The culmination of years of hard work came to fruition as the Llangollen Railway steamed into Corwen’s new station.

The Llangollen Railway invited RailAdvent to Wales today (2nd June) to be on one of the first ‘invite only’ trains to travel on the extension.

Today’s event started at Carrog, the current terminus – trains have been running here since May 1996.

We then took a ride on the train to Corwen on the extension.

Previously, the railway has run to a temporary Corwen East station, but the permanent station was in place with its canopy, water tower and run round loop.

After we had arrived at Corwen, we had chance to look around the new station, meet the staff who will be working there, and also watch as the locomotives broke through the banner arriving into the station

Performing the opening ceremony was Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Chairman of Network Rail and the Heritage Railway Association).

Lord Hendy had the pleasure of unveiling a new plaque to mark the full opening of the new station

Working the opening special was Kitson 0-4-0ST ‘Austin 1’, which operated the first Llangollen Railway opening special to Carrog in 1981.

Austin 1 operated with visiting Austerity No. 68067, which is normally based at the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire.

The project to build Corwen station has reused a number of other station materials, such as the platform edging on the ‘Bala’ bound platform being taken from Liverpool Lime Street.

The canopy is a marvel in its own right, and the platform features two platforms, a water tower, signal box, waiting room and a ticket office.

Oh and its great to see purposeful looking ramp for wheelchair users.

After the opening ceremony was over, we returned to Carrog after a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

Following the media event today, Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th June will see a gala event with an intensive three-train service, with each train working two return trips to Corwen each day.

Locomotives and railcars are expected to be drawn from Austerity 68067, Class 31 No 31271, Class 47 1566 and Classes 104, 108 & 109 DMU.

What are our thoughts on the new station? Well, we think it has a top quality finish, the canopy provides shade from the sun, and rain (well we are in wales…!). It is nice to see a lot of facilities and ample amount of car parking. We would like to thank the Llangollen Railway for inviting us to their special day to see steam return to Corwen.

LR Trust Manager Tom Taylor said, “This represents the culmination of many years of hard work by a small, but extremely dedicated team of volunteers. We are all very proud of what they have achieved through some very challenging circumstances. We are also very grateful to all those who have supported the project financially, including grants from the Welsh Assembly and UK Governments. Our local authorities and MPs have also supported us from the get-go. From the 3rd of June, all our services will be running to Corwen and we look forward to welcoming passengers, friends and volunteers to our superb new station as well as putting Corwen back on the railway map, where the town very much deserves to be”.