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Latest News: Archive
May 2002
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Latest News: Archive
May 2002
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By Paul Mobbs.
This weekend the P-way gang completed a two year task to disassemble, clean, inspect, re-grease and refit every single fishplate between Dereham and Wymondham - a distance of over 11 miles of line with joints every 60ft and in some places every 45ft. I think you must agree this is some going. The last section between Church Lane gates and Wymondham South Junction was completed on Saturday afternoon. Although it's a core P-Way task, it's not one of the most glamorous activities, so I would like to thank all the people who come along and helped and got dirty. To round the day off and as there was still time (daylight) left, the trackside drains just north of the Abbey station were revisited and cleared.
As the laying of the rest of the track panels to form the siding approaches, Trevor Brackpool spent the day sorting out the order in which they are to be craned into position and generally getting things in the right order. The already-installed panels have now been put to good use as the Class 50 and 31 locos have now been stabled in the new siding.
Well the best way to describe the day was that rain stopped play. What a dreary day, overcast and drizzle all day. Few volunteers turned out and I don't blame them. Come on, where is the summer?
A far better day all round, this time the P-way gang managed to replace a further 700 ferrules on the track at Danemoor bank south of the B1135 bridge.
A slight change of plan in that it was off to the section of track between Neatherd and Swanton Road crossings in the northern section. A further 76 broken chairs where removed and replaced with serviceable chairs. We are now able to bring this section up to scratch as the undergrowth has been removed, giving us access to the track.
A bit of a poor turnout in that only three volunteers showed up. The three - Trevor and Barry Brackpool and Pete Eldridge - managed between them to replace 450 ferrules which is very good going but there is still plenty to do.
It was back to fishplate greasing again; thankfully it was only between Neatherd Road and Swanton Road crossings in the Northern section. Although it only appears to be a short section between the crossing, the P-Way gang took off all the fishplates, cleaned off all the old grease which has gone hard over the years, regreased and refitted the plates. The track through this section is looking like a railway again. All the broken chairs have been replaced and re-ferruled, although some sleepers will need to be replaced.
It was intended to head off to Danemoor to do some more re-ferruling but the good ole British summer weather put a stop to that. The heavy rain showers meant that the gang would have got drenched to the skin so it was off down the yard where the last panel of track in the siding was lifted and packed between the showers.
By Richard Cullen.
Richard found a carriage lock in a car boot sale, and has fitted to one of the working doors on GER carriage body number 1380. This freed up a bolt, which was fitted to the gents loo. This, in turn, freed up a door lock which will be fitted to the inside of Garvestone crossing hut and enable the crossing keeper to close him or herself in when it is raining. Recycling at its best!
The stored materials at the north end of the station are being tidied again, and the area is looking a lot better. Sadly, a vandal has smashed a window on one of the sheds, and this has been temporarily boarded up while the future use of the shed is considered.
Geoffrey Bent has built and installed a gate on the staff entrance to the orchard. This replaces an earlier effort, produced by the former occupants of the station, which used to fall off every time the wind blew! The new gate is a great improvement and will prevent the public from attempting to use the difficult sleeper-built steps.
A quiet day at the station. The broken glass from the smashed shed window was removed from the site and some more chairs and screws were recovered to the central storage area.
David has given the orchard another trim, concentrating on the area around the young apple trees, though some heavier duty gardening equipment is really needed to keep the site in tip-top order. He has also cut the paths around the picnic area.
Having damaged his ankle, Richard was unable to do very much work on the site this week. The availability of the light units from the Gloucester DMU car, however, proved too hard to resist. A light has been restored in the driver's cab, and one of the saloon lights has been fitted. New bayonette fittings will be needed before this phase of the restoration can be completed.
By Roy Malyon and Ernie Woolley.
