The Gwili Railway thread

I also saw on Facebook confirmation of a donation of platform materials for abergwili. It will be really interesting the railway having a two platform terminus, and when either conwil or llanpumsaint is reached I guess the plan is to have the same at the other end of the line?

Cheers,
Tom

 

evening Tom

yes, a welcome donation which will assist the construction of the second platform at Abergwili. Conwil has two platforms and Llanpumsaint might be a bit too far in the future to tell! Originally the station did have 2 platforms, both now gone.

regards

Matt

 

The shed progresses and the Toad gets a BR makeover.

regards

Matt

 

RMB 1813 touches down after it’s journey from Nemesis Rail ready for the summer season.

regards

Matt

 

Good to see it preserved. I dread to think how many hours I stood behind that counter in various railtours (mainly Dawlish Donkeys and Torbay Expresses), or how many miles I've clocked up in it.

 

Shed continues to progress and the summer season is in full swing with 6430 due in operation every day until the end of the month.

Regards

Matt

 

Looking great. A Pannier seems so perfect on the gwili!

 

Recently took some friends on the railway while we were in South Wales. It was a first class day out and everyone enjoyed. It was nice to see what lays tantalisingly ahead - once abergwili is finished of course!

 

It doesn't seem in that bad order from the little you can see, what exactly are the challenges with this bridge? Refurbishment of the girders in such an awkward location?

Tom

 

I'm not a civil engineer, but that bridge looks as though it needs at least a new deck, to my untrained eye!

 

Location is awkward but we do have. 75t capacity Rail crane now so less of an issue on that front. Girders are wrought iron and believed from 1860 (in contrast to bridge 9 further up the valley which dates from WW1). There is wastage and therefore repairs would be required.

regards

Matt

 

@61624 @thb17
If I remember correctly an inspection quite a few years ago now noted then that there was some serious remedial masonry work required on both abutments and all four wing walls with facing stones missing, bulges, water ingress and trees rooting in cracks loosening stones. I think one or more of the pad stones(? not sure if that's the right name for the blocks the deck main girders rest on) were misaligned which is not helped by the fact that the bridge is on a skew. Probably enough work to keep a gang of stonemasons busy for at least 2 or 3 months and them having to work off scaffold and handling masonry blocks etc over flowing water (i.e. the river!) would be a H&S nightmare.
The deck and ironwork were both noted to be in poor condition with a lot of strengthening and or doubling of the plate areas needed. Overall the inspectors would not even suggest a maximum axle load for the structure as it stood which says a lot for its condition then.
The location is, as Matt says, awkward and so is the road access making the delivery of prefabricated bits very difficult. There was once a plan to see if the railway might buy/rent the field immediately west of the bridge where a new deck could be constructed and then launched east (toward Bronwydd) over the void. This may end up being the best option rather than trying to patch up the existing structure which would always need a lot of (expensive) ongoing maintenance. Overall there is an awful lot of work needed here. Guestimate figures for the works floated back then (C. 8/10 years ago) ranged from £500k to £1 million just for the bridge work . Anyone got a couple of million or so spare?
Alan (Onetime Gwili Infrastructure Director )

 

Really interesting. I'd have thought rope access may be better in a location like this?

A very difficult amount of money but not impossible. It's crazy to think it was in use into the 70s. Shame br never replaced it!

Tom

 

Ropes access doesn't work all that well for stuff like stonework- also there's very few masons who are also ropes access folk.

Working over water isn't a big issue, if its scaffolded anyway the risk is minimal apart from when the scaffold is being erected or removed, in which case you would need a water safety crew and boat on hand in case of an issue.

I don't know the area but the safety and rescue team I do some work with have used modular pontoon systems extensively for bridge refurbishment and replacement works to either provide a work platform, or in some cases just a safe area to lift and lower materials from.

The beauty of a modular system is it can be taken in and out of pretty much any site, if there's access to trackbed it's easy using ATVs or telehandlers to transport the components and then assembling the pontoons on site- those of you who have seen the work at Barmouth will have seen the system we use- its like big lego that can be configured any size or shape.

Best Regards

Chris

 

Not sure if pontoons would work. The gwili is known as a 'spate' river. Steep sided valleys and a falling gradient on the river that is reasonably steep means that heavy rain (Does Wales have any other sort? ) quickly drains to the valley floor and the river speeds up and rises very quickly. The river can easily rise two feet in an hour or so and higher if the rain keeps falling (becomes quite a sight with lots of white water!) then, when the rain stops, it subsides quite quickly too, losing maybe a foot an hour. In a day, you could go from a foot or so deep with exposed rocky river bed in the morning to maybe 3 or 4 feet depth of rapid flowing water covering all of the river bed at lunchtime and back to practically normal in time for tea (or dinner for you posh folks ) Wouldn't this make mooring pontoons securely quite tricky?

 

The other great thing about them is they can be easily floated out of the way- its why they are sometimes favoured over scaffold, as they can be less of a hazard for debris entrapment in high flow rate channels.

We have used them on a few very flashy rivers and in some fairly exciting inter-tidal environments.

Traeth Mawr and Caersws in particular have been good examples where we have operated in very fast flowing environments, Barmouth on big spring tides, coinciding with high water in the Mawddach can also produce quite high flow.

If its something that the railway would like to look into, I can put them in touch with the guys I work with. (Equally if anyone else is interested)

It can be used for a really versatile, safe system for working waterside, and the guys I work with are amongst the best in the business at finding solutions to really awkward problems! I also worked for them assisting with water safety and unstable surface rescue on the Arnside viaduct in 2010/11.

Best Regards

Chris

 

Carriage shed update, work is coming to the point where we can lay track into the shed. Meanwhile our 03 diesel is undergoing a medium overhaul and work on Haulwen continues. The Ford loco is also being repainted while engine parts are being refurbished. The Toad brake van makeover into BR grey is also almost complete.

Regards

Matt

 

Just spotted this: https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2023/0...r-volunteer-falls-from-roof-of-mk1-coach.html

 

I’m afraid it’s a harsh lesson for the Gwili and a reminder for all heritage railways that it is vital to get the right procedures and culture in place.

Thankfully in this case the volunteer concerned has made a good recovery and this incident has obviously resulted in a thorough review of processes and procedures.

regards

Matt

 

This is not isolated to the Gwili. In recent times the SVR received a rebuke from the ORR after a fall at its Bewdley carriage works. At another railway I witnessed a C&W fitter continuing to work on a carriage roof whilst the vehicle was being shunted from one road to another!