Peter Asquith reports on the latest summer working party...

The forecast for Saturday did not look good. It was if someone had shaded in the Cardigan Bay area with a 4B pencil. Sadly, it was accurate and we enjoyed anything between heavy drizzle and rain, all day.

Over the past couple of weeks the weather had also been quite wild, with gusty winds and thunderstorms. This had caused a number of problems, mostly related to trees in full leaf flapping around. A large tree broke and fell onto the pole route at the top of Gwyndy Bank. Fortunately, everything held without snapping, but a fair amount of clearing up was necessary and the first train of the day had to be cancelled.

A wire came off an insulator around Pen Cefn and this was a simple job to repair. Bushes had encroached into the wires adjacent to Pen-y-Bryn Halt and required pruning. It was also observed from here that, 2 spans further down the line, pole 72 had been the subject of another Woodpecker attack. This will have to be attended to in dryer weather.

Pen Cefn Disc Signal

After lunch the S&T train was prepared for our late afternoon activity, that of recovering the Disc Signal post from Pen Cefn. Knowing that the crane was capable of lifting these things, we decided that it would be best to bring them back to Minffordd Yard. With our train top and tailed with Moel Hebog and Harlech Castle, we set off after the last up train had departed Minffordd.

The post had been reset on its plinth in the 1970’s and two of the securing nuts eventually yielded and were removed. The other two, buried under the earth did not and these had to be drilled and split to free them. After careful planning and preparation, the lift commenced and the post manoeuvred onto the wagon. By now we were soaked through, but not all our work was complete.

Two iron fence posts & stones had been collected from the yard for onward transport to Rhiw Goch where, the next day, they were to be built into the wall near the coal bunker by the Dee & Mersey P.W. Group. The crane made quick and easy work of this task.

Thankfully, Sunday was a lot kinder to us. Reporting to work slightly damp, we had a prompt start to remove the other signal post below Minffordd Crossing. The nuts on this one had not been shifted for over 100 years, so an advance party headed off to site and started drilling. Once the S&T train had arrived, a larger drill powered by a generator, soon had them ready for splitting. The lift was almost on the limit of the crane, but once the post had cleared the studs, it was soon resting safely on the wagon. The whole procedure took about 30 minutes, a very successful exercise.

Cob Cable Joint Box

It was then off to hide away in 13 road at Boston Lodge to let the loco run across for the first train of the day. Our next job was to explore the ground at the point on the Cob where we want to joint the fibre optic cable. The exact location was marked and after the train had dropped of tools and the generator, we soon had an area cleared that would, with further effort, accept a stacker jointing box. We also found a route under the concrete edge and up to the cables running in the ballast. Permission will now be sought before the box can be fitted. A number of large stones will be purchased to landscape and protect the installation. We hope to complete this work in a couple of month’s time.

Lunch was taken at Harbour Station. This also gave us chance to remove Web Cam 3 on the lighting post, which has a fault somewhere and requires checking.

More Disc Signal Post work

The afternoon was occupied sorting the 4 disc signal posts in Minffordd Yard and getting them into the poly tunnel so that they can be cleaned, prepared and painted. There is a chance that this could happen during KTW especially since they are under cover and it might rain!

This weekend working party contained a large ‘Heritage’ element. It is good to keep these projects rolling along. Since there has been and interest in the F.R’s heritage fencing, we have plucked a number of posts with stones from beyond the line side for safe storage at Minffordd and re-use.

……and finally

August is a no-show for the Group as too many trains that get in the way!

Next W/P Date: 4th & 5th September