A NUMBER of cash donations has helped Llangollen Railway avoid a financial crisis.

Last month, directors appealed to shareholders for a sum of £125,000 to support Llangollen Railway Trust and Llangollen Railway plc.

The board considered entering into a Company Voluntary Arrangement with creditors after falling into a “difficult financial position” which saw them lose £330,000 in 2018.

This was mainly attributed to under-quoting on two major projects, which does not include Corwen station.

Llangollen Railway general manager Liz McGuinness said: "We have had a number of donations which helped over the winter period when we do not run trains. We will run trains as normal this year, they will not be affected and Corwen will open at some stage in 2020 - depending on the weather and volunteer labour.

"The railway was never going to close, but we did consider a Company Voluntary arrangement. However, we did not need to go ahead with this.

"We had several issues with underestimating on large contracts inlcuding Morayshire. We have a new chief mechanical engineer in post who is turning the engineering around.

"We have now raised the money required from the very kind donations of our shareholders and members. We are paying our creditors too so this is not an issue."

The railway hopes further events, including the opening of the new Corwen Central station and the arrival of a new locomotive will provide much-needed revenue.

George Jones of the Corwen project said: "The situation now resolved at Llangollen Railway does not have an impact on the Corwen development which is funded separately.

"Heritage Railways are not gold mines and need continued support to fund developments and meet costs which are outside the day-to-day fares bucket.”

The Llangollen Railway continues to run trains as normal with a number of special events being planned for the coming months.