Job A: Sleeper Replacement. The sleeper replacement gang got stuck in at Porthmadog Station. The Works Train includes Simplex No.6, two RNAD flat wagons and two RNAD box vans, one containing a generator and the other the P-Way tools.

Rick Beton

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Sleepers sleep in ballast and ballast doesn't like being moved! But you've got to dig it out if you're going to get the rotten sleeper out and a fresh one back in.

Rick Beton

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Job B: Siding Extension. The Big Shed (green, centre) will be extended in a year or two by the addition of the new so-called 3-4-5 Shed. It's to be called this because it will contain sidings 3, 4 and 5. Sidings 3 and 4 are inside the Big Shed and will be extended through what is now the shed's end into the space occupied by the heritage wagon display, shown here. Siding 5 was built last year through the gap on the right of the Big Shed, but stopped short of its full length.

Our mission: extend Siding 5 to its full length. A causeway of slatewaste has already been built (foreground) to allow the siding to be built at the required height so that the rails are at the new shed's intended floor level.

Rick Beton

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Job A. The sleeper-changing gang has worked its way towards the main line. In the distance is the main point (called the facing point because trains approaching the station are facing the sharp bits of rails that steer the trains left or right). Beyond the point, the back of a white notice board is visible - this is a "Stop and Proceed" safety board and has a red flag at the side. Drivers of approaching trains are required to stop there until called forward by the person in charge of safety.

Rick Beton

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Job C: Land clearance and fencing at Cae Hir. The WHR owns land boths sides of the Cambrian standard gauge railway. Gelert's Farm shed roofs can be seen in the middle distance. However, the strip of land on the south side of the Cambrian has never been useful, not least because the entrance had been blocked off to keep out squatters.

The remedy is simple - clear out the strip of land and build a standard industrial security fence across the entrance. Here, John has started levelling the ground with the mini-excavator.

Rick Beton

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Job D: Machine Shop Roof. the machine shop is housed in an old farm building - the space now occupied by machine tools (covered in protective plastic here) was once a milking parlour. Unfortunately, the condition of the building has been giving increasing concern - the roof is not really waterproof and the inflow of water is obvious here because it has helped lush moss to grow over most of the wall on the right.

Another problem with this building is that it was built to dimensions suitable for small Welsh farmers - tall Saesneg machine shop workers have to stoop through the doorways between the various rooms.

So the solution to both of these problems will be shown in the following photos - repair the roof by supporting it better and by rebuilding the valley gutter, and knock down the diminutive doorways that are no-longer needed to support the roof.

Rick Beton

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Job D. While Chris watches, Owain trims one of the new roof timbers to the required profile.

Rick Beton

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Job A. Dave and Nigel are now working on the loop road, having completed the platform road.

Rick Beton

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This long-lens view shows work on sleepers of the run-round road.

Rick Beton

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Job B. The end of the Siding 5 extension is visible here, which is at the end near the volunteers' mess room. The existing temporary mess is on the left, with its door open. The concrete base will be the new mess soon, although that's a separate project from the siding extension.

Rick Beton

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Siding 5 currently squeezes through a limited gap between the Big Shed and the Carriage and Wagon Shop, which is an old farm building and will one day be reduced in length so that this narrow gap is wider.

Rick Beton

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Rails and sleepers for Siding 5 are put in place. On the left, the passenger train is visible behind the trees. Most of the passengers would have been in the Big Shed enjoying a tour there when this photo was taken.

Rick Beton

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Job D. Inside the machine shop, old decrepit walls needed to come down. Most of it was taken down by Ian and myself (the photographer). Behind Ian's head, the old wooden lintel clearly hadn't got a lot of strength left in it, although the old slate wall above it actually interlocked quite strongly and might well have stayed up for years even without any lintel! Now that wall has been demolished, a great gaping hole has been opened up, leaving much work still to be done. But at the top of the photo, the new longitudinal timber supporting the roof can be seen. This took the roof's weight off the wall before the wall was taken down.

Rick Beton

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The new roof purlin runs the length of the old dairy.

Rick Beton

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Job B. The new siding is nearly at its new full length.

Rick Beton

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'Rough shovel packing' means using brute force to get the rails supported on firm ground, approximately, by ensuring that the sleepers are on solid material underneath where the rails sit. The jacks ensure that the packed rail level is quite close to the final level. However, this siding wil be within the new shed and when that happens, the rails will have to be levelled more accurately so that the rails wil be level with the concrete floor.

Rick Beton

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Job D. The lower parts of the building's walls were built from large solid slate blocks. Fortunately the machine shop has a lifting gantry which made it reasonably easy to remove the boulders from those bits of walls that were removed.

Rick Beton

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Job B. Rails and tools - but where have all the labourers gone?

