News of any developments on the site will be reported here first. 

Following purchase of a new set of batteries for the DMU set, both engines on car 51512 were successfully started for the first time since 2000. Work will now proceed on a full oil and filter change on both of the engines.

Work will also now continue on the interior and exterior of these units, enabling us to run services later this year.

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The station building in Oswestry, which was also the headquarters of the Cambrian Railways, has been acquired jointly by Oswestry Borough Council, Advantage West Midlands' Rural Regeneration Zone, the European Regional Development Objective II Programme and the Market Town Initiative programme.

They have decided to create a charitable trust that will develop the site. The station building is integral to the success of our project, so we hope that this endeavor is 100% successful.

The following advertisement has been put in local newspapers for senior officials to help with this project: 

Oswestry Station Building Trust

Appointment of Trustees

Oswestry Station Building Trust will be a charitable company with the purpose of protecting and preserving the former Cambrian Railways station building in Oswestry. The building, which is currently being renovated, will serve as a tourism hub for the town and its hinterland.

Candidates for the positions of Company Secretary and Finance Director are being sought, to complement the skills and experience of the remainder of the Board. The successful candidates will probably have had experience at board level, and in the private sector.

For an informal discussion and person specification please contact:

Work on the cracked cylinder head of D3019 has been completed, the offending part was eventually replaced with a refurbished head and fitted to the engine. The original is in store for eventual repair as a possible replacement in the future, should one be needed. Also, the re-metalled coupling rods were refitted to the wheels of the diesel.

Three of the four buffers were replaced with refurbished buffers. The originals being stored for possible future use.

After starting first time, the diesel was used to return the DMU units to the new platform to allow us to continue work on it, ready for services later this year.

The pictures below show work being undertaken on building the back retaining wall of the new platform, the DMU can be seen in the background.

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