Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway Coaching Stock

No less than four Austrian coaches have arrived at the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway, representing two different Austran railway lines.

Four-wheel coach Ci 569 was built 1925 by Grazer Waggenfabrik for the Salzkammergut Lokalbahn (SKGLB). After the SKGLB closed in November 1957, two coaches, Ci 569 and Ci 567 were purchased by the Zillertalbahn, becoming B24 and B25 respectively. The two coaches were put into traffic, but after an appeal by the embryonic preservation society hoping to reopen the 2'6" gauge line westwatrds out of Welshpool, the Zillertahlbahn board donated four coaches to the railway, including Ci 567. The coaches are still in use today, Ci 567 being erronously labelled B24. Meanwhile, Ci 569 soldiered on in the Ziller Valley, between Jenbach and Mayrhofen. Put out of use, the coach was sold to Club 760 at Frojach-Castell, at that time starting to operate service on the Taurachbahn. The coach, similar to others already on the railway, needed repairs and was put aside. In 1969, it was sold on to the Gurkthalbahn in Karnten, and was moved to the line. However, needing a complete overhaul and repair, and given the limited finances of the line and society, the coach was left at Hst. Treibach-Althofen. It stayed there for 24 years.

In 2003, the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway, with a pressing need for new or refurbished passenger-carrying stock sent a carriage and wagon examiner and its General Manager to look at Ci 569, which (along with a quantity of spare parts) was purchased from the Gurkthalbahn. The coach was delivered to Llanfair Caereinion by an Austria haulier, arriving on 4 June 2003. It is being restored to match Ci 567

Two other coaches built for the Zillertalbahn are now working on the Llanfair and Welshpool Light Railway. Second Open four-wheel coaches B17 and B18 were part of a batch of coaches built in the early 1900's for use on the line between Jenbach and Mayrhofen. Surplus to the requirements of the railway after it purchased several bogie saloons from ÖBB, the coaches were donated to the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway where they were put straight into traffic, being about half of the usable stock at the time. After thirty years of use on the WLLR, B17 was withdrawn, and was sent to the Appleby heritage Centre in Appleby-in Westmoreland, where it was stripped to the chassis and completely rebuilt. Now incorporating electric lighting, heating, and a cleverly-disguised disabled wheelchair lift, the coach was returned in 2003 to the line, where it has rejoined B18. Most of the other coaches in this batch are still at work on the ZB. The coaches seat 64, on slatted wooden seating arranged around tables.