Track Lifting at Drayton Park.

Afternoon All,

You may be wondering what this has got to do with narrow gauge railways. Well, way back in 1977, the Ffestiniog Railway purchased the redundant track in the ex London Transport car shed at Drayton Park in North London. Volunteers from the Ffestiniog Railway Society London Area Group were asked to lift the track and load it onto a wagon for onward transportation to North Wales; this is a short film of the LAGs in action :



Hope it's of interest.

 

I saw some naughty people spelling "Ffestiniog" with only one "f". That wouldn't do now!

 

Quite right; it was in the 70s that the move towards the Welsh spellings of place names got going.

 

I wonder how many of those involved are now looking after H & S somewhere?

 

The Ffestiniog Railway is operated by the Festiniog Railway Company supported by the Ffestiniog Railway Society

 

It was the usual way of loading flat bottom rails in my youth. There didn't seem to be much grease on those runner rails, though.

 

Love those flared trouser/jeans a few of the volunteers were wearing.

 

For those who don't know why, it is because the name of the company is enshrined in its Act of Parliament. Remember this was so long ago it was before the Reform Act, not just before we gave more respect to Welsh spelling.

 

A pedant writes: strictly speaking, that's not quite correct. The name of the company is currently enshrined in the Festiniog Railway Act 1869, which repealed the Festiniog Railway Act 1832.

When I was a student, I was very pleased one day to discover the university's bound collection of private acts was on the open shelves and covered most of the railway construction era, including all of the Festiniog Railway Acts.