NEWYDDION Y GOGLEDD №25 SPRING 2020 All photos this edition John Ellis Williams except were attributed Edited by Alf Williams

For this edition a few changes have been made to the layout to allow for a 15 page special featuring photos from the North Wales Groups Summer trips dating back to the summer of 2014 the year that NYG was first published and covers the years 2014-2016. I hope this brings you, the reader a few smiles, to brighten the darkened days of the Coronavirus lock down. Below the big news for the WHR for 2020 so far, is the welcome return to service of NG/G16 Garratt locomotive No87 in its new black SAR livery.

December 2019 NG/G16No87 Emerges from the Photo Alf Williams shed to have the rear bunker and dome re-fitted

Loadall lowers coalbunker, with water hose Steam dome is lowered on to attached; on to rear power bogie. its flange on the boiler Photo Alf Williams photo Alf Williams

February 2020; NG/G16 No87 sporting its new SAR black livery stands at the platform in Dinas with its train

1 Caernarfon Station Hosting a meeting between the Ff&WHR Co and volunteers, which was entitled “Taking The Railway Forward” lower 2 photographs. Below; A chance meeting of the board members of ChRE and FfRsoc gave rise to this pose in the stations rotund

In close up Paul Lewin presenting the strategy for Boston Lodge

The meeting entitled “Taking the Railway Foreword”; in progress in the station concourse; one of the many uses for this versatile space.

2 Hand Prints; Photo Diary of the Black Hand Gang The Black Hand Gang, versatile as ever, have made a specialty of installing paling fences at stations along the line; this time it was the turn of Nantmor Halt to receive the gangs attention .

Left The Gang put there much practiced routine into action, after measuring out the positions for each fence post base, the holes are then excavated, and shuttering boxes positioned in the holes. These are then ready to be filled with concrete.

Right With the post bases set they are ready to receive the metal sockets which; when accurately positioned, are rawl bolted into position.

Left The paling fence under construction, this photo clearly shows the fence posts in position in their metal holders, with the horizontal rails fitted ready to receive the palings

3 Hand Prints; continued.

Left Jim Comerford, holds a fence paling in position, whilst Tom Waldren on the impact driver; securely screws it on to the fence rails, ably assisted in this repetitive task by Tony Murphy.

Below Dafydd Thomas takes a moment to pause and watch a gleaming and recently out shopped Garratt NG/G16 No 87 at the head of its train as it passes on route for Caernarfon.

Below Another first class fence erected by the Black Hand Gang.

Photo Tom Waldren

Right We don’t just do fences! Black Hand Gang pressure washing the platform at Dinas to the remove the moss that had accumulated over a long wet winter

Photo Tom Waldren

4 Tuesday engineering Gang With the loco shed at Dinas full to capacity, the TEG have turned their hand to a number of tasks, that included extending the fixed wall mounted compressed air line, work on the buffer beam of NG/G15 N134 and making and fitting a new cab floor for NG/G16 No 87.

Jim Comerford and Dafydd Jones Morris installing the new cab floor to NG/G16 No87

5 Dinas engine shed has a new recruit.

Left Recently retired Tony Murphy and “Yorkie” aka John Walsh are busily scraping the burnt paint and rust from NG/G16 No143’s the smoke box in preparation for a repaint with black heat resistant paint. In readiness for the 2020 season, which so far has only seen the February half term trains running. The main season has yet to start, being held in limbo by the current Coronavirus pandemic.

Right Tony and “Yorkie” Getting stuck in to the repainting of NG/G16 No143 smoke box.

