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Latest News: Archive
April 2002
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Latest News: Archive
April 2002
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By Paul Mobbs.
With another good turnout of volunteers, the track panels which form the start of the siding were packed and levelled and are looking good. This was quite a task, as the first panel needed a considerable amount of ballast to bring it to the correct level which was all hand shovelled. As a result of all this hard work, the P-Way Engineer has passed the track for use as a siding. Also the P-Way Supervisor has selected the next set of track panels and a buffer stop which will be used to complete the rest of the siding.
This time the P-Way gang headed off into the section near our boundary with Railtrack at Wymondham. A useful day was spent removing the ever encroaching branches and shrubs.
It was back to fishplate greasing on Saturday picking up where we left off a couple of weeks ago. With a good turnout of volunteers, the P-way gang were able to complete the section between Kimberley gates and Crownthorpe bridge, which was very good going as they are all 45ft length rails instead of the usual 60ft through this section. Meanwhile, the P-way Supervisor, Trevor, spent the morning pegging out the alignment of the rest of the siding at Dereham.
Approx 600 ferrules were replaced during a full day's work on the track down Danemoor bank. Many of the old wooden ferrules have either rotted or disintegrated over time so it's important that they be replaced to prevent road spread. The two worst patches have now been done but there are many left to do.
If memory serves me well, it was a hot day as well last year when the fishplates were done through the section of track to the south of the Crownthorpe road bridge. This time with another good turn out of volunteers the gang managed to brave the sunshine to get the plates done on the track all the way to B1135 road bridge just north of Wymondham. It looks like two more days of hard graft will get us to the main line junction.
The day was spent moving ballast and packing the new point and the first track panel of the siding with the Hilti hammers.
With another good turnout of volunteers, this time lead by Ernie Woolley, the P-Way gang were able to get to the Wymondham side of Cavick gates. This means we have just another three quarters of a mile and then we will have cleaned, greased and inspected every set of fishplates between Norwich Road gates at Dereham and the mainline boundary at Wymondham over the last two years. In the meantime, the P-Way Supervisor (Trevor Brackpool) was helping with trackside clearance on the Northern section. Now that the dense undergrowth has been removed in the section between Neatherd Road and Swanton Road, it was necessary to get a digger in to redistribute the soil on the lineside and do a bit of re-profiling.
The gang went out by train as they had to get a set of temporary speed restriction boards to site at Danemoor and then on to Wymondham. The 10mph speed order for locos has been necessary due to the state of the ferrules on Danemoor Bank. Although the P-way gang has replaced about 1000 ferrules recently, there are more which are deteriorating fast and the speed order will allow us a small amount of time to see to their replacement. Then the gang headed off to Wymondham where more foliage was cut back, and the rails under the old A11 bridge were inspected and identified as requiring replacement. The opportunity was also taken to do some investigative work as to why the track just north of the Abbey station always seemed to be wet. After some digging, a long forgotten catchpit was found, together with an outfall. These were cleared but we will need to return to rod out the pipe to get the water flowing properly.
By Richard Cullen.
Richard continued to work in the Gloucester 100 DMU today, and has almost completed the restoration of the seats in the First Class compartment. One of the seats frames was proving a bit "stubborn" - but the usual method of repairing railway stock eventually saw results! Although a lot of work still needs to be done (painting the ceiling and bolting the seat frames into the walls), it is hoped that the "incomplete" compartment will be available for public use, as extra tea room seating, by the end of this month. The driving cab was opened to the public for the first time today, and has proven a hit with people wanting to "be the train driver". Hopefully the cab will be available more often this season as this has always been a very popular feature of other museums.
Richard spent a few hours cleaning one of the internal windows in the First Class compartment, which had been covered with an unpleasant glue-like substance. This had to be removed by alternate doses of nail varnish remover and white spirit and lots of rubbing with a scouring pad. After this the missing upper panels from the platform side of the main saloon were returned to their rightful position. Finally, Richard managed to fit the luggage racks back into place along this side. This has greatly increased the storage area in what is presently serving as a small workshop, and made the unit look a lot tidier.
Richard spent today fitting the remaining luggage rack and small trim strips into place. Hopefully a start will soon be made on the display for this saloon, which should, if plans fall into place, feature an N Gauge model railway layout - so trains may be running at County School before too long, then! Some new fibre board will be required for the small north saloon before internal restoration can be completed and the small "classroom" area brought into use.
Quite a busy day at the station. David and Sue brought a mower from home and cut some more of the grass in the orchard area and the lower car park, while Andrew spent a few hours working on cleaning the interior windows of the DMU. Richard and Andrew also made a start on moving and stacking some of the old sleepers from the end of the running line. Though many of these are no longer of any use for P-Way, they will provide a useful habitat for some of the local fauna. The Esso tank wagon was then shunted to the end of the line, ready for its removal from the site.
By Roy Malyon.
The D&F department has been working on improving the drainage where the run-round loop at Wymondham is to be installed. Today we used a JCB to dig a 160-metre trench along the line from our new large diameter cross-drain, resulting in the water table being lowered by another 10 inches at one point. This is now only 6 inches above the original drainage level before the outlet pipe was destroyed when the new houses were built on the Briton Brush Factory Site. We are planning to continue drainage work near Lady's Lane Bridge and the old signal box in the coming month.
The fencing gang have been trying to clear the embankment and re-fence a section near the footpath crossing at Garvestone. The adjacent farmer dug out his ditch, and the fence (which was in rather poor condition) collapsed into it. Clearance work is now finished and the old wire has been removed. Tomorrow we hope to remove the remaining posts that are leaning towards the ditch and then to put a new end post in so that the posts can be re-erected.
By Tony Hendry.
Tony has been working on restoring two GER lamp posts which were donated to the railway. This work is now almost complete, so the lamp posts can be installed some time soon. He has also been working on the post-and-rail fencing on Platform 1 at Dereham.