File:Railway Magazine 1968-06 328 329.jpg

Summary[edit]

REOPENING TO DDUALLT A. G. W. GARRAWAY, M.A., A.M.I.Loco.E. General Manager, Festiniog Railway Company

Difficulties overcome in extending Festiniog Railway services a further two miles The stretch between Tan-y-Bwlch and Dduallt is mostly built on a ledge on the hillside, supported above the valley by dry stone walling of varying height. The position of the line gives the passenger magnificent views over the Vale of Ffestiniog and afar—a run as fine as any railway journey in the country.

WHEN the Festiniog Railway reopened to Tan-y-Bwlch in 1958 many supporters believed that it would only be a few years until another section of line was reopened. However, much of the track in use had only been rekeyed and the majority of the sleepers dated from before the war: it was obvious to the Company that all the track over the existing miles had got to be completely resleepered and relaid before any further sections could be considered.

Up until 1958 resleepering had consisted of replacing only the rotten sleepers, but it was soon realised that this must be a short-term policy, and so during winter-time relaying (where complete track occupation is possible) all sleepers were replaced. Further improvements to standards followed; spent B.R. ballast was used to give proper ballasting, and a pair of Kango tampers was acquired to give proper consolidation and packing. With increasing mechanisation of British Railways, the supply of spent ballast has become scarce, and all recent work has utilised new ballast from the neighbouring Minffordd Quarry, with greatly enhanced appearances. To improve the fastening of the chairs—for practically all the F.R. track comprises chairs and double-head or bull-head rail—screws have been substituted for spikes; this entails more work in drilling sleepers and running in the screws, but gives a very much more secure fastening.

By the mid-1960s the track was getting into a fairly reasonable state, though some of it, particularly below Penrhyn, was suffering from the early years of continual patching and several stretches had to be completely relaid to keep it reasonable and up to the higher standards of today.

When the Penrhyn Quarry closed its main line, the F.R. was fortunately able to negotiate to buy the materials (as well as the locomotives Linda and Blanche) and arrangements were made for contractors to lift and transport the materials to Minffordd Yard. This line was laid with bullhead rail of similar section to that in use on the F.R., mostly in fair condition, and the initial batches were used in the summer of 1965 to relay the first few lengths above Tan-y-Bwlch.

In 1965 the Royal Engineers, Transportation (subsequently Royal Corps of Transport) headquarters at Longmoor approached the F.R. with the idea for a novel training scheme, in which the guards and engine crews, shunters and signalmen, and so on, would gain experience of operating a completely unusual and strange railway, while the construction and maintenance elements would perform certain set tasks as repayment for use of the line, the construction project making in itself a demand on the operating department to ferry the materials to site. The army exercise completely relaid the length up to Garnedd Tunnel, about half a mile above Tan-y-Bwlch.

Not only did the army learn a lot about relaying narrow-gauge bull-head track, but the F.R. discovered that the Penrhyn Quarry rail varied more than had appeared at first. A team with paint and brush was therefore sent off to Bethesda to number all the rest of the Penrhyn Quarry rails in order, so that as far as possible it would be possible to relay them in sequence.

During the process of lifting the track, stacking at the assembly points, and transporting to Minffordd, some of the rails got mixed, so it was arranged to transport the remainder of the rails during the summer of 1966 when there would be volunteers available at Minffordd to sort and stack them. As far as possible the rails were stacked with all from one stretch together, but in any case a record was kept giving the location of every rail. This operation took most of the 1966 summer season, and involved some extremely heavy work in sorting and humping the rails, chairs, and other fittings into stacks; the lorries were dumping them into the yard quicker than it was possible to sort them.

During the winter of 1966/67 the stretch from Garnedd Tunnel for about a further half mile to Coed-y-Bleiddiau was relaid using the Penrhyn