6 North Wales Group News report Caernarfon new station Since Caernarfon’s new Station opened the North Wales Group has given much tangible support to Steven Greig’s efforts to turn the new station and its facilities into a go to cafe for morning coffee, breakfasts and meals throughout the day. Plus developing a role for it as a new venue in Caernarfon for events that utilises the station concourse as an evening entertainment space. More recently it has also hosted several daytime events held on behalf of the Ff&WHRCo. Unfortunately this is now all been put on hold, by the all-pervasive influence of the Corona virus pandemic, which has permeated into every aspect of our daily lives, holding us all in a state of thrall. When this dreadful scourge finally starts to loosen its grip and the railway recommences operation; it is vital that we all continue too support Caffi de Winton by using it as a regular coffee stop; and hopefully it will become the WHR North Wales Group’s and railway volunteers’, version of Spooners Café at Harbour Station. North Wales Group speakers and events January 8th Speaker Mr. Ieuan Owen Ieuan’s presentation was illustrated by his own excellent photographs of steam locomotives, great and small in a range of locations across North Wales. On the standard gauge locomotive stars ‘Leander’, ‘Flying Scotsman’, ‘Tornado’ and many others were featured. Nearer to home, he showed several narrow gauge locos that have visited the many events held on Ff&WHR over the preceding years. Most noteworthy, was the historically important visit of WHHR locomotive ‘Russell’ hauling passenger trains out of Harbour Station and through the Aberglaslyn pass on the Welsh Highland Railway. February 12th Speaker Mr. Humphrey Davies ‘Humph’ (as he is known to his friends and colleagues) is a member of the North Wales Group’s committee. All present very much enjoyed the second part of his extremely well researched and illustrated talk on the historical route of the Welsh Highland Railway. March 11th Speaker John Wooden Outtakes John is well known in Ff&WHR for his professional quality DVDs’ which are sold in the shop at Harbour Station, amongst other titles to his name he is responsible for the Year in the Life of the Ff&WHR series, and U tube video series entitled Moving Pictures a video magazine featuring all aspects of the life and times and notable events on both railways. John’s presentation on the evening was in two parts; before the break a DVD of outtakes from his recently produced DVDs was screened, this was followed after the break by a screening of digitised old film stock featuring the Ffestiniog Railway during the first years as an operational preserved railway. This fascinating footage underlined how the railway has grown and developed since those early preservation years.

Impact of Coronavirus epidemic: North Wales Group activities The remaining Meetings in the 2019/20 season that were due to take place in April and May (which incorporates the group AGM) have been cancelled due to the ongoing and increasingly serious Coronavirus pandemic. Also cancelled is the much-anticipated trip to the Statfold Barn Railway that was due to take place in June.

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The long weekend trip planned for July, is currently still in the schedule, but is under review and may yet also be cancelled. It is hoped that the 2020/21 North Wales Group programme of events will commence in September as usual at which time it may also be possible to hold the rescheduled North Wales Group AGM. All of the various volunteer gangs have stopped working and gang members have been advised to follow the current advice; To keep themselves safe from the epidemic and stay at home until advised otherwise.

Donation to ChRE, FfR soc. and Ff&WHR Trust Corona Virus joint appeal The company’s has launched an urgent appeal for financial support to help it overcome the prolonged period of shut down of its revenue earning activity that has been imposed by governmental regulations relating to the current Corona virus pandemic. In response to the appeal, your committee has made a donation of £2000 from the North Wales Group funds, Personal donations have also been requested; these are can be made by a direct donation to the Welsh Highland Railway Society. Rather than via Pay Pal as suggested in Paul Lewin’s Appeal on U Tube, since this will incur a charge. Volunteer activities Dinas workshops Motive power based at Dinas NG/G15 No134 Work on NG/G15 No134 has been greatly facilitated and re-energised since taking up residence within the loco shed, its presence there has made it easier for paid staff to provide some technical input to the project. Progress has been made on the lubrication system with use of components fitted as standard to NG/G16’s used to provide pump fed lubrication to the Krauss Helmholtz Truck. Axel boxes are to be modified to adopt practices as used on NG/G16s. The Tuesday Engineering Gang; recently turned their versatile hands to steam locomotive restoration and have been actively working on the NG/G15 No134 under the guidance of the workshop staff. This has included filling and welding holes in the buffer beam, preparation of same for priming, and application of a coat of primer plus cleaning and painting of loco smoke boxes ready for the start of the new season. In addition, they have fabricated and now installed a new cab floor into NG/GNo87, as part of the work needed prior to its return to service. However all volunteer efforts are now on hold due to the restrictions imposed by the current pandemic. NG/G16 No87 It is pleasing to report that NG/GNo87, sporting its South African Railway’s styled black livery returned to revenue earning service in time for the February half term holidays running the service together with Garratt No 143. NG/G16 No130; No up-to-date information available at present. NG/G138 Is now due for its 10-year boiler examination. This will involve lifting the existing boiler off its cradle, which necessitates the disconnection of all pipe work and removal of water level sight glasses from the back head. Together with; removal of; all cladding, ashpans plus grate together with lifting of off the cab, chimney, spark arresters, whistle and live steam manifold. So no small job, all of which will have to be reinstalled on to the replacement boiler once it is installed. To reduce the time that NG/G16 No 138 is out of service, it will receive the boiler that was obtained from the Puffing Billy Railway in Australia. Whilst the boiler and cab are off, no doubt the opportunity provided by having total access to the power bogies and boiler cradle, will be taken to do such remedial work on these items as is deemed necessary.

