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The Weighbridge project

Mark Wigley

Journal 118 (WWW Edition)

Due to the infamous decision of July 1994 the WHR's attention has now changed from extending the railway to improving what we already have. Some of these projects are in different stages of planning and construction, from our new car park and entrance at Porthmadog to the new station building at Pen-y-mount.

This article is about one project currently happening, though to look at it the casual visitor wouldn't notice much difference. It is - The Weighbridge. I'm not going to go into the history of the weighbridge as this has been covered in previous Journals and other publications, but more to compile a progress report on the start of the rebuild of a piece of WHR history.

The weighbridge project started some 3 to 4 years ago with a set of drawings produced for a planning application which was approved by Cyngor Dosbarth Dwyfor (Dwyfor District Council) in the summer of 1992. Some work was carried out on the excavations and partial demolition, in particular the wall facing the siding soon after. Anyway, as things happened the work came to a halt for a couple of years until the spring of 1995. I was up at Porthmadog for a weeks 'holiday' and after looking at the weighbridge site and surrounding area decided to start some archaeological excavations. Some weighbridge bits had been previously recovered and are in safe keeping in the Red Shed for eventual displays.

These excavations carried on throughout the summer, making sure that no damage was being done to the remains and also finding more bits for display. I even discovered that large granite stones were the foundations, a central wall was for supporting the floor (long since gone), plus discovering the remains of another building facing the Pen-y-mount end. Does anyone know what this building was?

I also unearthed most of the old loading platform wall from the weighbridge to the tree plantation at the end of the engineers sidings, which I've called this 'Adrian's Wall. By November 1995 most of the excavations had been completed and most of the building materials stacked tidily on the loading dock area.

Nothing was done over the Christmas break due to the arctic conditions of the ground. It was only during the first weekend of February that excavations started again, the final dig being the pit itself. A start was made from the pit to the weighbridge office some time ago, but having little success finding the top of the pit walls it was decided to 'tunnel' from the office end. After much removal of slate, granite, soil etc the pit was finally exposed, many years after being filled in. Even a piece of the original weighbridge plate was found. The pit itself is in good condition and even it's floor is lined with slate.

The next stage is to finish preparing the site ready for construction. A concrete foundation will be required for the missing wall. Obviously as well as rebuilding the building itself, another weighbridge plate and gear is needed. If anyone knows of one can we have it please!!!!

Finally, I would like to thank the following people: Ralph Olsson for assisting in excavations, Tom Jones and tractor for emptying the pit of large slate blocks which I couldn't lift myself, Geoff Jenkins and David Allan for keeping a photographic record of progress on the site, and to everyone else who has helped at some time.