2016 - Long Outdoor Weekend 11-14 December 2015

Progress Report


Friday dawned drafty but dry, the gang rounded up the tools and materials required for a fencing task before setting off in two parts to milepost 6. The 1st by train hauled by loco No 5, a shunt was required to liberate the crane boflat from the middle of a rake of wagons on the back road at Pendre and collect a van from Wharf. The 2nd part went by road to Abergynolwyn for a site meeting before joining the train and the rest of the gang at Quarry siding. We had a quick tea break before travelling to site just west of milepost 6 after we had loaded some fence posts. The hedge here has some very ancient chicken wire reinforcing it at ground level. Well the wire is now well past its best. The task was to make the hedge sheep proof and the best way of achieving this was to cut back hard the south side of the north side hedge and erect a post and wire fence for some 360ft. During the afternoon we made good progress cutting back the hedge and driving in some 40 posts. We even saw the sun! Between Pendre and Brynglas Lawrence Garvey was making good progress flailing the boundary hedges.

On Saturday the weather was back to normal – the heavy overnight rain continued into the “daylight” hours without showing any signs of easing. The gang travelled to Quarry Siding by road and made a start on a good clear up in the Guest House. By lunch time we had a very impressive pile of rubbish and another smaller one of scrap. After lunch we loaded the scrap onto the train along with more fence posts before heading east to see what we could about the drainage issue that we had discovered the previous day near milepost 5 ¾ The drain that passes under the line just west of milepost had become blocked and was backing up and flowing over the rails. While two of the gang rodded the drain from the north side the train continued to the fencing site and off loaded the posts. After much rodding and digging out the culvert was finally cleared. Before we could declare the job done we had to rod and clear the pipes that go through the wall on the north side as well before the water overtopped my wellingtons! Lawrence again made good progress with the flailing between Pendre and Rhydyronen. On our way home we checked on the stream at Cynfal and were pleased to see that hand dredging that has been carried out over the last two years was paying dividends. There was still 4-5 inches of headroom under the rail bridge.

Sunday was a little less wet but not much – we returned to the fencing task and completed driving the posts, tensioning and fixing the wire and clearing away all of the hedge trimmings. The weather got steadily worse as the morning progressed. After a Wharf roast dinner we returned to load garden grade sleepers for which we have a customer who will make a generous donation to TR Holdings. Over lunch some of the gang took advantage of the Llechfan tumble drier to make their socks and jackets less wet! During the day we also dug out the drainage channels at Quarry Siding and moved some of the platform seats out from under the canopy at Abergynolwyn ready for the Christmas train services. Lawrence continued with flailing the line side in the Brynglas area.

Monday was drier but very overcast, we all travelled to Quarry Siding by road. On arrival the gang split two ways - one gang set off with loco 5 and the boflat load of sleepers, destination Wharf. The rest of the gang prepared the burn site for a huge bonfire of hedge arisings. The careful preparation paid off because the pile of well compacted arisings was very quickly ablaze. Unfortunately the wind was not playing ball and the fire refused to spread sideways so the draft from the leaf blower was used instead. By the close of play there was not much left so the fire was declared a great success. During the day Lawrence again made further progress with flail in the Brynglas area.

Very many thanks to all those who attended for all or just some of the time.

Article and photos courtesy of Keith Theobald