Thieves steal tools from Oswestry's Cambrian Railway

Thieves have stripped Oswestry's Cambrian Heritage Railways of thousands of pounds of tools and machinery.

The raiders cut through the chain link fence at the railway's headquarters in Oswald Road in Oswestry.

They then smashed locks to the engineering shed and metal store cabin before, staff at the railway, said 'cleaning out' the organisation.

Work has now halted on the restoration of the railway because of the lack of equipment and today an appeal went out for the donation of items as basic as shovels and picks.

The break-in came as a new workforce was due to arrive to help with the restoration.

Nigel Davies from the Cambrian Heritage Railways said: "Image Match had just supplied us with 20, Future Jobs Fund workers to help with the project.

"They are due to start work today and this break-in couldnt have come at a worse possible time. The raiders cleaned us out of tools.

"We are appealing to anyone who might have tools they are able to donate to the project to come down to the workshops in Oswald Road."

Volunteer, Mr Brian Rowe said one of the items stolen was an impact wrench worth thousands of pounds.

"It is a highly specialised tool that can only be used on the railway. I can not understand why anyone would steal it."

"This seems to have been a really profession job. They peeled back the fence and cut every lock off even breaking into a 20 foot steel container."

Mr Rowe said that in a separate incident, a car ended up on part of the track of the railway by the Gasworks Bridge in Oswestry in the early hours of yesterday.

The car hit part of the bridge and went down the embankment.