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Latest News: Archive
January 2002
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Latest News: Archive
January 2002
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By Paul Mobbs and Barney Stratford.
In order to make way for the new point which will give access to the yard, we began dismantling part of the track into platform 1. This was made much harder by the fact that the ground was frozen to a depth of 15cm, making digging the ballast out very difficult! It was necessary to do all this by hand, as there are overhead power cables, making it impossible to use heavy machinery. We had a good turnout of 11 people.
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Photo: Owen Stratford |
For the main task of moving the turnout to its new position, we hired in a crane and digger, and after a very hard day's work, we managed to get it in position, although it still needs more work to finish assembling it and to lift and pack it to its final level. Many thanks to the 15 people who came out to help.
With all the components in approximately the right positions, it was time to finally bolt everything down and to get the point into some sort of alignment. During the work, it was noted that some of the point timbers had got past their best and will require replacement.
With another good turnout of volunteers, the P-way gang was able to replace the poor point timbers and cut and drill and fit the rails to join the MOD line up with the point leading to the main line. With the aid of mechanical jacks, the point was aligned ready for packing.
Meanwhile, a small team set about continuing the task of clearing the dense vegetation between Neatherd Road and Swanton Road crossings in the northern section.
Not so many volunteers today, the latest epidemic of coughs and colds being to blame. A small team set about getting some ballast under the point and continued fitting up the ironwork.
The Hilti ballast hammers came into their own as we spent most of the day packing and consolidating the ballast under the point timbers. We also had to replace one of the closure rails as the old one was about 2 inches too short. Just having to drag a replacement rail to site, then cut and drill the fishplate holes all takes time.
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Photo: Paul Mobbs |
Almost finished now. We were packing with the Hilties on the switch rail again, and then moving the P-Way ballast train to site to offload a Dogfish wagon containing clean ballast. We had to lift the track possession on the MOD road by 12:00 hrs for stock movements in the yard, which we achieved. Now that the top ballast is in, the point is looking good - a credit to all those who have come along and made it happen over the last three weeks of hard graft.
The P-Way gang swung back to fishplate greasing today, starting from Thuxton gates and working towards Hardingham, but were stopped by heavy rain around lunch time.
It was time to install some temporary track to join up the newly laid in point with the existing temporary track on which the Class 117 DMU sits. This involved dragging up sleepers and rails which took most of the day. Again, the rain got worse as the day progressed but the temporary track is in now. It just needs a quick pack so that we can get the Class 117 clear in the coming weeks.