News in brief for staff, volunteers and supporters of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways August 2013

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1 News in brief for staff, volunteers and supporters of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways August 2013 Introduction This is a new approach to newsgathering and dissemination for the 40 Mile Railway. This monthly newsletter will be distributed to those who request it by and it will also remain accessible from the main website at Diary and event information will remain on the online site. Feel free to print this document out in order that people without web access can read it. Please continue to send contributions, details of group meetings etc to athomas@ffwhr.com or cparry@ffwhr.com Apologies for the late delivery of this edition of IM, this was due to staff illness. changes As part of the migration to the new Microsoft Office 365 software, the old festrail.co.uk server is being retired. The new format is initialsurname@ffwhr.com eg athomas@ffwhr.com Mails to festrail accounts will be forwarded for a few months, but you are advised to change your address books to reflect the new addresses. The new system will give us the opportunity to issue regular volunteers with their own ffwhr.com addresses. mgardner@ffwhr.com to request a new account. The company website will remain at Minffordd progress The major project to improve facilities at Minffordd continues with the removal of the old Terrapin huts and the construction of the concrete base for the relocated Nissen hut. A contract has been let for the construction of a new steel framed building to store heritage track materials. At Minffordd Station, the annexe buildings on the up platform are being refurbished for use as an archive store.

2 In other building news, the cottage at Coed y Bleiddiau is also receiving attention to preserve the fabric pending its restoration as a high specification holiday cottage. James Hamlin has accepted a fixed term appointment to project manage these and other projects relating to heritage buildings. Superpower 2013 The WHR s principal annual gala takes place next weekend. Visiting locomotives include Harrogate and the Corpet from Statfold Barn, which will appear alongside Lilla and Princess at Dinas. The Welsh Highland Great and Small event is based at the northern end of the line with most activity between Caernarfon and Rhyd Ddu, centring around Dinas Station and yard. The Great celebrates Super Power in traditional style with some impressive freight trains featuring some recently overhauled wagons from South Africa and using the NGG16 s as they were used in their working years. Freight trains will run every day. The Small is being celebrated in various forms. The Ffestiniog Railway Company is celebrating 150 years of Steam in 2013 and two of the diminutive original locos, Prince and Palmerston, will haul a rake of Victorian carriages from Porthmadog to Caernarfon on the Friday afternoon, returning on Sunday. Throughout the weekend, there will be vintage shuttle train services between Caernarfon and Waunfawr hauled by Prince while Palmerston is in steam in the yard at Dinas giving the opportunity for footplate rides. Quarry Hunslet Lilla will also be spending the weekend at Dinas giving footplate rides. There is a fine selection of model railway layouts, all with a Welsh Highland theme, at various locations around Dinas. Many of these are regulars at exhibitions throughout the UK so it is a great opportunity to see them together in the area they portray. There will be a cafe, real ale bar and souvenir shop at Dinas throughout the weekend in the Goods Shed and many other displays around the site. Rover tickets are available and there will be an event guide with details of all services, layouts other information. Alternatively, you can just visit the site at Dinas to look at the layouts and displays. As usual, Superpower coincides with the AGM of the Welsh Highland Railway Society in Caernarfon on Saturday evening.

3 Gilbert Roscoe Veteran FR fireman Gilbert Roscoe Alan Garraway s regular fireman returned to the railway earlier this year to ride on Prince for the first time in many years and to experience the footplate of a Garratt for the first time. Last month he helped run Prince during its very successful visit to the Shrewsbury Flower Show. During his time on the FR, Gil was a keen photographer and has a large collection of pictures of the FR in the 1960s, some of which he has made available to the railway. The photographs are of such high quality that a book is being considered. Gil is pictured right at Shrewsbury and we reproduce a couple of his photographs from the early 1960s below.

