The route section of the site includes detailed illustrated descriptions - Rhyd Ddu to Beddgelert and Beddgelert to Porthmadog.
Although this is a short site in terms of length, it is a significant focus as it is one of the most visible and picturesque spots on the line. In construction terms, there are adjacent road and river bridges which both required rebuilding. The road overbridge is OB173; the river bridge immediately south of it (UB174) takes the railway across the Afon Glaslyn and into the Aberglaslyn Pass.
River Bridge UB174
Invitations to tender for construction of the three truss river bridges (Bryn y Felin, Afon Dylif, Afon Nanmor) were sent out in the third week of July 2005. Designed by John Sreeves, the bridges all resemble the originals.
In early September tenders for the bridge (with an option on the Dylif and Nanmor structures) had been received and were being considered by WHRC Ltd prior to placing the contract for its construction and installation.
WHRC Ltd issued the following press release on October 10th 2005:
MAJOR BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT AWARDED TO LOCAL ENGINEERING BUSINESS
Welsh Highland Railway Construction Ltd have now placed a contract for the manufacture and installation of the major steel railway bridge spans required for the completion of the Railway between Rhyd Ddu and Porthmadog.
These three 75 feet span bridges are for the river crossing in the Aberglaslyn Pass, Beddgelert, as well as the Afon Dylif and Afon Nanmor, and will be very similar in appearance to the 'truss' type bridges originally installed at these locations. Detailed design of these bridges is thanks to Welsh Highland volunteer chartered engineer John Sreeves, with the final construction drawings approved by specialist bridge consultants Halcrow.
The construction contract, worth in total over a £1/3rd million pounds, has been awarded to local engineer company D J Williams and Son of Caernarfon. Williams will first build and install the Aberglaslyn Pass bridge in early 2006, and then look to progress the other two bridges that are required by the railway in 2007.
Manufacturer D J Williams are a long established engineering company set up in Caernarfon nearly 100 years ago as Brunswick Iron Works. Proprietor Meurig Williams' grandfather won 1st prize for an ornamental gate at the 1909 Eisteddfod, going on to produce the Gates for the royal residences Windsor Castle and Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. The Crown of Thorns in Liverpool Cathedral is a Brunswick production as is the metalwork on the coffin on the tomb of the unknown warrior in Westminster Abbey. D J Williams' business in heavy steel structures grew around the North Wales shipping and quarrying industries followed by major involvement in the construction of both Wylfa and Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power stations and Ford's car production plant at Halewood. D J Williams have already been involved in the reconstruction of the Welsh Highland, including the major refurbishment of Glanrafon Viaduct and other bridges on the section of line from Waunfawr to Rhyd Ddu, the installation and completion of a 60 foot span replacement bridge at Betws Garmon, and building Waunfawr footbridge.
Roland Doyle (General Manager WHRC Ltd) said "I am delighted that we have been able to award this major contract to a local company in support of our policy to maximise benefits to the local economy from spend in the reconstruction of the Welsh Highland Railway".
The General Arrangement drawing for the bridge can be viewed here as a PDF file (296KB).
Even before the new bridge was built, the drawings were used by WHR supporter David Elliott to build a model in 009 scale - distance being no object as he lives in Western Canada!
And here's the first glimpse of the real thing - fabrication in hand at D.J. Williams's Caernarfon premises on November 8th and 18th 2005. A month later one truss was more or less complete, with fabrication of the second one in hand.
The pictures below were taken in mid-January 2006. The left-hand view shows a complete truss in Williams's paint shop.The middle picture shows the end of a truss, which is part welded and part bolted. The bolt heads are rounded with the appearance of rivets like the original bridge. The bolts are tightened from the reverse side only, by a special wrench that grips the bolt shank as the nut is turned. A handrail support post would be attached to the top later (where the reel of red tape is). The white dye applied to the welds is part of a testing process which reveals any hairline cracks in the welds. The right-hand picture shows the bolt arrangement at an intermediate node, as viewed from the outside face of the truss. After the truss was delivered to site, a cross member would bolt into the back of the connection (where the ladder is).
The pictures below show trial assembly of the bridge span on February 16th.
