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Latest News: Archive
July 2005
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Latest News: Archive
July 2005
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Playing Jazz on the train. Photo: Alan Cooper |
Saturday 2nd July saw the first ever Jazz Train organised by the MNR and this was a sell-out with over 120 passengers. The passengers boarded at Dereham for a leisurely return ride to Wymondham and back with music provided by the Lumière Rouge Ragtime Band.
On the journey, there were stops for the band to play on various station platforms. The evening was judged a great success by both passengers and volunteers, and will be repeated in the future.
By Matt Goodrum, Owen Stratford and Trevor Brackpool.
We spent the day between Thuxton and Garvestone shovelling ballast. A tamper visited this area during the winter, and this always raises the track out of the ballast a little. We filled in the gaps left behind by the machine, and generally tidied the area up.
We continued tidying up after the tamper near Thuxton today.
We filled in the cribs with ballast over another 6 chains near the Trout Farm today.
Next week's job will be installing a buffer stop on the end of the run-round loop at Wymondham. There were a number of preparatory jobs that needed to be completed first, including loading the buffer stop onto the train.
Today we took the works train to Wymondham along with the crane. We had an early start from Dereham in order to be able to return the 'single line staff' to Dereham for the passenger service. Once at Wymondham, we shunted the wagons into the order that we wanted them, with the crane set to work unloading and positioning the buffer stop onto the end of the head-shunt. Meanwhile the rest of the gang collected up unused materials and scrap, loading it onto the Flatrol. After lunch, the crane transferred to the north side of Lady's Lane and we loaded all of the spare rails and off-cuts onto the Tench. Meanwhile, the work on the drilling and assembly of the buffer stop was started and some muck from the drainage work was barrowed away.
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Left photo: Works train travelling to site Middle photo: Attaching lifting chains Right photo: Loading unused rail 23rd July 2005. Photos: Barney Stratford |
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The Permanent way team spent a relaxed day unloading materials that had been returned on last week's works train from Wymondham. The reusable components were re-stacked and scrap was cleared away.
By Matt Goodrum and Gary Hall.
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Cut vegetation at County School, looking towards North Elmham. 31st July 2005. Photo: Matt Goodrum |
Today saw a return of a small party to County School to clear a few more trees. All was going well until the skies opened up causing a quick retreat to the station for a hot beverage. The rain persisted so we called it quits for the day.
The new County School area group continued with the clearance of the trackbed to the south of the station. The results are already impressive but there is still much to do before we reach North Elmham gates. The work here will open up the footpath which has become clogged with excessive vegetation, allow wild flowers to grow and make the eventual reinstatement of track much easier.
By Roy Malyon.
Fencing work is continuing on the up-side south of Kimberley adjacent to a public footpath. The progress in the last two weeks has been very good with many volunteers taking an active part. The next stage is further clearance; it is a pity that this area has regrown since it was cleared when the line was reopened. Brambles are eight feet high over a quarter of a mile section beside and within the fenceline and strimming of these will take volunteers quite a while.