4 Lineside survey With some 80 miles of boundary, the management of trees on the F&WHR is a never ending project. A considerable amount of work is being undertaken to ensure the safe operation of the railway, especially between Dinas and Waunfawr. The challenged is amply illustrated by this picture of 30 tons of Caernarfon Castle seen dwarfed by vegetation at Cyrnant, just down from Waunfawr station. On the FR, a major project will see the removal of diseased larches near Coed y Bleiddiau; where felling started this month. From mid September onwards, there will be a daily diesel train running between Coed y Bleiddiau and Tanygrisiau to carry out the logs as there is no road access. At Tanygrisiau, they will be unloaded from the specially made wagons and transported by lorry to a special cutting mill. Potentially, there is 2,500 tonnes of logs which would be about 10 weeks work. Wagons for transporting the logs by rail are currently being converted by Boston Lodge. Wickham Trolley refurbishment Bill Edmondson restored the Wickham Trolley for the Quirks & Curiosities gala, where it was unfortunately discovered to have a bent axle, precluding its running at the event. Now members of the Dee and Mersey Group have undertaken to bring the vehicle up to full running order and have taken over the Penrhyn goods shed for the duration of the work. The picture shows the trolley being loaded for transport to Penrhyn by road. Boston Lodge Work on Double Fairlie David Lloyd George is progressing with the fitting of the superheater headers. The loco, which last saw action carrying the Olympic Torch in 2012, is scheduled to return to service in time for the 2014 season. Additional work is now being done on Bagnall Isaac, being restored for use on the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway and should be completed in time for its September gala. Work is also being done on the refurbishment of a water carrier to be based at Tan y Bwlch for use by the fire services or as a mobile water supply for visiting steam locomotives. A similar bowser is being fabricated from stainless steel for use on the WHR and will be based at Rhyd Ddu.

5 Cwrw ar y Cledrau 10th Anniversary We are pleased to announce that the 10 th annual WHR beer festival, Cwrw ar y Cledrau, will take place on 16 th to 18 th May Following this year s success, we will have more glasses, more beer and more food! Whether you are volunteering, drinking or both, we look forward to seeing you there! Track access agreement signed The formal track access agreement enabling F&WHR staff to work at Cae Pawb crossing between Network Rail and the WHR has been signed by FRCo Director Chris Leah (right) and Network Rail Route Managing Director for Wales Mark Langman. The agreement replaces the interim arrangement which has been in place since the construction phase of the WHR. Kids Training Week report Adrian Gray A successful KTW 2013 in now complete and planning has already begun for the 2014 event! KTW 2013 completed all its planned projects, and some extras. Unusually we were working at two sites. At Harbour station mains electrical services were installed in the new signal box by one team and another performed carpentry and painting on the structure of both the signal box and relay room. At Boston Lodge we laid concrete outside 12 road, for the carriage works, fitted a new door frame and temporary doors to 2 road of the erecting shop, refurbished the Ladies in the Den and cleaned and repainted the Den corridor. We also repainted some of the external paintwork of the Den. Another team of painters finished the entrance lobby and stairway to the offices and painted the landing, the toilet and the old drawing office. Outside a new gutter was put on the front face of the offices. In the Top Yard the former S&T office Portakabin was demolished and the GPO trailer was stripped, ready to be scrapped. At the old Engine Shed an airline was installed above 2 road, to help when the shed is used for locomotives at events. A very rotten window in the mainline side of the Halt Room was replaced with a new window prepared for us by the carriage works. The Drains gang installed a drain along the path beside the shed. Carpenters made and installed two gates, to secure the pathway around No.2 Boston Lodge at the request of the tenant. In the carriage works four MOD flat wagons received new timber floors; four more remain as a project for Also in the carriage works 14 new Kids completed their introductory sign writing module, with some excellent results and other Kids completed signs for Tanybwlch and the front of Minffordd Hostel. Bushbashing behind the Erecting shop was made a lot easier following the prior application of herbicide by Nic Byrne.

