January 2016 Update
The first month of the year is an opportunity never to be missed on any railway, and the BLR team leapt into action on the onerous task of replacing all the sleepers along a quarter mile stretch of track, which we will cover later. But other activities were equally important, and the Carriage & Wagon team used a brief fine and dry spell to deal with some remedial work around the signal box, plus other jobs inside the station building itself before the first visitors arrive in February. Later, they will start the intricate job of making large square steel nuts which are needed for the two slate wagons that are currently undergoing restoration.
Before we come to the track relaying, a major acquisition this month was an ex-LNER 6-lever signal frame, which will be installed at Llangower, the half-way halt on the line. The existing 4-lever frame for the passing loop has to control two points, two point locks and five signals! The 6-lever unit will simplify all the signalling, and everything will thus be done in a much simpler way. The Railway Society have most kindly purchased the frame and donated it to the BLR. When installed, a new cabin is to be built over it.
The frame was located in Essex, so the task of collecting it is worthy of note. Brian Bennett, Rod Fairley and Bob Newton met on Thursday 21st, and set off for the home of David Holden, who happens to have a superb seven-and-a-quarter inch railway running around his large garden, the size meriting three signal boxes! Long term volunteers, Graham and Peter Ashby, joined them to assist. The frame proved to be decidedly heavy, but the task was eased by using the railway and loading it on to a suitable flat wagon to move it round to the front drive, where it was loaded on to Julian Birley’s trailer. After a good night’s rest, the trio set off home on the 22nd, arriving at Llanuwchllyn around tea-time. All in all, it was a very worthwhile and successful expedition.
The Wednesday Gang has been very busy since the beginning of the year, not only completing the tedious task of fish-plate greasing, but also with the myriad items of preparation for track relaying. The atmosphere of these days has to be experienced, and to give an idea of what happens, we include the account from one of the railway’s staunchest supporters, Bob Greenhalgh, who has just returned after a three-month absence for medical reasons, and who was just a little bit pleased to be back:
Wednesday 13th January 2016 was my first day with the Wednesday Gang after a three month absence. Having arrived at Llanuwchllyn and changed, I found Brian and Bob N shunting to make up the day’s works train. This done, and with Rod, Phil, David and Rob, we got ready to depart down the line to Bungalow Bridge. A slight hitch in our plans was spotted just in time for David to nip down to the garage to fetch fuel for the generator. The rest of us took advantage of the situation to take tea! Ahh, back in the groove very quickly!
With the fuel cans filled, we set off. The first task was to drop 160 sleepers in the Bungalow Bridge area ready for the January 16/17 working weekend, these being in addition to those already in place. It was at this point that I saw a rainbow over the lake. It seemed to end in the middle, but I could see no sign of the elusive pot of gold!
This done, it was tea time. Disaster! The gas bottle was empty! Nothing for it but to leave the train and work party, and take Trigger back to Llanuwchllyn for a full cylinder. We stopped on the way for Rob to chainsaw a tree blocking an access gate to the track, so that the weekend’s plant could get to the work site. When we got back, tea and flapjacks were served. 18 pairs of fishplates had been greased, which took us conveniently up to Boat House Bridge.
It had started to rain by now, but not too heavy, so a start was made un-spiking the sleepers to be changed at the working weekend, which would allow others to commence removing rail straight away, followed by the sleepers, so that half the gang would not be left hanging around waiting. This done, it was back to Llanuwchllyn. After tea, (yes, more tea), various wagons were shunted to make the weekend works train ready for Saturday morning. The weather may have been cold and wet, but the return was very warm indeed. Thanks all.
Preparations for the relaying of the Bala Lake Railway track-bed around Bungalow Bridge began well before Christmas, with the primary acquisition of 400 hardwood sleepers, actually 200 standard gauge sleepers, which had arrived in December. They were cut in half and pre-drilled before being loaded on to wagons in readiness for January’s major operation. But rather than go into the minutiae of all the action, the photos tell their own story.
Suffice it to say, the task has been completed in time for the first trains to run in February. But as the photos show, the whole undertaking was carried out by a small, dedicated group of staff, directors and volunteers. On top of that, there were some ingenious implements made to ease the jobs, namely three ploughs. One is attached to a tractor straddling the line, which gets the ballast in place, allowing it to be tamped. The other two items of brilliance fit behind a diesel loco, the first lifting the ballast into the middle of the relayed track, and the second getting the shoulder of the ballast looking really neat. Two of these are new ploughs, which were constructed ‘in house’ by Dan Laidlaw, Rob Houghton and Mark Brett. They worked to perfection.
Much attention had been paid to getting the levels absolutely correct as a few of the sleepers were fractionally different in depth. The Azobe wood is so hard that, for the last length, where track will need to be lifted next year at the start of the next section to be done, the rails had to be screwed down for easy removal, instead of being spiked.
Another facet carefully checked was to get the rail joints/gaps exactly right, promoting a smoother ride, with the added bonus of prototypical noise too! In the end, the team were left with a three-quarters-of-an-inch gap on one rail, and other gaps were eased fractionally to close it up. It was late on the 29th January that a Facebook entry from General Manager, David Jones, declared that the task was completed, and that the first train, hauled by Trigger in the twilight, had shown all was exactly it should be, a remarkable achievement by such a small but totally dedicated team.
And finally…. we mention again that the BLR will be running trains over the Valentine weekend, the schedules for which are already on the BLR website. It will be a ride with a difference, and certainly memorable.
Likewise on the website and in greater detail, Russell Prince and Jamie Green have organised a special Volunteers Recruitment day on Sunday, 24th April, where the numerous tasks involved in running a railway will be demonstrated. It will also be a perfect chance to chat to staff and existing volunteers, and try out any tasks that might appeal. The day will start at 09.00 with an introduction and safety briefing, and then everyone can sample wide ranging activities such as loco preparation, guarding and maintenance, to name but three. It would be greatly appreciated if all attendees could register their interest as detailed on ourVolunteering page.
We end with Bob Greenhalgh’s photo, which is typical of the BLR. The scenery really is that good.