Permanent Way Reports

By Roy Malyon, Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford and Paul Mobbs.

Strimming in Whinburgh Cutting.
11th October 2008. Photo: Simon Addington

Saturdays 4th and 11th October: Strimming

The PW gang were busy strimming in Whinburgh Cutting. After two hard days' work, we managed to complete the strimming of all the vegetation on the west side of the cutting between bridges 1689 and 1690, as well as clearing and burning some of the cut material.

Sunday 12th October: Finishing Off Pit Road Siding

A small team from the MNR Traction and Rolling Stock department got to work on tidying up the ballast on the extension to the pit road which was laid in the autumn last year. Although the ballast had been delivered last year, it had just been dumped on the track and not spread out evenly along the length of the siding. The situation was further complicated by the fact that a lot of soil had been scooped up along with the ballast when it was deposited on the track by the digger. We also had to recover a considerable amount of ballast which was still on the ground where it had been dumped from the delivery lorry and therefore had to be dug out of the now compacted ground. The opportunity was also taken to level up the 10 foot area between the siding and the track serving platform one to improve walking facilities for operating staff.

So what should have been a relatively simple task ended up as a back breaking tiring day for the small band of warriors and we only got half of the siding done but at least the southern end of the siding looks a bit better now.

Sunday 19th October: Finishing Off Pit Road Siding

It was back to the contining saga of trying to clean the ballast of all the dirt and soil which were deposited along with the ballast. Rod Eastman spent most of Sunday digging out some of the dirty ballast, putting it through a sieve to get out the worst of the dirt and returning the cleaned ballast back to the track. Meanwhile Paul spent most of the day giving the inspection pit a spring (well, autumn) clean with the steam cleaner to spruce it up for when the DRS locos visit for inspection and maintenance during the RHTT season.


Pit road in Dereham. 12th October 2008. Photo: Paul Mobbs	Cleaning ballast. 19th October 2008. Photo: Paul Mobbs

Saturday 25th October: Assembling a Turnout

P Way started on the next part of the works in Dereham to lay additional siding space. We are installing a turnout into the start of number two siding that will lead off towards number three siding and also eventually the loco shed. The track panels had been lifted out a couple of days previously and the day started off with Cyril and his digger removing a layer of ash from the yard and then spreading ballast into the hole. We then craned in the new switch panel before laying out the timbers and placing all of the iron work on top and bringing up loose chairs, screws and other fittings to end a very busy day.

Wednesday 29th October: Raking Up Mowings

Five volunteers worked very hard clearing and burning cut vegetation on the embankment south of the Mustard Pot bridge (1689) at Yaxham.

Northern Section Reports

By Gary Hall.

Saturday 11th October: Odd Jobs at County School

Eileen has been building a new County School sign for the main platform, as well as continued work on the railway carriage. Mike has been helping with the railway carriage and working on the wooden Great Eastern signal post that we received along with Halesworth signal box. He has cleaned up and painted all the metalwork except for the ladder, and is now scraping and painting the post. Chris has been maintaining the footpath and the over flow car park, as well as cladding the signal box. Ray and Neil have been working in the orchard area and have now moved to lineside clearance.


Cladding the new signal box. 11th October 2008. Photo: Ray Jordan	Footpath at County School. 27th October 2008. Photo: Ray Jordan

Sunday 26th October: Various Jobs at County School

After a slow start because of bad weather, we managed to get a number of important jobs done. The white section of the wooden signal post that we acquired along with Halesworth Signal Box has finally been stripped and undercoated. To the south of the station, the project to improve the footpath is proceeding well, with 14 new fenceposts installed and a further 23 put in position to be installed next month. We also managed to cut up several large tree trunks that were left over from previous work, and moved them to County School level crossing.