6 Evening events included rides to Beddgelert and Blaenau. Unfortunately, Wednesday was the one day of really awful weather and this meant that beach night had to be cancelled. Snowdon Lodge appears to have worked well and we are grateful to our new house parents for their contribution to that. KTW 2013 contributed just over 3,750 hours of productive work to the FR, including the volunteer hours setting up in the week before and taking down on the Saturday following. Valued at a conservative 8 per hour this equates to a little over 30,000. We know we are worth it! KTW attendees pictured at Beddgelert YOUR RAILWAY NEEDS YOU! Dafydd Thomas You are all aware of the changes going on at Harbour station and this winter we will be moving into the final stage of this exciting project. There is a very short window at the start of 2014 to complete the track work, 3 rd January to 15 th March. We are endeavouring to have groups working on site for as many days as possible in this period. This will include installing four new turnouts at the water tank end of the station. This job has been compared Network Rail deciding to relay the entire track at Crewe station. In addition to the work at Harbour station there will be a great deal of track renewal work going on at other locations on the Ffestiniog Railway; including laying new track on the Cob, which will mainly be done by the Network Rail volunteers on their annual visit to gain experience of practical railway work, which they get with us. We will also be laying new track at Dragon Curve. As you can see a lot of work to be done in a short time so we ll need a lot of help. Please give serious consideration to spending some time to help your railway. If you can only do a day it will help. Put the dates in your diary now and if you re coming from a fair distance away book your accommodation. If you can help and would like to join us please contact myself or Alun Tomlinson Permanent Way Manager or Chris Mace Senior Permanent Way Supervisor as soon as you can. Dafydd Thomas dthomas@ffwhr.com / Alun Tomlinson atomlinson@ffwhr.com / Chris Mace cmace@ffwhr.com /

7 Electrics a cautionary note Pete Gray Just so we re all clear. It may be tempting. It may be that the job has to stop for a while if you don t do it. The job is probably pretty urgent You may well know what you re doing. You might even think that it s an emergency. DON T DO IT! Eh? What? Fix, repair, alter, mess about with ANY electrical installation on the railway. For lots of reasons, admittedly some better than others but nonetheless good reasons, only people who are specifically authorised to work on electrical equipment on Railway property may do so. That means that their name will be entered on the appropriate QAP held by the (usually good natured) Yorkshireman based in Minffordd. If something does go wrong with the electrics and it is a genuine emergency Brian will pull out all the stops to get it fixed as soon as possible. He s good at that. He deals with lots of emergencies and urgent repair jobs so he knows what he s talking about. Just one word of warning: don t get him out of bed to change one light bulb that could really wait until the next morning. He can get a little grumpy when he thinks that he is being taken for granted. Who doesn t? If it really needs doing now and Brian is already dealing with flooding toilets at Harbour he can call on someone else to see to your problem. That s one of the good reasons for not touching the electrics; it makes Brian grumpy and then that makes life exceedingly unpleasant for everyone else around him. Don t do it. If it is something other than an emergency (and let s face it most jobs are not emergencies) then it still needs to be discussed with the Buildings, Electrical and Estates Manager first who will arrange for an authorised person to carry out the work. If the lighting is poor in your workshop then let your manager know so that something can be done about it by one of the electricians on the list. You can do that. If the angle grinder won t reach the end of the bench and you think it would be a good idea to have another socket installed talk to your manager about it so that the right person can deal with it. You can do that. If there are sparks coming out from the wall socket, drop everything, stick a notice close by telling others, and let Brian know somehow (control office if all else fails). You can do that. Should you attempt an Electrical repair and get it wrong, either you or A. N. Other could get a nasty shock then the railway could get a nasty bill from those nice HSE people, plus you and the railway could be sued by the injured party THINK You can do that.