Rick Beton

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The concrete base for the new mess took on a new purpose for a while, as an area for assembling and repairing heritage pointwork. Rather than having point blades, this point has moveable stub rails, and was typical of slate quarry trackwork.

Rick Beton

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Ah! The chappies are back and carrying on with their work.

Rick Beton

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Job C. The small gang working on fencing Cae Hir have finished the first fencepost and are digging the hole for the second.

Rick Beton

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Job D. Owain carefully prises out another large slate block from the wall that's being opened out. The doorway through here used to be only about 6ft high and 3ft wide and was quite inconvenient.

Rick Beton

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Job B. One worker, many watchers. And the one worker is the Company Chairman, no less!

Behind the gang, there are two old mobile telephone exchanges. The member who owns them is removing them elsewhere. The next photo shows the extraction of the first one...

Rick Beton

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With help from Owain's 'Landy', the mobile telephone exchange is persuaded to become mobile, after many years of being static. The land level around the exchanges is higher than the land under the exchanges because the original level was swampy at certain times of year, and so had been built up with unwanted spoil from the railway extension project. This meant that the exchange had to be dragged up a ramp to the new level. It was heavy and took a lot of persuasion!

Rick Beton

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Pulling backwards, the 'Landy' draws the exchange around between the Farm buildings.

Rick Beton

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The 'Landy' is at the quite well concealed No.10 Siding that runs across the yard here to the machine shop on the left, where the roof rebuilding project is in progress. On the left is a pile of slate blocks demolished from inside the machine shop.

To the right of the 'Landy' is the Carriage and Wagon shed, a pole barn. The Big Shed is beyond the exchange.

Rick Beton

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Still going backwards, the 'Landy' draws the exchange up over the Cambrian Railway crossing. (Machynlleth signalbox had been informed!)

Rick Beton

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Job C. Whilst the exchange has been escaping from the Farm, Nick 'Q' and co have made good progress assembling the fence.

Rick Beton

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This wider view shows the Cae Hir land on the left. James has just driven the dumper over the Cambrian Railway crossing and the person manning the crossing is on the far side closing the gates for him. The tops of the Farm buildings are visible beyond the Cambrian.

Rick Beton

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Job D. The demolition phase is complete. Now Owain has started building a good-quality valley gutter.

Rick Beton

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This is an alternative view.

Rick Beton

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Job B. The siding is almost complete. The 'Peco Crazytrack' sleepers won't matter once they've been concreted into the new shed floor.

Rick Beton

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Job D. Chris really enjoyed getting stuck into making and applying lime mortar and rendering to make good the wall from which the old doorway had been removed.

Rick Beton

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Rendering with lime mortar.

Rick Beton

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Owain has made good work of one end...

Rick Beton

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...but the other end still needs a lot of work!

Rick Beton

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Job B. That there new siding.

Rick Beton

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The space from which the exchange had been removed could now be levelled and put to a new use.

Rick Beton

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Up on the roof valley, Owain found sure footing on the walls we hadn't demolished, giving the opportunity to do some glasswork repairs.

Rick Beton

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Looking the other way, the new large void is now going to get repaired. The larger gap between the buildings at this end had been a major part of the rainwater problem - earlier repairs hadn't really left an effective gutter and a lot of rainwater would poor in through here.

Rick Beton

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Job B. Finishing touches.

Rick Beton

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There are a large number of heritage wagons in this yard, so an extra bit of track was assembled to allow more storage space, keeping the wagons out of the dirt and omst of the weeds! This sidigin isn't joined up to the rest of the yard yet, although a wagon turntable is planned.

On the right, the wagons are from Nantlle quarries and are unusual: they have a gauge of approximately 3ft, but the exact gauge didn't matter because the wheels have double flanged and can slide in and out along their axles. The crudity of this arrangement wasn't copied elsewhere because many useful railway techniques are not possible, including: tapering wheel types for self steering (a Stephenson invention); good bearings on the axles; points that have blades rather than the weaker and less safe stubs.

Rick Beton

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Job C. More progress at Cae Hir.

Rick Beton

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The new fence is complete, although the new gates haven't been hung yet.

Rick Beton

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Cae Hir has a solid concrete slab bridge ove a small stream. Here is the slab (foreground) and the Cambrian Railway bridge over the stream. At the far side of the Cambrian, the stream forms the boundary between the area around Gelert's Farm and Porthmadog Station. The narrow gauge main line crosses on Pont Hoppe.

Rick Beton

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Clearance work.

Rick Beton

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Rick Beton

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The gates have been hung - job done, just before the weather worsened.

Rick Beton

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Cae Hir.

Rick Beton

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Job D. Roof guttering work just getting started.

Rick Beton

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Tired but happy chappies crammed into the current (temporary) mess, enjoying food together.

Rick Beton

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