2014 October - Sleeper Drilling

A report of the sleeper drilling work over the long weekend 10-13 October 2014


The Talyllyn Railway Company's Board recently approved the purchase of a good supply of sleepers. The mission is to prepare these for use over the next couple of winters by drilling them ready for use.

Friday
Six Gang members were available for work. The weather during the day was showery but this was not a problem because the Guest House at Quarry Siding provides excellent protection for the gang and we chose our moment for dropping the sleepers off.

Before the drilling could start in earnest we had to shunt the wagons and generator van into the correct positions and connect up the wires and test everything. By mid afternoon we had drilled the remaining 60 sleepers required for the section between Quarry Siding and Dolgoch. With no showers in sight we set off to unload the sleepers alongside and adjacent to their final resting places. Before we called it a day we drilled a further 10 sleepers most of which were extremely hard so they consequently took a little while to complete. A very successful 1st day. (Please note by drilled I only mean two holes at one end of each sleeper the other two holes are drilled with the excellent petrol driven drills much later in the re-sleepering operation).

Saturday
Seven Gang members were available for work. The weather was again showery some of which proved to be very heavy.

With everything set up progress was swift and we had 66 of the sleepers required for Februaries work on Cynfal bank drilled by lunch time. During the afternoon we drilled the other 44 sleepers to complete the order for that location. We next shunted the train ready for delivering the drilled sleepers on Sunday morning along with some fixings. Before close of play we set up for Sundays drilling operation. A gang member has very kindly provided the gang with a drill sharpener so we can keep the drill bits in tip top condition locally without having to return them to Pendre for attention by skilled staff. After a bit of practice we mastered the set up and execution of the sharpening operation. Many thanks again to “The Angel” who has very generously provided this tool its much appreciated. During the afternoon one of our gang morphed into a Blockman to facilitate a crossing. Another good day.

Sunday
Eight Gang members were available for work. The weather dawned bright and sunny and continued that way all day.

On arrival at Quarry Siding we loaded 54 of the remaining stock of mini sleeper blanks for use on the sharper section of the curve around the rock face on Six Bends. After we had put the 2 FR flats with the mini sleepers into the Guest House. The train hauled by no 8 set out for Wharf, on route the train unloaded rail fixings in milepost 5 area, at Six Bends and off load the 110 drilled sleepers on Cynfal Bank. On arrival at Wharf the train was shunted ready for Staff gang on Monday along with yet another wagon load of sleepers. After lunch all the gang returned by road to Quarry Siding to drill the mini sleepers – they may be called mini sleepers by the supplier however they are certainly “Not” mini in weight! Once they we were drilled we called it another successful day.

Monday
Seven Gang members were available for work. The weather was dull but dry.

As it was going to be a short working day we got straight on with drilling the 73 sleepers required to go under the BS60A section rails on Six Bends. The gang were on a roll and we had them drilled in very quick order so we were able to drill the 35 sleepers required for the BS50 section rails at the same location. A very productive mornings drilling was followed by lunch at Wharf and homeward journeys for some.

An extremely successful weekend with some 340 sleepers drilled and very nearly half of them spaced out along the four re-sleepering sites. So we now have all of the sleepers we require for this winters re-sleepering drilled.

Very many thanks again to everyone who helped in any way over the long weekend.

Report by Keith Theobald