Despite this working party being on Halloween, there were no unpleasant surprises found in the “woods”.
We concentrated our efforts on re-ballasting and packing majority of the remaining sections of track that haven’t already been done on the balloon loop.
Over half the gang were driving up from the Porthmadog area and took the opportunity to watch the slightly larger 2ft gauge engines cross Britannia Bridge in Porthmadog first thing, before heading for Bethesda. We had the benefit of our largest working party gang so far of 8 people, this enabled us to get a lot of work done.
The train we watched in Porthmadog
Having arrived we gathered the tools we knew we’d require, assembled a train consisting of Meg, RoR panelled coach and two of the open bogie coaches which we would use to carry the ballast filled wheel barrows to the work site from the car park where the trailer which was situated (it’s a long way to Highfield with a heavy wheelbarrow!).
Works Train at Highfield, judging by the expressions, a bag of ballast has just dropped it's bottom!
Work began with lifting the track on the ‘up’ side of the balloon loop between Highfield & the first bridge, the formation was then levelled off and track was drilled for the attachment of wooden batons in the same fashion that we have done in places such as Moles Hill cutting. Fresh ballast was then brought up by train and laid onto the formation. The track was then re-laid and packed appropriately to take out some negative cant that had been there previously.
Track lifted on the 'Up' side of the Balloon loop
By the end of the day we had also managed to do the same work on the ‘down’ side of the loop between the second bridge and Highfield with only a little packing work left to perfect the cant and supporting of the track, already a significant improvement is visible.
'Pete's Paving' and 'Bill's Boulders' before...
Whilst this was takeing place Bill and Pete started work on constructing a retaining wall after noticing that we were losing a large amount of ballast down the side of the embankment shortly after Highfield ‘Up’ Platform were there had been a collapse in the past. By the end of the day their work stretched from just after the beginning of the embankment to almost halfway between the balloon loop point and the footpath crossing. A job very well done indeed, and it was thought that we could name these features “Bill’s Boulders” and “Pete’s Paving”.
'Pete's Paving' and 'Bill's Boulders' after!
If the work we do sounds like fun to you, please do get in contact and we will try and arrange more regular working parties. The more people that get involved the better the railway will become and together we can restore this wonderful railway to its former glory. Please contact William High at williamchigh@gmail.com
Many thanks to Pete Etchells for most of the photos.
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