FR & WHR & WHHR News

A few pics from Saturday showing progress at Harbour Station.

 

Is this the larger rail section as per the WHR ?

 

Think roughly, It is showing Porthmadoc station extended with new track layouts to accommodate both the FR and WHR at the same beach head location. Option is then onwards to Blaneau Ffestiniog Station or run round to return to Carnarfon.

 

According to the F&WHR Facebook pages, they are using ex MOD 75lb rail in some of the station area. They normally use 60lb rail on their main lines.

Steve B

 

I did prefer the smaller rail section, the characters not the same, just have to get used to it i suppose, i hope the TR never gets around to doing it like this.

 

To be honest, given the extent of changes that had taken place at Harbour even before the most recent alterations, personally I'd have said the rail section used was the least of anyone's worries from a "character" point of view!

On the plus side, though, I reckon that FfR and WHR trains side-by-side at the platform end will make an impressive sight once the work is done!

 

I suppose you're right.

 

It's actually ex-IoM 75lb rail. Does that make it any better?

 

Well, if the choice is between new rail and no new rail, the choice is obvious unless some plutocrat can be found to underwrite the cost of a special rolling. I understand that the closure of the Vivarais was partly as a result of the then operators refusing to countenance the use of rail not of the original weight. Such stuff is no longer produced.

P.H.

 

Brand new flatbottom rail can and has been purchased from Poland in the past for the F&WHR. However the 50lb bullhead or 46lb doublehead rail traditionally used on the Ffestiniog has not been in production for a very long time. Apart from short sections at Penrhyn and Minffordd the mainline is now all flat bottom and is likely to stay that way unless someone rich sponsors some new rollers.

It is a shame that we can't preserve the traditional pway as it is one of the many interesting features of the FR but sadly the bullhead rail we have is only really suitable for sidings now.

 

To be fair, I doubt most people would notice the different type of rail unless pointed out, isn't a big visual difference like say concrete sleepers.

 

The perseverance with bullhead rail is one of the many technical blind alleys pursued by the railways in Britain. Not until the 1950s did the then nationalised system come round to the use of flat bottom rail as the rest of the world had decades earlier. What was the reason for this "tradition"? The old British attitude of "not invented here" that led us to British Standards at odds with everyone else's.

 

Does flat bottom offer any advantage over bullhead ?, may just have been a case of, if it aint broke, don't fix it.

 

As I understand it Vignoles rail (just to emphasise that "it was invented here"!) is, weight for weight, more resistant to side forces than bull head. There is also a matter of not having to pay for chairs as well as not having to knock chair keys in periodically.

Forgive me but I was strongly reminded of the various reasons put forward on another thread as to why steam locomotive draughting systems didn't need to be improved which, I am afraid, were coded versions of "not invented here".

P.H.

 

It's lighter (taking chair weight into account), cheaper, easier to lay and doesn't need the keys tapping into the chairs at regular intervals. I'm no metallurgist but I think that flat bottom might not have been too good in wrought iron; when steel became normal bullhead was kept because the chairs were there. Would a permanent way person like to comment?

 

A very well respected retired member of the FR PWay staff is known to have suggested bullhead is a more suitable rail for the FR's tight curves as the profile lends itself better to flexing.

 

One solution could always be to ballast up to the top of the rails, no one would know !

 

I believe this is why Network Rail have retained bullhead rail in some of the tracks between Vauxhall and London Waterloo. (Some of which has been renewed in bullhead fairly recently).

Chris

 

This also camouflages any defects which may develop. A practice which was once used by main line companies but which ceased for this reason.

PH

 

Can anyone explain the purpose of the short spur that seems to go to the signal box door? Delivery of the signalman's tea in inclement weather perhaps?