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Latest News: Archive
April 2008
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Latest News: Archive
April 2008
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By Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford, Simon Addington, Paul Mobbs and Roy Malyon.
We started today on changing the sleepers on Danemoor Bank. We worked north through the cutting and completed 39. Going was slow as the rotten sleepers were slightly thinner than the new ones, so could not simply insert the new ones into the old slot. The bed was formed of hard ballast and not the usual chippings, which also hindered accurate levelling off of the formation to accept the new sleepers. The day was punctuated by heavy showers, but otherwise was ideal weather for working in.
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Barry inserts coach screws into the chairs. These will be screwed down with a machine. 12th April 2008. Photo: Owen Stratford |
P Way returned to Danemoor for another bout of resleepering. The weather forecast was not great but, despite this, the showers held off and with the shelter in the cutting, we had a fine day. Our ranks were also swelled by having nearly every regular person turning up on the same day, enabling us to both change sleepers and have a smaller contingent working down the cutting back-filling the ballast behind us. After arriving on the first train, we started at the summit and changed a very respectable 47 sleepers. Working north, we reached over half way between the bridges, with 40 back-filled around the summit.
Trevor, Barry and Owen moved into action today in Dereham Yard with the crane. We had an amazingly productive day, moving 5 scrap rails up to be cut up and then tidying loads more good rails from various places onto the stock pile. We also cleared several buffer stops into more convenient locations. This has improved the look of the area, made our task of selecting rails in the future much easier since they are in one place and also made a safe walking route along next to the siding for shunters.
Today's PW gang spent the day backfilling ballast up on Danemoor Bank. We did not have enough people to carry out sleeper changing efficiently, so decided not to struggle. Nevertheless, we had a productive day, filling in all of the sleepers changed so far.
A large turnout for P Way enabled us to continue resleepeing up at Danemoor. It was the hottest day of the year so far and quite humid which made the going a little more exhausting than in past weeks. We still managed to complete a further 47 sleepers to add to the total, taking us up to bridge 1682 where the B1135 Wymondham Road passes over the railway. This leaves one full day of sleeper changing, followed by a smaller quantity for the final day along with making a start of the back-filling.
By Matt Goodrum and Gary Hall.
The northern section team under took the reclearance of the track all the way from Dereham to Hoe today. We had originally cleared this several years ago and the yearly visits by a road/rail weedkiller vehicle have kept the green stuff at bay between the rails, but trees to the side have grown in to colonise the available light and block the passage of a train. Armed with loppers and saws attached to long poles, we walked to Hoe removing any offending branches as we went, then took a leisurely walk back to HQ.
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Northall Green Cutting. 13th April 2008. Photo: Matt Goodrum |
Owl Box. 27th April 2008. Photo: Ray Jordan |
The first project of the day was to install an owl box that Geoffrey Bent built. Meanwhile, Ray burned several piles of cut wood that have been lying around for a while. Mike appeared on the scene with several pieces of the signal post from Halesworth that he had taken away to recondition. We also managed to run a water pipe from the end of the platform to the signal box as well as start to install some new fence.
By Roy Malyon.
A group of nine volunteers made excellent progress burning and clearing felled trees near to Wymondham Abbey Platform today. The trees were felled because their roots were damaging a culvert that passes under the platform and because of roots entering the drainage system.
The tree cutting by EDF under the powerline that follows our railway for about five miles between Wymondham and Dereham is progressing well and a section north of Kimberley was completed today.
Four volunteers continued with the half mile long fencing project on the downside south of Thuxton. Old wire was removed from the southerly part of the fence-line and the final 2 strands added to the section near Thuxton down distant signal. Three strands will be added to the part nearest the accommodation crossing in the summer. Now that the trees have been removed, the display of primroses in the cutting is fantastic!
A volunteer spent the day strimming an area opposite the sewage works at Wymondham where there is a challenge with rabbits burrowing on our embankment. Meanwhile, another volunteer continued the very important job of burning cut vegetation on the embankment south of Thuxton cutting.
Following the recent EDF tree cutting, seven volunteers continued burning cut vegetation just south of the Tiffey Valley Footpath Crossing at Wymondham. Brambles and saplings were removed and there was a concentration of effort around the brickwork of the river bridge (where the footpath crosses) and around a culvert about 50 metres further south.
Six volunteers continued the vegetation clearance and burning around Chapel Lane Bridge at Wymondham. In recent weeks a great deal of progress has been made in this area, expecially on the 'upside' just south of the bridge, where the clearance for the train is much improved.
In addition, two volunteers worked all day to unblock the drainage system so that the southern outfall into the River Tiffey functions correctly. As has happened before, once the many roots are removed, the force of the water is amazing and the level in a catch-pit rose so quickly that Ernie's wellington boots were not tall enough! A great deal of effort was needed to unblock the lengths of pipework and over the years Ernie has developed quite a determined skill.
Also during this week two volunteers have spent many hours strimming between Chapel Lane Bridge and half a mile south of it and in the area north of Yaxham to the 10 mile post. Strimming is very tiring, especially on embankments, but the results are very impressive.