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Latest News: Archive
June 2009
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Latest News: Archive
June 2009
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By Matt Goodrum and Gary Hall.
The Northern Section team changed broken rail chairs on the line north of Swanton Road before heavy rain stopped play.
The Northern Section team spent another day burning in Northall Green Cutting.
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Vegetation clearance near Northall Green. 27th June 2009. Photo: Matt Goodrum |
On a normal day we would be pleased to see 10 volunteers turn up to help on the Northern section so having 150 volunteers all at once was a delight. As part of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Helping Hands Day, we were offered assistance with digging out sleepers to be changed, tree clearance near Hoe and North Elmham, and vegetation clearance around several bridges. The day turned out to be a huge success with 79 sleepers dug out and many trees logged and the branches burned. The volunteers all seemed to have enjoyed themselves and the northern section team are particularly grateful for having 79 fewer sleepers to dig out!
Work has continued on the exterior of the Great Eastern coach, with approximately 2/3 of the vehicle repainted in late GER colours. The replacement of life-expired panels continues.
A considerable amount of time has also been spent clearing up around the rebuilt signal box, with builders' rubble being moved onto a section of the orchard drive that required raising and other materials stored neatly elsewhere.
By Gary Hall.
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Thuxton Signal Box foundations. 11th June 2009. Photo: Bill Collins |
The foundations for Thuxton signal box have now been dug, and some of the metal reinforcing cages are in position. We are planning to fit another two sections of reinforcing this week, after which we can begin to pour concrete. The fencing has been removed and the ground levelled next to the crossing keeper's hut so that the access is clear for the lorry. We have sourced the concrete blocks that the structure will be built from, and arrangements are being made for their delivery to Thuxton.
Now that Thuxton signal box has become a much higher priority, Chris, Bill and Danny have started the excavation work for the footings by hand. They are making excellent progress and hope to have the footings completed by the end of the month.
By Roy Malyon.
The Wednesday group have cleared a walking route along the fenceline behind the properties south of Garvestone level crossing. This area will soon be sprayed with weedkiller.
Strimming is a good way to maintain the banks in a similar way to when they were scythed regularly years ago. However, it has proved impossible to strim all the banks in the southern section and areas that we have cleared have regrown again. Spraying is the only solution to stop saplings regrowing. If selective weed killers are applied on the banks, saplings and brambles will be killed and grasses will develop.
2 volunteers repainted the tubing on the front fence of Dereham Station.
Wymondham Sewage works to Crownthorpe was sprayed for the second time this year. Apart from approximately half the distance at the top of the bank on the downside in the cutting that must be strimmed, most of the fenceline is now walkable: this helps sapling control and the maintenance of the fence.
By Trevor Brackpool and Owen Stratford.
A small group of P Way souls took a day off of from their paid work in order to ballast the newly laid track at Thuxton. We had to complete some outstanding track work before the hoppers could be run, including connecting the panels up to the new turnouts. Whilst this was being attended to, the six dogfish were loaded up. We then dropped several train loads of ballast and sharked it to push it into position around the sleepers. (A shark is a ballast plough fitted underneath a specially adapted brake van.) The train was left loaded up ready for the next stage of the work.
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Dropping ballast from the Dogfish wagons. 5th June 2009. Photo: Paul Mobbs. |
Sharking ballast. 5th June 2009. Photo: Matt Goodrum. |
Today's P Way job saw us head off to Wymondham in order to get the new headshunt extension ready for ballasting. We worked our way through the siding, slewing the track to a constant 6ft dimension in order to follow the up line alignment. Having completed this the 6ft inner rail of the curve was worked on. As track passes around a curve, the inner rail is shorter than the outer and this produces a lead on the fishplates. To correct this, every third rail was cut short and re-drilled before the following rails were pulled up and rejoined. This keeps the joints approximately square and in the same bed. We reached the end of the seventh panel, with just the buffer stop and last panel to complete at a later date. The rest of the gang followed behind, squaring and spacing sleepers before keying them back up again. By the end of the day the transformation was quite pleasing and with the tight curvature of the running lines here, it gives the effect of a double track line.
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The headshunt at Wymondham: before and after. 21st May and 7th June 2009. Photos: Paul Mobbs. |
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P Way spent today at Thuxton, working on the siding off of the back of the south crossover. We started off by installing the short rail opposite the common crossing and the associated checkrail on the up side. Then, each of the six panels of track to the south were unkeyed and then the rails pulled up to remove the 6ft gap. They were then keyed back up and placed into a rough alignment.
The ballast hoppers were tripped down to Wymondham and new ballast was dropped and sharked in the new headshunt extension.
P Way were at Thuxton again in the evening to drop ballast in the new siding. We had the digger and hopper train booked and on site. Unfortunately the rain also turned up and hammered it down, soaking everyone!
It was AGM day and so P Way spent the morning in the yard before going over to the meeting at 14:00. One gang worked in siding number three, lifting and packing the track. Barry and Owen spent the time working on cleaning up signal post components ready for painting and eventual use at Thuxton. After the AGM, they went to Wymondham to attend to a problem with a dropped fishplate in the loop, and assisted with completing the ballast work around the long timbers.