At the same time as the fabrication work in Caernarfon, contractors were at work on the abutments at Bryn y Felin, modifying the tops of the abutments to take the new bridge, and working on remedying the scouring around the abutments, when the river level allowed. The west (Beddgelert side) abutment is seen below; the cover in the left-hand picture was to prevent frost damage to the new cap which had been cast over the smaller original one, raising the level slightly; the other pictures show the abutment once the cap had cured. The specialist concrete work also included filling voids in the plinth below the abutment. The eastern railway abutment was in good condition and did not require the same attention.
The raising of the western abutment by six inches was a deliberate design change, adding a slight gradient of 1 in 150 across the 75 ft span. This is to assist drainage of rainwater from the trusses. The same change was also made at the Dylif and Nanmor river bridges, where work was similarly required on one abutment in any case, to tidy up where retaining bolts were burned away when the original bridges were removed in 1999.
The scouring affects the eastern abutment of the recently built footbridge, immediately upstream of the railway bridge site, as can be seen below. Sandbags had been to hand here for some time, for protection on occasion when the Glaslyn was swollen by heavy rainfalls, pending a longer-term repair.
WHRC Ltd moved a temporary site office into place on the trackbed north of the road bridge in December 2005, to serve as the base of operations for installation of the new river bridge.
The bridge was installed over the weekend of March 11-12th 2006, in a carefully coordinated operation involving staff from D.J. Williams, plus the crane operators and hauliers, as well as WHRC Ltd staff. The trusses had been joined together for transport, and on Saturday morning they were removed from the shed where they had been made for loading onto an extensible trailer with steerable rear wheels. A little space had to be cleared carefully to get the crane into position...
At Bryn y Felin, the transoms and longitudinal waybeams had already been delivered to site. While the crane was moved into position on the trackbed, the lorry waited in the lay-by in the Aberglaslyn Pass, having travelled via the A487 and Tremadog.
The trusses were unloaded directly from the lorry on the road above onto the riverbank, and the lorry moved away; closure of the road was kept to only a very few minutes.
The crane was now moved off site briefly, to reverse in order to face the river for the assembly of the bridge. The opportunity was taken to add a dumper load of material to the base area which had been created for the crane. Meanwhile work proceeded on unbolting the trusses from the temporary spacers which had been bolted between them for transport.
Assembly started with locating the transoms on the two abutments, starting with the eastern one. New bearing plates were located on the modified western abutment - the originals on the other side remained in perfect order - and treated with special grease. The bridge is not fixed rigidly to these bearings, to allow for expansion and contraction.
With measurements carefully checked, the southern truss was lifted into place and bolted to the transoms.
After a further check the northern truss followed, completing the basic frame of the structure.
On Sunday the crane was used to lift in the transoms and sectional waybeams, on which the deck, and eventually the rails, will be fitted.
The complete structure is seen below, complete with cross-bracing beneath the transoms, and walkways fitted on either side.
Williams's staff were back on site on June 2nd, putting the finishing touches to their work on the bridge. Realignment by 10mm was needed, and they also worked on the hand rails (adding the end sections), and fixed the bridge down in its final position.
Access to the bridge required completion of the concrete deck over the flood culvert which forms part of the west abutment. Preparations for this are seen below in late August and early September 2006, and the completed casting is seen on September 16th.
A month later, work had started on installing the deck timbers. A full-width wooden deck was fitted to this bridge to allow it to be used for construction vehicles to access the trackbed in the Aberglaslyn Pass. The deck was complete and bolted down when seen (right) on October 22nd 2006.
Drainage work was in hand at the road bridge in January 2007. This provided a pipe under the trackbed which then exits to the side and discharges into the Glaslyn via a short channel downstream of the railway bridge. With this done, the trackbed could be completed through to the river bridge.
G.H. James Cyf moved into the Bryn y Felin site in the week beginning April 16th 2007, creating a small screened-off compound between the road and river bridges to service their contract to complete the trackbed through to Nantmor level crossing. Despite appearances in the first picture, the footpath crossing the railway here was very much open, having been previously diverted to run underneath the river bridges at the riverbank. As part of the setting up process, staff from Brunswick Ironworks fitted UB174 with temporary deck infill panels on either side of the sleeper deck; this was the set of panels previously used at the Afon Dylif bridge to allow the passage of the crane used to install the Afon Nanmor bridge. The last picture below shows some initial consolidation on the side of the trackbed just south of UB174.
