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Latest News: Archive
November 2008
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Latest News: Archive
November 2008
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By Roy Malyon.
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The retaining wall near the culvert. 1st November 2008. Photo: Steve Tweed |
Work continued building a retaining wall beside the open part of the culvert that goes under the bottom part of Dereham Yard. This is a major piece of construction and this is the third day that volunteers have struggled with the heavy concrete components. We are now at the half way stage and when complete will be a major improvement that involved NationalGrid gas removing a disused gas pipe that was damming the stream and causing the soil banks to erode.
A very large working party, which reached 12 volunteers at one point, attempted to finish the clearance for the run-round loop at Thuxton and burn materials left from when the contractors visited last month. There is still more to clear and burn, especially along the fence-line on the up side, but the progress at this site in the last month has been absolutely amazing. The upside fence needs major repair now that it has emerged from the undergrowth!
Work has started in preparation to pipe the part of the Yaxham relief drain and tidy up the area from the level crossing to the northerly stop board. 30 yards of 15" pipe was delivered by train from Dereham on Monday, and it is planned to install this shortly. The relief drain has been a success and has solved the disposal of vast quantities of water from the road which has only flooded once in the last year. The relief drain is nearly a quarter of a mile long and took two days to dig with a JCB.
The part of the trench nearest the north gate at Yaxham level crossing has been piped today, and hopefully members will find this area safer to use when opening the gates from the train. This is a major project which redirects vast quantities of highway drainage water into a relief channel and allows the railway drainage system south of the gates and in the Yaxham Station area to cope in times of heavy rain. These latest works have piped 30 metres of the ditch with 375mm pipe using £900 worth of materials, which were all donated, and also involved the construction of a new catch-pit.
The main structure of the retaining wall in Dereham Yard was completed today but the infilling of the resulting spaces on the embankment will be done gradually over the next few weeks, thus allowing time for settlement.
Today's work was south of Thuxton level crossing and concentrated on the upside fence-line just north of the farmer's crossing. It included challenging clearance of the fenceline, straightening fence posts and replacing the seven strands of wire over a 60 metre length plus fitting a gate on the upside of the crossing.
The work at this site is on going and fence posts just south of the river bridge need straightening. Drainage works are also needed to repair a broken pipe under the lifted formation.
North of the Level Crossing, major works are necessary to repair the boundary fence behind the presently disused platform, including more clearance, replacing some concrete posts, and restringing the whole section with new wire.
By Trevor Brackpool and Owen Stratford.
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The new turnout to access the third siding. 1st November 2008. Photo: Owen Stratford |
Continuing on from where we got to last week, we made further progress with laying the new turnout. The switch panel was barred into alignment and fishplated onto the back of the crossing of the previous point. We then joined the four closure rails onto the back of this and moved the crossing into position. This turnout came as a kit of parts from Norwich Riverside many years back and we were modifying the alignment slightly, so we had to measure and cut one of the rails slightly. We also located and brought up the few broken special chairs for the crossing. One of the broken ones was the '7B' chair which is the large one immediately behind the nose where there are 4 rails. In order to change this we had to pull the crossing to pieces, which required liberal heating of the bolts. Several cracked or missing fishwashers were replaced at the same time and we reassembled it with plenty of grease! With this joined on, all of the timbers and chairs were accurately positioned before we made final tweaks to the alignment of the rails. With everything set, the closure rails were drilled and screwed to the timbers before we lost the light and had to stop.
We continued our work on the new point in Dereham to access number three siding from number two road. To start off with the sleepers under the crossing were pulled through to the correct position and the 1:7 crossing drilled and screwed down. We then worked through the point gauging and drilling the straight route before sorting out the switches and securing the missing bearers. After lunch we set about joining up the plain line track. The sleepers were placed into position and the two closure rails were placed in the chairs with the crane. There followed a period of drilling and securing rail ends before the rough alignment was placed onto the siding. Meanwhile the crane was deployed to move further track panels into position on siding three. One panel came from where we had split the siding, and the second was removed from the stack. Unfortunately the one that we required was fourth down so we had to move the others off of the top and put them back when we had got to what we wanted! Again a vast transformation has taken place today but we ran out of daylight to do any more.
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Further progress on the new turnout. 9th November 2008. Photo: Owen Stratford |
A small gang was back in Dereham working on the point into number three siding. We cut in the last remaining joints on the rail ends and drilled them before fishplating it all up. With the alignment sorted out, we worked through the turnout and drilled all of the remaining screw holes, gauging the turnout road at the same time. All of the required step fishplates were installed and the stretcher bars fitted to the switch blades. This has completed the main installation side of the job, with siding two physically joined back up, but it will require lifting and packing to level before it can be brought back into use.
The p-way team spent the day at bridge 1686, lifting and packing the track. The embankment around the bridge has a tendency to settle, causing a slight hump in the track over the bridge. Packing is therefore needed to counteract this effect.
Unfortunately, the operations team could not provide us with a works train today and so we took the opportunity to work on the new point in Dereham in order to return siding two back into use. A ballast delivery was hastily arranged and we then set about lifting and packing the new point to level. This leaves the way clear for connecting up siding number three in December.
P Way went out with the works train today to attend to some lifting and packing of the track. We started off the day by replacing a cracked fishplate near Kimberley that had been reported by the section walker, before heading off to Crownthorpe. We have a bridge with the sleepers directly fixed to the deck and the track on either side regularly settles, creating a poor ride and stress on the components. The panel on both sides was jacked back true and kango packed to place ballast underneath.
We then headed off to Wymondham. Some mechanical maintenance earlier on in the year had broken 12 chairs on concrete sleepers. These are usually a pain to change as we have to take the rails out and the nuts are often stubborn to undo. Pleasingly, the job went very smoothly and all were successfully replaced. Having done this we moved on to Hardingham and removed a slack in the track north of the platform before making our way home. On route we collected scrap fence wire from Thuxton and rubbish from Toftwood Cutting.
After a rain-delayed start, Trevor and Owen spent a few hours in the yard preparing for the next phase of the installation of siding three. We were measuring rail heights and wear to locate suitable closures to connect siding three onto the new turnout. Having found the rails that we wanted, we then made a list of outstanding components needed for the points. Finally with some spare time, we fitted brand new fishplates to the 98lb/yd flatbottom panels in siding three. This will enable us to make a start on lifting and packing the track whilst the santa trains are running.
By Gary Hall.
We started by offloading some new concrete posts that will eventually be installed along the platform north of the station building. We then collected our tools and headed south to work on the new fence for the foot path. Some time was spent on straightening and relocating some of the posts that were installed last month. We proceeded to install another 4 posts before deciding that the ground was too wet to dig. A few more volunteers arrived and continued down the line to cut down some dead trees. We managed to cut down two trees, light a fire and transport all the sizeable pieces back to the level crossing to be sold.
Work on the signal post continued until the angle grinder gave up the ghost. All in all a fairly reasonable day even though the weather was miserable.