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Latest News: Archive
May 2008
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Latest News: Archive
May 2008
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Today saw the Mid-Norfolk Railway welcome its first Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) for maintenance over our extensively used pit facility. Operated by Direct Rail Services and JSD Rail Services on behalf of Network Rail, the vehicle is carrying out weedkilling duties around the Anglia region. The MPV should stay at Dereham for up to a week and will visit 4 times over the summer.
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The MPV arrives at Wymondham. 3rd May 2008. Photo: James Steward |
Mark Hallett samples the MPV. 3rd May 2008. Photo: James Steward |
Today saw the Mid-Norfolk Railway reach an important milestone: the first engineers' train to reach Hoe level crossing to the north of Dereham. This was the first train in this area since the last British Rail freight from North Elmham ran 19 years ago in 1989. The operation of the train follows the partial completion of a program of heavy track maintenance and upgrade works, prior to the eventual reopening of this part of the line to passenger trains. The purpose of the train was to prepare for the renewal of Hoe level crossing this summer in conjunction with a road widening scheme. The train was driven and supervised by the railway's Permanent Way Engineer, with locomotive number 08 631 "Eagle" hauling two wagons.
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Works train approaches Hoe level crossing. 4th May 2008. Photo: Owen Stratford |
The team stand around the train. 4th May 2008. Photo: Owen Stratford |
The Mid-Norfolk Railway today saw the arrival of a Network Rail Stoneblower machine. This special piece of equipment is used to lift the track and blow small stones underneath the sleepers to keep the track straight and level. The machine has just come out of its yearly overhaul at Eastleigh and is visiting the MNR for commissioning tests before being put back to use on the mainline around East Anglia. It is expected that the stoneblower will stay on the line until the end of the week.
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The Stoneblower upon arrival at Dereham 19th May 2008. Photo: James Steward |
The machine heads off to Yaxham. 20th May 2008. Photo: James Steward |
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D9521 arrives at Dereham. 21st May 2008. Photo: Peter Brennan |
Visiting Class 14 locomotive D9521 arrived today for a six-week stay on the Mid-Norfolk Railway. The ex-British Railways diesel hydraulic locomotive is normally based on the Barry Island Railway in South Wales.
D9521 is one of 56 Class 14 locomotives built at Swindon in 1964/5. They were introduced to work short trip freights. However, this was short-lived and the locos were withdrawn after only four years and many were sold for industrial use, particularly with the Coal Board and British Steel Corporation.
The so-called "Teddy Bear" will be working services this bank holiday weekend (24th - 26th May) including the Railway's very own Teddy Bears Picnic Special on Monday.
This is the first time a Class 14 has worked in Norfolk, so something for the enthusiasts as well as the families this weekend.
D9521 will also be operating services on the 14th - 15th June (for the 1950s/60s Transport event), 21st - 22nd June and the 5th - 6th July together with visiting steam locomotive No. 9466 for a special Western Region weekend.
By Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford and Paul Mobbs.
We paid our penultimate visit to Danemoor today and continued with the ongoing task of resleepering. We started again at the main over-bridge (1682) and worked north onto the curve. It was a little more tricky on the curve; in order to remove the sleepers on the canted track, we had to take them into the cess where the cutting sides were continually in the way. We also had a spot of trouble when the drill bit broke off in a sleeper, which required a set of grips to be sent out from base. We still completed a further respectable 45 sleepers and a bit of backfilling leaving us 13 remaining for two weeks' time.
Today's working party was eagerly anticipated by all of the regular PW crew. In connection with forthcoming road upgrade, we had to take a works train up to Hoe. This is the furthest north that we have taken one, having previously only reached Northall Green. The purpose was to deliver components to Hoe level crossing and then carry out replacement of broken chairs and missing keys on the return trip. Having arrived at Hoe, we set about digging out the six sleepers north of the crossing before renewing all of the sleepers and chairs. Meanwhile the broken chairs in the area around the crossing were changed for good ones. This was completed before we ran the loco back over it to bed everything back in. On the return trip, we also collected up a trainload of flytipped scrap and junk: this was loaded into a skip on our return to Dereham.
