Gravity works trains

One of the delights of early volunteer working parties was the possibility of a Gravity works train ride after the day's work was over, on the return to Minffordd Yard. The working of gravity works trains was explained by Norman Gurley in a FR Magazine article. The trains fell into two categories. The S&T department would use them to return down the line in a wagon that had been hauled by a passenger train, stopping along the way to attend to various jobs. The PW department used them during major relaying projects to return empty wagons and trains of redundant materials to their base at Minffordd Yard.

Gallery

• 

  A works gravity train from Penrhyn to Minffordd. The head of the PW Dept at the time, Ron Lester, is in the first of the ex-RAF wagons as they depart over newly relaid track. Graham "The Pipe" Westley is in the second wagon and other London Area Group members in subsequent wagons. There was, of course, an engineering possession.
  *Date: 12th February 1966 *Photo: Geoff Plumb

• 

  Another view of the same train on the same day. London Area Group member Ron Fisher is standing on the wall at the right watching proceedings.
  *Date: 12th February 1966 *Photo: Geoff Plumb.

See also

• Gravity Slate Trains
• Slate Waggons (Wikipedia)
• Miscellaneous