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Latest News: Archive
July 2009
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Latest News: Archive
July 2009
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By Bill Collins.
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Digging foundations at Thuxton. 20th July 2009. Photo: Bill Collins |
As part of the works at Thuxton, we are extending the platform beyond its current 2 coach-lengths. We hired in a mini-digger to dig out the foundations for the new platform. Unfortunately, it broke one of its tracks shortly after this photo was taken, so we are going to finish the job soon.
The mini excavator returned to Thuxton to finish the platform extension footings this weekend. We now need to get the blocks, bricks and building sand to the site, and even more ready-mixed concrete for the front platform wall.
By Roy Malyon.
On one of the hottest days this year volunteers continued cutting and burning south of the summit of Danemoor Bank. Sleepers that have been replaced were moved and stacked near the accommodation crossing north of Kimberley for collection, and 10 were cut in half to form replacement lids for catch-pits.
Steve Tweed also continues spraying at every possible moment: south of Kimberley was treated today. The pictures on the this section of the Web for June 6th at Wymondham illustrate that spraying behind the stacked track panels took place before they were placed to form the second formation.
The problem with spraying is that few people realise what areas would be like without his efforts: Dereham yard is so much safer with so few brambles to trip over.
Each Wednesday for the past few weeks a large group of volunteers have been clearing the lifted side of the trackbed just south of Danemoor summit. This work, in preparation for reballasting, has has been a major achievement for the volunteers involved and next Wednesday, 22nd July, will see us complete the task. Work has also begun just south of this area to improve the visibility at the accommodation crossing and this will continue when time allows.
Two volunteers continued the challenging task of strimming the downside fenceline/top of the bank in the cutting south of Crownthorpe. Another day will be required before it is possible to walk along the downside fenceline from Crownthorpe Bridge to the farm accommodation crossing: this work will enable us to gain a route for selective spraying and is essential for us be able to repair the fencing throughout the cutting.
Volunteers continue to weedkill fencelines, the track-bed north of Hoe, and the station/yard areas. The weather has not been very helpful in the last week and selective weedkilling of saplings throughout Thuxton cutting failed due to an unexpected heavy rainstorm just after application. Today spraying at North Elmham had to be cancelled for the fourth time as it was too windy. This task is extremely heavy work and can be soul destroying, rather than weed destroying, when the weather is against us.
Two volunteers continued clearance of the downside fenceline near the 4 mile post north of Kimberley. Views of the surrounding fields are being lost because scrub has grown since the line was flailed about 10 years ago.
The weather was dry at last and although a bit windy, Steve Tweed managed to spray the yards at North Elmham. This is the fourth time he has tried to respray this area but the weather has really been against us recently.
Other volunteers cut overhanging vegetation opposite the sewage works at Wymondham and hopefully the steam engine and carriages will have a smoother passage this weekend. Whilst these trees were well clear last winter, with this season's growth and recent heavy storms pushing down on the leafy branches, they have become a danger for the steam crew and were hitting the carriages.
Meanwhile, several jobs were being carried out in Danemoor Cutting. In preparation for the reballasting that we hope will take place later in the year, we finished the clearance round the catch-pits south of Danemoor summit towards Kimberley up distant signal, where we also strimmed the vegetation. This work is part of a plan to improve visiblity for the accommodation crossing, make fence maintence possible and improve the views and for our passengers. Over a quarter of a mile of fencelines have been strimmed in the last week.
Various teams were carrying out vegetation management today. Dereham Yard was again sprayed with weedkiller to keep the brambles down, while at Wymondham some trees were cleared that had grown to block the view of a signal. Meanwhile, some more volunteers were strimming along the fenceline between the Wymondham sewage works and Crownthorpe.
The Wednesday group worked just north of Hardingham. Half the group cleared and burnt some overhanging trees beside Bridge 1683, whilst the rest started to repair the fence between that bridge and the river bridge (1684) approximately 300 yards further north. A fence that has not been touched for years is quite a challenge to sort out, and straightening the posts alone took four volunteers all the morning. Whilst the fence looks much better, there are only 2 strands of wire at present and the remainder will be strung soon.
By Matt Goodrum and Gary Hall.
The northern section team spent the day changing rail chairs on the section of line between Neatherd Road and Swanton Road in Dereham. With 9 volunteers able to attend today we were able to complete the day's task and also dig out most of the sleepers needing to be changed in the area by 3pm. At this point the cloud cover had gone and the sun was strong in the sky so it seemed like a good time to call it a day.
