RAILWAY enthusiasts are looking to raise thousands of pounds to restore an historical point of interest.

The Talyllyn Railway has announced plans to restore the railway’s original locomotive watering point at Ty Dwr between Abergynolwyn and Nant Gwernol.

Before the locomotive shed and workshop opened at Tywyn Pendre in 1867 the railway’s first locomotive shed was at Ty Dwr just above Abergynolwyn village.

Here a waterfall supplied water to the locomotive and even when the shed fell out of use locomotives continued to take water here when they shunted wagons between Abergynolwyn station and the base of the first incline to the Bryn Egwlys quarry at what is now Nant Gwernol station.

The watering point continued in use for nearly 90 years before the slate pillars were demolished and the slabs reused to build a retaining wall at the site of a major landslip at Dolgoch in 1955. Later alterations were also made to the site to enable passenger trains to travel through to Nant Gwernol.

For many years there have been discussions about restoring the watering point and now the railway has announced plans to build as close a replica to the original facility as possible at the site.

To this end an appeal was launched at the Warley Model Railway Exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham on Saturday, 24 November to raise an initial £4,000 to fund the project.

As part of the launch a special diorama was on display showing what the site looked like constructed by Peter Kazer and Gordon Gravett.

See this week’s north editions for the full story, in shops and online tomorrow