UB56

The Cae Hywel river bridge, UB56, lies immediately south of the Tros-y-Gol site. It is of similar pattern to the Plas y Nant bridge, and the original Betws Garmon bridge.

Some preparatory work was carried out in this area before the start of the Jones Bros Contract 3C-1 proper. Slate waste was laid on the stretch immediately beyond the Cae Hywel bridge, whose piers were temporarily propped to allow lorries to cross it.

Spoil from the Bryn Gloch cutting was used in making an alternative access road for landowners adjacent to the trackbed south of Tros-y-Gol, who had been using the trackbed for access. The picture below (Jan Woods, WHLR Ltd) shows how this runs on the west side of the line of the railway, which lies between the yellow surveying markers.

Culverting work was done near the river bridge before the start of work on its strengthening, including this pair of new culverts (on the new access road, rather than the trackbed proper), seen completed below on September 26th 2002.

Once the contractors had handed over the section south of the bridge for tracklaying, the span was removed by crane on November 11th 2002; this was a joint operation, with WHLR Ltd using the crane to move rails to the southern riverbank to form a stock for tracklaying through Salem, and Jones Bros using the crane to lift the bridge as a complete assembly.

This was a different approach to that taken with the similar bridge at Plas y Nant (see UB64), which was jacked up in situ for work to be done to strengthen the abutments; the shared cranage costs made it economical to lift out UB56 to make the rebuild of its abutments easier, before placing it back across the river.

The original intention was that the abutments of UB56 would be strengthened by pressure grouting. However, on further inspection they were found to be in too poor a condition for this, hence the decision to renew them with sound concrete structures, clad in stone to closely resemble the originals.

Shortly before the Christmas 2002 - New Year 2003 break, the contractors completed piling work to protect the abutment sites from the river, and demolished the southern abutment in preparation for a strengthened replacement along the same lines as that for UB64 at Plas y Nant. The base slab of this structure was cast on January 24th.

UB56 is seen below in mid-February, with the concrete core of the new northern abutment in place, and the southern abutment with its structural pillars in place, plus shuttering for casting the top slab and/or the upstands above it. As at UB64, the southern abutment incorporates a spillway.

On February 16th 2003 volunteers were at work painting the span, which was resting on the northern riverbank, at the Tros-y-Gol site. The paint system being used was the same as that specified by consultants for use on the Glanrafon Bridge, UB95. The new crossmembers were still to be fitted at this point.

By February 22nd the concrete structure of the southern abutment was complete, and stone cladding of both abutments was already in hand. Note that the embankment to the immediate south of the bridge (extreme left of the picture below) had been excavated, and would require building back up.

The stone central pier of the southern abutment was in place by March 9th, together with further progress with the cladding which had been done before exceptionally heavy rain caused the Gwyrfai to burst its banks from here to Salem. Both abutments appeared complete by March 15th.

Volunteers are seen below continuing the painting of the span on March 19th. The new crossmembers can be seen fitted in place, together with the first sections of the longitudinal waybeams.

By March 22nd, the contractors had reinstated the stretch of low embankment between the south abutment of UB56 and the Head of Steel a short distance beyond.

The completed span was craned back into position on its new abutments on March 24th; this delicate operation is seen in Jan Woods's pictures below.

Roger Dick's pictures below show the completed bridge two days later. The scene cannot have been very different when the bridge was first installed in the 1870s.

The bridge is seen below from the opposite side; the sheep clearly seem to approve!

The reinstated embankment south of the bridge was ballasted at the end of March. Two lengths of track were laid across the bridge and the as yet unfinished adjacent level crossing on April 4th. The track across the span has been laid on a continuous deck of timber sleepers, with no gaps.

By April 12th, sleepers had been laid out between here and the Head of Steel at the southern end of the embankment, in preparation for closing this short gap.

This gap in the track was completed in the week beginning June 23rd, allowing rails to be moved north from the Plas y Nant base for use at the gap through the Betws Garmon bridges the following weekend.

With this section of railway connected up with the northern section after completion of UB51, the "ballast train" worked its way south into this area; Upnor Castle is seen below parked south of UB56 on July 9th, together with the mess coach, tool van and ballast plough.

The tamper is seen below at Cae Hywel on July 16th, having just been driven northwards through Salem, where distorted rails had been replaced with new the previous weekend. On the right, Conway Castle and the ballast hoppers have just arrived at the opposite side of UB56 from the Betws Garmon direction.

Having done most of their work on the Glanrafon - Rhyd Ddu section, the fencing contractors moved north. In early September 2001 fencing was being erected north of Salem, the hamlet which forms the centre of the community of Betws Garmon.

To reach points south of here, Jones Bros extended their access along the trackbed from Tros-y-Gol along the riverside stretch and opposite the village at Salem during the last week of June 2002. The pictures below are at LC36 - note the rail gatepost and stiles.

Ballasting back from the Plas y Nant end towards Cae Hywel extended to LC35, at the northern end of the Salem section, by the end of October 2002. LC35 is a farm crossing immediately to the north of the distinctive footpath crossing LC36, which retains its rail stiles on either side (both visible below); its pedestrian approach from the Salem side has been improved with steps.

By November 9th the section along the curves where the railway runs close to the river had been ballasted, leaving only a short stretch to be done to reach UB56. The tips visible on the skyline in the picture below belonged to slate quarries once served by the WHR's Bryngwyn Branch.

A week later, ballasting was done, and the full section through Salem, i.e. from Cae Hywel to Plas y Nant, was in the hands of the track gang.

As soon as Jones Bros completed the last stretch of ballast to UB56, a rail store was established south of that bridge immediately before its span was lifted (see above). This allowed tracklaying to be carried out on the UB56 - UB64 stretch, which was isolated for a time while UB64 was completed and the strengthening of UB56 was carried out.

The track gang started laying track south from Cae Hywel on the weekend of November 16-17th 2002, and by Sunday afternoon had reached the point where the Railway runs close to the river on the approach to Salem. Six panels of permanent track were laid over the weekend, plus two panels of temporary track.

Further progress was made over the following weekends.

During the December 7-8th tracklaying working party a V-skip wagon was brought into use on this section, to deliver additional ballast where needed.