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Latest News: Archive
January 2006
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Latest News: Archive
January 2006
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By Owen Stratford, Trevor Brackpool and Matt Goodrum.
The PW team went off to Kimberley today in order to lift and pack several panels of track over bridge 1680. This bridge was filled in several years ago by the railway before we started running trains which involved lifting the track off of it. As a result the formation had settled and so we jacked it back up to the correct top level and Hiltied the ballast back under the sleepers. We then have to top up the beds from the surrounding ballast.
Barry and Owen spent the day at Dereham. We removed the ground frame from north of Norwich Road. This will be used at Wymondham to complete the point at the south end of the loop. We were aided by the workshop team and together we fitted the Annett's Lock to the release lever and made some modifications to the frame. We then set about preparing a hand point lever to go back north of Norwich Road. This was cleaned and freed up. The adjusting drive bar took a little more persuasion with liberal amounts of heating and hitting in order to remove the bolts and pins!
We spent most of the day packing the track near Garvestone. There was a bit of a hump over Bridge 1686, which we have now improved. Once that was completed, we moved to Whinburgh Cutting, where we packed a few low spots between the bridges.
We took the works train out to Wymondham today. The purpose of the expedition was to deliver and start the installation of the final missing component of the Wymondham Loop - the ground frame for the south end points. We dug the hole in the ground to plant it in, which was fairly large as we had to dig into the cutting side. We then placed in the timbers which it sits on before carrying the frame across to the hole. Even a small ground frame such as this is fairly heavy and took six people to lift it into position. We then drilled and secured it and packed around the timbers to provide a sound footing. Meanwhile we took the opportunity whilst on site with the works train to pack around 20 feet of track near Lady's Lane Bridge (1672) which was displaying dubious top level.
Trevor, Barry and Owen went to Wymondham today to complete the installation of the south ground frame. We cut, punched and fitted the remaining point channel, before setting the adjusters and adjustable cranks to obtain the correct amount and distance of travel on both the points and the facing point lock. We also fitted the facing point lock bar and cut in the slots. Once this was completed, we fitted sleepers around the ground frame to form a retaining structure for the soil and also positioned a concrete slab to stand on. The final task for the day was to re-lock the frame so that the king lever correctly locked the other levers.
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Left: A view of the rodding run. Middle: The newly-installed ground frame. Right: Barry Brackpool tests the new frame. 29th January 2006. Photos: Owen Stratford |
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By Gary Hall, Richard Cullen and Matt Goodrum.
The efforts of the County School area group were rather inhibited last Friday, so we regrouped on the 2nd January instead. We spent the morning burning the cuttings that were still left on the track bed between bridges 1706 and 1707, and managed to light one fire to burn all the branches around it. It has really made a difference in tidying up the cutting.
This weekend the Station Team continued to clear overgrown and diseased vegetation from around the station. This will help protect the station building from damage. During this work the fence at the end of the upper car park partially collapsed. It was found, however, that this improved the aspect of the station - creating a view over the garden and orchard areas. As a result it is likely that this fence will be replaced with post and wire.
With the weather considerably better than in previous weeks, David continued to work on the Dig For Victory garden. Any information on varieties of vegetables available during WW2 would be welcome.
The major task for the day was the clearing of the gutters. There was a serious amount of leaves, leaf mulch and compost which all had to be removed, especially from the gulley between the station building and the canopy. The removed material was placed on the flower beds to rot down. An attempt was made to clear the downpipe at the south end of the station canopy. This has been blocked as long as anyone can remember! A large amount of material was blasted out of the pipework, but there is still a blockage somewhere underground. At this point it is not known where the drain leads to, which has made clearing it something of a challenge!
Some time was spent pruning trees in the orchard area, before making a start on a fire to burn some of the cut material which has built up over the last couple of weeks. Some of the external timber items were treated with preservative and made a start was made on staining the fence posts at the end of the car park ready for the erection of a wire fence.
Progress continues with the County School Area Group. At 8:30 we broke up into two groups. One proceeded towards Bridge 1706 and continued to clear this area and light some fires, while the other went down to North Elmham and proceeded to clear an 8ft opening so the flail can do its job. The cut logs were stacked up to make habitat piles.
Matt Goodrum went down to North Elmham to see how things were going. Although good progress was being made he noted that we would not reach our goal to have this completed by the end of day and established another group working from bridge 1706. He too made good progress, but with the saw going blunt and the sun going down, we fell short by about 1/8 mile.
An additional bonus was the rediscovery of both the 16 1/2 and 16 1/4 mile posts emerging from the undergrowth, which Matt marked with white paint.
A park bench, made from recycled carrier bags, has been installed beside the footpath to the north of the station. The bench was kindly donated by Fakenham Junior School and has been sited to provide walkers with a place to take a quick break and enjoy the view over the Wensum Valley meadows - and, hopefully, will be of considerable use for bird-watchers. This is part of ongoing upgrades to the footpaths which will make them more attractive and more accessible to all our guests.
Some time was spent clearing scrub encroachment from the wild area near the pond in order to allow in some light, encourage some water to remain in the pond and increase the range of species of plants in the location. Work also continued on the Victory allotment garden.
By Roy Malyon.
The Drains and Fences gang are good at digging holes, so they turned their skills to uncovering the gas pipe serving Dereham Station. This pipe is far too small for the railway's needs, as we are now centrally heating the station, as well as having a new, large kitchen to supply. Transco are going to replace this pipe with one of a larger diameter. By the time we had crossed the car park with our trench, Trevor showed up and promptly made himself useful, allowing everyone to have a long rest. The end of the pipe that connects to the main proved to be interesting, as it dives into the ground at an alarming rate. Perhaps it's a direct supply from Australia! We didn't quite manage to get to the end, so the task will have to be completed another day.
Six volunteers continued to dig a trench across the main car park at Dereham Station to locate the gas main so that Transco can lay the larger supply pipe that our increased usage requires. We were fortunate to locate the main, excavate round it and lower the whole trench to a depth of two feet without incident. This has been a challenging task and the final task was the 'bottoming out' ceremony of laying a bed of sand for the new pipe to lie on. The new pipe will be surrounded in a depth of sand, and then the trench back-filled with selected material. The trench will be compacted, then allowed to settle before further compaction and a covering of concrete to road level.
Four members managed to clear part of the embankment beside the B1135 at Crownthorpe, a good site for photography of passing trains. There are many advantages in this type of work and hopefully we will have a good display of primroses soon, as often happens when areas of brambles and saplings are returned to grassland.