The Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway has received a boost in its efforts to overcome the coronavirus shutdown in the form of a five-figure lottery grand.

The narrow gauge steam railway has already raised more than £40,000 from public donations to help keep it going through the lockdown.

And now it has been awarded £25,200 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to help it to get through the period, which has fallen over what would have been a key tourist season.

A message posted on the railway's official Twitter page read: "Thank you to National Lottery players who made it possible for the National Lottery Heritage Fund to award us £25,200 in funding towards unavoidable expenses borne by us at this difficult time.

"From the bottom of our big railway heart, we say thank you."

The suspension of steam-hauled passenger trains on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway is to continue until at least June 5.