Gwilli railway extension.

Here is a set of pictures taken on the day the second gate went up, also some photos of our newly refurbished TSO in the corporate colours of Felinfoel Brewery!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldmiwl/5548292606/in/photostream/

 

Any chance of getting the Gwili Yahoo group up-to-date, or is it now abandoned for good?

 

I can see there hasn't been activity there for some time. It's certainly not as active as it was, not sure why, perhaps we are all too busy working on the railway?! If you have any questions you would like to ask then feel free to either PM or post on the forum here and I'll try and answer as best I can.
Regards
Matt

 

A bit OT (sorry Mods!) but there are some more pictures of our newly sponsored dining train- just like one long can of beer!
We have also been able to revamp the disabled end of our regular passenger train following the award of a small grant- see pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldmiwl/5567346390/in/set-72157626244968993/

The Dining train's first outing is on Mothering Sunday, hopefull with Haulwen, which has it's annual exam this week.

The Class 14 Diesel is due to arrive at the end of the week, and we will be shortly announcing our steam visitor for the year, so keep looking!

 

Another update on the gates
http://www.grcarmex.co.uk/news/
meanwhile plans are progressing on the tracklaying front, more news over the next few months.

 

The final installment on the Crossing Gates has now been posted showing the mechanisms to catch the gates.
http://grcarmex.co.uk/news/
start to finish the old gates have been dismantled and the new ones erected in just over 6 months, not a bad effort from a team who had never done this work before!!
The next extension project is due to start imminently and will be the construction of the long awaited siding at the present end of the line. Once completed it gives us the opportunity to move all the stock currently stored on the extension out of the way so that work can continue on the main line.

 

Bit premature to say final installment Matt we still need to fit the mesh, corner bracket, lamps, finish off the tarmac and other various other groundworks.
There's been a delay on the correct mesh as Dyfed Steels have been dragging their feet, but I am assured it will arrive later this week.

As said, yes not bad at 6 months, especially for such a small band of people working on the gates (many times just two or three) and mainly working on weekends, so two days a week.

Mike.

 

Plans are now advanced for the next stage of the Extension, the final drawings for the replacement bridge have now been received. The plan is to remove the deck of the bridge and replace it with a concrete structure. Plant hire is now booked for the first two weeks in August and this period will see the bridge deck removed, 1/2 a mile of trackbed graded and rail and sleepers moved along the trackbed ready for installation. Once this is done the replacement bridge will be constructed. All being well tracklaying should recommence once this job has been completed, my best guess is that track will start going down again by September. That's the plan ATM anyway!

 

For those that are interested, there is a four page feature in this month's "Steam Railway" (due out today), outlining future extension plans for the Gwili.

Cheers,

Phil.

 

Very interested to read about the goings on at the Gwili, like it's South Walian counterpart the P&BR it appears to have some concrete and workable plans for the future. Naturally, I was particularly taken by the proposal of a portion of mixed gauge operations...any idea as to how long said portion might be? I appreciate I'm looking at the 'very far in the future' part of the proposals, but the idea of Iron Duke or Firefly getting up to 25mph appeals.

 

The Broad Gauge idea is one that has been floated, as we were the last BG line in Wales so it would be appropriate to do something. Not sure if this will be a short length as a demo or full blown line (the latter seems unlikely). We have a 'blank canvass' at Carmarthen with the station site so there is a chance to do something different, however we do have to take it one step at a time in the absence of major financial assistance. Fortunately the goodwill we have received to date on the extension has been significant, such as the relocation of rail from the Swansea Vale Railway, generous assistance of others such as tree fellers and many other examples of assistance which has aided progress. We can't be under any illusions though, the article is a good pointer as to what the Gwili could become but we are in the middle of a tough season and looking after the operation we have and making it pay is the number one priority. Trying to finance an extension in the middle of this economic climate is no joke, believe me- but we have become very adapt at doing what we can at minimal cost without compromising the standard of work

 

A Brief update
The plant is now on site and the bridge has been removed! Work us now currently focussed on clearing out the drainage and culverts since they were last done 40 years ago. After this rail and sleepers will be moved into position ready for tracklaying. In the meantime construction of the new bridge can begin. All going to plan so far, might be able to get some pics soon.

Regards
Matt

 

Thanks Matt, glad to see things moving along and looking forward to seeing your pics.

 

Is any pictures or vids available to look at for this works

 

No recent pictures but I imagine some will appear shortly on either the carmarthen Xtn website or a few flickr sites or both! Will point you in the right direction once they are up
And also watch out for a fairly major announcement shortly, can't say too much yet (not specifically extension related) but it is some very positive news from our point of view. More info to follow when I can...

 

I will be much awaiting this news and i am sure others will be looking forward to what news may bring

 

http://grcarmex.co.uk/2011/08/civil-engineering-bridge6-update-1/
See the link above for some pictures of the bridge removal. Upon completing this work it was found that the support walls were in poor condition so the design of the replacement bridge will have to be amended. So back to the drawing board...