Britain’s newest steam locomotive will work its first passenger trains on September 9 and 10 on the narrow gauge Corris Railway in the Dulas Valley.

The locomotive was constructed at Alan Keef Ltd near Ross-on-Wye. It is a 21st century version of a trio of engines delivered to the Corris Railway from the Henry Hughes company of Loughborough in 1878.

It was moved by road from Keef’s to the Railway on 30 August and has been run in during training of the volunteer drivers and firemen. Although it is a small steam engine it is a complicated design and the progress from its building first being proposed to its entering service has taken over a decade.

It has also cost nearly £400,000 four hundred thousand pounds, raised by donations from just under 500 contributors - Corris Railway Society members and well-wishers, raffles, and from sales of donated books and other goods.

Corris Railway Society members with engineering skills have made some components for the new loco number 10, known as the Falcon, and other parts were made commercially in Bradford, Kent and the East and West Midlands.

Help with the project has also been received from the Corris’ neighbour, the Talyllyn Railway which shares the same unusual track gauge of two feet and three inches.

CRS volunteers have also constructed the Victorian-style passenger carriages that the Falcon will haul on its journeys.

After the 9 and 10 September, the new locomotive will work on Saturdays and Sundays in September and Saturdays in October up to and including the 21 September. Trains will leave Corris station for the journey along part of the Dulas Valley to Maespoeth Junction at 11am, 12pm, 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 3.30pm, and tickets can be booked in advance from www.corris.co.uk where other information about the revival of the Railway, closed by British Railways in 1948, can be seen.