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Latest News: Archive
January 2009
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Latest News: Archive
January 2009
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Today saw one of the busiest days' mainline freight operations the Mid-Norfolk Railway has seen recently. The morning train, operated by DB Schenker (formerly EWS), carried tanks from the local army base. These were loaded up at Dereham, helping to get traffic off Norfolk's busy roads. We were also visited by DRS, who came to collect one of the stoneblowers that we have been storing in recent months. This was taken to Eastleigh, where it will be overhauled before returning to service maintaining the nation's railways.
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47 580 with a train-load of tanks. 8th January 2009. Photo: James Steward |
37 087 with a stoneblower. 8th January 2009. Photo: James Steward |
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Construction of the new passing loop. 17th January 2009. Photo: Barney Stratford |
After many months of planning, preparation and fundraising, the Permanent Way team began the construction work for the new passing loop at Thuxton. The old track has been lifted out, and we are now in the process of installing the new layout. It is intended to lay the southern end of the loop this winter, with the remainder to follow in 2010.
Our line is currently running at its maximum capacity, and this major project will allow us to double the number of trains that can be run. When the loop is operational, it will be possible to run an hourly service with greatly improved operational flexibility, instead of a train every two hours as at present.
By Roy Malyon, Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford and Simon Addington.
Five members continued the work to clear vegetation from the lower part of the upside embankment started at the Christmas vegetation bash. The line of vegetation that is liable to damage the train is being removed. About two-thirds of the way to the summit of Danemoor Bank is now completed and work on the downside is progressing well too.
Today's aim was to deliver to site most of the parts for the south end of the new passing loop at Thuxton. A certain amount of shunting was required before we could begin, so we made a start on removing dirt from the ballast near Dereham Station while we waited.
We used the crane to load up two switches and common crossings onto the Tench wagon, along with some check rails. The Flatrol had been loaded with all the necessary chairs beforehand. On arriving at Thuxton, everything was unloaded, and laid out in the cess adjacent to its final location.
On our return to Dereham, we stopped to load up the large piles of litter and brick rubble that had been collected together at Thuxton and Dereham, and these have now been disposed of, leaving both areas much tidier.
Excellent progress was made to clear and burn overhanging vegetation on the upside half a mile north of Hardingham Station. At the present time the downside embankment is also being cleared and superb views are opening up.
P Way continued today with the preparations for the start of Thuxton Loop. We loaded up all of the point timbers onto the Tench whilst waiting for another epic Dereham shunt to bring out the wagons that we needed. We then set about loading 60ft rails onto the bolster at lunch time. These were tripped to Thuxton and unloaded in position, before we headed back to base in the dark. Meanwhile in Dereham, the main gang dug out and cleaned ballast in the yard points.
P Way had an early start to deliver and unload the point timbers to Thuxton in the morning. We had to get back as most of the crew had afternoon appointments elsewhere.
After months of preparation and planning, the PW department took possession of the line for the construction of south end of the new passing loop at Thuxton. Before the new turnouts can be installed, the old plain line has to be removed. With the help of the crane, we lifted out two panels of track and stacked them up nearby.
Once the track was out of the way, the drainage team could get access to repair a drain. The cutting to the south of Thuxton has been damp for years, and nobody could get rods through the cross-drain nearby. After digging the trench to replace it, we were surprised to find that the original drain had been entirely destroyed.
Once this was complete, the digger could begin grading the ballast and positioning sleepers. We are laying the new track on hardwood timbers, which are much more durable (and considerably heavier) than the softwoods we usually use. Some of them extend the full width of the layout.
As always at this time of year, bad light stopped play.
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Craning out track panels. 17th January 2009. Left Photo: Steve Tweed. Right Photo: Barney Stratford. |
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We spent the day positioning all the remaining parts of the southernmost turnout at Thuxton. All remaining hardwood timbers were dragged to their proper places. (The long ones need eight people to be able to move them, and probably weigh a quarter of a tonne each.)
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Moving the 1:14 common crossing. 24th January 2009. Photo: Leslie Dale |
Meanwhile, the switches were being trimmed with the rail saw. In their previous life, the switches had been welded to the adjacent rails, so we had to remove the welds and drill new fishbolt holes. This involved disassembling the switches to get the saw and drill in position, and then reassembling it all and manhandling them to their final position in the layout. We also cut in the closure rails between the existing plain line and the tips of the switches.
Back at the north end of the work site, a large gang were manoeuvring the common crossings and closure rails into position on top of the long timbers. These had previously been unloaded on the lineside close to their final resting places. Weighing around a tonne each, they require skill with crowbars as well as brute force to manipulate.
As the day drew to a close, we used the small amount of remaining daylight to position the AS1 chairs that will support the rails through the turnout.
We started off today by collecting some chunky pieces of metal from Dereham that sit underneath the noses of the common crossings, before heading off to collect a jim-crow from Yaxham. All of these were required at Thuxton, and made quite a load for a little Corsa!
Once on site at Thuxton, we set about getting the first turnout into order. We cut the closure to length on the front of the switches to get these square, and fishplated them on once the stock rails had been tweaked with the crow. Then all of the four closure rails were joined onto the heels of the switches. We moved up to the crossing, cut the first belly rail to length, and joined this onto the 1:12 crossing. We then cut, drilled and fishplated the rails out of the turnout towards the level crossing, and placed two rails back into the chairs on the next concrete-sleepered section.
Meanwhile, another gang was fitting all of the chairs onto all of these various rails and aligning the timbers before the winter sun ran out.
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Components roughly positioned. 31st January 2009. Photo: Owen Stratford. |
Installing chairs. 31st January 2009. Photo: Owen Stratford. |
By Matt Goodrum and Gary Hall.
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Digging out sleepers near Northall Green. 4th January 2009. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
The team began digging out for the next batch of sleeper changing half way between Dereham and Hoe in the vicinity of Northall Green bridge. A respectable total of 16 was achieved but next month we would like to beat this: can you help us to do it?
As usual December has turned out to be a strange month for volunteers. With Christmas holiday and family commitments, a dedicated day is out of the question. This has not stopped our continuing progress. We had working parties every Sunday and different volunteers showed up when they could. Several dead trees were felled. Nearly the entire west bank from County School level crossing to bridge 1707 has been brush cut. Several fires have been lit and we worked on the new fence as well. We even managed to have Stephen Machaye come out and flail the area from North Elmham to bridge 1706, and he even took a few swipes along the track bed between bridge 1706 and 1707. All In all it has turned out to be a good month for our small group.