Project Work July 2004

The main project for this year's Civil's Week is laying the ballast for the extension. Shortly after starting work, the ballast is some 70m back from Farmyard Farm's crossing. Beyond is Traeth Mawr loop.

The excavator driver is Mark 'Hewden' Holden, who is also the volunteer coordinator and the person to contact should you wish to help out. On the left is Dr John Kerr, the Extension Coordinator. The photograph was taken from the footplate (is that the right term?) of the dumper driven by myself.

Rick Beton

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Dave Meller pours ballast whilst slowly reversing, resulting in an ballast carpet of even depth that won't need much work to finish it off. Well at least, that's the ideal everyone else tries to emulate.

The location is nearly 100m south of Farmyard Farm's crossing.

Rick Beton

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By mid-week, the ballast has spread like a smooth red carpet (but grey, ahem!) back from where work had started (Farmyard Farm Crossing) to the first corner.

Rick Beton

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The mess caravan and loo had been put here over a year previously and served the workers well over the intervening months. See August 2003. Both had to be removed before the ballast could be laid past this spot. It was Friday and the caravan went first.

Rick Beton

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The mess caravan arrives backwards at Pen-y-Mount, with yours truly pretending it's easy to reverse. Good job no-one was watching.

Getting the caravan there was the easy bit. It was attached to the car's towbar and flatly refused to part company thereof. With visions in mind of a slow journey home with unwanted green mess van in tow, this was one of those crazy moments. When we finially stopped laughing, out came some jacks and bars; after a little bit of muscle, things were sorted out!

Rick Beton

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Mark Holden is seen here cheerfully loading excess slate waste scraped from the formation top into a dumper. Mark is the volunteer coordinator; if you'd like to help, he's the person to contact. Why not drop him a line?

Rick Beton

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Lunch break: Rick, John, Mark, Nigel, James, Chris and (standing) Mark. The volunteers either bring their own lunch, or a packed lunch is sent from the Railway's café in Porthmadog. Standard safety clothing includes safety boots, hi-viz vest and hard hat. There are vests and hats available for new volunteers to borrow.

Rick Beton

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Reaching the latter stages of the week, the ballast had reached the loo and it still hadn't been moved away! We can't put ballast past it for fear of leaving it stranded. When would it be removed? Would this cause a delay?

Rick Beton

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Surveying is important preparatory work in the project. Here, Dave Meller is using an elderly level instrument to measure the heights of the marker posts seen in the next photo.

In the distance, Tremadog Cliffs provide an imposing backdrop. This is a favourite location for rock climbers, who can be easily seen from the railway here, despite the distance.

Rick Beton

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Andy Goodwin holds the surveying staff for Dave atop one of the many marker posts. Spaced at ten metre intervals and positioned an exact distance from the intended line of the railway, these posts will provide height information for the people actually levelling and ballasting. Therefore their height has to be measured accurately, and then a sighting crossbar can be attached to each one at the correct position.

Rick Beton

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The removal of the loo meant that one more obstruction to progress had gone. It was removed just in time: the crowd of yellow machines is hemmed in by the encroaching ballast, just beyond them.

The mess caravan and loo had been put here over a year previously and served the workers well over the intervening months. See August 2003.

Rick Beton

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This photo, from the 340m chainage marker, was taken as work was winding up at the end of the project week. The week's work ended with the ballast reaching the 300m mark.

In blue hats, James Hewett (left, our Chairman) removes the surveying traveller, which John Kerr (right, our Extension Coordinator) has been using to check the level. Dave Meller, driving the excavator, is the Chief Civil Engineer. The gang also included myself and three others, by rotation driving the two dumpers and the other excavator for loading ballast at Pen-y-Mount.

The next photo shows the view in the opposite direction.

Rick Beton

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This photo was taken at the end of the project week from the 340m chainage marker (the week's work ended at 300m) looking north towards the Moelwyns. Although the railway follows a notionally straight route towards the Croesor valley, clearly there are still some significant curves - Cnicht is off to the left.

All that new ballast - doesn't it look nice! All it needs is some track.

Rick Beton

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This photo was taken at the end of the project week from the 700m chainage marker (where the week's work had started) looking north over Farmyard Farm crossing and Traeth Mawr loop.

The opposite direction is shown in the next photo.

Rick Beton

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This photo was taken at the end of the project week from the 700m chainage marker (where the week's work had started) looking back south. It shows the completed ballast stretching away towards Porthmadog.

In the opposite direction, Farmyard Farm crossing and Traeth Mawr loop are close by (see the previous photo).

Rick Beton

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