The route section of the site includes detailed illustrated descriptions - Rhyd Ddu to Beddgelert and Beddgelert to Porthmadog.
The trees visible in the distance from Pitt's Head are at Pont Cae'r Gors, where the railway enters forestry land and immediately begins the long, sharp descent towards Beddgelert. It had not been obvious to many just where the trackbed ran at this point. February 2005's clearance revealed the answer (left, looking towards Beddgelert); a broad cutting to the west of the downhill forest roadway, which promised to be a spectacular railway location in due course, and which had been all but invisible. Immediately to the north of it, there was a short infilled section (right, looking towards Pitt's Head) which required excavation, and realignment of a forest road leading west, which was crossed on the level. It is not immediately apparent why the Pont Cae'r Gors cutting is so wide; it may be that it was a convenient source of material to make the large embankment on which the trackbed bears down and right almost immediately beyond.
On the Rhyd Ddu side of this site, the trackbed was revealved, together with the very corroded beam of a very small bridge over a stream (the other beam had vanished altogether), in much the same style as the Pitt's Head culverts.
This culvert (UB125) marked the border between the Rhyd Ddu - Pont Cae'r Gors and Pont Cae'r Gors - Hafod Ruffydd contracts. Work on the new deck started in late June 2006, following excavation down to the original abutments. The replacement deck has four beams in place of the original two - the additional outer pair allow walkways to be added - which are seen below in place, with reinforcing mesh assembled for casting of the crossmembers on each abutment.
UB125 is seen below on July 8th, with shuttering in place ready for casting of the crossmembers.
The wooden deck was fitted on Saturday July 15th, and track was laid across the bridge and LC70, a few metres to the south, the same weekend.
The rails had been clipped down onto the deck of UB125 when seen below on July 25th.
Phasey Construction moved on site in late September 2005, with an order to excavate the whole cutting floor back to trackbed level, forming part of civils contract 4A-1C. Rapid progress was made, as seen below on October 1st. Phasey used its Rhyd Ddu compound as the base of operations for this job.
The excavator just visible in the long zoom picture on the right above is standing at the point at the top of the cutting where a short length had been infilled (see above), with a forestry road crossing it.
By October 9th a shallow initial excavation had been made at the crossing (left). In the main part of the cutting immediately to the south, more freshly revealed sleepers were visible (centre). The excavation on the Rhyd Ddu side of the crossing, deprived of drainage until full excavation of the crossing, had promptly flooded with rainwater (right).
The trackbed excavation of the crossing reached full depth in the following week, draining the flooded section and also making clear the extent of the necessary grading of the roadways on either side.
Good progress was made with this grading work in the following days, giving an idea of the shape of the crossing. The main roadway leading down into the forest, parallel with the railway and on the east side of the crossing, had been reopened, with a remodelled curve leading away from the entrance from the A4085.
At the end of the month the crossing was open again for pedestrians.
The pictures below, taken from north of the split between this contract length and the Rhyd Ddu - Pont Cae'r Gors section, illustrate the crossing from the future point of view of southbound trains.
Contractors Morrison carried out work at the foot of the cutting in Summer 2005 on behalf of Scottish Power/Manweb, relocating a power line to which access would be blocked by the railway. This involved excavation down to trackbed level over a short length, which revealed that the ground level had risen appreciably while the cutting was overgrown. The work also exposed half a dozen or so sleepers (right-hand picture, the location is between the other two), which appeared to be in surprisingly good condition.
Excavation of the whole cutting made it obvious that no attempt was made to recover sleepers when rails were lifted from this section, which was the last to be dismantled, after wartime use for artillery practice downhill from here, using targets attached to wagons. The line of sleepers also revealed that while the track followed the centreline of the cutting at the top, by the bottom it was hugging the western side of the cutting, leaving a broad space which could have had some purpose yet to be properly established.
In late February the top of the cutting was excavated down to a slightly deeper level than the original, introducing a visible change in gradient visible in the left-hand picture below. This gives a more level stretch on the immediate approach to the crossing.
Evidence of some movement in the cutting sides led to further survey work, and the adoption of a programme of works to do more grading of the cutting sides to ensure stability, and to install further drainage. The top of the cutting is seen below at the start of these works by G.H. James Cyf.
Rapid progress was made, as seen below on June 2nd and 3rd, when two excavators were on site. The western side of the cutting, previously stripped and graded at the north end only, was being graded over the full length of the cutting, giving a shallower and more stable profile.
Regrading also took place on the eastern side immediately afterwards, with the work largely complete when seen below on June 10th. The contractors were preparing to install trackside drains; a stock of the same slot drain sections as used at Pitt's Head was noted at the Hafod Ruffydd Isaf car park, a short distance down the forest road from the cutting.