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Crossing Hoe level crossing with the works train. 4th May 2008. Photo: Barney Stratford |
New sleepers with check chairs awaiting the road widening. 4th May 2008. Photo: Owen Stratford |
Whilst the main thrust of P Way activity has been re-sleepering at Danemoor and preparations for the renewal of Hoe level crossing, a small team from the traction and rolling stock volunteers have been engaged in finishing off the last 30ft of siding No 2 and fitting up its associated buffer stops. The work has involved traversing the base of the old Dereham South box, where some of its foundations had to be removed before we could get the track to the correct level. Then we were faced by the need to build up the level of the trackbed approaching the buffer stops. So a simple task of completing the last 30ft of a siding has meant two weekends of moving and compacting a base to raise the trackbed level by nearly 18". A couple of weekends more should see it finished, two sleepers to change and minor jobs to finish and then we can have a look at finishing off the last 60 ft panel and buffer stops on the extension to the pit road siding.
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11th May 2008. Photo: Paul Mobbs |
Despite the sweltering heat, we replaced the last two remaining sleepers and then set about levelling off the cess area along the side of the siding. The cess was very uneven and required a considerable amount of earth to be barrowed up towards the buffer stops give a decent cess walkway. There were also a number of protruding tree roots which presented a tripping hazard and thus needed to be removed. Again a smallish job but one that seems to take a disproportionate amount of time and effort to dig out and clear. Just need to get the right step junction fishplates to level up the bullhead to flatbottom rail joints and we will be nearing completion.
With most of the Pway crew taking the weekend off, Harry and Matt braved the hottest day of the year so far to use the new brushcutters to tidy along the fence lines of the northern section within Dereham. We continue to have a problem with fly tipping in this area and maintaining a tidy appearance helps discourage it. Meanwhile earlier in the week Toby back-filled around the last batch of sleepers changed.
Today was P Way's last day at Danemoor for a little while. We started off the day by changing the last remaining 13 sleepers at the Hardingham end of Danemoor Cutting. We completed this by lunch time and set about working back up the bank, backfilling all of the sleepers as we went along. We reached just south of the main road bridge, meeting the previous section that is mostly backfilled already, leaving a couple of man-days' work to complete.
Meanwhile, Barry and Owen undertook a spot of ferrule replacement on the slue where the track crosses from down to the up formation by the platform. Whilst there we spotted a joint that required packing and so this was given a fettle. We also noticed that this fishplate had a hairline crack starting to form at the edge. After a phone-call back to Dereham, a replacement was delivered and fitted whilst we held the train. With the completion of the works, we removed the temporary speed restriction, and trains will now be able to run at line-speed again.
This weekend, we turned our attention to the extension of the pit road siding. As our meagre ranks were swelled by a couple of volunteers from the class 47 group, we set about lifting and packing the track leading up to the buffer stops. A task made more difficult by the lack of ballast forks, it appears all but two were in use on the re-sleepering job at Danemoor so we had to make do with spades. If you have ever tried packing ballast under concrete sleepers using spades you will know what I mean.
On Sunday Trevor was able to place, drill and complete the missing sleepers under the buffer stops which meant that we were able to gather up and move ballast around the buffers ready to lift and pack them, hopefully over the Bank Holiday weekend.
We had a number of tasks to do in Dereham yard today. The first activity saw us fit the remaining sleepers and chairs to the buffer stop at the end of the pit road, completing this. Meanwhile Paul and crew were also completing the buffer stop at the end of number two siding. Once the stop was completed, Toby then left us to go and carry out ballast work in the northern section. Trevor, Barry and Owen spent the next part of the day selecting rails to be used at Hoe. We found a selection of rails with suitable head wear and then measured them all to select the correct length ones for use. These were duly marked up and we then unloaded kit off of the flatrol. Finally some signalling parts were identified in the goods shed for use at Thuxton once they have been overhauled.
P Way were at Wymondham today. We had an area of outstanding fishplate greasing to complete, running from Wymondham Loop to the junction. This was tackled in the morning, with the usual alternate pairs of plates being removed, cleaned and inspected before having new grease applied and the whole assembly tightened up again. After lunch we greased all of the plates in the loop itself before using the remaining time left to make a start on digging out sleepers between Cemetery Lane crossing and the junction. 64 are marked up and the 21 dug out will take a lot of the work load off of the next week.