8 Diesel loco ‘Castell Caernarfon/Caernarfon Castle’ Is currently at Boston Lodge receiving some mechanical refurbishment, plus, complete re-wiring and a repair and repainting of all body panels. The aim is to have the loco back in service for the 2020 season when it is able to commence. Alf Williams

North Wales/Black Hand Gang: report for Newyddion y Gogledd №25.

At the end of January, the floor at Rhyd Ddu was given its final coat by two of our volunteers whilst the rest of us proceeded direct to Nantmor Halt to commence our next task. Namely the installation of a new fence from the entrance gate to the platform, the old post and wire fence had become a bit of a mess with rotten posts and slack wire. It was decided to replace it with our standard WHR platform fence. We also had to replace the support posts of the fence at the rear of the platform, many of which had started to succumb to the damp conditions. The first task at Nantmor was to remove the APG (anti-personnel grid) at the Porthmadog end of the road crossing to enable a minidigger to get to the area that we would be working on. We had the assistance of Medwyn from W H Jones Plant Services, who with the aid of the minidigger made short work of removing what remained of the posts of the fence from the gateway to the platform; we had previously removed the wire fence. Medwyn then excavated the 10 holes we required for installing the concrete bases for the new fence’s support posts. We were able to progress rapidly with installing shuttering boxes for the concrete and succeeded in pouring the concrete into seven of the boxes on the Saturday. The aggregate having been delivered to site previously; we brought the cement and water with us. It is necessary to bring water to Nantmor, not only for the vital task of tea making but also to be able to mix the concrete as there is no water supply at the halt other than a water butt. On the Sunday the remaining shuttering boxes were fabricated, installed and the concrete poured into them. Also, over the weekend we removed the fence panels from the rear of the platform as well as cutting back some of the vegetation behind the platform. The fence panels themselves were none the worse and only need a scrub to get the algae off them; it was the posts that had become rotten. Into February and we were ready to start installing the new fence from the gateway to the platform. A great deal of time was expended on the Saturday morning collecting material from the builder’s merchants but a start was made with the installation of 4 fence panels we had spare from a previous job. The fence posts are held in place by means of galvanised steel base plates, which are bolted to the concrete bases. There is a gap of 20mm between the bottom of the wooden post and the base plate, this prevents water being drawn into the post. It also means that replacing a post, should we need to do so, is an easy straightforward matter. Heavy rainfall also cut the day short and a somewhat damp gang retreated to Dinas. Sunday was a better day and good progress was made with installing further fence panels. Also the shuttering boxes for the posts at the rear of the platform were fabricated, each one having to be a bespoke one to suit its location. The concrete was poured into these and left to set for a fortnight before our next visit. For the weekend of 15/16 February Storm Dennis had been predicted and we feared the worse but we were lucky to be at Nantmor which is fairly sheltered; also it somehow didn’t rain there as much as forecast. We were able to complete the fence from the gateway to the platform. We also were able to patch an area of tarmacadam around where the posts of an old timetable board had been at the end of the platform. A previous attempt to do this was hampered by the cold conditions and the tarmac was rock hard. This time, having been very kindly loan a Propane gas blowtorch from our Chairman, Cedric Lodge we were able to make the tarmac somewhat more pliable. Progress was also made on installing new posts for the

