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Latest News: Archive
December 2003
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Latest News: Archive
December 2003
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By Paul Mobbs, Owen Stratford and Barney Stratford.
The works train transported a new replacement gate to Kimberley so the first job was to help with removing the old upside gate and offering up the new so that Ian Nugent could fit the hinges and top stay. This is a job where many hands make light work, as you have to manhandle the new gate in order to get it lined up. We then headed off with the works train to jack and pack the track between Crownthorpe and Bridge 1675 whilst Ian finished off fitting the top and bottom bolt, red target and lamp.
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Photos: Paul Mobbs |
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It was back to Kimberley to install a new sleeper pad to form a walkway across the track on the upside of the new gate. This will improve the access to the downside platform when the station reopens.
Heavy rain delayed the start of work until nearly lunchtime. Once the skies had cleared, we made a start on clearing the scrub out of Toftwood Cutting. Armed with loppers, brush cutters and bow saws, we cleared out the brambles from around the larger trees, in preparation for bringing in the chainsaws on Sunday.
After yesterday's preparation, we made extremely rapid progress on clearing Toftwood Cutting. Starting from Rash's Green level crossing, we managed to clear out nearly half of the cutting on one side. The cut wood has been stacked up ready to be burnt next week, as the previous day's rain had made everything far too wet to be able to light a fire.
We set off full of enthusiasm, but the skies opened almost as soon as we arrived. The rain had obviously set in for the day, so we beat a hasty retreat to the warmth of the mess room in Dereham Station.
We continued clearing the vegetation in Toftwood Cutting. Although there were only three volunteers for most of the day, we almost managed to reach Westfield Lane Bridge. The bigger trees will be taken out with a chainsaw in the next few weeks.
We had a great day's work in Toftwood Cutting today. The encroaching scrub has been cleared as far as bridge 1692, after which we could see that an enormous amount of rubbish has been illegally dumped on our land and that the dumping is ongoing. We completely filled a wagon with scrap metal and concrete, and took it back to the station for disposal. There is a great deal more to collect.
By Barney Stratford and Graham Moates.
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31st December 2003. Photo: Tony Hendry |
Four volunteers were building a fence along the platform at Kimberley Park station in preparation for its re-opening next year. We were assisted by the owner of the station buildings, who provided tea and biscuits throughout the day. We managed to install a total of 11 fence-posts, leaving nine more for another day.
We erected the remaining fence-posts at Kimberley Park Station today. It was hard going, as the auger kept hitting large stones, although we were helped out by regular cups of tea from the owner of the station.
New Year's Eve saw Tony and Graham digging out of the first of the holes for the platform shelter foundations at Kimberley Park Station. Each hole is one cubic metre in capacity and the job involved the removal of the spoil by wheelbarrow to the end of the platform and the collection of an equivalent volume of aggregate ready for mixing the concrete.