Ernie and Roy removed the remaining 15 fence posts that were sloping towards the adjacent field ditch. Before fencing can begin, a section has to be cleared of vegetation, old wire has to be removed, often new end posts have to be constructed, and the old posts have to be removed or straightened. From experience, we have found that money for new posts can be saved by increasing the spacing slightly (about 30cms) and using the best reclaimed posts alternately with less good ones. It is very time consuming to dig posts out and and it looks easy until you try! We tried a new method and had great success, thankfully, and managed to remove the 15 posts in 4 hours. Instead of digging, we tied a chain round the base of the each post, wedged this to a car jack, and jacked each post out. Two posts that were in the correct positions were straightened.
Steve Tweed continued his fantastic weed-killing efforts at County School. Whilst Avondale have the contract to spray a five metre swathe along the running line, Steve has covered many other areas including Dereham Yard, behind the AOCL location cabinets in Dereham, a huge section at North Elmham (in preparation for drainage work) and at County School. Using a back-pack is very tiring and his efforts for the railway deserve great praise.
After having finished the day's work, Ernie had a bit of a poke around in the newly-discovered catch pit at the wet spot near Wymondham. He eventually found two pipes, one leading to the ditch other side of fence and the other heading to crossing No. 3. After much rodding with improvised drain rods (sourced from a nearby tree) the water started to drain towards the ditch. He then removed a pipe-shaped plug of roots from the other pipe and had one of those golden moments where he had to jump out of the pit to avoid death through drowning! Even as we speak countless gallons of water are draining out of the cess and flowing away down the ditch.
Frank Shaw, Pete Eldridge and Roy Malyon erected an end post and strung the top wire. We then positioned a few posts to hold the wire as it was tensioned, and marked the position of the other posts along the wire. From experience, the end posts are crucial and they need to be very firm so that movement does not occur as the wires are tensioned. We usually place one wire in position and align the remaining posts to it at suitable distances apart.
John Hull, who walks the track between Yaxham and Dereham each week, reported some time ago that a drainage problem was developing in the cess just north of Westfield Lane Bridge in Dereham. Ernie also noticed that this problem had developed whilst he was replacing a coping stone on the bridge so on Tuesday May 21st Trevor and Barry Brackpool and Roy Malyon did some clearance during the evening. Unfortunately, due to a lack of energy because of being at work all day, and failing light we had to give up. Roy continued with Arnold Brackpool on Thursday 23rd, and they found massive tree roots and stones blocking the pipe between two catch-pits. Despite spending from all day with drain rods, more digging is necessary to expose the pipe, as it must be broken somewhere to be so silted up.
This project is now completed, and Frank Shaw used 470 metres of 3.15mm diameter high tensile wire in the process. We were able to re-use the fence posts with more than half being in superb condition. With one exception, every post was removed and repositioned; a hard job alone! The project has resulted in giving passengers a super view across the fields as well as an embankment cleared of scrub and vegetation, where wild flowers will be able to flourish.
The drainage gang have just achieved a major objective in the Wymondham drainage project; in all the time that we have been working on the line we have never managed to dry out the area under Lady's Lane bridge, the one immediately south of Wymondham Abbey Station. This is because the Electricity Board destroyed the track drains when they laid the cables under the bridge in the days before the line was re-opened.
We located the original cess drain in the bank both north and south of the bridge, dug out pits and installed bases for catchpits. We then dug a trench round the foundations of the bridge, avoiding the run of the underground high voltage cables, to link these two pits and laid a flexible plastic drainage pipe to allow water to pass from one to the other. Together with the previous work to lower the level in the large open catchpit near the signalbox, this work has dropped the water table near the bridge by well over a foot, well below what will be sleeper level. The final stage of the work will involve building up the walls of the catchpits and backfilling the trench with old ballast.
By Rosemary Cooper.
Photographs of the MNR were at Gressenhall Museum (now called Roots) for their Local History Day. The display was manned by Rosemary and Alan Cooper, June Ross and Eileen Oliver. As well as the pictures, Eileen had devised a quiz for people to guess various railway related objects. This caused some amusement amongst visitors, trying to work out what the voidmeter was for and how the collapsible box worked. We return the display to Gressenhall on June 8th for the East of England Industrial Archaeological Conference. The next outing for the display is Ely Model Railway Exhibition on Saturday, May 18th at the Maltings.