Pictures from Spring 2000

The trouble with curved track is it's made from straight rails. Undo the screws and the rails spring straight again. Our task was to remove the screws, bend the rails permanently to the correct curve, then re-assemble the panels.

Here, the right-hand rail remains fastened, but the left hand rail has been unscrewed, showing its straightness.

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Permanent curvature is acheived using a rail bender. The simplest is the manual jim crow, being tightened up by Mark. Mark is a regular at the Welsh Highland and a veteran of past railway projects, including the famous Deviation on the F.R.

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The jim crow is a very simple tool really.

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...but it takes a lot of grunt! Sometimes the rails prove too stiff for the brute-force manual technique. Machinery is required...

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The machinery in question is our rail-mounted hydraulic rail bender. Here it is, paused ready for the rails to be fed through it.

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Typical of early spring weather in north Wales, the soft mist gives a remote look to the work scene. The gang battles on with the jim crow, for a while, before succumbing to using the hydraulic machine.

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Easier than the jim crow, the hydraulic rail bender does suffer however from needing the rails to be lifted to wagon height. For any rails too stiff to bend with the jim crow, this is an effort worth making! Pete, working the pump, has it rather easy, really.

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Here the gang can be seen working on the north-west curve, although why Mark has stopped to use his 'phone is anyone's guess!

The engineer's siding on the right is later the subject of a Civil's Week 2000 project.

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A little light relief! This was one of those days! Gowrie wouldn't start and someone else was using its sister. Rather than shunting other stock to get a Simplex out, it was better to...

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...get this one's flat battery sorted in the well-tried fashion! Jump-starting a Barclay was an amusingly memorable, if rather brief, event!

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Problem solved and the Barclay is back in action!

Here's a lovely photo over Gelert's Farm towards Morfa Bychan, the hill south-west of Porthmadog. Barclay No. 555 draws the works train (tools van, generator, sleeper wagon and brake van) out of the yard, whilst passenger loco Glaslyn occupies the main line by the signal box.

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A close up of Gowrie, driven by P-Way Foreman Andy Goodwin.

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The entry curve to Pen-y-Mount station had a horrible wiggle.

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Applying the jim crow to the southern curve at Pen-y-Mount.

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After fettling up, the curve on the southern approach to Pen-y-Mount has a much smoother curvature.

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A contented gang! The job here is done.

They are (left to right):
Andy G., Mark H., Andy C., Bob, Nick and Alan.

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The next job required builders' materials; quite easy to load up, if you've enough people, despite the weight! This is at Gelert's Farm Halt, where visitors to the Railway can alight for a tour of the shed, to see the fascinating collection of rolling stock and Welsh Highland Railway items.

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This photograph is of the northerly side of the train at Gelert's Farm Halt. It shows the view ahead, with the home signal and the large RED Shed beyond.

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The task here at Porthmadog Station is to lay a smart edging for the platform, where a wider space exists in front of the award-winning toilet block.

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The new shape of the edging can be clearly seen. This has resulted in a far superior arrangement than had previously been there. The platform surface and edging were finished subsequently, culminating in ballast cleaning during Civil's Week 2000.

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Another job needing doing was repairing the fence over the cut, on the entrance to the station at Porthmadog. Rarely pausing to be photographed, Ray the General Manager measures things up.

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The old fence being removed from the bridge.

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The new fence getting a lick of brown paint to hide the matching brown rust.

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Alan is busy moving the bollard out of the roadway (where delivery vans kept hitting it) into a safer spot.

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The end of Spring Bash 2000, and a night scene on the RED Yard. The loco on the move is Gowrie.

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