The northern section team spent a day tidying the lineside in Dereham. Our task was made much easier by Ernie having kept some of the grass in check for us over this past year. With another large turn out, some of the team were able to dig out the last few sleepers to be changed in the Neatherd Road to Swanton Road section and rake the cuttings into piles for burning later.
We began the day by retrieving some wood that was left along side of the track bed from when we had the church group out a few weeks ago. With that job complete, we could begin with the day's main job, which was to finish building a fence. There is a permissive footpath alongside the line here, and we are moving the path to the bottom of the embankment to ensure walkers' safety when the trains eventually return. We stretched the first wires along the next section of the new fence today and redirected the footpath to its new location. We are now less than 100 yards from bridge 1707 but it will take a lot of hard work and moving of soil to complete the new path. To finish off, we got the tractor mower out and cut the grass on the new footpath, in the picnic area and in part of the meadow.
By Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford and Roy Malyon.
The PW team spent the day working on the siding at the south end of the passing loop at Thuxton. The final track panel had previously been stacked up on top of the end of the siding, as our ballast heap was in the way. Now that we have laid most of the ballast, the panel could be broken up and moved by hand to its final position. Once this was complete, we spent the rest of the day spreading out the ballast that had been dropped in this area.
P Way were at Thuxton today, working on the north turnout. The contractors had not installed the full number of long timbers beyond the common crossing as per the design and the interlaced ones installed instead will not permit the layout to be tamped. In order to install these long timbers, we dug out the ballast over 14 beds on both roads. With this completed, we then regulated ballast around the points, filling up empty beds, spreading excess ballast and building up the shoulders. A sag was jacked out of the loop to assist when we come to tamp the track. After these exertions, we caught the last train to Wymondham to scope up next week's work.
A small PW crew spent the day in Dereham. We fitted the last missing components to the points in siding three along with installing a few missing sleepers into the plain line within this siding, and this enabled this track to be brought into use.
P Way spent today back at Wymondham. We had previously carried out works on the new headshunt extension. In the intervening time, the track has been ballasted and tamped. We still however had some minor outstanding tasks to attend to. We started off by setting the expansion gaps on the fishplates of the outside rails by unkeying the rails, removing the fishplates and then pushing the rails forwards. (We had completed the inner rail previously.) With this completed, the final panel and buffer stop were positioned and fishplated on. These were aligned, leaving an overlap on the inner rail. This was cut to size, drilled and joined on. Meanwhile, the other half of the group were loading up ballast onto a trolley from where there was too much before taking this along the headshunt and unloading it into low beds.
We decamped to Thuxton today to prepare for the installation of the first signal in the loop. The signal will be installed at the south end of the up platform next to the level crossing and will be a short post so that it may be seen eventually underneath the canopy of a rebuilt waiting room. We dug the hole for this, which consisted of a 6ft deep excavation. The ground is particularly firm, having been built up with hardcore, overlaying the natural very cohesive clay that occupied the bottom 2ft of the hole and this made for very slow digging. With the hole ready to take the post, we then covered it over and assisted the signal box crew who were clearing overspilled ballast from the location of the platform extension.
P Way worked on the headshunt at Wymondham again to day in order to complete a few outstanding jobs. The fishplates on the new headshunt extension were all greased. We also sorted a pile of ballast to recover the good ballast from it and then completed the day by tidying up all of the spare components and materials ready for recovery later.
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Long timbers. 31st July 2009. Photo: Owen Stratford |
Today saw most of the P Way crew take time off of work in order to complete the north end turnout at Thuxton. (We needed to work on a Friday when no trains were running to complete the job.) The point had been installed without the long timbers that continue beyond the common crossing. These are required in order to avoid the sleepers being interlaced and preventing mechanical maintenance. We had previously dug out all of the ballast and so once on site, we could remove all of the track. Two short closures on the loop were removed and the rails on the main line jacked up clear of the chairs. All of the sleepers were then slid out and the new hardwood timbers moved into position. The rails were then returned on the running line and the replacement chairs keyed up. We gauged and drilled the through route before aligning and packing it. Finally the loop rails were installed and cut in, before the chairs were installed on this route too. The last task of the day was to jack across the plain line in the loop in order to make it possible for this route to be secured on Saturday.