(Last years figures in brackets above) Please also note the above figures do not include the statistics for the “Tree Week” and the “S&T Week” that followed on from Outdoor Week. A special thank you must go to the Vale of Rheidol railway who provided an additional impact wrench. So a very big thank you to everyone who helped make the week a success -gang members, Pendre staff, butty runners, catering staff and evening entertainers. Your railway appreciates your help. What did we do apart from working as a team? In no particular order: 1) widened and deepened the drainage hole in the weighbridge pit 2) applied sealant to the lead flashing and coping slates of the Weighbridge House 3) cut back greenery behind the Weighbridge House 4) removed ivy etc from road side at Ty Mawr bridge 5) removed greenery from the old loading dock at Pendre leaving tree stump exposed for Martin & the digger 6) removed greenery from the roadside of south of the level crossing at Pendre " 7) set out curve for track at Wharf from Llechfan hedge west end to new turnout installed in June 8) clear a lot of mud and other material contaminating the ballast in the area of the lever frame at Wharf 9) stacked a few garden grade sleepers for onward purchase 10) exposed the tops of some of the sleeper ends in Wharf yard in preparation for gauge maintenance work 11) dismantling the 17 lengths ready for the resleepering 12) dismantling the turnout at Quarry Siding 13) identified 4 rails required for completing the Quarry Siding west turnout from the stock on Ty Mawr 14) resleepered 17 lengths past milepost 4 ½ 15) put the platform benches under cover along the railway 16) removed another 2 tons of stone from Cynfal stream 17) prepared the resleepering site by milepost 4 ½ and the Quarry Siding turnout with the mini digger 18) clearing the accumulations of leaves between Quarry Siding and just east of milepost 4 ¼ – a boring but very important task. Accumulated leaves make line inspections very difficult and retain large quantities of moisture. 19) dealing with a minor landslip at Dolgoch on the last day of train operations. The cause of landslip was the usual problem of the wet ground opposite the station at Dolgoch creeping down the hill. We need to dig out the field drain again which will reduce the risk of further slippage for a few more years 20) clearing drains at Brynglas, Dolgoch, Abergynolwyn and on the extension 21) 85 yards of hedge laying east of milepost 4 22) leaf removal from the Dolgoch Station approach path 23) vegetation clearance from around the turnout stack east of Ty Mawr bridge 24) tidy up in the Guest House at Quarry Siding 25) removing two loads of sticky material from the turnout job at Quarry Siding to the milepost 4 ½ area for embankment strengthening 26) moving logs and some tree felling 27) the turnout job at Quarry Siding progressed steadily during the week: Layer of ballast Placing the bearers Packing up the bearers with timber to height and shovel packing them with barrowed ballast Removing the timber packing and completing the shovel packing Laying on and fishplating the crossing Laying on the two stock rails and fishplating them after the north level crossing rail was cropped by 4 inches 28) removed the build up of oil and grease in the loco road 29) cleaned off the wagon decks at the end of the week 30) getting all the tools together at the beginning of the week 31) putting all the tools away at the end of the week 32) loading a skip at Wharf with scrap 33) drinking tea 34) started to remove the concrete base of the signal column east of Pendre. This formed part of the former Pendre signalling scheme. 35) grading all the displaced sleepers 36) design work associated with maintaining the various bridges at Brynglas 37) plus all the jobs I have missed. 38) spring (winter) clean of the guards room 39) tidying up around the publicity hut at Wharf 40) tidying behind the toilet block at Wharf 41) replanting the tubs and window boxes at Wharf Thank you very much again to everyone for their time, effort and comradeship.
