A group of Romanian volunteers spent a week in Carmarthenshire working on track renovation, vegetation clearance and restoring Pontyates Station.

Members of the Sibiu-Agmita project, Mihai Blotor, Radu Popa, and Bogan Teodorescw also learned about steam and diesel locomotive servicing at other key heritage sites.

The Gwendraeth Railway Society hosted the visit as part of work to develop a Community Heritage Railway along the former Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway, linking communities and visitor attractions along its route.

The Romanian volunteers are embarking on a similar project in the Transylvania region.

The route follows the path of one of the oldest canal in Wales, dating back to the early days of the industrial revolution in 1765, and claims the oldest railway bridge in Wales, and second oldest in the world, near Carway.

Ultimately it will run parallel to cycle tracks, footpaths and bridleways, and organisers hope that restored locomotives and carriages will roll across the tracks.

The project, organised by the New Europe Heritage Railway Trust, aims to demonstrate the best of heritage rail and community partnership working by focusing on current heritage rail projects in Wales and applying the lessons to similar projects in former communist countries in eastern Europe.

Stuart Thomas, Chair of the Gwendraeth Railway Society, said: "The group from the Sibiu-Agnita Railway are developing an exciting and ambitious project to preserve the social and cultural heritage of their region.

"These are exactly the same objectives we have with the development of our own Gwendraeth Railway Project which has its own unique local identity. We have been able to learn from one and other and have been able to forge strong links between the two projects."