Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP, Liz Saville Roberts, has paid tribute to the role women play in the heritage railway industry at a Women’s Day celebrations at Tywyn’s Talyllyn Railway.

Mrs Saville Roberts, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Heritage Rail, joined Talyllyn women volunteers on Saturday, 13 May to celebrate the involvement of women in running the railway since the preservation movement was kick-started at Talyllyn in 1951.

The MP, took to the footplate of locomotive Douglas and met with several women volunteers past and present, said: “I was delighted to join women volunteers and staff at Tywyn Station last week to mark Women’s Day on Talyllyn railway.

“Women’s involvement with the world’s first preserved railway dates back to the railway’s early beginnings in 1951 and has grown in strength ever since.

“Women are now in every department of the railway: as steam and diesel drivers, firemen, loco cleaners, traffic inspectors, guards, controllers, booking clerks, track maintenance, loco and carriage working parties, painters, hedge layers, gardening, museum work, and shop and catering services to name just a few.

“In what was once seen as a male dominated sector - the heritage railway movement is fortunate to benefit from the expertise and skills of so many women. Undoubtedly the increasing number of women involved with the movement today is due in part to the determination and enthusiasm of their female predecessors who laid the foundations for women’s involvement with the heritage railway sector.”

She added: “My Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency has seven wonderful heritage railways - each unique in their own right and each with a vision to preserve and strengthen the sector. We are fortunate that so many women are now immersed in the preservation movement. Our debt to those early female railway pioneers is significant and Talyllyn Railway played a key part in strengthening those links.”