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Latest News: Archive
October 2005
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Latest News: Archive
October 2005
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Passengers at Kimberley Park. 2nd October 2005. Photo: Barney Stratford. |
We received word this morning that the Railway Inspectorate have given their approval for trains to stop at Kimberley Park Station. Trains will begin calling there with immediate effect, and the timetable has now been fixed. We're really sorry about the delay in launching this service, and look forward to providing a useful service to the residents of Kimberley and the surrounding villages.
By Richard Cullen and Gary Hall.
The GER coach has had some more of the recovered components fitted to it and has been cleared ready for the next stage in its restoration, which will involve replacing the roof covering. The final support post has also been fitted to the interior. Repairs on the Tea Room window, which was staring to get a bit "ragged", have been completed, and paint is now being applied. The area of rough land beside the car park and the orchard has been strimmed ready for the new allotment garden project to begin. Two rail posts have been fitted to the entrance to the Permissive Footpath, in order to stop quad bikes from using it as a race track, and these have now been painted white to aid their visibility.
Work has been continuing on Great Eastern Railway carriage number 1380. New panels to replace the damaged ends have been fabricated and primed ready for fitting. The original roof trim and drip rails have been removed ready for the replacement of the roof covering. Internally, more of the large compartment has been stripped of layers of paint ready for restoration.
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The GER Coach Body. 16th October 2005. Photo: Richard Cullen |
Two more of us installed another fencepost at the entrance to the footpath heading south from County School and rerouted the fence around this post to bring it back into line. The footpath from County School south has now been strimmed to about 4ft wide. Another quick pass strimming from the beginning will now need to be done, and we will then be set for the winter.
This weekend has seen considerable progress made on the GER coach body. The ends were stripped of their damaged timbers on Friday, and replacement boards were fitted on Saturday morning. The old roof canvas was then stripped and the roof cleaned. The southern end was also given a coat of red undercoat. On Sunday the new roof material was fitted and fixed down. The droplight windows have all been cleaned of assorted colours and depths of paint and given a neutral base coat of "linseed" paint. The blank windows on the school side have been painted in grey gloss to contrast against the coach panels, and the roof ventilators have been prepared for fitting. We were also visited by some friends from the Mid Suffolk Light Railway, who made positive comments about our carriage!
The two posts at the entrance to the footpath towards Elmham have been given a topcoat of white gloss. At the same time the remains of the footpath gate were fixed together and also painted white to give a visual impression of neatness and emphasise that this is a permissive route over private land rather than a public footpath. A white painted board was also fixed to the ladder on the up starter in order to show parents that they should not allow their children to climb up it!
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The cutting near County School. 30th October 2005. Photo: Matt Goodrum |
More clearing work has been undertaken in the orchard area, with some low-hanging ash branches lopped and removed. The visual impact of this work is most impressive.
The County School area group continued with the clearance of the trackbed with around 7 volunteers. The footpath heading south from where we are clearing has been strimmed to enlarge it about another 3 to 4 feet on either side. We lost over 3 hours trying to light 3 fires. In the end only one stayed lit. A lot of brush and branches were gathered and burned as well as all of our cuttings. The bank next to where the track will go has been cleared to the top in this area, and looks very impressive.
By Terry Mann.
Since completing the refurbishment and testing of the generator (way back in March) the team of three have gradually been working away at the framework of the yard crane. We have acquired a compressor and needle gun and, armed with chipping hammers and grinders, have been removing the old paint (and rust) from the jib, 'A' frame and front half of the chassis. Progress has been slow but as can be seen from the pictures, all of this area has been cleaned, etch-primed and undercoated.
Derusting revealed several areas of concern where bolt heads had almost dissolved and assembly plates bent with the force of oxide jacking. In order to ensure the whole lifting path was to remain robust enough to support its original rated loads we decided all the suspect areas would be dismantled and refurbished and this has consumed much effort in all the inherent problems associated with taking "very rusted" things apart.
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Horace in undercoat with jib raised. 21st October 2005. Photo: Terry Mann |
In parallel with this, we knew the foot brake was seized and in order to rectify this both front wheels and hubs needed to be removed. Unfortunately previous damage in this area had resulted in the 2.75inch dia hub nuts and associated axle threads being damaged to the point where the nuts could not be removed in one piece without stripping the threads on the axle. After much deliberation we sliced the nuts off with a grinder in the hope we would be able to restore the axle threads and have new nuts made to suit [not a simple task as the threads were non standard]. However, perseverance prevailed and with careful measurement and the help from a local enthusiastic machinist we now have two new nuts and restored the axle threads ready for final fitting. Also, the brake shoes have been relined and await some cosmetic repairs to the chassis prior to reassembly.
Whilst all this was going on, we have also removed the hoist rope and jib head pulleys, along with much of the other steelwork which adorned the front end and this has also been undergoing re-rusting and painting.
The jib has now been raised and its locking bars fitted: this enables the weight of the 'A' frame to be taken off the front mountings for them to be dismantled and remedial work undertaken on the fixing arrangements.
The question is now what colour to paint the crane? Some members thought it should be "Eastern Blue" but a little research by one of the team (and the presence of some original colour in a few places on the crane) reveals "Blood and Custard" to be the preferred option.
By Owen Stratford, Trevor Brackpool and Barney Stratford.
The p-way gang were out in force again today, filling in the ballast between Thuxton and Garvestone. We managed to get about half of the total amount done, aided and abetted by the muntjac deer that were crossing the line during the day.
Last week's effort managed to complete about half of the necessary ballast-shovelling at Garvestone; we completed the remainder this week.
The Wymondham Area Group completed clearance of vegetation to tidy the lineside and improve sighting of signal W37 for trains leaving the branch. The team have done well in completing this task in only 3 days over 3 months. A good start to the group's activities.
We started the annual cycle of fishplate greasing today. This involves removing and cleaning each pair of plates. We then inspect the plates and rail ends for damage before applying a liberal coat of grease and reassembling them. We started off in Dereham (11 miles 34 chains) and had a good turnout which allowed us to achieve a record distance of over two miles, completing the day in Whinburgh Cutting at 9 miles 18 chains. This was a particularly good achievement as we had problems around Watering Farm, where the tamper had struck and bent one bolt on every plate. This resulted in the impact wrench being unable to remove them, and with the spanner we sheared off several bolts, which takes some doing!
Just north of Garvestone is a foot crossing where the visibility for pedestrians was somewhat obstructed by trees. We cleared away the trees so that approaching trains can be clearly seen again.
P-way spent the day removing excess ballast from shoulders north of Kimberley Park. A ballast regulator had previously visited the site, but this tends to leave too much ballast on the shoulders, as it's designed for use with continuously-welded rail.
We continued to grease the fishplates.The group consisted of 10 people at its peak for a few hours and we managed to complete 2.5 miles and are now just through Thuxton.
Trevor has been strimming in Toftwood Cutting. This completes all of the year's mowing in the area.