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Latest News: Archive
October 2003
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Latest News: Archive
October 2003
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Photo: Alan Cooper |
The MNR have taken delivery of a second Class 101 DMU this week. 101 695 arrived over the course of two days, painted in Strathclyde colours. This 2-car unit is in good condition, and will quickly be restored to augment the Trust's services.
By Owen Stratford.
Work continued on fishplate greasing. The team made steady progress, almost reaching Garvestone.
We were out mowing the cutting sides in Danemoor Cutting. A swathe around bridge 1681 at the summit was cut.
Fishplate greasing continued today starting from where we left off on the previous week. We attended to the plates between the Garvestone up distant and the six mile post near bridge 1684 at Hardingham. We were even treated to a brew up of tea by the crossing keeper at Thuxton as we ate our lunch.
We were back at Danemoor mowing the grass on the banks. The cuttings were collected into piles for burning. Meanwhile a second party were fixing missing chainage markers to sleepers starting from Wymondham. If a track walker needs to report a problem, then the chainage markers provide an unambiguous way to say where work is required. Many of these have become detached from the sleepers over the years.
Fishplate greasing continued today from where we left off. We covered another one and a half miles to reach Kimberley up distant. Although the mileage was less, this is because the rails are only 45ft long on Danemoor Bank whereas the standard length is 60ft elsewhere.
A party went off to measure out further chainage markers from Kimberley northwards. Meanwhile, three of us were out at Toller's Lane clearing trees that were too close to the trains over a 600 yard stretch.
We completed work on the accommodation crossing north of Kimberley that was widened on 28th September to enable larger farm vehicles to cross. Since the new crossing boards were placed, the farmer has installed new gates. Today the approach ramps were built using two loads of hogging, the old gate posts removed, the warning signs re-positioned and the fencing linked to new end posts. This improved farm crossing is now fully operational.
Volunteers accompanied Norfolk County Council staff when they carried out an inspection of Bridges 1690 and 1682 to ascertain if they needed to be improved to carry the new breed of heavier lorries. Vegetation clearance work was also carried out nearby.
The team greased fishplates from where they left off at Kimberley as far as Bridge 1676.
Just south of Toller's Lane, the vegetation has been getting rather close to the track. We went out and knocked it back to a better distance.
By Derrick Plyer.
A 3-man working party saw the external fixed window frames given their second coat of cream. Internally the window ledge all round was lightly sanded and given its first top coat of cream. Down to one man on Sunday, however the panelling underneath all the windows was cleaned down and a first top coat of brown applied.
Quite a busy day with 54 windows to scrape clear of paint spots etc and give a primary clean - it made quite a difference looked at from the far side of the tracks.
On then to painting, we had debated what to do with the floor area behind the lever frame. The choice was either to cover it with lino as the rest of the floor will be, or paint it. The latter won - firstly lino of the quality we want is very expensive, and, as this area will have quite a bit of ironmongery cluttering it and only needs to be accessed for window cleaning, it was a luxury we could afford to lose! It's now matt black.
Attention then turned to the back wall. We are running out of jobs to do awaiting the woodsmith so opted for putting on the first coat of gloss brown to the lower half. We have only gone down as far as skirting board height as, with the portable scaffolding still trundling about, there is a real chance of scraping the bottom of the wall with the castors in the restricted space. The timber fill-in strips for the Block Shelf repair have now arrived and hopefully will be fitted next week.
By Roy Malyon.
Under Terry Mann's leadership, 7 volunteers mixed 3 tonnes of sand/gravel with 22 bags of cement today. The aim is to control scouring of the bridge foundations by the River Yare under Bridge 1687. The job went well and was inspected by our bridge engineer, John Woods. The work will be monitored during the winter when flow levels are higher.
The fencing gang were working just north of Yaxham station. They erected 10 replacement fence posts.
Thuxton gate lamps were electrified using the same system as that powering the level crossing lamps adjacent to Wymondham Abbey Station. Mains electricity is now available at Thuxton and whilst paraffin lamps are very nostalgic for our heritage railway, there are costs involved both in the time taken each week to maintain them and in the high cost of paraffin.
Drainage on the railway only works if there somewhere for the water to go; usually this is by drainage right into an adjacent watercourse. The Yaxham drainage outfall was partially blocked last year by spoil from an adjacent housing development being dumped by contractors too close to the edge of the outfall stream 10 metres away from our boundary. This caused water to back up and flood the railway and road near Yaxham Station on several occasions last winter. After complaining several times over the last year, a JCB and driver from the contractors dug the spoil away. The job took only 15 minutes!
The fences were mended between Neatherd Road and Swanton Road in Dereham, using 500 metres of fencing wire.