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Latest News: Archive
April 2006
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Latest News: Archive
April 2006
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On a busy weekend for steam in Norfolk, the Mid-Norfolk Railway successfully launched their first steam-hauled passenger services over the 11 miles from Dereham to Wymondham on Sunday 30th April. This was the first time on regular passenger trains since 1955 and was met with delight by local residents and customers.
The services are worked by Western Region Pannier Tank number 9466, which is owned by Dennis Howells, is being provided by the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton for 17 operating days.
9466 was built in 1952 for British Railways Western Region based on the original design by the Great Western Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer F.W. Hawksworth. 9466 was one of thirty built by Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn. It worked as a local yard engine at Worcester, Bristol and South Wales, hauling coaches out of stations after completing a long journey, before being withdrawn in 1964. The engine then went to Quainton in 1975 and Dennis Howells took possession in 1977. The original restoration took eight years to complete.
The introduction of steam services on the Mid-Norfolk Railway follows the completion of the Station restoration and installation of basic steam infrastructure such as a water tower and run-round loop, funded through the European-funded Breckland Cultural Package with match funding from Norfolk County Council and Breckland Council.
The railway, which is the fifth longest standard gauge heritage railway in the country, has been entirely diesel powered since its opening to Wymondham in 1999. The Trust expects to attract further visiting engines in future years offering a balanced steam / diesel product. Steam services continue at weekends and daily through Whitsun week until Sunday 4th June.
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Photo: Hayden Charles |
Photo: Leslie Dale |
Fares for the 22 mile round trip are priced at £9.50 (adults), £9 (senior citizens), £5 (children) and £24.50 (families).
The same weekend also saw main line steam trips organised by the Railway Touring Company from Norwich to London, Norwich to Sheringham and Norwich to Lincoln using B1 61264.
By Tony Sinclair, Owen Stratford, Trevor Brackpool and Matt Goodrum.
The p-way team have been replacing rotten ferrules in the track near Yaxham. These hold the rails securely to the sleepers, and in former times were made of wood. We are replacing the old ones with new, plastic ferrules that don't rot.
A team of Bramley Line, CAST.IRON and MNR members have now dug out all 101 sleepers of the first phase of reopening of the northern section beyond Dereham. Thankfully the work gets easier now for a while! Afterwards several of us took a walk the rest of the way to Hoe. The condition of the sleepers greatly improves as you leave Northall Green cutting, making our target seem even closer.
The PW crew took advantage of the late start to spring to head off to Wymondham. We dived headlong into clearing back a line of trees that was too close near the up distant. We quickly got a hearty bonfire going and made steady work of felling the trees. The end of the day saw the view for the passengers improved greatly and we will not have to go out in the middle of summer any more to hack back overhanging branches here.
Meanwhile, another gang were clearing out the undergrowth on the embankment at Crownthorpe. There was quite a lot of dead wood lying around, and this had become tangled with brambles and small trees. Most of this material has now been burnt, although there is still about another day's burning to do to finish the tidying up.
Two members visited Halesworth signal box at its current location to plan for its eventual movement to County School. A sponsored walk to raise money for this will take place on Good Friday. If you can't make it to this event, then why not consider making a donation towards its transportation and restoration its summer? We need to raise at least £2000 to release all our match funding generously provided by British Sugar, so please help if you can.
We had been experiencing some problems with the interlocking on the ground frames at Dereham and so Owen set aside today to give all of the Dereham Signalling a thorough service. The Number One frame at the southern end had developed a sticky facing point lock lever. This was tracked down to the interlocking between it and the two former signal levers which are currently unused but are still interlocked. As a result these parts of the locking had become devoid of grease and were binding. The entire locking frame had also started to become clogged with dry grease and dust. To rectify the problem, the entire locking tray was removed and cleaned before a fresh coat of grease was applied to everything. The same attention was then given to the Number Two frame controlling the bay platform points to ensure trouble-free operation.
In the Crownthorpe area, there is a section of track where the fishplate bolts are of a non-standard design. This causes us problems every year when we come to grease the fishplates. We made a start on changing these bolts for the standard ones. When we ran out of bolts, we began removing the excess ballast from the sleepers where the ballast regulator had visited earlier in the year.
