Track construction methods questions - Welsh Highlands Railway vs American track

I was checking out some photos of the wonderful Welsh Highlands Railway, a rebuilt 2 foot gauge railroad in Wales complete with NG-16 Garratts!

In examining the photos of the reconstruction I quickly noticed several differences in their chosen method of track construction/assembly. Rather than using wooden ties with spikes, the WHR used all steel ties with what appeared in my uneducated eye to be bolts and some type of pinning device used to pin the rail to the ties.

Could someone elaborate on how the track was constructed on the WHR, the advantages, if any of using that method of track construction over the traditional method used here in the states and why that particular method of track construction was used.

Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2010 09:30PM by Kevin S..