The 75 Appeal will be officially launched on 22 March 2024 with the aim of raising at least £500,000 over five years (£100,000 a year) to support our major redevelopment project. In September 2024 this was raised to a target of £750,000 because of the huge success of the Appeal so far.
(NB the total on this page on records money actually received it does not include future donations through the 75 Club or other pledges)
After nearly 75 years since the Talyllyn became the World's First Preserved Railway it has become clear that in order to ensure the Railway thrives for the next 75 years we need to replace some of our facilities which have become time-expired and/or inadequate, as well as providing improved accomodation and attractions for our passengers. Therefore, we have launched the Preserving our Past, Building Our Future redevelopment the initial development phase of which is being funded by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The aim of the redevelopment is to provide:
The project has now been split into two phases:
Phase One: Concentrating on the redevelopment at Pendre and also the conversion of the house, 'Trefri' adjacent to Wharf station as volunteer accomodation including an accessible suite, as well as a community engagement programme and opportunity for apprenticeships.
Phase Two: Projects in and around the Wharf station site.
The current plans are available on our main website at: www.talyllyn.co.uk/75appeal. Just link the project concepts button to find them. These are all at the concept stage at the moment and none of them are the final plans.
This is an ambitious multi-phase programme to be achieved over a multi-year time period. To help fund this we are planning to submit applications for subtantial grants from the National Lottery as well as other bodies, trusts, etc. Our status as part of a World Heritage Site and also the award of development funding from the National Lottery gives us great confidence that this is achieveable but we need to partly match this from our own resources.
This is why we launched the 75 Appeal to support this vital redevelopment project. As well as one off donations we need regular givers to become part of the '75 Club' of regular donors. (For regulatory reasons membership of The 75 Club is only open to those over eighteen).
You can also make one-off donations on-line on this page or you can send a cheque make out to 'Talyllyn Holdings Ltd' to Tywyn Wharf station, please mark your cheque on the reverse '75 Appeal'. If you are able to 'Gift Aid' then please include one of our donation forms with your cheque. You can download one here: https://www.talyllyn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Gift-Aid-Declaration.pdf
All donations are to Talyllyn Holdings Ltd (Charity No. 1089053) Registered Office, Wharf Station, Neptune Road, Tywyn, LL36 9EY
In the event that the redevelopment does not proceed the monies will be used for the ongoing preservation of the Talyllyn Railway.
Any excess funds will also be used for the ongoing preservation of the Talyllyn Railway.