9 fence at the rear of the platform with the new base plates being installed on the new concrete bases. We were also able to install some of the fence panels. The palings of the fence had, in places, become heavily stained with algae and most of this was removed by the use of a scrubbing brush with soap and water. Despite the weather we were well pleased with the progress we had made over the weekend. On the last day of February, we were able to complete the fence at Nantmor and hopefully it will now last a considerable bit longer. On 1st March we were able to turn our attention to two jobs, the gang splitting into two groups. One visiting Pont Croesor to carry out modifications to the cupboard housing the Micro ETS equipment and the other dealing with the fence at the rear of the Up platform at Dinas. A couple of fence posts had become loose and obviously rotten at their base. When we installed this fence some years ago the new method we now use whereby galvanized steel baseplates are bolted to a concrete base had not been perfected. We dug out the remnants of the post, drilled into the concrete that had held the posts in place, which allowed us to install reinforcing bar secured with Epoxy resin. This will bond the old and new concrete together. Shuttering for the new concrete bases was fabricated and concrete poured into them. All this was carried out whilst having to keep on eye open for the ever present cyclists on Lon Eifion; the majority are courteous and will slow down or even stop to see what we are up to however there are a few of the Lycra clad brigade who seem oblivious to our presence and our warning cones, they just hurtle past without any consideration. A temporary fence was installed in the gaps in the fence and we returned in a fortnight to complete the job. The following weekend of 14/15 March turned out to be our final weekend without knowing when we would be back again due to the Coronavirus Covid19 and its devastating effect on the railway and life in general. On this weekend the repair to the fence at the back of Dinas Up platform was completed with base plates being installed to carry the fence posts rather than them being in the ground and susceptible to rotting. We were one base plate short but thanks to some scrounging in the scrap metal skip by Tony Murphy and some deft metalworking by him and welding by Graham Hoyland a new one was fabricated. As we had a reasonable turnout of eight volunteers, three of us got stuck into reorganising the Gang’s storage container, which had lately become somewhat disorganised. On the Sunday we descended on Caernarfon station to pressure wash the entire platform, apart from the last 25 metres at the Dinas end, our total hosepipe lengths would only reach that far. This was meant to be in readiness for the main train services starting on 28th March; well it’s done, ready and waiting. We went back to Dinas for lunch via Waunfawr so that we could assess our next task, which is the dismantling of the wooden station buildings there. The idea is to dismantle and flat pack the building sections so that they can be put into storage until needed elsewhere but that job will now have to wait a while. At Dinas two thirds of the Up platform was pressure washed; there is extensive amounts of moss on some parts of this platform, mostly where there is over-hanging tree cover. Time prevented completing the job on this occasion and we had intended that a couple of volunteers would complete the task later in the month. The Black Hand Gang will be back in action when it’s safe to do so, in the meantime stay safe and well. Dafydd Thomas.

10 North Wales Group HOLIDAY SNAPS 2014-2016

Above A typical Statfold Barn scene with the mixed gauge track clearly visible. Except for Paul Ingham who can be seen leaning out of the cab of No9 the loco on the left.

Left The grain store, now a round house well stocked with immaculately restored narrow gauge locos.

Right on the way home, Tony Murphy, Ifor Hael, Tony Rowland, Tym Crowther Pete Carrog, Ivan Taxi and Elwyn Jones sample the beer in the Tame Otter.