It was found that measures were likely to be needed to prevent movement of the bottoms of the sides, to a height of approximately one metre. There is some very hard rock underneath the cutting floor, and some adjustments have been made to projected track levels on the southern approach in order to give adequate ballast depth beneath the new sleepers; the original ones seen above seem to have been laid almost directly on the floor with little or no ballast underneath, an unsound solution at the time and not acceptable today. In general, it has been found that the original construction of the cutting left a lot to be desired.
The cutting is seen below on June 25th, with further work done on the sides and more in prospect. A first area had been treated by spot excavation of the clay followed by the addition of crushed slate waste over a geotextile base, and others had been marked out for similar treatment.
At the start of July it was decided to defer the main stabilisation work so as not to hold up progress with tracklaying. Work was being put in hand to complete the northern approach (UB125 and LC70), prior to laying track through the cutting. This would allow permanent tracklaying south to continue, and rails to be delivered by train and stockpiled ahead of the stabilisation work. The picture below shows sleeper bundles being unloaded south of the cutting on July 4th.
The pictures below show work in progress to lay sub-base and provide side drainage on July 12th.
A large drain was dug along the western side of the cutting to help drain the waterlogged clay above. This will be finished, together with the retaining walls, at a later date. In the meantime tracklaying is seen below progressing on July 16th towards the limit of available formation towards the middle of the cutting; the contractors had work in hand to complete the formation onwards to join up with the long ballasted section to the south.
When seen below on July 18th the Tuesday Gang were proceeding towards the limit of ballast, ahead of which the contractors were using a rock buster to cut a drain. Following completion of this, sub-base and ballast were laid to join up with the ballasted section to the south.
It was hoped that the "gap" would be ready for tracklaying over the weekend of July 22nd-23rd, but this target was not quite met, the hardness of the rock being cut to make the drain being a factor.
When seen below on the 25th the cross drain was done (left-hand picture) and drainage work was being completed at the bottom of the cutting, sub-base having been laid along the intervening stretch.
The ballasted trackbed was finished and handed over by the end of the week, allowing the Rest of the World Gang to lay fourteen lengths over the weekend of July 29-30th, taking the Head of Steel not just to the end of the cutting, but also out of sight beyond it.
Volunteers got an improvement in transport and messing facilities for the first weekend in August, with the arrival from Dinas of the SAR van and the "new" mess van no. 1000 (ex-FR no. 100), seen below parked at the bottom of the cutting with Upnor Castle on August 6th, while the track gang were working further downhill with Dolgarrog.
The picture below shows the top of the cutting on August 24th 2006, with nature vigorously greening over the cutting sides.
Top ballasting and tamping was in progress on July 19th 2007, using the Matisa tamper; Upnor Castle is seen standing north of the level crossing with all three ballast wagons.
On January 30th 2008 contractors for the Forestry Commission Wales were working near Pont Cae'r Gors on an improved road alignment for commercial extraction of timber from Beddgelert Forest.
This route involves a new level crossing at the foot of the cutting; the site is seen below on February 5th 2008.
Two days later the roadway was being made up across the crossing, which has been given construction designation LC70A.
These views show the crossing in rather better weather on February 10th 2008. The Forestry Commission were also widening the roadway parallel to the railway up from the new crossing to the junction with the A4085, gaining the extra width on the side away from the railway.
The completed gated crossing is seen below on April 9th 2008. At the top of the cutting, LC70 had also been fitted with pedestrian gates.
From the south end of the cutting to Hafod Ruffydd level crossing (LC71) the trackbed had seen use as a made-up forestry road, and was already in generally excellent condition. The exception was a partial collapse on one side of the trackbed a short distance above the crossing, plus some less serious erosion by a culvert nearby.
Fencing from Pont Cae'r Gors to Hafod Ruffydd was done in Summer 2005.
The section from the cutting foot to Hafod Ruffydd was contracted out to G.H. James Cyf., the firm which also worked southwards from Hafod Ruffydd. Work is seen in progress below on rectifying the slip shown above; the right-hand picture shows James's work base at the site of Hafod Ruffydd Halt, immediately north of the crossing.
With James's work complete on the long downhill section below the cutting, the Tuesday Gang are seen below laying track on August 8th 2006.
The other significant job on this stretch was the stream crossing at the Afon Cwm Ddu, UB133 (nicknamed the McAlpine Bridge in a reference to the 1920s contractors), which has been rebuilt; the remainder of the work is straightforward.
The landslip repair was complete by mid-December, and the trackbed from Hafod Ruffydd to UB133 was essentially ready for ballasting. Following this, the contractor gained access to rebuild the bridge, and tackle the rest of this contract - Pont Cae'r Gors to UB131 - from the opposite end. The pictures below show (left) prepared trackbed just south of UB133, looking south, and (right) the site of the repaired landslip, looking north.
