Mid Wales Model Engineering Society promotes all forms of model engineering and our main public face is the miniature railway in the park in Newtown, Powys. Over 2,000 passenger rides bring smiles across the generations each year, from residents and visitors, on Saturdays and for local events.

In 2024 ‘Dolforwyn’ joined our existing loco ‘Draig Goch’ (Red Dragon in Welsh), to increase our steam capacity since a large loco on loan was soon to be moving on. Dolforwyn (originally named Jill by her maker, who had sadly passed away) pulled many happy passengers before winter maintenance took her into the engine shed.

With the superstructure removed, some boiler leaks were discovered, and under specialist testing the boiler failed catastrophically. Despite full boiler certification at time of purchase, the insurers have finally decided they cannot pay a claim.

We need urgently to get a new boiler so this loco can give its much-loved rides in the 2026 season. Rides raise enough money to cover our regular annual costs, but we need to ask your help to get Dolforwyn back on the tracks.

The quoted cost of the boiler is £4,200 and there will be incidental costs on top of that to enable fitting of the new boiler to the loco.

Our initial target is £1,300 to cover the £1,000 deposit.

That is to be followed by 2 payments of £1,000 each.

Then a final payment of £1,200.

The lead time on a new boiler is several months so we need to get cracking quickly!