Since gala there have been some changes to the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s workshops at Llanfair Caereinion. Regular readers of the blog will be aware that to cover a shortage of steam locomotives the railway has hired one in from the Zillertalbahn in Austria.
ZB2 ‘Zillertal’ is somewhat taller than the incumbent fleet of locomotives and in order get in and out of the workshop a bit of surgery on the gable end and the doors to Road 2 was necessary.
Taller doors.
Thankfully the gable end roof truss did not need to be modified.
There have also been some changes to Road 1 – it is now considerably shorter than it once was. The existing welding fume extraction machine has been deemed unfit for purpose so a new more powerful one is going to be installed – in the corner where the welding bench is. So it is all change!
This is a ‘before’ view looking towards the doors to the outside world.
And this is a ‘before’ view looking towards the welding bay in the rear right corner.
The first two lengths of rail have been removed and can be seen lying on the floor in the foreground. We couldn’t undo one of the nuts that held the right hand waybeam down; so we split the beam instead. It didn’t put up very much resistance.
The first three brick piers put a bit of resistance up at first but rapidly yielded when the Cambrian hammer was applied. (Yes we have a large sledge hammer that once belonged to the Cambrian Railway Company.)
Shortening the next set of waybeams.
A chisel in an SDS hammer drill made short work of the cement that was stuck to the concrete floor. In this view the task is almost complete.
A wagon load of rubble. This was later transferred to one of the Bowaters dropside wagons and subsequently taken down the line to bolster the embankment on Castle Bank adjacent to the sewage works.
Last but by no means least an length of rail was welded across the end of the track to prevent any vehicles ending up on the floor. Sir Drefaldwyn’s (aka 699.0) bunker and cab floor assembly can be seen under the portable lifting gantry.
End
Fifteen Flatout 