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Latest News: Archive
July 2007
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Latest News: Archive
July 2007
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By Owen Stratford, Trevor Brackpool and Paul Mobbs.
Today was spent in Dereham. We carried on tidying the Hangar until lunch time. Once the service train was back we used the crane to load up sleepers for replacement onto the flatrol. The train was marshalled up ready for Monday. We the assisted the Operations Department by craning a couple of bogies and some wheels off of the running line and onto an isolated track panel. Finally ash was unloaded in the yard ready for packing the new siding.
We took a works train out today with 47 596 performing the honours along with the flatrol and tench. We started off by delivering 110 sleepers to Crownthorpe. Once the flatrol was empty, we loaded up scrap sleepers taken out during the last round of resleepering. Then on the way back we delivered the remaining 8 sleepers to Hardingham and the scrap sleepers were unloaded ready for collection at Yaxham.
Today saw us making a start on the laying of the second siding in Dereham. We started off by laying out the first stack of panels in the correct order whilst preparations were made in the start of the siding. The first two Bullhead panels required the rails swapping to make all of the fishplates straight. The first panel of Flatbottom 98 lb/yd track was at the bottom of the stack (typical) and once we got down to this, we could start aligning and fishplating all of the next 6 panels together. Each one was picked up in turn and butted up to the previous. One rail was fishplated. The opposite rail was then pushed up to give the correct gap and fishplated on as well. This was repeated down to the end of the first six lengths. We then moved the buffer stop along to the end of the siding before laying out the next pile of track into approximate position to continue the siding. This requires some cutting and drilling as each of the next panels is moved into position. The effect of today's work has been to reunite the old 'up' and 'down' lines from the former Oxford - Cambridge line together once more in the yard along with depleting most of our stock of panels!
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Left: The crane prepares to lay the new siding. Middle: Bolting everything together. Right: The first few panels in position. 7th July 2007. Photos: Owen Stratford and Paul Mobbs |
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In intense heat and humidity, the p-way gang were changing sleepers at the sewage works today. In spite of being rather short-handed, we managed to change 27.
The PW team returned to Crownthorpe again in order to continue with the sleeper changing, and had a warm humid day to contend with instead of the now standard rain. We had a healthy size of gang which made all of the difference and as a result 43 were changed, leaving 34 to do in two weeks' time.
Today saw a few people preparing for the next phase of installing the siding. Old welds were cut off of the end of the remaining track panels and new fishplate holes drilled.
We returned to the yard to continue with the siding. The last six track panels were craned into position and fishplated up, with the rails being adjusted to regulate the gaps at the ends as before. The last rail ends were then cut in order to marry up to the buffer stop. While this was being done, we unloaded the tench of rails that had been sat on there for over a year. Then 12 bundles of new sleepers were loaded onto the flatrol and tench. Finally the buffer stop was placed onto the end of the siding and joined up. Having got everything into approximate alignment, we used bars to tweak out flat spots as required. This seemed like a logical point to stop at the end of the day and so everything was packed up. We now have to lift and pack the track before it can be brought into use.
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Left: A view of Dereham yard, looking north. Right: Aligning the newly-laid track with crowbars. 28th July 2007. Photos: Matt Goodrum |
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Today was spent in Dereham yard. The commercial department had requested that some rails be moved, as these were visible on the opposite platform and looked a little untidy. We got the crane into action again, and topped it up with fuel before moving to attend to this. We then went down the yard and moved some parts of the class 50 up to where they could be worked on. Finally we repositioned some loose rails from alongside the pit to give a better walking route alongside the siding. This took us very close to time as we were catching the 13:00 service out to Thuxton. We did manage to catch it and went off to attend to a reported loose tree south of the station. The offending branches were located and cut back along with some other close ones in the area. We caught the next train back to Dereham.
Meanwhile signalling preparation work was also going on. In the box, all of the lever description plate brackets were refitted to the levers and the bolts given a coat of primer. We were also preparing concrete pulley stools to take the rodding. These required the broken old A-frames removing, mostly by cutting through the really rusted up bolts. Serviceable components were then reassembled with new bolts. These will eventually be installed towards the points. We also moved some cranks into the signalbox ready for use.
By Gary Hall and Matt Goodrum.
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Clearance at Hoe. 7th July 2007. Photo: Matt Goodrum |
The northern section gang ventured up to Hoe today to clear part of the site of the proposed new platform, roughly on the where the crossing keepers cottage and a grounded coach body once stood many years before. Inside the overgrown hedge separating this site from the road we uncovered a rather nice post and tube fence.
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New locking room for County School Signal Box. 7th July 2007. Photo: Richard Cullen |
The locking room for the reconstruction of the signal box at County School has been completed on schedule, despite the heavy rain and storms of recent weeks. With the deadline for the delivery of the signal box rapidly approaching, station team volunteer Geoffrey Bent coordinated the work. Despite the enormous effort, both in labour and planning, Geoffrey simply described the project as having been "completed in three days by three OAPs". Now that the structural blockwork has been completed, it will be possible to crane the signalbox cabin straight from the lorry to its final position, making a considerable saving for the railway, who will now not have to hire a crane on two occasions. The signalbox is being reconstructed on its original foundations, and the blockwork will be clad in a more traditional style after the cabin has been fitted.
By Terry Mann
Vic managed to acquire a radiator and without too much ironmongery it has been fixed in place, plumbed in and the cooling system filled and tested OK.
Unfortunately it's been two steps forward and one back, with the starter motor solenoid windings giving out after a couple of tries to start the engine. It's taken two weeks for an auto electrical shop in Fakenham to get the parts and recondition the unit.
So today we bolted it all up and connected a battery and starter/charger unit. After swapping jump leads for a heavier duty set and a little bleeding of the fuel system, the engine fired up, ran smoothly at tickover and stopped OK on our temporary set-up for the injection pump stop lever. A thorough check round, and that we had oil pressure, and off we went for a slightly more extended run, testing the engine and generator throughout its operating range. This showed the generator was responding inline with its rating right up to 270 volts at full speed, and the engine to operate without any undue smoke or unexpected noises.
Next week we'll start sorting out the traction motor wiring and hope to soon be in a position to get Horace moving under his own power.
It's been that old story again - two steps forward and one back. As we said in the last report, the engine and generator seem to run well and perform as per the spec but when we came to the traction system - problems!
With the wiring and controller connected and both traction wheels jacked off the ground (just until we could make sure both wheels were driving in the same direction) we checked through the circuitry one last time and then energised it. Both driving wheels turned, both in the same correct direction, but whereas one wheel was driving at a reasonable speed the other was just power idling. Lowering the wheels to the ground and powering the traction motors showed up the problem. One motor was developing full power whereas the other was being powered at a much reduced level.
Time has now been spent rechecking the connections and circuitry and, as a last resort, we have also wired the suspect motor, on its own, directly into the generator to eliminate any other issues. This has confirmed we have an internal motor fault which is likely to be some sort of open circuit in one pair of the field coils. Next week we will remove the motor and start to dismantle it for inspection. (Anyone know a friendly rewind company?) But I suppose the good news is that for the first time in many years Horace did move (approx 6ft) under his own power.
Undaunted, we continued by connecting the hoist and derrick motors so, time permitting next week, we hope to connect the hoist and derrick solenoid brakes in readiness for brake shoe fitting and then electrical operational testing of the two lifting circuits. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we don't incur any more problems.
Horace wasn't able to consume all of our time though, we also got roped in to assist in making the goodshed pigeon proof.