2017 November - Talyllyn Railway - Autumn Outdoor Week

Autumn Outdoor Week


Fact - It was an excellent week, new faces, increased numbers, good weather and we achieved a lot – all welcome statistics. 51(32) people gave 228 (200) people days to the maintenance of our railway, in return the weather was kind and apart from the early part of the Tuesday morning and the odd show the rain confining itself to the hours of darkness. (Last years figures in brackets above) Please also note the above figures do not include the statistics for the “Tree Week” and the “S&T Week” that followed on from Outdoor Week.

A special thank you must go to the Vale of Rheidol railway who provided an additional impact wrench.

So a very big thank you to everyone who helped make the week a success -gang members, Pendre staff, butty runners, catering staff and evening entertainers. Your railway appreciates your help.

What did we do apart from working as a team?

In no particular order:

1) widened and deepened the drainage hole in the weighbridge pit

2) applied sealant to the lead flashing and coping slates of the Weighbridge House

3) cut back greenery behind the Weighbridge House

4) removed ivy etc from road side at Ty Mawr bridge

5) removed greenery from the old loading dock at Pendre leaving tree stump exposed for Martin & the digger

6) removed greenery from the roadside of south of the level crossing at Pendre "

7) set out curve for track at Wharf from Llechfan hedge west end to new turnout installed in June

8) clear a lot of mud and other material contaminating the ballast in the area of the lever frame at Wharf

9) stacked a few garden grade sleepers for onward purchase

10) exposed the tops of some of the sleeper ends in Wharf yard in preparation for gauge maintenance work

11) dismantling the 17 lengths ready for the resleepering

12) dismantling the turnout at Quarry Siding

13) identified 4 rails required for completing the Quarry Siding west turnout from the stock on Ty Mawr

14) resleepered 17 lengths past milepost 4 ½

15) put the platform benches under cover along the railway

16) removed another 2 tons of stone from Cynfal stream

17) prepared the resleepering site by milepost 4 ½ and the Quarry Siding turnout with the mini digger

18) clearing the accumulations of leaves between Quarry Siding and just east of milepost 4 ¼ - a boring but very important task. Accumulated leaves make line inspections very difficult and retain large quantities of moisture.

19) dealing with a minor landslip at Dolgoch on the last day of train operations. The cause of landslip was the usual problem of the wet ground opposite the station at Dolgoch creeping down the hill. We need to dig out the field drain again which will reduce the risk of further slippage for a few more years

20) clearing drains at Brynglas, Dolgoch, Abergynolwyn and on the extension

21) 85 yards of hedge laying east of milepost 4

22) leaf removal from the Dolgoch Station approach path

23) vegetation clearance from around the turnout stack east of Ty Mawr bridge

24) tidy up in the Guest House at Quarry Siding

25) removing two loads of sticky material from the turnout job at Quarry Siding to the milepost 4 ½ area for embankment strengthening

26) moving logs and some tree felling

27) the turnout job at Quarry Siding progressed steadily during the week:

• Layer of ballast
• Placing the bearers
• Packing up the bearers with timber to height and shovel packing them with barrowed ballast
• Removing the timber packing and completing the shovel packing
• Laying on and fishplating the crossing
• Laying on the two stock rails and fishplating them after the north level crossing rail was cropped by 4 inches

28) removed the build up of oil and grease in the loco road

29) cleaned off the wagon decks at the end of the week

30) getting all the tools together at the beginning of the week

31) putting all the tools away at the end of the week

32) loading a skip at Wharf with scrap

33) drinking tea

34) started to remove the concrete base of the signal column east of Pendre. This formed part of the former Pendre signalling scheme.

35) grading all the displaced sleepers

36) design work associated with maintaining the various bridges at Brynglas

37) plus all the jobs I have missed.

38) spring (winter) clean of the guards room

39) tidying up around the publicity hut at Wharf

40) tidying behind the toilet block at Wharf

41) replanting the tubs and window boxes at Wharf

Thank you very much again to everyone for their time, effort and comradeship.

Keith Theobald (article and photos)