From "Railway Through Talerddig" page 69 - "No evidence has yet
emerged that the Corris ever operate 'dandy cars', as did the
Festiniog, so it would appear that the horses worked 'light' from
Corris back to Machynlleth along the neighbouring road whilst the
heavy goods wagons were capable of running down by gravity."

However the engraving on page 16 of "A Return to Corris" shows a pair
of horses hauling a rake of waggons downhill on the Upper Corris
branch.

There were stables alongside the railway at Machynlleth and these
were probably originally built so that horses could take the waggons
gravitated down from Corris & Aberllefenni on the flat section of
line to Morben, and be housed ready to haul the empties back up to
the quarries.

On the Festiniog, there was no adjacent route by which the horses
could be walked from Blaenau to Porthmadog, so the dandy cars made
sense. On the Corris it would have been easy enough simply to walk
them down the road. Is there any evidence that dandy cars were ever
used anywhere other than the Festiniog ?

Incidentally, although there are graveyards alongside the Corris
route, there is no evidence that there was ever a dedicated hearse
vehicle either - but again, the Corris was not remore from roads as
was the Festiniog.

Richard



--- In corris-discuss@..., "John Mudd" <jlsmudd@...>
wrote:
>
> Thank you Richard for that information. It makes sense when one
realises that the walk back was relatively short compared to the 13
mile journey from Blaenau to Boston Lodge or the journey along the
full length of the Penrhyn tramway. If anyone finds any information
to the contrary, perhaps they will be kind enough to post it.
> Thanks,
> John Mudd
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: r1chsh1p
> To: corris-discuss@...
> Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 2:59 PM
> Subject: [corris-discuss] Re: Corris 150
>
>
>
> John,
>
> As far as I have heard, there were no dandy wagons on the Corris -
the
> horses were walked down the road rather than riding the train.
>
> I'm sure that RSG will be able to provide historical references
for this.
>
> There is a nice condition dandy wagon in the museum of the
Porthmadog
> branch of the Welsh Highland, or was when we were there a couple
of
> years ago - I believe that might have been on loan from the
Ffestiniog.
>
> Richard
>
> --- In corris-discuss@..., "John Mudd" <jlsmudd@>
wrote:
> >
> > With celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the railway's
> foundation incorporating horse drawn trains and gravity trains,
> presumably there must have been Dandy Wagons? Has anyone any
pictures
> or drawings of these? I know the group is very busy with
preparations
> for this event; but any assistance will be welcome. I do have a
model
> of the one in the Ffestiniog Museum and which though similar in
> design, is bound to have differences. For the record, I model in
009
> and am hoping to model a working (simulated) model of a horse
drawn train.
> > Your kind assistance will be much appreciated.
> > John Mudd
> >
>