Upon completion of the ballasted Aberglaslyn trackbed in July 2007, Brunswick Ironworks returned to the site to remove the protective deck infill panels (which had absorbed quite a bit of wear - compare the July 2007 picture below with the April one above), check the structure over, and touch up paintwork where necessary.
On July 17th 2007 James were clearing out of the Bryn y Felin compound, and preparing to complete the trackbed running through it; at this point the northern limit of the ballast running south into Aberglaslyn was behind the tree at the top right of the second picture.
The views below show ballasting work through the Bryn y Felin site on July 19th 2007; the track alignment was likely to be pegged out in the following week, once tidying of the site was complete and the contractor had moved off site. The infill plates had been removed from the bridge.
The first of the following pictures shows ballast laid almost up to the road bridge on July 20th 2007. The remaining ones, taken on the 22nd, show the ballast extended to just short of the "layby", which was the last gap in the ballast, being needed for parking construction machinery until the laying of the last ballast to join up with the bed to the north. The compound between the bridges had been cleared, and the sides of the low railway embankment leading to the river bridge had been consolidated. The last picture shows the recently installed gabions of the bridge's downstream wing wall on the east bank of the Glaslyn.
On July 23rd 2007 the gap was almost closed, with just a very short length remaining adjacent to the almost-gone ballast pile at the limit of the Beddgelert - Bryn y Felin section. The gate shown had previously stood across the trackbed at the division between sections.
Tracklaying entered the section covered by this page over the weekend of August 4-5th 2007, and had reached OB173 when pictured below. The "layby" had been fenced off, although this was only temporary as it would become the site of the level crossing for the temporary road to be laid during the Council's works to renew OB173.
Over the August 11-12th 2007 working party, the Rest of the World Gang laid rails up to and on the bridge; those on the bridge, screwed to the sleeper deck, were laid before those immediately to the north, where trimming to length was necessary to achieve staggered joints on the curve whereas the joints are parallel on the bridge itself. An impromptu ceremony was held as Dolgarrog "christened" the new river bridge.
The Black Hand Gang were on site on August 19th 2007, concluding their weekend's work further north by laying the length of track coming off the southern end of the bridge. Pre-curved rails were also placed alongside the track, ready to be moved to the sharp curve a short distance further on. Although Upnor Castle was in attendance, it was not allowed on to the bridge until the track was fully supported where it joins and leaves the structure.
The Tuesday Gang were fitting guard rails on the bridge on August 28th 2007; the right-hand picture shows the ballast train on the bridge, with all three hopper wagons in use; Upnor Castle is on the far end of the train, concealed by the van.
The supports for the track at both ends of the bridge are seen below (not entirely complete) early in September 2007.
Upnor Castle is seen below on the bridge on September 8th 2007.
The KMX tamper was at work at Bryn y Felin on October 29th 2007.
Road Bridge OB173
Cyngor Gwynedd Council have renewed the road bridge. CGC is the highways authority responsible for overbridges carrying public roads over the railway (apart from the Dinas A487 bridge - this is under a trunk road for which the Welsh Assembly Government is responsible). The need to renew the road bridge may not have seemed obvious to road users, but it became very clear as soon as the old structure was looked at more closely. The light 1920s steelwork seemed not to have been maintained for a long time, apart from the installation at some point of a strengthening girder structure, which was also showing its age.
The bridge was renewed in its entirety. The dimensions and alignment of the new bridge are very similar to the old one, although there are slightly easier clearances alongside the railway on the uphill side alongside the road. The railings either side of the road were replaced by walls, as was most of the fencing on the approaches.
To keep the road and railway open during the works, a temporary diversion road (with traffic control) was made through one side of the site, with a temporary level crossing. The diversion was on the uphill side, following what appears to be the original course of the road, and required some earthworks; the ground was made up again and vegetation re-planted at the end of the job. Construction and test trains continued to be able to run through the site when necessary, except during short periods at the start and end of the job when scaffolding was being erected and removed. Adjacent footpaths also remained open.
