Glan y Mor yard
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Glan y mor yard is the area to the south west of Boston Lodge works.[route 1] At the very far end originally stood three gunpowder stores, which have now been demolished.[1] [2]The gunpowder was for quarry use and stored by Curtis's & Harvey, Ltd. The explosives were brought by sea on ships which were not allowed to enter port and were landed by a wooden barge flying a red flag in small quantities at Portmadoc Harbour and delivered to Glan-Y-Mor in the gunpowder vans with the wrap-over steel roofs. There were regulations requiring the gunpowder vans to be marshalled as far as posible away from the steam locomotives. Each store was roughly square in shape with an entrance lobby, and a siding running into each. Built around the 1860s, they were separated by distances presumably considered sufficient to reduce the chance of one major explosion. As modern buildings were erected in Glan-Y-Mor yard since the late sixties these historic but redundant buildings, already derelict, gradually fell into complete ruination. The most southerly was where the very end of the yard headshunt now is, and the sites of the other two lie under the south end of the new Heritage Carriage Shed.
A picture of the remains of a gunpowder store with the scrub cleared away so that they can be recorded before the area is cleared for the new rolling stock shed was published in 2015 in FR Magazine 231.[3] Any reusable stone was to be kept for repair of other historic buildings around the site.
In the early preservation period, it was an area where non-operational stock was kept - eg. The Peckett, Princess, Welsh Pony, Carriage 21, the Welshpool Van and many derelict waggons. It was also used to store track materials such as rails, sleepers and chairs. Old double head FR chairs were designed for use with track spikes. When track screws were introduced in the 1960s the old FR chairs had to have the holes slightly enlarged using a drill in Boston Lodge. The stacks of chairs were conveniently close in waggons in Glan y Mor for wheelbarrowing to the drill. PW stores and operations such as this were transferred to Minffordd Yard by the end of the 1960s.
The character of Glan y Mor Yard was greatly changed when the old Long Shed which separated it from Boston Lodge Bottom Yard was demolished in the late 1980s. The Bottom Yard lost its enclosed atmosphere and its effective southern side became the new Carriage Works. This and other modern buildings including carriage sheds have appeared in Glan y mor and when present development plans including new locomotive sheds reach fruition most of the Glan y mor site will be under cover.
The present Loco Shed is to be rebuilt, to accommodate the regular FR service locos, an additional shed for a WHR Garratt is to be added, and a completely new shed will house the smaller locos, being designed both as a running shed and to allow visitor viewing of these locos when out of use.
With these changes, the Glan y mor area will become the centre of daily running operations for locos and carriages.
Carriage Shed Operations Spring 2020[edit]
The carriage shed built as part of the INCA Programme in the early 1990s has two roads; 13-road is closest to the rest of the Boston Lodge complex, whilst 14-road (with an inspection pit) is on the sea-side. The two roads are normally used to house two carriage sets, with regular carriage examinations taking place on 14-road. The shed itself is able to house approximately five carriages on each road, although each road can hold approximately seven carriages without impinging the other, with two carriages on each road left outside. Normal practice during the summer season in recent years has been for 13-road to house the third FR-set (only used on busier days), with 14-road used for whichever FR or WHR set requires maintenance / examination. With this setup, 14-road can accommodate ten carriages and still give room for a locomotive to run around.
As part of Boston Lodge Development works, over Winter 2018/2019 the shed roof was raised to enable Garratt locomotives to fit - previously, any WHR set arriving at Glan-y-Mor from Porthmadog needed to be hauled by an FR-gauge locomotive. Further development is ongoing, with a new, much larger carriage shed having been built alongside the existing one on land reclaimed from the sea. This shed, with three roads each capable of holding ten carriages, will for the first time in the preservation era permit the vast majority of FR/WHR revenue-earning rolling stock to be kept indoors when not in use.
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1952. Photo: National Library of Wales. -
Ashbury No 21 in Glan-y-Mor yard 1959 -
The view of Glan y Mor Yard in 1964 from near Pen Cob. Two of the ruined gunpowder stores are on the right, the third is out of the picture to the right. -
Slate wagons 200 and 185 with sheeted-over Princess and K1 in Glan-y-Mor yard 1966.
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See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Boyd Vol. 1 1975 Edition p265.
- ^ Chris Veitch "Some Notes on Gunpowder Traffic", Festiniog Railway Heritage Group Journal, Issue 156, page(s): 25
- ^ "Heritage", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 231, page(s): 177