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Latest News: Archive
April 2009
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Latest News: Archive
April 2009
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About 50 people took advantage of the fine weather to participate in the annual Good Friday Sponsored Walk along the railway track from County School to Dereham Station. All proceeds from the walk will be used to fund the remaining work to restore the signal box at County School. This box originally came from Halesworth, and work has been ongoing for several years. In keeping with the rest of County School Station, it is being restored in the style of the Second World War, with the lower half completely bricked up to prevent damage to the mechanism if a bomb had been dropped nearby.
On their return to Dereham, the walkers were welcomed with a hot drink and hot cross bun.
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Walkers approaching Hoe Level Crossing. 10th April 2009. Photo: Gary Hall |
Bricking up the signal box. 10th April 2009. Photo: Bill Collins |
Railways are normally very dangerous places to be unless you have received appropriate training. There may be machinery in use and trains moving. The sponsored walk is therefore the only opportunity to walk along the line. For your own safety, please stay off the track at all other times.
By Matt Goodrum and Gary Hall.
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New Gate at North Elmham. 1st April 2009. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
A new metal Level Crossing gate was erected on the northern side of the North Elmham Level Crossing. This gate, in similar construction to Swanton Road north gate, is designed to be in use until passenger trains run or until it is replaced as part of proposed adjacent building development work for which the visibility splay has to be improved. It was delivered here on a rail trolley the previous week, being too big to take by car.
Six Northern Section volunteers spent a third day clearing out the drains in Northall Green cutting. This involved locating and uncovering the catchpits, lifting the (usually heavy) lids, digging out any material and rodding between pits to ensure the free flow of water towards Hoe.
P Way joined the Northern Section team today to assist with a spot of re-sleepering. We took out the works train and because of a shortage of siding space ended up taking all of the dogfish and a few other wagons too! We started off by delivering 36 sleepers to the spot of line north from Northall Green. These were installed by the early afternoon and we then took the train up to Hoe. This was to deliver some chairs and concrete blocks to rebuild a catchpit. On the return journey we collected up yet more rubbish that keeps being dumped onto the line. It was a good day with nice weather and has given the northern section a little boost.
We gathered up the remaining concrete fence posts and the last roll of wire. One strand was installed to be used as a plumb line to be followed by installing 12 posts. A quick tidy up and then we were back at the station for lunch.
We decided to head to North Elmham to conduct some clearance work that Roy requested if we had time. We were joined by two more members and managed to clear all the vegetation that we were asked to sort out and burned off all the cuttings. The site was left considerably more presentable. We now have some metal work and an old tyre to clear up.
By Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford and Roy Malyon.
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Ballast at Thuxton. 4th April 2009. Photo: Simon Addington |
This week saw the P Way team embark on a major project to progress Thuxton Loop. We carried out the ballasting of the Thuxton Loop site through the platform and to the north over 300 metres. Construction plant was delivered on Monday and driven down the line from Yaxham once the possession was taken. We started off by stockpiling ballast to the south of the loop site to be used as top-ballast later on. We then excavated out spoil from between the platforms and out onto the embankment towards Garvestone. A Dozer followed on and trimmed the formation to the required level using a laser guidance system. Following the excavation, geotextile was laid out to provide a filter and separator under the track, before new ballast was laid on top and also graded. All the plant was then taken away by low loader from Yaxham again on the Friday. The site is now ready for the installation of the track panels.
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Digging out sleepers. 4th April 2009. Photo: Simon Addington |
The Pway gang were in Thuxton cutting today. The remaining 39 sleepers marked for replacement were dug out ready for the new ones to be installed. Having completed this task the gang moved onto rebuilding the ballast shoulder at the other end of the cutting, near to where the new points have been installed. At the end of the day the opportunity was also taken to clean some of the ballast dug up in connection with the passing loop project.
A small gang started off digging out the next tranche of sleepers at Yaxham. We started off at the level crossing working north. It was a bit too hot and with a small gang, we only managed to dig out 26 sleepers.
Today was spent back down at Thuxton. In preparation for further works taking place on the loop, we needed to complete the south end crossover. The layout on the up side was aligned and we could then drill and secure the diverging rails. With the alignment fixed, the final rail was cut to length, drilled and fishplated. We also installed the last missing timbers, leaving only the switches and checkrails to complete on this turnout, once we have taken delivery of some missing components.
P Way were back at Yaxham today to continue with the rivetingly exciting task that is digging out sleepers. Trevor had been out during the week and marked out just over 200 sleepers to change all the way to Dereham. We made fantastic progress with a medium sized gang and managed to dig out 88 ready for changing. We think that this is a record and certainly is per person once you factor in the size of the group. Fortunately the weather was nearly perfect with a lovely cooling breeze to keep us going.
Today's superb gang finished the burning of the cut material on Danemoor Bank between bridges 1682 and the summit at bridge 1681. This project started at the Christmas bash and many volunteers have spent time to make such a striking improvement to our railway.
With several key people on holiday from their paid work, we had a small signalling day. We were working on preparing signals for the Thuxton Loop project. Two posts had been prepared previously and we started on the task of preparing the rigging to go onto them. We prepared parts for fitting to one post consisting of a bearing, lamp bracket with adapter plate, ladder with bracket and hoop, back light blinder, stop rod bracket, circuit controller bracket and collars. The remaining parts of spindle, spectacle plate, lamp and stop rod will be added once the post is erected. All of the parts were cleaned up and all of the old paint removed with a grinder and cup brush. We then applied an initial coat of black Hammerite.