Gwynedd started work on the road diversion in the week beginning March 17th 2008.
These pictures taken on March 22nd 2008 give an idea of the route of the diversion relative to railway and the permanent road formation.
By the end of the month the diversion had been taken as far as the rail track; the level crossing and the formation leading out on to the road remained to be done.
Contractors were working on the short section between railway and road at the bottom of the diversion road on April 2nd 2008.
The diversion was surfaced on April 9th 2008, and the necessary flangeways at the level crossing were made by driving Upnor Castle across while the tarmac was still warm.
Also on April 9th 2008, volunteers from the Netherlands installed steps at the point where the Fisherman's Path crosses the line on the opposite bank of the river. Lineside tidying also took place nearby.
The diversion road had been marked with boundary and centre lines by April 12th 2008.
The diversion came into use temporarily on Monday April 14th 2008, under traffic lights while BT were on site diverting fibre optic cables which crossed the old bridge. In the following days the crossing gates were fitted - a single gate on each side closed across the railway, and faced a second gate across the road in each case.
The road across the bridge was closed in the week beginning April 21st 2008, and contractor G.H. James Cyf moved in, this time working for the council rather than the railway. Work base containers were established on the opposite side of the diversion road. Main demolition had not yet started when these pictures were taken on April 27th 2008, but some excavation had taken place. There was a temporary embargo of rail traffic while the bridge is demolished; a protective layer of stone was placed over the track.
These pictures show the bridge on May 1st 2008, with the deck and steel supports demolished.
Demolition of the abutments had started by May 4th 2008. The pictures in the second row were taken on the 6th.
By May 11th 2008 the south mass concrete abutment was completely gone, and the north one was much reduced.
The contractors are seen at work on May 13th 2008.
These views taken on May 22nd, 23rd and 24th 2008 show early progress with the foundations for the abutments of the new bridge.
Further progress had been made with the foundations by June 1st 2008, and formwork was on site for casting the abutments.
Formwork for the north abutment was being assembled on June 3rd 2008.
The first part of this abutment had been cast by June 8th 2008. The abutments are offset to each other, and were each built in two longitudinal sections, as well as being cast in stages. The loads on a bridge like this are compression loads, hence the use of mass rather than reinforced concrete.
These pictures show further sections which had been cast by June 11th 2008. Contractors were also working on the east abutment of the footbridge over the river, which had suffered under-scouring; an amphibious tracked vehicle was being used to move materials across the river for this work (last picture).
On the morning of June 14th 2008 the contractors cleared enough of the stone covering from the railway track to allow a first works train to run through the site, and use the temporary level crossing for the first time in almost two months. The train, which included the rail bolsters, ran from Hafod y Llyn up into Beddgelert Forest to recover unlaid rails for use further south.
These views show the bridge on June 22nd 2008, with a further section of the north abutment cast, and formwork in progress for the matching section of the south abutment.
By June 28th 2008 the overall shape of the concrete structure was becoming clearer, including the sloping wing wall between the railway and the curve of the road (second and third pictures below); its counterpart facing the river is visible in the second picture above.
A further concrete pour was due to take place when this picture was taken on June 30th 2008.
These pictures were taken on the occasion of a WHR Construction Ltd Board visit on July 7th 2008.
By July 13th 2008 the abutments had reached full height; shuttering is seen in place for the top of the chamfered wing wall of the south abutment. Backfill had started, with a breeze block wall erected between abutment and fill on both sides.
The repair to the footbridge abutment on the east bank is seen on the same day.
With the mass concrete abutments complete, L-shaped reinforced concrete bearings for the deck were added; the one on the north abutment was complete by July 20th 2008, and shuttering was being assembled for the one on the south abutment.
Both bearings were complete by July 24th 2008.
A morning works train on July 26th 2008 was used to check clearances within supports newly erected for the deck formwork.
The contractors were making progress with the deck formwork on July 31st 2008, and were creating triangular working platforms on the outsides of where the two parapets would go.
