Contract 3E-1

Work on the ground for WHLR Ltd's Contract 3E-1 began on October 11th 2001, with pegging operations at Tyn-yr-Weirglodd, between Castell Cidwm and Snowdon Ranger, as seen in the two pictures below (credit: Roland Doyle, WHLR Ltd). The left-hand picture is looking towards Rhyd Ddu, and the right-hand one towards Waunfawr, with the A4085 overbridge at Castell Cidwm just visible, to the right of the tree standing on its own in the field.

The red pegs that can be seen mark the centreline of the track; yellow pegs are used to establish the lines for fencing. The setting out process has seven steps, from topographical survey to tracklaying:

1. Topographical survey to approx 10 metres either side of the centreline as perceived on the ground.
2. A MOSS alignment program is run to fit the track into the topographical survey (this includes adding exact chainages every 10 metres).
3. MOSS centreline data is produced as a series of coordinates for every 10 metres.
4. The survey team revisits the site and sets out the centreline (not accurate at this stage, only to within + or - 20mm).
5. The fenceline is drawn on to a composite drawing (topographical survey and MOSS alignment). The MOSS alignment is drawn as a centreline and two lines for rails. The fenceline is derived from surviving artefacts still in position (gate posts, fence posts, etc) and the 1916 Ordnance Survey map showing original land ownership.
6. The fenceline is pegged out by scaling off the drawing (1:250) and locating artefacts mentioned above. The results of scaling off the drawing are accurate to within 50mm, which is adequate for the fenceline.
7. The centreline is surveyed again prior to tracklaying, this time to within + or - 1mm.

The picture below shows centreline pegs at the Castell Cidwm overbridge. Yellow fencing line pegs were also present, but are mostly out of view in this picture, running along the tops of the cutting sides.

Around a fortnight later the fencing was in place, as seen in the following two pictures (WHLR Ltd) taken from above and below the road bridge. The flooding evident in the second view is similar to the conditions at some Phase 2 overbridges before work began to lower the trackbed for today's rolling stock, and at the same time improve the drainage.

Work on preparing the trackbed started in May 2002, following the establishment of the work base at Snowdon Ranger (see separate page). The trackbed was found to be in very good condition, as opposed to that between Glanrafon and Rhyd Ddu, allowing rapid progress with clearing and scraping the trackbed prior to laying the rolled slate waste on which ballast would be laid. At the end of May this work had reached the furthest extent of this section of the contract, at the Castell Cidwm cutting.

As there was little material to be removed from the trackbed on this stretch, it was placed on embankment and cutting sides rather than being removed from the site.

There are no major structures on this stretch, the main features being farm crossings and drainage culverts; the latter shared the construction initials "UB" with sheep or cattle creeps and road underbridges. New pipes were inserted into the collapsed and excavated culvert UB73 at the start of July 2002. Jan Woods' picture below shows WHLR Ltd staff at this site on July 25th.

Ballasting started from the Castell Cidwm end in early August, and had reached the first farm crossing by August 10th.

In addition, bundles of sleepers were delivered along the section covered by this page by the August Bank Holiday. By September 7th a further stretch had been ballasted, back to UB73, and this work continued back towards Snowdon Ranger later in the month. The left-hand view below shows the southern end of this section at the Snowdon Ranger farm crossing on October 5th, with ballasting complete and ready for tracklaying; the right-hand one shows the same stretch with sleepers laid out by volunteers along a short stretch, ready for delivery and laying of rails.

With tracklaying in the opposite direction towards Glan yr Afon nearing completion, in late March 2003 sleepers were laid out along the remainder of this section, ready for tracklaying north from Snowdon Ranger, seen below at Castell Cidwm; the slightly irregular alignment visible will of course disappear as the track is assembled (and is also a little exaggerated in this long zoom lens shot). Tracklaying started on April 12th 2003 at Snowdon Ranger.

Jim Comerford's picture below was taken from above Snowdon Ranger on March 31st 2003, and shows most of this section of the Railway. OB71 at Castell Cidwm is visible towards the right.

Work by the staff track gang, and then volunteers over Easter and subsequent weekends, saw rapid progress northwards. In the pictures below taken on Easter Saturday, volunteers are using Dolgarrog and a pair of RRMs to collect rails from the store at Snowdon Ranger and move them to the Head of Steel, which was already well out of sight of the station, and was almost halfway to Castell Cidwm by the end of the holiday.

On May 10th tracklaying was within sight of Castell Cidwm, at the last farm level crossing before the northern end of this section. TG3 are seen below returning from the Head of Steel to base at Snowdon Ranger at the end of the day's work.

Following completion of tracklaying through Snowdon Ranger attention turned back to this section in the week beginning June 23rd, with rails being laid on the final approach to the Castell Cidwm boundary of this section. The track clips for this work were prepared at the Plas y Nant site. The view below shows track laid to the northern boundary of the section, with rails lying in the "two foot" to push on with tracklaying onwards through OB71.

Dolgarrog was supplemented on the Castell Cidwm - Rhyd Ddu section by one of WHR (Porthmadog)'s 30hp Barclay "Taxi" diesels (details here and more pictures here), Barclay 554/1970, Taxi 2, which was moved up from Gelert's Farm on July 5th. Dolgarrog is seen below at farm crossing LC46 on July 7th, in use on the materials train for finishing work by the fencing contractor; the right-hand picture shows the view south from the crossing towards Snowdon Ranger.

This section, with its relatively gentle curves, was left as the last area to receive top ballasting and mechanical tamping. Upnor Castle and the ballast hoppers were noted back at Snowdon Ranger on July 26th for this work.