Volunteers’ work is slated as haphazard
NETWORK Rail engineers are investigating a safety-related incident on a disused railway in Snowdonia.
For the past 12 months volunteers from the Blaenau Ffestiniog & Trawsfynydd Railway Society have been carrying out clearance work on the seven-mile line.
The route once connected the nuclear power station at Trawsfynydd with the national network at Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Founded to carry out the clearance work and subsequently train services the society and an associated group, Trawsfynydd Railway Company Ltd, had hoped to start running trains last Easter but their plans have been scaled back.
Clearance work on the track has now stopped after a bridge near the proposed terminus at Trawsfynydd lake was damaged.
This led to the closure of a public footpath on safety grounds.
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “A safety incident occurred and it is currently under investigation.”
Colin Dale, a director of the Trawsfynydd Railway Company Ltd, described the incident as “slippage” but did not offer an explanation as to how it was caused.
Commenting on Network Rail’s investigation he added: “It’s because they are obsessed with the risk/ suing Health and Safety era we seem to be bogged down with following the US. Let’s not forget it’s 30 years with no maintenance of the branch and lots of rain.”
Network Rail granted the company permission to access the line, last used by nuclear fuel trains in the mid-1990s, and an initial survey by the company found the infrastructure largely intact.
Volunteers began clearing vegetation and rubbish from a 300-yard section near Blaenau Ffestiniog’s station last autumn but have since switched their attention to the former Maentwrog Road station where they are converting an old goods shed into their headquarters and the line towards the power station.
Locals described the work being carried out by the volunteers as “haphazard”.
One said: “They started work last autumn cutting back the undergrowth in Cwm Bowydd cutting and made good progress but they haven’t been back for weeks and the summer has seen a lot of what was cleared grow again.”
Mr Dale, in a recent update emailed to members, admits it will be late next year or early 2019 before trains will start running on a short section near Trawsfynydd.
He said volunteers were concentrating on the track from Maentwrog Road to the Lake Halt, about a mile in length, with trains to run in around 18 months time.
An online appeal to buy a shunting locomotive last year failed to reach its £19,600 target. The imminent closure of the Electric Railway Museum in Coventry could mean a Class 414 two carriage electric train is transferred from the Midlands to Trawsfynydd. This would be hauled on the line by a diesel loco.
Trawsfynydd Railway Ltd officials are backing an online appeal to raise the £11,500 needed to move the unit to North Wales. Since its launch two months ago the appeal has raised about £1,000.