By the end of April 2006 the contractor was making rapid progress laying sub-base on the section from the cutting foot down to Hafod Ruffydd, as seen in the first picture below, taken from the access at the upper end, and in Peter Johnson's two pictures taken looking the other way from further away and higher up.
Ballast was laid from near the foot of Pont Cae'r Gors cutting to just north of UB131 by June 16th 2006.
The views below show UB133 on February 9th 2006. Removing the embankment above it showed the original concrete structure to be in poor condition. Shuttering was in place for new concrete to be cast on the downstream (eastern) face, following which repairs were to be carried out on the upstream face and deck. The dark patches visible on the deck in the first picture are mostly holes, many running right through the deck from top to bottom.
Following the addition of some extra concrete walling to protect the repaired structure in future, the structure of UB133 was completed at the start of June 2006 (see below), and attention then turned to another similar structure in dubious condition a little further north, UB131, the main structure of which was complete by the end of June.
Further work was carried out on UB131 in July and August 2006, including the addition of side walls made from concrete L-sections (to be clad with sawn slate) to retain the ballast better than the original design allowed for. The formation was completed across UB131 on August 14th.
The section through UB131 is on a relatively tight curve. It was decided to send rails for such sections away to be pre-curved, to give the smoothest results and to keep up the rate of tracklaying. The first pre-curved rails were brought up from Dinas for use here on the August 11th 2006 rail train. The first were laid over the weekend of August 12-13th, at the extremity of the 13 lengths laid over the weekend, taking the Head of Steel to CH17360. This work also included laying the special gauge widened sleepers supplied for sharp curves, with the transition on South African sleepers with bolted clip fittings. The length of track laid demonstrated that these new measures meant that sharp curves would no longer mean much slower tracklaying. The picture below shows pre-curved rails on the stacks at Dinas, ready for loading and delivery to site.
Tracklaying reached UB131 on September 3rd 2006. The Tuesday Gang are seen below at work on September 19th, when the Head of Steel reached CH17721, just past culvert UB134, and just before the curve (seen in the June 3rd picture below) which leads towards the old Hafod Ruffydd Halt site. This 180m radius curve is gentle enough not to need the gauge widened sleepers, but was laid with staggered rail joints, in line with practice already established on Phase 4.
The Rest of the World Gang returned to the area on July 13th 2008, carrying out fencing work at UB131 and UB133.
A fortnight later they continued the fencing work at UB133.
The view below shows the trackbed immediately north of the Hafod Ruffydd work base on June 3rd 2006, almost ready for ballasting.
The pictures below show ballasted trackbed and a completed culvert on July 18th 2006.
Ballasting down from the UB131 area to Hafod Ruffydd crossing was completed ahead of the August 2006 Bank Holiday, giving a continuous run of ballast on into the next section. James had also done the initial pre-tracklaying works on the level crossing (LC71), which comprised building up the roadway on either side, and laying timbers where the track would later go. Following this James moved out of the Hafod Ruffydd base.
The Rest of the World Gang are seen below from Hafod Ruffydd level crossing on September 23rd 2006.
The Tuesday Gang reached LC71 on September 26th, completing basic tracklaying on this section.
On September 30th, Upnor Castle's works train was north of the crossing, offloading rails brought up from Dinas for laying south of Hafod Ruffydd.
Tamping and lining is seen below in progress in early May 2007. The Matisa tamper requires track to be supported temporarily by bottle jacks; the newer KMX machine does not need this. The KMX demonstrated its capacity during this work, reaching a maximum of 650m of track tamped in a single day.
The Black Hand Gang relaid part of the track through the crossing at Hafod Ruffydd over the weekend of June 21st-22nd 2008. This was done to put staggered rail joints into the curve at this location, which had been problematic since it was first laid, and create a smooth curve. The job involved first moving rail either north or south to achieve the stagger, which was done on the Saturday in an almost continuous downpour. On the Sunday, which was dry, the sleepers were repositioned to give the required support at the newly positioned rail joints, and achieve the 26 sleepers specified for lengths of track with staggered rail joints. This work also involved introducing new sleepers into each section.
The Rest of the World Gang were at work at the north end of the section covered by this page on October 18th 2008, at the start of a week-long track fettling working party. The new stiffer fishplates had arrived for improving various rail joints, particularly on the sharper curves, and the first pair was installed just north of UB125 at Pont Cae'r Gors; the process involved curving the rail ends with a pair of "Jim Crow" rail benders before adding the new fishplates, as seen in the pictures below taken on the 20th. The gang also took a works train south to Ty'n y Coed (south of the Forest campsite) to offload a DZ wagon load of materials for a building project.
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