The Countdown has Begun!

Train services from Stokerton will be resumed at this weekend's invitation only open day, trains will be hauled by visting the visiting Sweet Pea and the railway's latest edition to the fleet a Ride on Railways 'Hercules'! Photos during the course of next week!

Stokerton - Re-opening Soon!

Today was a very productive day in Bethesda, while engineering work was scheduled to take place on the turnouts at Stokerton this did not happen due to the vast growth of vegetation over the past month (it seems every time we are getting somewhere we end up taking steps backwards). The first job therefore was to trim back the various branches along the mainline between Stokerton & Bangor Road LC, The trimming will be completed to Moles Hill by local volunteer Ellis when he fancies. At Stokerton a large amount of vegetation was trimmed back & some of the ivy was removed from the roof of the shed (more to come). Meanwhile the pressure washer was in action cleaning the steps that lead up to Stokerton, this exercise also took place on the waiting area and platforms (see photo below). It is hoped the whole of Stokerton will be sprayed with weedkiller in the next couple of weeks to kill off the plants growing on trackbed.
We are pleased to announce that we will have an 0-4-2T Sweet Pea from Simon's Miniature Railway visiting in August, this is an invitation only event which will mark a significant milestone in the railway's preservation history.

Clean!

Almost There!

Moles Hill is now in sight! On 19/04/08 we completed the replacement of ballast between Bangor Road LC and Moles Hill, a little more shovel packing is required on the curve, but that is all. Other jobs completed were the freeing off of more points at Stokerton & Moles Hill, along with yet more leaf clearance.

Photos depicting a high-speed run from Bangor Road LC to Stokerton have been compiled in to a video and uploaded to the popular website YouTube to genereate publicity for the website.

Ballast removal well underway















Track work now fit for running (in fact the photo was taken from a waggon, sadly human powered, as Harry forgot his loco)

1989 Video appears on YouTube

Recently a video shot in 1989 of the railway has been uploaded to YouTube, at this stage the railway was around half way through the construction process as it is only running up to Moles Hill. Thanks are due Nick Tozer for uploading this video.

Ballast, Ballast, Ballast!

On Saturday the 9th a team of three set out for Bethesda with a hope of shifting majority of the two and a half tons of ballast delivered to the railway earlier in the week. After clearing up yet more leaves, we managed to shift around two thrids of the ballast and complete ballasting a large portion of the section dug out a fortnight ago, hopfully before easter the line between Stokerton and Moles Hill will be ready for trains, Watch This Space!

Miniature Railway Magazine

An article on the railway written by myself has been recently published in the Miniature Railway Magazine (Issue 6, February 2008), it is priced at £2.50 and available from many railway shops or by subscription, their website is available HERE.


Image (C) Miniature Railway Magazine

Digging Ballast

We dug out yet more ballast on 26/01/08, between the section already replaced below Moles Hill all the way to the curve prior to Bangor Road Level Crossing. Hopefully during the next working party we shall complete the removal of the ballast there and begin replacing it with new.

Elsewhere at Stokerton a start was made on clearing up the area a great start was made and hopefully further work will be carried out during the next working party.

As always we welcome people to join us by contacting me (William High) on the e-mail address provided here.