Want to get your love life back on track? Go loco with like-minded acquaintances? Alex Jones explores a day in the life of a member of the Talyllyn Railway family

“AH look, see that driver? I’m his best man,” said Matt Dawson as we trundled back into Tywyn Wharf past a departing engine.

“He’s getting married this year as well. There’s... six couples this year, I think? All of them met their partners at the Talyllyn Railway.”

Matt, expertly operating the Tal-y-Llyn steam engine, has courteously allowed me to ride on his footplate and is filling me in about life on the railway alongside his fireman Rob Hayes.

“It’s not uncommon; I’ve been volunteering here for 18 years and I’ve seen dozens of couples.

“Sometimes they’ll have a child and they’ll come volunteer for the railway too. Lots of people pick it up from their parents or grandparents.”

I later found out from the Talyllyn Railway’s chair, Ian Drummond, that this was jovially known throughout the railway as the ‘volunteer breeding programme’.

Rob, whose face had got increasingly blackened with coal dust as he kept the boiler fire alive throughout our 14-mile round trip, agreed.

“My dad is a big fan of the railway so we come down from Flintshire whenever we can – I love it,” he said.

“I probably get on the footplate about 30 times a year, sometimes you can do a few days, sometimes you can only turn up once a month. I really enjoy my time down here though.”

This is apparent throughout the day as I speak to various members. Some of the 400 volunteers turn up practically every day whereas others can only turn up once or twice a year, whatever they can manage.

Some of the members herald from as far afield as the United States or Australia with one Dutch fanatic even travelling over from the Netherlands regularly to spend his time volunteering.

Driver Matt, an engineer for Rolls Royce who claims his experience at Talyllyn Railway was key to him getting his day job, explained why people were so keen to spend their time at the world’s oldest preserved heritage railway.

“For some it’s the sense of belonging to a larger group – a family really. I know there are one or two people here who aren’t really that bothered about trains, they just like the social aspect,” he said.

Read the full story in this week’s Meirionnydd edition of the Cambrian News