Welcome to the homepage of the

Barry Island Railway

Latest News: November 2008

November 27th: A newsletter detailing latest developments and the current situation surrounding the future of the railway is HERE.

Please note that an extra date for Xmas running has been announced. We will now run schools on the 5th, 8th and 12th December. Two public running days are on the 20th and 21st. Mince Pie Specials will run on the 28th December. Download a Santa poster HERE!

November 26th: IMPORTANT NEWS UPDATE. As you will probably be aware, the Vale of Glamorgan Council chose to seek a new backer for the railway and as part of a local consortium, we submitted a bid in accordance with the application process. Unfortunately, we were not successful in our attempt and a new backer has been announced, Cambrian Transport Ltd. At present, the future role of the volunteer workforce is uncertain as is the future of the Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company.

We aim to raise our concerns to the council and would ask you to support us in this aim. If you would like to help us, we would kindly ask you to read the linked documents. Attached is a file with ward councillors details and also a word document giving a "form of words" that you may wish to use. It is unwise just to print off the form of words as printed, but we would ask you to amend where necessary and send to the VoG council. It is only by your actions can this issue be highlighted to all councillors. If for any reason you cannot open these documents, please call the office. The councillor/ward list is also on the Vale of Glamorgan Council website.

Letter HERE Councillor and ward list HERE

November 22nd: Following the AGM today, a new board has been elected. The decision has been taken to run Santa Specials over 3 days. Schools on Friday 5th, Monday 8th and Friday 12th December and public days on Sat/Sun 20th/21st December. Click HERE for details.

November 18th: Regrettably, Santa Specials will not be running this year.

October 18th: Preparations are underway for the Halloween trains. D9521 has had an injector change and a wash. No expense spared....!

September 26th: The Shunter Day scheduled for October will, regrettably, not now be taking place. The next series of events will be Halloween, Bonfire Night and Santa Specials.

September 25th: The DMU day on Sat 20th went well with trains running to Gladstone Bridge. Photos are HERE. The weather was fortunate and the new style timetable worked well.

An interesting photo of a 6 car set about to run ECS to shed.

September 14th: DMU Day details and WTT now online HERE.

September 12th: Photos of the Tall Ships weekend below. DMU Day is on the 20th September with all 3 units running.

August 27th: Photos of the August Diesel Weekend can be found HERE. Our next event is the Tall Ships weekend at the Waterfront Festival. Steam on September 6th & 7th. Steam on Saturday and Diesel on Sunday.

August 22nd: The day before the Lord Mayor's parade! after a day of hectic activity I can confirm that (as at 8.45pm) all traction is confirmed as available for traffic. If you think that the paintwork on a loco or stock looks wet, it's because it probably is!

August 19th: WTT for the Diesel Weekend are online HERE.

August 18th: We can now confirm that the council have kindly granted us permission to run to Gladstone Bridge station (on the new extension) for the Diesel Weekend. As a result, the WTT will soon be uploaded to the website. The timetable is in 2 parts, one for Sat/Sun and 1 for Mon. Sat/Sun will see all available traction out, Monday will see D8137, D9521 and the 117 DMU. Despite mentions in the railway press to the contrary, 20228 will definitely not be running as it still awaits a replacement turbo. Mr Madge hopes to start on it in the new year.

August 16th: Work progresses on the GatEx luggage van and 47768 in readiness for next weekend. A component has been removed from 73118 by it's owner but it's hoped that it will be replaced by the weekend. A photo of D8137 is below on a 2 vehicle Mk1 rake at Barry Island, with the PMV as a tail load! This was one of the rare days in August when it stopped raining....