As we approach the Boxing Day to New Year daily train service on both FR and WHR, this forms a natural break in the WMWP, and an opportunity to review what we have achieved and look at plans for the 02nd January to 08th February major possession period.
On FR the programme commenced in November with consolidation of the re railing work over the last Winter at Boston Lodge; this included check tightening of rail fastenings and fishplates, checking and correcting top and alignment around the curves and through the re laid Pen Cob crossover, and re aligning the curve off the Cob to improve the entry into the new Pen Cob main turnout switch. Consolidation following a Seasons' traffic (equivalent to running in of machinery) is a vital stage in the life of railway track; if not achieved the economic life of the materials is shortened and / or maintenance costs increase and / or the quality of the end product is compromised.  Still at Boston Lodge the new No.16 siding, made possible by moving Pen Cob Crossover, and laid to a very restrictive radius to serve a coaling stage which never happened, has now been re aligned to 120' radius and commissioned, using the considerable quantity of locomotive ash as ballast.
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Much of the rest of November and December to date has been used to pre curve the new S30 rails ready for January re railing through Tylers Curve, commencing a Mid Life Upgrade (MLU) on Dduallt Spiral and battling with some atrocious weather.
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Towards the end of the Season on WHR we were becoming increasingly concerned over the vertical interface' between track and train, and carried out investigations to determine a track profile that would cause weight transfer from carriage to carriage through the couplers. A trip watching calibrated' corridor connectors showed 53 exceedences of our limit from Caernarfon to Rhyd Ddu (ref Consolidation in second paragraph !), most caused by voids and hard spots. A prioritised programme of rectification was seen to gazump the original plan; as the KMX ballast tamper is now proving more predictable and reliable, the whole length from above Cae'r Moel to Waunfawr was tamped through; this section contained a significant proportion of the vertical exceedences and the result is encouraging (sufficient to raise the PSR from 15 to 20mph from above Aspinalls Curves to below Waunfawr) although yet to be quantified. The WHR programme for January to March will be reviewed in early January; re aligning Cae'r Moel Curve (again) for 20mph is a high priority.
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Commencing on 02nd January the re railing through Tylers Cutting down to Milestone will start as planned, although we are currently on version 3 of the WMWP due to the complications of shifting start dates for the laying of a fibre optic cable for Network Rail from Benar Road Bridge in Blaenau Ffestiniog to Minffordd. Volunteer support for January to early February is good, but we would be pleased to have some assistance on Mondays to Fridays from 21st January to 08th February; whilst primarily Andy Carey plans the work programme and staff rosters and needs to know of Volunteers intended visits as early as possible, anyone wanting to chat' about the best time to come and what work to expect can contact Chris Mace by email on <A href="mailto:maceypw@yahoo.co.uk">maceypw@yahoo.co.uk.</A>
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During the Half Term from 09th to 21st February we plan on a break apart from routine inspections, prior to a further three 5 day possessions up to daily trains commencing 15th March. Currently we have no Volunteer support for the first one, Friday 22nd to Tuesday 26th February. Any offers ?