A fantastic day was had at Cynheidre on Saturday 29th October 2011 as our Sentinel diesel shunter, 0-4-0DH 10222 was named Peter J Griffiths at Cynheidre Station platform by Councillor for the Glyn Ward Mr. Jim Jones.
Peter Griffiths was born in 1942 in Cynheidre, and lived in a house overlooking the mine. He was educated at Five Roads CP, Llandovery College, and Lincoln College, Oxford. He and his family emigrated to Denver, Colorado in 1972 as an investment counsellor but during the past several years he and his wife, Yvonne, have renewed their links with Wales.This has been evidenced by his very real interest and practical support of our project. He is also author of ‘Tongue Tied’ a book he wrote ‘to entertain, but also to glorify Wales, its people and its language’. This is published by Y Lolfa, Talybont( ISBN 9781847710970). Signed copies of the book are available to order for £9.95 directly from the LMMR by emailing us.
Dignatories and special guests present were: -
Member of Parliament for Llanelli Nia Griffith.
Llanelli Town Council Mayor Councillor Mrs. Linda Steadman and Deputy Mayor Mr. Hubert Hitchman.
Llanelli Rural Community Concil Mayor Councillor Mrs. Sue Lewis and her consort Mr. Ray Thorne and Deputy Mayor Mrs. Tegwen Devichand.
Councillor Jim Jones and Councillor Carol Rees.
Carmarthenshire County Council Councillor Chairman and Consort Councillor Mr. Ivor Jackson and Mrs. Jackson.
Mr. Alun Taylor of Coalfields Regeneration Trust.
The loco did the ceremony proud, having now been painted into full Hanson Aggregates colours by members Rob Morris and Brian Hardy (with the painting materials donated to the company by Hanson). It is also now complete with the Hanson Aggregates corporate logo.
A lot of time and effort went into making the event a success (and the rain failed to dampen spirits). Following the naming a light buffet was provided in the MK.2 buffet car and RW Rail owned MK.1 BSK 34676 at Cynheidre station (with it's proud owner Robert Lawrence giving those interested a tour of the guards compartment).
The event was well attended by members (who had been cordially invited by post several weeks ago).
In addition to all that attended the event we would also like to thank Arriva Trains Wales for providing a replacement window for our MK.2 buffet car.
A video of the naming ceremony is available to view below and was excellently put together by member Bob Masterman, who himself kindly assisted with the application of the rather fiddly Hanson Aggregates logo!
We hope to hold further events in the new year and this was a good test of our ability, commitment and resources to carry such an event out.
''Desmond'' Appeal
The company's steam loco Avonside 1498 'Desmond' (currently the subject of a National Lottery Funded restoration at the Llangollen Railway) has seen funding become quite short recently and the company are appealing for anybody who may be able to help with the remaining restoration costs (believed to be in the region of £20,000). Any potential investors are advised to contact Project Director Des Thomas on 01554 759255 or to email us through our contact tab on the left.
September 2011
It has been a few months of steady progress at the LMMR. Concentration on acquiring various grants and funds has been our main focus.
Restoration
The repaint of our Sentinel 0-4-0DH 10222 is nearing an end and is looking fantastic, following months of excellent work from active members Brian and Robert. Click images below to view below.
Prototype Coach
We have struck a new partnership with another local railway, in order to assist them for storage purposes. We hope to form a fruitful relationship with The Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway in the coming years and thank them for their current and future assistance with track laying on our run around section at Cynheidre. The first item of rolling stock to arrive at the LMMR under the agreement is a Leyland built prototype coach no. ADB 977091. The vehicle was delivered to Cynheidre by Allelys on Friday 09/09/2011. Please see a video of the move in our video section here.
The Leyland built coach was not the only arrival at the railway, with two redundant tar wagons arriving at Cynheidre on the same day. The tankers have been very kindly donated by CPL Industries. The tanks, which had lay on a bed of mud for at least 20+ years were located at Cwm Coking Plant, Beddau and posed a potential issue to remove. Thanks to invaluable assistance from employees at Beddau and Allelys we managed to retrieve both tankers as planned.
Work is continuing to progress well at Cynheidre. The probation service have now cleared a significant amount of brambles from between the sleepers of the running line to Cynheidre North.
We are currently concentrating on the weekly car boot sales at Murray Street Carpark, Llanelli every Sunday. This is a very important artery of income for us at present and will allow us to fund a number of future projects going forward over the next few months.
Sentinel 0-4-0DH 10222 has now been completely covered in undercoat externally, thanks to the excellent ongoing work by volunteers Robert Morris and Brian Hardy. Internally some electrical and air issues are currently being investigated. April 2011
Avonside 0-6-0 steam locomotive no. 1680 ''Sir John'' was delivered to Cynheidre today from the nearby Gwili Railway. A deal was struck with the Vale of Neath Railway, the owners of the loco several months ago to bring the loco to the LMMR for storage. The arrival compliments our own Avonside locomotive 1498 ''Desmond' nicely.
March 2011
We have now received a Mk.1 brake corridor coach recently purchased by one of our members.
The coach has been at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway since 1986 and is a welcome addition to our growing collection of stock. It will be used as hauled stock and we will be utilising it's vacuum braking and steam heating facilities.
For a video of the move, please see our Videos section.
Other news
Work is currently progressing on converting our iron ore tippler wagon into a flatbed P- way engineering wagon. Although unfortunate that we will lose a mineral wagon, the bodywork on the wagon was in such a poor condition that it would be uneconomical to repair in the short term. As we will be carrying out a lot more heavy track work in the coming months, this will prove to be a useful vehicle for transporting materials back and forth our site by rail.