Permanent Way and Signalling Reports

By Owen Stratford, Trevor Brackpool and Paul Mobbs.

Saturday 3rd June: Digging out Sleepers

We were attacking the last area of digging out for this year today. We were dropped off at Garvestone and worked north towards the Trout Farm at Whinburgh. It quickly became rather hot. Lunch time saw us to retreat to a lovely shady dell, and by the afternoon the sun was casting shade on the approach to the Trout Farm. As a result, we missed out a batch of ten sleepers (until next week!) and carried on working in the shade. This enabled us to complete 53 before the end of the day, catching the train back and enjoying a well earned cup of tea en route.

Signal Levers in Dereham Central.
4th June 2007. Photo: Owen Stratford

Sunday 4th June: Signalling work at Dereham

A small group worked on the signal box in Dereham today. We had a number of tasks to complete. Trevor fitted the catch-handles to all of the white 'spare' levers, before going off to Wymondham to attend to a reported fault on one of the ground frames. A small burr had developed on the key jaw of one of the Annett's Locks and this prevented the key from turning properly. Two minutes with a file sorted the problem and it was signed back into use. Meanwhile Barry and Owen attacked old paint and rust on all of the lever description plate brackets with a grinder and cup-brush. These will fit onto the levers once painted. We also fitted the spectacle glasses to the starter at Norwich Road, along with giving everything a good oil.

Americans from the local air base visit the railway.
9th June 2007. Photo: Matt Goodrum

Saturday 9th June: Digging out Sleepers

The p-way team spent the day digging out the remaining sleepers between Garvestone and the Trout Farm that were missed last week because of the lack of shade. Once this was completed, we installed some more drainage troughing to the north of Garvestone level crossing. This is to prevent silty water from running off the road and contaminating the ballast.

We were joined for the day by a group of Americans from one of the local air bases, so many thanks to them.

The first service train runs past the new gate.
16th June 2007. Photo: Bernie Bland

Saturday 16th June: Replacing a Level Crossing Gate

Today saw us make an early start to take a replacement level crossing gate to Kimberley. The works train left Dereham at 9:00 and we stopped at Hardingham to drop off a delivery for the station. We then came across a large fallen tree at Danemoor, which had given up with the torrential rail of the last few days. This necessitated us setting back to Hardingham to borrow a chainsaw. (It was fortunate that we had all of the other equipment with us as we were going off to do bank strimming maintenance later.) Having removed the obstruction, we delivered the gate to Kimberley and had to leave everyone there to fit it, as the delay meant that we were at risk of delaying the service.

We arrived back at Dereham with only a slight delay to the service (but less than if they had found it on the first train out). Having stabled the stock, we drove to Thuxton and met the remainder of the PW crew who returned on the service train. We then carried out mowing and strimming on the banks north of the station (dodging the heavy rain showers).

Saturday 30th June: Tidying Up

We set off on the first train to Kimberley. Having fitted a new gate last week, we had a few minor outstanding tasks. The main one involved opening out the ground around the main hinge post and then jacking it away from the line to make the stop bolt line up better. We then strimmed the banks around the crossing and also further up in Danemoor Cutting. Whilst on site we took a chainsaw to the few fallen trees and logged them into small chunks. Some overhanging branches were also trimmed back.