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Latest News: Archive
August 2009
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Latest News: Archive
August 2009
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9466 at Hoe. 30th August 2009. Photo: Matt Goodrum |
Sunday 30 August saw the first steam train reach Hoe Level Crossing since the early 1960s. At the request of the owners of loco 9466, arrangements were made at short notice and the pannier pushed up a train of goods wagons immediately after the final passenger run of the day. We arrived at Hoe to find a small welcoming committee waiting at the gates to greet the loco on this historic occasion. This was just a one off for now but can you help us make this a regular occurrence? Please consider sponsoring a sleeper or even volunteering some time to help the MNR reopen this section of line to passengers.
By Bill Collins.
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Signal box under construction. 16th August 2009. Photo: Bill Collins |
As the bricks haven't yet arrived, we decided to make a start on the inner blockwork for the box. Saturday morning we made up the positioning profiles and transferred the profile marks to the footings. 50 blocks were then laid. On Sunday we finished setting out and finalised all the marks as a double check and then established levels on the footings and by the end of the day had laid a further 100 blocks.
By Roy Malyon.
The fence beside the former goods yard is quite close to the running line and was repaired by us many years ago. Today the level crossing keeper, Richard Waterhouse, worked all day to clear vegetation and erect a new end post just south of the platform. He has already erected a new post with diagonal straining post about 200 yards further south and hopefully work will begin to erect the new intermediate posts soon.
The strimming at Crownthorpe was completed today. The strimming was some of the hardest that we have ever done, as the area was like a tall jungle with overhanging oak and elder branches matted together with bramble clumps up to 10 feet tall. Another two volunteers began the difficult challenge of clearing trees from the steep downside embankment south of Bridge 1676 at White Hall farm. The visibility in this cutting is poor and there is much more clearance to be undertaken.
The northern section team spent the morning changing broken rail chairs between Norwich Road and Neatherd Road in Dereham. After lunch we dug out contaminated ballast from around Neatherd Road level crossing followed by a trip on the train to inspect the good work being undertaken on the southern section.
Two members of the northern section tackled a long standing problem behind the allotment gardens, north of Swanton Road in Dereham. A broken drainage pipe has resulted in spoil washing across the line contaminating the ballast and rotting the sleepers. Only after a large amount of standing water had been pumped away could digging begin to find the two ends of the pipe. Further work will be required before a new section of pipe is installed.
Work continued today to rewire the downside field north of Hardingham between Bridge 1683 and Bridge 1684 (Blackwater River). The work included a replacement wing fence on the north downside of Bridge 1683 and in total nearly half a mile of wire was strung today. It is planned to improve the wing fences of both bridges and put another strand of wire along the field edge as soon as time allows.
By Trevor Brackpool and Owen Stratford.
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New signal post. 1st August 2009. Photo: Owen Stratford |
A considerably smaller and rather tired P Way gang returned to Thuxton to complete yesterday's long timber installation job. We made some final tweaks to the alignment before drilling and securing the 6ft rail in the loop on the long timbers installed yesterday. The cess rail was then gauged across and also secured, with this route having ballast packed under the bearers. Having completed this, the group split into two. Half of the gang stayed with the points and fitted the required step fishplates and greased all of the remainder. Then a start was made of shovelling back the ballast. Meanwhile, a small gang went down to the platform and lifted in the up platform starter signal post into the previously dug hole. We tweaked it into position and rotated it to align the holes. Finally, several hours were spent shovelling back the infill whilst keeping a spirit level on the post to make sure that it was upright.
P Way continued at Thuxton to work on the ballast and track alignment around the north end turnout. We still needed to slew the track adjacent to the long timbering over by around two inches and to assist, the positions of several sleepers were adjusted where they clashed with the adjacent road. The track was then slewed over to a reasonable alignment. We also distributed ballast around to remove excess and packed a soft spot within the long timbered area. We also split into three smaller groups for the afternoon in order to make a start on fitting out the signal on the up platform by the level crossing. We installed the lamp bracket, bearing and circuit controller bracket before hanging on the spectacle plate and back blinder. We had intended to fit the ladder, but found a misfit on the ladder bracket that we had prepared and so this was returned to Dereham for adjustment before we try again. Meanwhile two people set the fishplate expansion gaps on the 6ft rail of the loop to the south of the level crossing and greased the fishplates.
We were back at the regular Thuxton haunt today in order to continue working on the passing loop. We had a large gang and so split into several groups again. Paul and Owen were working to fit up the new stretcher bars to the points. Barry and Danny were in the station cutting and drilling rails that will be used in the signal box to support the locking room lead out and also as lintels for the opening at the front. Trevor's gang were lining the loop track north of the platform. Towards the end of the day, we all moved down to the station to lift and install the newly prepared rails into their locations in the signal box.
Today was spent in Dereham Yard. We worked to prepare and paint more components for the signals at Thuxton. Trevor took the lunchtime train to Wymondham in order to lift and pack a dipped joint that had been wanting attention for a little while.
By Matt Goodrum.
Six northern section volunteers spent the day removing ivy and overhanging branches from bridge 1695 at Northall Green. Soil was also dug away from around the base of the parapet railings enabling them to be painted at a later date.
The northern section team had a bonus day to complete a few odd jobs. The Stratford 47 Group were kind enough to load two 1 tonne sacks of ballast on to Pway trollies using their fork lift to allow us to ballast around Neatherd Road Level Crossing. Then we cleared all the remaining scrap metal from the area making a big improvement to the line side. Finally those who could stay were able to see history made as 9466 became the first steam loco to Hoe in nearly 50 years.