WHR Project - News from 2005

January 25th 2005 - It was announced that Mike Schumann was retiring from the Board of Directors of Welsh Highland Railway Construction Ltd, the Ffestiniog Railway Company subsidiary responsible for constructing the new Railway. Director Mike Hart said:

"I have enjoyed working alongside Mike Schumann since the Ffestiniog Railway Company first become involved with the reconstruction of the Welsh Highland Railway nearly fourteen years ago. He provided the initial funding that kick started the project as well as being a major match funder to the Millennium Commission project. He has dedicated much of his time during this period to helping turn the project into a viable working railway. There can be no doubt that without Mike's very considerable practical and financial assistance The Welsh Highland Railway would still be largely a barren trackbed. Mike leaves with our very sincere thanks and gratitude for all he has done to make the new Welsh Highland Railway a success".

While Mike Schumann retired from day to day WHR Project Director activities he would continue to be involved in Welsh Highland Railway policy development as a Director of the Ffestiniog Railway Company and Trustee of the The Ffestiniog Railway Trust.

February 14th 2005 - The Railway gratefully received a donation of two air compressors from Wylfa Power Station on Anglesey, which will be used for raising steam in locos at Dinas Goods Shed when required (oil-fired locos need a compressed air supply). Unit no. 2495 (left-hand picture below, seen on a testbed) is a completely overhauled unit, ready to use. No. 2497 (right) is a spare, with a new cylinder block, complete with a bedplate and two spare motors.

The units are seen below being loaded and checked at Wylfa before starting their journey to Dinas.

March 2005 - Cyngor Gwynedd Council reopened the overbridge carrying the Llanfaglan road over the railway between Caernarfon and Bontnewydd, close to Canolfan Gerddi Fron Goch. This followed a ten-week job in which the bridge received a new reinforced concrete deck and parapets, the latter clad in stone to resemble the originals. Cladding was not quite complete when the third and fourth pictures below were taken.

March 17th 2005 - Welsh Highland Railway Construction Ltd announced the purchase of a Plasser KMX tamper/liner machine, to be used in construction of Phase 4 from Rhyd Ddu to Porthmadog, and the maintenance and upgrading of the existing railway.

(Picture by Olivier Jaubert)

From the WHRCL press release:

We have always looked with envy at our standard gauge heritage railway colleagues who are able to bring in modern mainline tamping machines to align and tamp their track without all the manual work we currently have to do on the WHR with our existing basic Matisa tamper. These standard gauge machines have the ability to detect where the track is at the start of work, and from that deduce a lifting and lining plan as to where the track should be, what cant is required and then with the automation they have just get on and sort it all out.

To look into what was needed for the WHR a small team set out to investigate our requirements and scour the world for an affordable machine. Investigations led us to conclude that it was a Plasser-built machine that we were after, with their reputation for reliability, and if possible we wanted to find a machine with the sort of automated lifting and lining equipment that our standard gauge railway brothers benefit from. The optimum machine we were looking for was one of the Plasser KMX series narrow gauge machines, such as used in Australia to maintain 800km of track on their 2 feet gauge sugar railway system. With only a handful of these narrow gauge machines having been built our chances of finding one available for sale were thought to be slim.

What is the Plasser KMX machine? It's a tamper designed to be assembled to individual customer requirements in the gauge range of about 1000 to 600mm gauge. It is built to order varying from the simplest of machines with nothing much more than a manual tamping head, up to the most advanced with all the track recording and evaluation equipment, lifting, slewing and lining gear. In its most advanced form it is built with largely the same equipment used on the modern Plasser 08 tamper liners that are in everyday use on the mainline. Nevertheless a new narrow gauge KMX tamper with automated lift and line equipment was clearly unaffordable with a current new build price of around 1 million Euros!

Our worldwide search continued until, much to our surprise, we came across a 1995 built Plasser KMX tamper/liner for sale in France at an affordable price, following the closure of the extensive Lorraine coalfields where it had been in service. Not only was it available for sale but it was the version of KMX with everything on it!

As soon as we discovered this second hand machine was available, an immediate trip to France was arranged so that Ffestiniog Railway Co. engineers could inspect and evaluate the machine. This showed it was just what we wanted, and in excellent all-round condition. In addition, while it is currently assembled for 1 metre gauge track, its bodywork is inside WHR and FR's loading gauge so it will be able to work throughout both lines.

The machine will arrive shortly and go into Boston Lodge during the second half of this year, where it will be re-gauged and overhauled. Then, with the support we have been offered by our friends from the big railways who use this sort of automated tamping machine on a daily basis, it will then complete a programme of training and commissioning before being moved up to the WHR for new construction and maintenance of the existing track.

The 17 tonne KMX is powered by a Deutz diesel engine with a scrubber unit on the exhaust to reduce emissions for working in tunnels. Interestingly it is also fitted with an overhead pantograph, but that is simply a safely device to ensure the overhead line current is switched off when the machine is working. The tamper can travel to site at up to 35 km/hour and cabs are fitted at both ends - one incorporating the tamp and line control desks.

The lifting/lining gear on our KMX95 CM tamper is the same Plasser technology applied to mainline machines around the world. The combined lifting and levelling unit located directly ahead of the tamping head can automatically lift and align the track to the predetermined position with power and precision while the track is locked in place by squeezing the tamping tools in the ballast under the adjacent sleeper.