11 long weekend July2014

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Left Last leg of the journey, Douglas quayside by double-decker bus, to the Empress Hotel.

Below John Ellis’ legs come out of hibernation in the sunroom of the Empress Hotel.

Snaefell Mountain Railway

Left SMR overhead electric vehicle, with Fell rail braking for extra safety on the steep gradients encountered on the climb to the summit.

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Right the light and airy interior of the Snaefell Mountain Railway carriage

Below An intrepid group makes it to the mist-shrouded summit. .

Above the iconic Laxey Wheel

Left Douglas and Laxey Tramway Cars 1 and 2 wait at the depot.

13 Isle of Man Steam Railway (lower 3 Photos Alf Williams) Below exchanging tokens at Castletown Middle left locos 4 Loch and… Middle right No 4 Caledonia at the Terminus Station

The Croudle Glen Railway Left &Right Jim and Val enjoying the open sided car Left In the passing loop

14 Churnet Valley June 2015 (Photos this page Alf Williams) The June one day trip was meant to visit the Foxfield Railway renowned for its evocation of the industrial railway scene, however at the last minute they decided not to open on the date that was planned for the group visit. Plan B was set in motion, a visit to the nearby Churnet Valley Railway. After a steam hauled trip on the railway it was a stop at a pub along the line for lunch and a few beers, then up the line for a few more beers outside in the sunshine. Mission accomplished it was back on the coach for a snooze on the journey home to North Wales.

Polish 0-6-0 tank engine hauling a service train past the pub beer garden

Tony Murphy the NWG tour mascot surveys the Dafydd Thomas holding scene and sees that it is court outside of the pub good.

Steam Railway, good friends, good food and beer, all topped off by glorious weather: outcome, another excellent NWG day trip, a huge “thank you” is due to trip organizers Elwyn Jones and Dafydd Thomas.

15 Long weekend southern tour July 2015

Day 1 Caernarfon to South Wales and the Brecon Mountain Railway’s immaculately turned out 2 foot gauge American loco No2, ready to take us on a scenic return journey into the beautiful Brecon Beacons.

Mid Hants at Alton Station Day 2 After starting from Alresford then travelling through delightful Hampshire countryside the Mid Hants Railway meets Network Rail at Alton Station

Day3 The Southern Railway theme continues: Our journey on the recently extended Bluebell Railway starts at Sheffield Park and runs through to the new terminus at East Grinstead.

16 Long weekend July 2015, continued… Day 4 and now for something smaller It was the day to visit the small but perfectly formed 15inch gauge Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway for a wonderful round trip from Hythe to the bleakness of Dungeness and back to Hythe. The line has a long and distinguished history of service to the community and was enlisted to aid the war effort during WW 2.

And in case you were wondering… the ladies (left) were having a great time too!! Below right Even Elwyn (our tour organiser) finds time for a pint .

Right Our resident minstrel Ivan making sure that wherever the Welsh contingent goes it is guaranteed there will be lots of laughter, music and hearty singing.

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Day 5 (left) WHR civil engineer Alasdair Stewart, starts our tour of the reconstruction work at Robertsbridge before the group move on to the charming Kent and East Sussex Railway pictured (Below right) (Below left) replica of the casket made for the Unknown Soldier; ironwork on both the original and the replica were made and fitted in Caernarfon by Brunswick Iron Works.

Day 6 (last railway fix before arriving home) GWR Society Didcot Right A replica of Brunel’s 7 foot gauge track. Below Traverser for the engine shed: note the cream and red vehicle is the motive power to move the traverser.

18 Llangollen June 2016 Left The group arrives on the show field opposite Glyndyfrdwy Station for the Llangollen Railway’s transport festival ready for a brief look round to enjoy the classic cars and busses assembled there for the show.

Right North Wales Group tour mascot Tony Murphy wearing his badge of office, his Touring Hat this year complete with operating railway (clockwork) with track of course laid by the Black Hand Gang. Well O.K by him really.