The first of these pictures taken on August 2nd 2008 shows part of the rebar cage for the reinforced concrete deck, which would be cast in situ. The holes in the bearings on the western side were for cable ducts which would run through the deck, replacing the ducting which had been slung outside the western face of the old bridge.
The deck slab had been cast by August 10th 2008, and the concrete was curing under hessian. Work had started on the rebar cores for the parapets; these are solid structures, unlike the open railings of the original bridge.
The main concrete structure was complete when seen on August 23rd and 24th 2008, and the ground for the road was being made back up on both approaches. Rebar cages were being made up, for the roadside walls and their footings.
By August 30th 2008 the fill for the road approaches was complete and a start had been made on footings for the roadside walls either side of the bridge on the west side, where stone cladding of the parapet was also under way.
Cladding had advanced further and the roadside walls had started to appear by September 7th 2008.
These pictures show the bridge on September 13th 2008.
The bridge is seen below on September 21st and 24th 2008.
G.H. James Cyf were also working on the opposite side of the river, making a ramped path to replace the steps between the footpath crossing and the start of the Fisherman's Path. This work was funded by the Snowdonia National Park Authority and the National Trust.
The following pictures taken on October 1st and 5th 2008 show progress with the roadside walls, with the one running past the south end of the site nearly complete, and footings in place for the walls on the curved ramp either side of the road on the approach from Beddgelert.
By October 12th 2008 traffic lights were in place on the approach to the bridge from the Beddgelert side and just across the level crossing, to protect walling work on the outer side of the road, work which extended into the curve by Bryn y Felin house.
The walls were structurally complete and clad (apart from cladding at a couple of spots at the bridge itself) by October 19th 2008, and a start had been made on vertically-set coping stones, starting from the Beddgelert end.
The coping stones and incomplete parts of the cladding were completed in the following week, leaving just the anti-climb coping stones to be added to the parapets, and soil was being added to cover the fill on the bridge approaches; the second row of pictures shows this work being done on October 27th 2008.
By November 2nd 2008 the parapet coping stones were in place on both sides, basic landscaping appeared complete (with of course more to be done after removal of the temporary road), and the bridge looked ready for road surfacing. The exposed concrete surfaces of the bridge are not going to be clad, but will be allowed to weather naturally - a process already visible on the deck edges in the second picture below.
James Cyf were laying base course tarmac on the bridge deck and its approaches on November 7th 2008.
The road across the bridge was brought into use on the evening of November 11th 2008, and the temporary road was closed. The second picture below shows contractors at work the next day on the foot crossing LC90 on the other side of the river.
The last phase of the Council contract here was the removal of the temporary road and level crossing, and landscaping. The process of breaking up the road surface had started from the upper end when seen in the first of the following pictures taken on November 14th 2008. The last picture shows work the same day at LC90, with a kissing gate delivered to the site.
The disability-friendly kissing gates at LC90 had been put in place when seen early on the morning of November 20th 2008.
By November 23rd 2008 the temporary level crossing had been removed from the railway (site visible in the background in the second picture below), and the landscaping work appeared to have been largely completed within railway boundaries, and to be proceeding on the site of the temporary road where it had crossed neighbouring land.
The contractor had left the site by December 7th 2008, with the landscaping job done; the only trace of the temporary road was a very short section of it at the top left to give access to a field gate, at which one of the level crossing gates had also found new employment. Fencing had been provided rather than walls at the points where the temporary road had left the A498 at both the top and bottom ends of the site.
The first of these pictures taken on December 20th 2008 shows the landscaping from below, with the relative lack of ballast serving as the biggest clue that a road had recently run through the site. The ballast here also required attention owing to water which had flowed across the temporary road and into the trackbed rather than into the trackside drainage. The second picture shows LC90 with fencing in place.
In early May 2009, with a fortnight to go before opening of this section, Gwynedd continued the walling work which had been done around the road bridge, replacing the wire fence (which had reportedly been suffering from vandalism) at the former "lay by" access which had also been the bottom of the temporary road. In these pictures taken on May 7th the work site was protected by traffic lights, and the foundations for the wall had been laid.
A week later the wall was about a day's work from completion.
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