WHRCL wished to record its thanks for help in the process to Terry Turner, General Manager of the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway (seen in the right-hand picture above), which already had a Plasser machine of a different type.

The Matisa A05 tamper acquired during Phase 3 of the WHR Project was to be retained, but the smaller Gullick & Dobson machine bought in 1997 was for sale.

March 19th 2005 - A new automatic trailable points mechanism was brought into use at the north end of Rhyd Ddu Station.

March 29th 2005 - The Plasser & Theurer KMX tamper purchased in France (see above) was delivered to Minffordd Yard on the Ffestiniog Railway. It was then due to be moved to Boston Lodge Works after the Ffestiniog Fifty Weekend (April 29th - May 1st), for overhaul and regauging, prior to moving to WHR(C).

The unit appeared in very good general condition, although it had clearly spent some time outdoors, as witnessed by surface rust on the brake discs; also the wheels of at least the unpowered bogie looked likely to need turning. It was badged as a product of FRAMAFER, a French sales subsidiary of the Austrian manufacturing parent company. Signage on the machine (which will need translating from French!) revealed interesting features probably relating to its previous use in mines, such as use of a compressed nitrogen system, rather than oxygen.

April 16th 2005 - WHR(C) services were operated, under supervision, by visiting crews from Germany's Harzer Schmalspurbahnen. Seen on the left below are Driver Detlef Janisch, fireman Mario Preuss, and guard Silke Stuber; on the right, note the HSB-style shed plate fitted to no. 138 for the occasion (no. 143 was similarly decorated).

August 1st 2005 - Phase 4 construction was ceremonially launched with a special train for invited guests from the Welsh Assembly Government, local authorities, WHR(C), WHR(P), other heritage railways, and contractors. Having arrived at Rhyd Ddu on the footplate, the Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan AM, First Minister of the Welsh Assembly Government, formally launched construction by cutting a tape at the point where Rhyd Ddu Station meets the section of trackbed to Pont Cae'r Gors where contractors were at work; the Assembly's Presiding Officer, Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, also attended.

The event also served as a celebration of the raising of over a million pounds by the Phase 4 appeal (see July 28th entry above). It was also announced that the Wales Tourist Board was making a grant of £125,000 towards construction of further WHR carriages at Boston Lodge, and that the contract had been signed the same day for the supply of new rails from Poland to take the railway through to Porthmadog. This was a major joint order including rail for renewal programmes on the FR and the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway.

It was further announced two days later that the rail purchase (and a separate contract due shortly for supply of steel sleepers) would include track materials for WHR (Porthmadog)'s Traeth Mawr extension, to be supplied to them at a discount by Welsh Highland Railway Construction Ltd. As part of the deal, land at the WHR(P) Pen y Mount site was to be used to store WHRCL's track materials for rebuilding northwards as far as the Nantmor embankment.

In the same week it was reported that the railway was to receive a substantial legacy from the estate of the late Mr David Sumner, former head of Inter City on-board services, a good friend of the FR and supporter of the WHR. This was likely to be used for purposes including building a carriage, possibly another Pullman. It should be noted that the sum reported in the press was understood to represent the whole of his estate, of which the railway is not the sole beneficiary, and the actual sum going to the railway was not yet known.

September 2005 - Pioneer Garratt K1 was taken to Crewe Works to be exhibited at "The Great Gathering" open weekend, together with the FR's Palmerston. The pictures below (by Chris Lindop, Andy Rutter and Peter Johnson) show the loco at Crewe first before the event, and then during it. A special set of steps had been made up at Dinas to allow visitors into the cab.

October 30th 2005 - The last train of the main 2005 season was also the last to use the existing station layouts at Caernarfon and Rhyd Ddu. The loop and platform at Caernarfon were to be extended at the Dinas end to handle longer trains, and as part of this work the water tank siding was removed; in future locos would take water while standing on the extended loop, which would come into use for December's Santa Trains. Rhyd Ddu Station was also being extended and completed into the form it requires for through running to Porthmadog, with changes including a longer loop and island platform, and loco watering facilities. While this work was being done, train services in December and February ran between Caernarfon and Waunfawr.
October 2005 - WHR (Porthmadog) volunteers laid the first Phase 4 track, extending northwards across Pen y Mount Crossing onto the historic trackbed. Illustrated updates are on the main WHR(P) site and their extension site.
Volunteers made progress with dry stone walling alongside the line between Dinas and Waunfawr. The pictures below show the results near Gwredog Isaf, to the Waunfawr side of Tryfan Junction. This is a good example of the volunteer work which goes on outside the main running season - see Volunteer Projects for what's going on, and how to get involved.

November 12th 2005 - Pioneer Garratt K1 hauled its first passengers since the 1920s. This was as part of a photographers' freight charter; as K1 was not yet authorised for solo passenger turns, the train was topped and tailed by NGG16 no. 143 and Upnor Castle when also carrying the photographers in carriages at the rear. For more details and pictures, see K1 - Testing and Commissioning.

November-December 2005 - Volunteers extended Caernarfon Station loop at the Dinas end, as part of a project to adapt the station to take longer trains. Extension of the platform was due to take place in early 2006.

PROJECT RHEILFFORDD ERYRI

WELSH HIGHLAND RAILWAY PROJECT

2005 NEWS ARCHIVE