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Barry Brackpool grinds paint off a signal lever. 30th April 2006. Photo: Owen Stratford |
The PW department spent today in Dereham Yard. Barry and Owen were working on the signalbox. We started to prepare another batch of levers for installation into the frame. Ten suitable levers were previously selected and we set about dismantling them. This involved grinding off the rivets that hold on an obsolete part of the former Cam and Soldier locking fitted to the lever. The nuts, bolts and pins were also loosened and a bearing matched up to each lever. Once the process of preparation was finished, we moved on to removing all of the old paint, rust and grease. This is a surprisingly difficult task and takes a lot of effort with an electric grinder fitted with a wire brush head. Six were completed, partially reassembled and fitted back into their appropriate positions in the frame.
Meanwhile the rest of the PW department spent the day removing material to tidy up the area around the station ready for the launch of the steam service on the following day. Rubbish was also removed ready for disposal.
We continued today on the signalbox. A further four levers were stripped and cleaned up. With ten levers completed, the black paint was applied to the base of each one and also to everything that lies below the operating floor.
By Roy Malyon.
For many weeks volunteers have been clearing the 'downside' embankment between 7 miles 55 chains and 7 miles 65 chains, north of Garvestone. The project will yield many benefits: it will allow grasses and wild flowers to establish on areas where there was just untidy scrub and odd bushes thus stabilising the embankment, improve visibility both for our drivers towards a public footpath crossing and for our passengers across the fields, improve drainage as a ditch has been cleared, and has allowed an improved boundary fence beside the adjacent newly-created open access field. Over half a mile of fencing wire was used on Saturday 22nd and Tuesday 25th and apart from a couple of bonfires that are planned for Tuesday May 2nd, the project is complete. Grateful thanks to the many volunteers that have taken part.
The grass cutting season has begun once again and both the grass at Dereham Station and Yaxham Road Cottage were given their first cut so that everything is tidy for the Steam Service to leave.
Safety work has been completed to the bridge above a tributary of the River Tiffey at Crownthorpe - Bridge 1678. The 'upside' has been fenced naturally with a laid hedge to form a sturdy barrier with Steve Tweed having the necessary skills. The 'downside', which is the side where the existing track runs, has a new safety post and wire mesh fence including long wing fences and was carefully constructed by Nigel Howes and Tony Sinclair. Both jobs not only fulfil their safety role, but also enhance the trackside landscape.
By Richard Cullen and Gary Hall.
Two members ventured out to County School today to tidy the picnic area on the east side of the station to prepare it for its part in the weekend's war time event.
April 23 was promising to be a dry day with plenty of sunshine. We rescued a signal post from the brambles down the line and moved it up to the level crossing, before removing some of the shoots that came up from the old stumps near the 17 1/4 mile post. We inspected the area for possible bird nests and, as none were found in this area, a few trees were removed and others were trimmed up. We got a fire lit and burnt off some of the cut limbs as well as a considerable amount of old cuttings that were lying around this area. Another pile of cuttings has been built in an area congested with a lot of old cuttings to be burnt next weekend.
Two more doors have been restored on the GER coach body, with only one more to go before all the doors on the Smoking compartment have been rebuilt. The Gloucester DMU car has also has more paint applied to it, although the school side still needs a few days work before it is complete.
The WW2 day was a success, with many people enjoying the atmosphere we are able to offer. Railway events are frequently accused of being half-hearted about historical accuracy, and it is already becoming apparent that a properly restored WW2 period station will be a real attraction for our line.
The picnic area has been cleared of brambles, making it a far nicer place for parents to let their children play. This also enables the development of a tent camp site for organised groups, such as schools, Scouts and Guides, to be developed.
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Tony Sinclair digs out a catch pit cover that has become buried. 30th April 2006. Photo: Matt Goodrum |
We continued the burning of old cuttings from previous clearances that we just discarded near County School. This has made a major improvement to this area. Now that it has been cleared, a few habitat piles can be created in a neat and orderly fashion so that further maintenance may be safely accomplished. Another pile of cuttings were made so that this work can continue at the next work party.
For the afternoon, two volunteers walked down the line to inspect the catchpits in the vicinity of Cathedral Lane overbridge. We were pleasantly surprised to find no major problems, with all pits nearly clear and only 3 sections of blocked pipe which will be attended to next time. What remained had managed to drain itself despite the fact that the outfall has been buried and will require some investigative digging to find where it should be. As an indication of the state of the system, some covers actually had roots growing over them! We expect that by getting this system working again we will be able to stop the flooding that happens in this area and help the track bed to dry out more.