In mid-October 2000, preparatory work began at Betws Garmon station site, clearing undergrowth. This site (which, in true narrow gauge style, is in open country and not in the village whose name it bears) wais a base for construction, and also formed an access point for Contract 3A, which comprised the replacement of the river bridge immediately south of the station site (UB51), the work onwards through the A4085 bridge at Pont Betws, and the new bridge at Bryn Gloch.

Contract 3B - done in-house by WHLR Ltd and WHRS volunteers - was reconstruction from Waunfawr to Betws Garmon station site. The trackbed was first scraped off with a tracked excavator, with temporary fencing erected where necessary, etc. This produced a trackbed ready for ballasting and track laying. The pictures below show (left to right): the borderline between Phases 2 & 3 at the Waunfawr buffer stop; fencing immediately beyond; and trackbed marked out with pegs a little further on, where the railway runs next to the A4085. Beyond here, the final 300m of this section, from Tan-y-Ffordd to the Betws Garmon site, was cleared and had received a layer of crushed slate waste by early December 2000.

As well as acting as a base for the ballast, the slate waste allowed easy access for machinery to work on the trackside drainage. By the end of December 2000, the WHLR Ltd and WHRS gangs had completed clearance and the laying of crushed slate waste between Waunfawr and Betws Garmon stations, a distance of 1.1km.

There were also three cross culvert pipes to be installed; parts for these were precast at Dinas. Fencing work, where required, was done by Achnashean Contractors Ltd of Llandygai, who had previously undertaken the Phase 2 clearance and fencing contract. Granite ballast was already to hand, stored alongside the operating railway at Cyrnant, near Waunfawr, one of the Phase 2 ballast dumps.

By mid-March 2001, ballast had been laid on the first stretch beyond Waunfawr, and the first lengths of track were laid. The work of laying the track was been spearheaded by the North Wales Track Gang.

The first train on to the extension ran as early as March, comprising Upnor Castle towing the Mess Coach and propelling two of the low-sided DZ bogie wagons.

A big push by volunteers over the Easter 2001 weekend extended the track to the section beside the A4085, with further progress achieved by subsequent weekend working parties.

In addition to the laying of ballast forwards from Waunfawr, it was also laid in the other direction, working back from the Betws Garmon station site; by mid-May 2001 there was only a short gap between the two sections, and tracklaying was approaching this point. By the last week of May, the two ballasted sections had been joined, giving a continuous run of ballast for tracklaying from Waunfawr to just short of the Betws Garmon station site, and a further tracklaying by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend, track had reached the level crossing at the entrance to Tan-y-Ffordd farm, just short of Gwyrfai Terrace. This is the point where the road swings away from the railway, which passes behind the houses to reach the Betws Garmon site.

By late June track onwards from this point continued out of sight around the curve beyond Gwyrfai Terrace, approaching Betws Garmon. By this point tracklaying had reached the end of this stage of the work, at the limit of the ballasted trackbed where it enters the Betws Garmon station site.

Pending the connection of this section to those to the south, the section immediately beyond Waunfawr has proved useful as a siding, kept separate from the operating railway. During Summer 2002 it housed a number of wagons not in current use, which had been displaced from Dinas by the needs of the High Summer two-train service.

Upnor Castle is seen below (left) on this stretch on October 5th 2002, having shunted the stored wagons a short distance further south, and in front of a wagon from a works train the diesel had hauled up from Dinas for a volunteer gang working at Waunfawr Station. Mess coach no. 1001 stood detached, immediately beyond the stop blocks at the station limits (right). The stored wagons were moved back to Dinas subsequently.

Tamping & Finishing off

The final task to be undertaken on this stretch was ballast tamping. This involves settling the track down into the ballast bed, and ensuring its correct precise alignment. This work awaited the arrival of the newly-regauged ex-GTRM Matisa tamping machine, which will tamp the whole of Phase 3. The Matisa was delivered in early October 2002, and is seen below parked at the Head of Steel at the former Betws Garmon Station.

A small WHLR Ltd tamping team was at work in mid-November, preparing the tamper for operational use, placing "top-up" ballast along this stretch of line, and doing some manual horizontal track alignment in preparation for the Matisa. The mechanical tamping involves two passes: the first locks the horizontal position of the track, and gets some ballast up underneath the sleepers; the track is then lifted and canted for the second pass, which completes tamping and final locking of the track into position. The Matisa was finally at work by November 26th, reported as working well and tamping at a very acceptable rate.

The arrival of the new ballast plough (see Construction Stock) in April 2003 allowed the track on this section to be brought up to a virtually finished state. Extra top ballast was added, and the plough took care of the usually very time-consuming task of forming "shoulders" in the ballast profile either side of the track. The plough is seen below parked at Tan-y-Ffordd with Upnor Castle and the ballast hoppers; the right-hand view shows the results achieved.

The final stages of tamping and levelling saw the temporary removal of timberwork at the farm crossings; it was in the process of being refitted on May 10th. The work had also involved a two-day possession earlier in the week of the headshunt and part of the loop at Waunfawr, where trains were reversed using a diesel, just like in the first weeks after the station opened.

With this section done and efficient working methods established, the stock seen above, plus the mess van, the tamper and Conway Castle were moved by road to Rhyd Ddu on May 22nd.

Upon opening of Phase 3, Waunfawr loop became a passing loop rather than a run-round. The necessary signage was being erected by Team Wylfa in the week beginning July 21st 2003, and Waunfawr loop North was commissioned as a passing loop on the 26th. The pictures below show the necessary new signalling, and the new split token.