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Latest News: Archive
September 2006
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Latest News: Archive
September 2006
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By Terry Mann.
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3rd September 2006. Photo: Terry Mann |
Once the steelwork had been laid and aligned weather conditions deteriorated over the next week or so and caused major delays due to water ingress. This resulted in the need for extra work to shore up the sides and pump out the water, then a quick prayer for a good day to order and lay the base concrete. Concreteing eventually took place on Wednesday 30th August and the shuttering team has now embarked on the task of forming the interior shape of the pit walls. Resourcing the pit work and the need to fault find a battery charging problem on "Jayne", the rail crane, has resulted in no time for any serious activity to take place on "Horace", the yard crane, for the time being.
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11th September 2006. Photo: Terry Mann |
Progress with constructing the pit wall shuttering has continued apace and the bulk of the woodwork panelling is now in place, needing final alignment, securing and reinforcing. Discussions continue over the method to be used for fixing the rail chairs to the concrete and also the precise location for drainage interceptor tanks etc but the whole team are quite confident (weather permitting) that a concrete pour for the walls is still on schedule for the 25th September.
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25th September 2006. Photo: Terry Mann |
All involved are pleased to report that on Monday 25th September, despite the heaviest rain of the year and the plant supplying the concrete having to close due to flooding, 34 cubic metres of concrete were successfully pumped into the shuttering to form the walls of the new pit. In all 56 cubic metres of concrete have been used in constructing the floor and walls. Initial inspections indicate the work has been a great success and the surface looks super.
The relatively easy-looking task of pumping the concrete into the wall cavities belies the vast amount of work completed to prepare the hole, fit and align the steelwork, construct, level and secure the shuttering, pump and de-aerate the concrete and level it all. Not to mention the multitude of unrecorded jobs needed in preparation and support to allow all these tasks to go ahead. All involved were impressed by the quality of the shuttering construction, especially when we felt the frame shaking with the force of the concrete being blasted into the cavity.
We now have to wait until the concrete cures sufficiently before removing the shuttering, and before declaring this part of the pit construction complete.
Other phases will have to follow and these will encompass installation of electrical supplies, construction of interceptor tanks/drains, installation of a water supply and of course connecting the track.
The magnitude of this project (lead by Vic Ward and assisted by Roy Malyon) and speed with which a small volunteer workforce has completed the work to date must not be underestimated and it is hoped the final results will soon be available for others to use and enjoy.
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30th September 2006. Photo: Paul Mobbs |
The PW team (both of them) were at Crownthorpe again today. We continued the process of digging out sleepers, but with depleted numbers, we only managed 14 before Owen had to return to Dereham for a meeting.
In the yard, the process of stripping the shuttering from the pit began. The virtual sleepers had already been removed on Friday, and the bracing to the main formwork was next up for removal. This was duly removed in such a manner so that it can be re-used in the future. As part of the preparation for installing the track over the pit, all of the required ex-Western Region chairs were removed from their sleepers which were stored in the yard. These have a through-bolt with a nut on the top as opposed to the standard S1 chair that the rest of the UK uses, which has three large coach screws to secure it to the sleeper. Although a poor design choice for timber sleepers, they are perfect for our pit design and the bolts cast into the concrete enable easy fixing. Once all of the chairs had been brought up, they were trial fitted onto the bolts in order to confirm that all fittings were correctly installed. We finished the day by placing two short lengths of rail into a few chairs to confirm that the gauge had been set correctly: 1435mm - spot on.
By Owen Stratford, Trevor Brackpool and Matt Goodrum.
We started off today by loading up the Flatrol with sleepers ready to be tripped down to Crownthorpe. The entire pile was loaded up before we moved on to the main task of the day. We are preparing a signal to be installed at the north end of Platform 2 in Dereham, protecting Norwich Road Level crossing from northbound movements. We stripped the fittings that will be needed down to their component parts. This comprised the staging and hoop to be fitted at the top along with the ladder. We also got the bearings, circuit controller brackets and lamp brackets ready to be worked on. We have a pre-prepared spectacle plate for the main arm and there will be a subsidiary arm fitted underneath. The staging and hoop were stripped back to bare metal and then given a coat of paint. We also moved the signal post from its position in the yard up to its eventual resting place ready to be planted once the preparation has been completed.
Having completed the re-sleepering at Whinburgh, Permanent Way turned their attention to the area around Crownthorpe. We have more sleepers to change there too. We are now catching up with the backlog from the time when we were building the Wymondham Loop, in order to keep the line in good order. We were back digging out, starting from the Sewage Farm end of the cutting. A total of 56 were dug out, reaching just short of the over-bridge in the cutting.
We returned to the cutting near Crownthorpe to dig out some more of the sleepers that are due for changing, managing a further 43. Thanks to the p-way team for carrying out this very hard, heavy work.
A D.E.F (Dereham Expeditionary Force) once again travelled to Halesworth in deepest Suffolk to the future County School signal box. On our previous two visits we had disassembled most of the frame and stacked the components on the lower floor, leaving just one of the three mechanical interlocking trays to unbolt, the very heavy cast iron bed plates in place and the cast iron floor sections in the upstairs of the box. This visit was to remove the remaining components and take them all back to the MNR. The team split in to 3 with team 1 rigging up the heavy lifting gear to lower the remaining large sections, team 2 loading the lorry and team 3 removing the remaining locking tray. Once setup everybody assisted with the safe lowering of the 2 halves of the bed plate (each probably weighs about half a tonne). The decision was made that due to the fragile nature of cast iron and the difficulty lowering them the two floor plates would be secured in the box and transported with it rather than risk any cracking. This also has the benefit of making reassembly easier. After a break for lunch we then loaded everything we could onto the lorry, including all the frame components, the signalman's desk, the stove, and even the fire bucket, and headed back to HQ to offload our cargo. The box is now an empty shell ready for transporting to its new home at our northern outpost.
This job has proceded safely and smoothly and I would like to thank all those that have been involved so far.
By Gary Hall.
Two of us set off to bridge 1706 at 8:30. By 9:30 we had a roaring fire going. Later we were joined by two other volunteers and started another fire. Our main objective was to burn off all of the material that had been cut down. We succeeded in burning off everything north of bridge 1706, except the large logs that will be removed later. A pile south of the bridge will require burning but will now be done in the winter.