Welsh Highland Railway (Porthmadog) - Newsletter

The Welsh Highland Railway (Porthmadog) is staging a SUMMER STEAM SPECTACULAR from 26th July, with visiting locomotive Jack Lane, double steam hauled trains and the return of the steam specials to the standard gauge Cambrian Line through Porthmadog.

This month's newsletter also has the latest news on the restoration of Russell.

** JACK IS BACK - Newly built Quarry Hunslet "Jack Lane" (3904 of 2005) is visiting the Welsh Highland Railway (Porthmadog) for the summer. The locomotive was a popular performer at the WHR(P) gala in May, its first ever visit to Wales.

Jack Lane and the WHR(P) resident Bagnall "Gelert" will operate the service together on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 27th July to 28th August with a locomotive each end. (The WHR-P is running a topped and tailed service during 2008 while engineering works are carried out at the far end of the line to complete the Welsh Highland in full). Both locos will operate chimney first where possible.

On other days, Gelert will be in service with the railway's new diesel locomotive Emma (Hunslet 9346 of 1994). Emma was originally used in the building of the Jubilee Line Extension underneath London, and has just entered service in the last few days. This summer will be a rare chance to see Emma in its original white livery before a repaint during the winter.

** CAMBRIAN STEAM SPECIALS – Steam returns to the standard gauge Cambrian Coast Line this summer from 28th July to 29th August. Trains run from Monday to Friday, and for the first time in recent years, they'll be going through to Pwllheli on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The WHR(P) station is next door to the Cambrian Coast Line station in Porthmadog. Passengers on "The Cambrian" get a third off a ride on the Welsh Highland Railway (Porthmadog). Simply show your ticket at our booking office.

More information on The Cambrian is here:
- http://www.steamtrain.info/Cambrian%20Home.html

** RUSSELL LATEST - Work on the original Welsh Highland steam locomotive Russell (Hunslet 901 of 1906) has now taken a major step forward with the shotblasting and painting of the frames. Shotblasting was done in a specially erected tent outside the Locomotive Sheds because it's such a messy job. The frames were taken back to an even finish of bare metal, and have since been painted in primer.

A number of jobs remain before Russell can be reunited with its wheels; the most important of these is refurbishing the axleboxes, a long and complicated task which will take several weeks, but which is vital to get right.

The Russell restoration team have also discovered something unexpected about the locomotive when re-fitting the weighshaft. The weighshaft is a bar of metal which runs across the frames from one side of the locomotive to the other. It provides the link between the reversing screw in the cab and the two sides of the motion.

But when the weighshaft was re-fitted, a few check measurements revealed that something wasn't quite right. At first the engineers thought that the shaft itself was too short; but further investigations revealed that it was in fact the rest of the
locomotive which had been erected wrongly. The bearing housings which hold the weighshaft in place and allow it to rotate had been fitted too close to the frames, something which can only have been done in 1906 when the locomotive was built. The rest of the valve gear had been altered to compensate for this error. The problem was worse on one side than the other, leading the engineers to speculate whether there were in fact two teams in the erecting shop at Hunslet's works, both working on a side of the locomotive each.

Pictures of the shotblasting work and the weighshaft are here:
- http://whr.fotopic.net/c1542831.html
They should also be on the Russell Restoration website shortly:
- http://www.russell2009.fr

A number of railwayana auctions are taking place to support the restoration. You can find the latest auction here:
- http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/restore_russell_2009

** THE NEWS IN PICTURES – The Welsh Highland Railway (Porthmadog)
now has its own online gallery on the internet site Fotopic. This month's collection includes pictures of
- Deltic 55 022 passing the WHR(P), the first time a member of of the class has visited Porthmadog
- The new Ivor the Engine on the model railway in our shop
- Pictures of visiting loco Jack Lane and new diesel locomotive Emma on test......

The gallery is here:
- http://whr.fotopic.net