A mid Wales tourist railway is set to raise the roof with a series of major improvements set to take place at the end of the 2021 season.

A long term project to build a new Corris station to include an overall roof, a feature of the original station in the village, is set to get underway at the end of the current season - as a new platform and 'traverser' are constructed at Corris station to allow locomotives to 'run around' their trains at both Corris and Maespoeth Junction.

The modified layout will require the building of a new platform as part of the scheme of improvements, with work on the new track layout set to begin after the railway's festive 'Santa trains' mark the closure of operations on the railway for the year.

Tickets for the popular Christmas special trains are now available online, set to run on the weekend of December 11, 12, organisers say.

Elsewhere on the railway, restoration work continued as the dry and warm weather through most of September allowed more construction work on an embankment which organisers say will replace a lost section of the original trackbed south of Maespoeth Junction and eventually allow trains to run further southwards along the Dulas Valley.

"Important work completed also included connecting the drainage layer below the embankment base with a drain to the Dulas, clearing the flood plain of debris from earlier site work and levelling of the topsoil in front of the stone filled gabions at the base of the embankment," said a spokesperson.

"Work has also been done by a flail tackling the vegetation which had grown strongly on the steep sided slope of the valley.

"New build carriage number 24, which will offer First Class accommodation and an observation section is being worked on in the carriage shed at Maespoeth Junction with the flooring complete and hardwood sections being fitted to the outside of the vehicle."

Tickets for the Santa trains and more information can be found online at www.corris.co.uk