8 Welsh Pony Appeal Although we are taking a steady approach to fundraising for the restoration of Large England Welsh Pony so as not to divert funds from other vital projects the total raised now stands at over 9,500. After just five weeks the income from the on train envelopes amounted to 2, and the sale on Ebay of a replica works plate raised 310. Buffet Stewards have, when time has allowed, been talking to our passengers about the Welsh Pony Appeal envelopes which are placed on each table on our trains. They are equipped with a large photo of the loco and simply explain that by each person giving a small amount of loose change (or more) they can make all the difference to the loco s quick restoration. This is a simple way of engaging with our passengers and at the same time raising valuable cash. By doing so last week the stewards doubled the normal amount of cash raised and reduced the number of envelopes which end up tatty and thrown away. Unfortunately, this is an extra job for the stewards and, as such, there is not always the time to do this. Therefore, if there is anyone out there who would like to make that difference by dedicating themselves to this task, please contact us on or buffetcar@ffwhr.com 70 th Birthday Train Run for Stalwart of Team Wylfa, Tuesday & Black Hand Gangs Clive Briscoe On the evening of Thursday 8 th August, a special train was run between Dinas and Waunfawr to help very popular stalwart of Team Wylfa, Tuesday & Black Hand Gangs, Peter Tweeddale, celebrate his 70th birthday. L to R: Clive presented Peter with his own headboard for the train. It reads Peter Tweeddale 70 Not Out and then in small print below, Team Wylfa, Tuesday Gang, Black Hand Gang. The headboard had hastily to be lashed to Caernarfon Castle as there aren t any lamp brackets. The Dead Sheep Award a miniature replica of the hook that Peter & Clive made for pulling dead sheep out of the axleboxes. At Waunfawr, nearly 30 members and some of their partners left the train to go into the Snowdonia Parc for a celebratory meal. During the meal, Peter was presented with a surprise trophy (made by

9 Team Wylfa s leader, Clive Briscoe) the Dead Sheep Award for services rendered to the railway during his time with us. The dead sheep refers to the old wool axlebox packings we had to pull out in the early days of Team Wylfa s WHR carriage oiling campaign they STANK and Peter referred to them as dead sheep the name has stuck ever since Peter s health has not been good these last two years (it s terminal regrettably) and to quote him, he s very much on borrowed time now so it was important to make his birthday that much more special. On the way back to Dinas after the meal, Pullman car Bodysgallen rocked to the choruses of Happy Birthday to You and For He s a Jolly Good Fellow. Thanks to our GM, Paul and Works Manager Tony for allowing us to borrow the train for the occasion. Ebay sale items As part of the great F&WHR clear up, selected items unearthed from around the railway are being auctioned on Ebay, coordinated by Michael Wilkinson mwilkinson@ffwhr.com The items, mainly uncovered in Minffordd Yard, can be found at under ffestiniogandwelshhighlandrly and include signals, telephones, motors, a lathe, unwanted smokeboxes etc etc. Narrow Gauge Get Together 2013 The Narrow Gauge Get Together 2013 will be held on the Isle of Man from Friday 1 st November to Sunday 3 rd November If you would like to go please give your name to jvincent@ffwhr.com along with a cheque for 56 made payable to Groudle Glen Railway by Friday 20 th September. National Tourism Awards for Wales 2013 The judging panel for the 2013 Welsh Tourism Awards worked through a selection of over 420 entries during the first round of judging, and the F&WHR went on to be shortlisted. We have just been notified that we are through to the finals of the Regional Tourism Award category. The winners in each category will be announced at the National Tourism Awards ceremony and gala dinner, which will take place on Thursday 21 November 2013 at Venue Cymru, Llandudno. Fingers crossed TV News The excellent Iolo s Great Welsh Parks, broadcast on BBC1 Wales earlier in the year, is being repeated on Network BBC2 on Sunday evenings. Episode 3 features Plas Tan y Bwlch and the FR. For those who haven t yet seen it, the programme features some stunning aerial footage showing the Vale of Ffestiniog at its most glorious. Note that due to the unique way that the BBC operates, the episode will not be screened in Wales. But if you re in England, don t miss it at 1830 on Sunday September 8th on BBC2. In Scotland, the episode will be broadcast at 1730 on the same date. It will also be available on iplayer for a week after transmission. This will be the 25 th time the F&WHR has appeared on TV this year.