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Latest News: Archive
September 2005
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Latest News: Archive
September 2005
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Actors in 1920s costume. Photos: Alan Cooper and Graham Moates |
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The Railway has been fortunate to attract Capriol Films, a local company set up to make music and arts films in Norfolk, to County School Station to shoot scenes for a film about the life of composer Philip Heseltine, who wrote under the name Peter Warlock. Fortunately good weather prevailed on the day, enabling the platforms, GER carriage and booking hall to be used. One of the County School volunteers, Eileen Bent, who was on hand to provide refreshments, was drafted in as an extra, appropriately dressed in 1920s costume.
We would welcome further enquiries for location filming or photographic work. Contact sales@mnr.org.uk.
By Owen Stratford, Trevor Brackpool and Barney Stratford.
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Vegetation Clearance in Wymondham. 11th September 2005. Photo: Matt Goodrum. |
We split into two groups for today. One group spent the day at Yaxham clearing ballast from the sleeper ends. Meanwhile at Wymondham, the remaining signs were installed for the loop re-signalling. We installed several 'Stop' boards and some token section markers. The buffer stop was rubbed down to give it a new coat of paint. A start was made on applying this. There was also some strimming of the lineside taking place.
Today we went up to a point just south of Hoe. There was a thicket around bridge 1699 that was too close to the line. We cleared the front off of the whole length of this thicket, so that when we come to run trains here, it will not cause a problem.
The Wymondham Area Group continued with vegetation clearance to improve sighting of the junction signal, while the P-way regulars replaced rotten timbers on Cavick Level Crossing before joining in to help. The signal is now in sight and with your help we could finish this task at next month's meeting.
We had an early start today to deliver a replacement level crossing gate for Yaxham. The new gate was loaded onto a wagon at Dereham and taken to site. We then set about removing the metalwork from the old south gate. Once it was stripped, we jacked the gate off of its hinges and took it out of the way. Hinges were then fitted to the new gate before hanging it on the gate-post. We then had to return the train to Dereham to ready for the first passenger service.
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Left photo: The new level crossing gate in our workshop at Dereham. Right photo: The newly-installed gate at Yaxham. 24th September 2005. Left photo: Barney Stratford. Right photo: Owen Stratford. |
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Part of the party remained to assist with fitting out the new gate and the remainder went on to other tasks. We strimmed the remainder of the cutting sides in Toftwood Cutting and also on the embankment at Watering Farm. In Dereham we carried out some maintenance on the signalling equipment and also assisted the locomotive department.
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Mowed embankment near Yaxham. 29th September 2005. Photo: Barney Stratford. |
The railway has now been strimmed almost all the way from Dereham to Yaxham on one side. This work is necessary to ensure that the scrub is kept in check, and the line now looks really tidy in this area. There's just one patch of scrub left, and that will hopefully be dealt with by a work party this winter.
By Richard Cullen and Gary Hall.
A telephone call to Dereham station has led to a parts recovery operation on behalf of GER coach 1380, based on the platform at County School. A lady in Holme Hale owns a derelict coach body, which she is planning to demolish, and wondered if we would be interested in taking components from it. The carriage in question is a Great Eastern Railway 4 wheel, 4 compartment coach, running number 418. Sadly much of the woodwork is rotten and beyond rescue, but glass, including two etched "Smoking" compartment windows, door hinges and small trim items have already been recovered.
The County School area group continued with the clearance of the track bed with around 9 volunteers. Two people took up their strimmers and headed off down the track bed clearing around the bottoms of the trees. In no time they seemed to have disappeared into the undergrowth. Another party proceeded to light fires and continue clearing the downed tree limbs and stacking firewood. They cleared the end of the track by bridge 1707 and cleared up the old fire sites, as well as picking up any remaining branches to really make this area look sharp. The rest of us continued cutting down trees and bushes along the track bed. We have reviewed the location of some of the trees and decided to leave several on the down side to provide a wildlife refuge. We have progressed around another 100ft, but we have a lot of cleaning up to do in this area to really say that we are done with it. We had several local walkers that came through and were very happy with our progress.
On Saturday, Richard returned to the remains of Great Eastern Railway First Class carriage number 418, which is being dismantled to provide parts for the MNR's Third Class 1380, based at County School. After several hours' work, two droplight windows, a complete door, several hinges and a number of smaller trim items had been recovered. The smaller items were taken straight to County School, while the door will be collected at the conclusion of the salvage exercise. It is planned that one more salvage visit will be made before the coach is flattened - after which there will be a final visit to collect any salvageable structural items. Sunday saw a start made on fitting the recovered items to 1380, with the "rattling" droplights in the station side doors replaced and refitted - meaning that some of them can actually be operated to a degree! Other small items were cleaned and prepared for installation at a later date. We are also on the look out for any more condemned carriage bodies for component recovery.
The County School area group consisted of just Ray Jordan and Harry Long today. An access gate at the level crossing was constructed. This will enable access to the PW trolley without going through the fence or disturbing the level crossing gates. A chain-link fence was placed across the railway at bridge 1707 thus preventing un-authorised access to the railway. Clearance has also progressed in the cutting towards North Elmham. A big difference will be seen after the next working party when bonfires will clear much of the foliage already cut down. Progress of at least 100 yards in the cutting will immediately become apparent at that time.
By Roy Malyon.
The public footpath between Kimberley and Wicklewood bridge has been rewired and clearance has taken place to enable this to happen. Some trees in this section were removed as they were growing above a drainage pipe and their roots were continually blocking it, another that the wind had loosened, and two more that were a safety issue as they were getting too large on a bank leaning towards the track. One and a half miles of wire has been placed in position on the upside and another half mile of wire is on site to be strung alongside the permissive footpath on the down side.