Left Classic busses of all shapes and sizes on parade on the festival field

19 Llangollen trip continued…

Left Driver’s eye view of departure from Corwen. Below Elwyn Gareth and Effion in high spirits.

Below Lunch in the Grouse at Carrog

Below A GWR side tank No5199 bearing BR insignia stands at the platform on Glyndyfrdwy Station.

Below Left Proof that we did get to Llangollen, well at least John, Em, Dafydd JM and Jim did.

Dafydd Jones Morris leads the singing

20 Long Weekend trip North of England Experience July 2016

This year the long weekend trip entitled The North of England Experience took North Wales Group members partners and friends into the far North east of England to Explore preserved railways in that Area.

Left

Whilst near Gateshead, viewing the Angel of the North by Anthony Gormley was an absolute must. The scale is immense (20m tall) as can be judged by the relative size of the people gathered around it. Equally impressive but invisible to the eye, the vast underground concrete and steel footings which support the statue’s massive weight and resist the force of the wind on it’s gigantic (54 m wide) out

Below It is not often that one encounters a sculpture in brick, and rarer still, to see that material used to sculpt a Gresley A4 pacific at speed. Located near Darlington close to the A66 Statistics 185000 bricks weight 15000 Tonnes

21 NWG long Sumer Trip Highlights North Yorkshire Moors Railway Saturday 23rd July Left The group’s eagerly awaited trip on the NYMR begins at the beautifully restored Grosmont Station. During the day we enjoyed a full traverse of the line finishing the outward journey at Whitby where the now hungry travellers went in search of (arguably) the best fish and chips in the world to found in the fishing port. Whitby is also famous for its ruined Abbey, which inspired Bram Stoker to write his famous Dracula Novel.

Right An immaculate Black Five No 45428 “Eric Treacy” awaits departure with its train for Whitby

Left

North Yorkshire Moors Railway Signal and crossing box at Grosmont.

22 Sunday 24th July Beamish Museum

Left This wonderful open-air museum authentically takes you back in time to 1825 and this wonderful engine shed. Home to a collection of working replicas of some of the earliest steam locos.

Right Locomotive maintenance shed looking very much like the smithy it was evolving from.

Left A cut down pressure vessel makes for an unusual ticket office selling tickets for a short ride behind a replica Steam Elephant.

Right The Carriages’ await…. Carriages’ very much in the style of the 1830’s era and based on the then current horse drawn vehicles.

23 July 24th 2016 Beamish continued.

Right Close up of the Steam Elephant; The cylindrical vessel around the base of the chimney is the loco’s water supply, and was probably an early form of feed water pre-heating. Below Note the vertical cylinders embedded in the boiler and that the connecting rods do not go cranks on the wheels but to cranks on way shafts that cross the frames, presumably to some form of gearing?

Below There is so many more eras replicated around the extensive parkland of the museum that a tram system encircles the park carrying visitors to its numerous areas of interest such as…

Stephenson’s office

The colliery stationary engine Trams take visitors around the park to see the exhibits

An old colliery yard

24 Monday 25th of July Skipton for the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway Then home with many happy memories of another outstanding trip and a huge thank you to our trip organisers Elwyn Jones and Dafydd Thomas.

Left The ex GWR locomotive runs around our train at Bolton Abbey Station before our short trip up and down the line followed by a visit to the engine shed, then lunch and finally the long journey home

Right One of the many projects under way in the engine shed. The rebuilding of a are petrol electric Rail motor, the large black box is a packaged diesel electric power unit that replaces the defunct petrol- electric unit.

Left The control desk and driver’s seat were integrated into the design of the packaged power unit, and are now installed into the rail motor body.

Right The miniature lever frame that operates the points and signals controlled from the Signal box at Bolton Abbey. A set of an identical type to these, was supplied to the FfR Co and are now installed and operating in the new signal Box at

MORE NORTH WALES HOLIDAY SNAPS IN THE NEXT EDITION STAY SAFE AND STAY HOME. Best wishes from Alf Williams editor

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