December 10th 2017 Christmas at Cynheidre Open Day
Video courtesy of Robert Masterman
Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway held their first Christmas event at the site of the former Cynheidre Colliery on Sunday 10th December 2017. Train rides ran every 15 minutes over a recent running line extension and the event proved extremely popular with visitor numbers hitting over 200 over the course of the day.
Santa himself and the Chairman of Llanelli Rural Council John Evans opened the event by arriving into Cynheidre station just before 11am, before heading to the on-site grotto, ahead of a day of lots of mince pies, presents and plenty of Christmas cheer along the way. Santa even brought the snow with him to make the day a truly magical event. Nia Griffith MP also lent her support to the event with a visit during the course of the day.
The site volunteers worked extremely hard all day to ensure that all visitors had an enjoyable experience. Project Director Des Thomas speaking about the event said ‘The feedback received from our first open day in September of this year gave us a real motivation to make a Christmas event a reality. It has been a huge team effort since then to get everything into place. What a fantastic day it has been and we’ve even managed to pick a day where snow arrived. Yet again the people of Carmarthenshire and beyond have completely exceeded our expectations with their tremendous support and I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to them and to our fantastic volunteers’.
The charity hopes to announce further events over the coming months as the scheme continues to grow. There is also a hope to increase public interaction in other ways, such as introducing a summer café to serve both the local community and users of the adjacent cycle-path as well as opening a picnic area. Anyone interested in learning more about the project should visit the company website at www.llanellirailway.co.uk and their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/llanellirailway.
Picture courtesy of The Llanelli Herald
