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Latest News: Archive
October 2009
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Latest News: Archive
October 2009
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This evening saw a successful film shoot at Dereham Station by local film production company, Independent Studios UK. The film - a ghostly tale - is expected to be released by the end of the month as filming was already quite advanced. Scenes were taken in the ticket office, station masters office and on the platform in the guise of Tulse Hill Station, London (c. 1950s).
The film - Haunted London - has now been released in time for Halloween.
By Trevor Brackpool and Owen Stratford.
We went to Wymondham and sieved through the dirty ballast. We tipped the spoil away and moved the ballast for use elsewhere. 3 broken chairs were also changed and 2 cribs dug out and cleaned. We tidied up a bit, and when all the timbers are removed it will look a lot better.
We started today with the task of resleepering working north from Yaxham towards Dereham. After an early start to shunt the PW train into formation, we left Dereham at 9 am and delivered 127 new sleepers ready for changing, returning the train before the first passenger service. We then started on the actual job of swapping old sleepers for the new ones. This was very awkward at first near to the level crossing due to a lack of space to the fence line with which to work in and also the fact that the sleepers here seem to be thinner than the new ones. Once clear of the adjacent mill flats car park fence, the pace picked up and we achieved a very respectable 59 sleepers changed (although Trevor would have preferred to do another one to make it a round number - but sadly there was not time without working like lunatics).
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Sleeper lifting beam in use. 31st October 2009. Photo: Barney Stratford |
We spent the morning in Dereham. Trevor and Owen cleaned old paint off of a signal ladder and hoop whilst Barry wielded the paintbrush to put another coat of black onto the next post to be installed before moving onto the ladder.
A team of five people worked very hard to get 45 sleepers changed today. We're working on the section between Dereham and Yaxham. While waiting for the train to pick us up in the afternoon, we made a start on backfilling them.
P Way took advantage of the end of this year's train services to take a possession in order to work at Thuxton. One of the outstanding jobs was to install concrete sleepers in the platform of the up loop. To do this we had to remove the 60ft timber sleepered panels, lay in the concrete sleepers and then return the rails. The works were particularly awkward due to the restricted clearance for the tailswing on the crane with close boundary fences and a lot of overhanging trees to negotiate the jib between. We had a new sleeper lifting beam and so this was used to trip up the concretes. Heavy rain made the work particularly grotty but despite this, we completed two panels and laid out the next ones for the final short panel before the level crossing. By installing concrete sleepers, we intend to minimise the complexity of future maintenance, because changing wooden sleepers as they deteriorate over time would be awkward.
Meanwhile the rest of the gang prepared the bed further on in order to complete the task of installing concrete sleepers in two weeks' time. We shovelled out excess ballast that had been put there by the team building the platform extension and moved it up on a trolley to top up low beds. A few cracked chairs were also changed and a large amount of scrap rail offcuts and spare components were loaded up onto the train.
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Left photo: Crane in action. Right photo: Shovelling ballast in the new platform. 31st October 2009. Photos: Barney Stratford |
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By Matt Goodrum and Gary Hall.
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Clearance near Northall Green. 18th October 2009. Photo: Graham Aldous |
A large team of 10 volunteers burnt all the piles of cut vegetation, left from the summer, north of bridge 1698 at Hoe Road. In addition a volunteer chain saw operative cleared more vegetation from the line side along 200m of cutting south of the bridge. Some of this was burnt leaving lots more for the next session in November. Vegetation is now cleared substantially from Hoe level crossing to bridge 1697, leaving most of the remaining vegetation to be cleared during the winter months south of bridge 1697 to Northall Green bridge.
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Flailing the lineside. 18th October 2009. Photo: Gary Hall |
Today we were fortunate enough to hire a local man to flail our line from North Elmham to bridge 1706 and a few swipes up to 1707. He has done a very good job and we have requested for him to come out and do a bit more for us later on. This yearly visit is mainly paid for by the selling of felled trees for firewood. It has been brought to our attention that we need to clear several more trees to make this job move much quicker for next year.
It was yet another first for the Northern Section, this time a new trackwork task for the gang - fishplate greasing. Working south from the level crossing (as is MNR practice) at Hoe, 23 pairs of plates were removed, cleaned and greased over 1/2 mile. Given how some of the bolts, fish-plates and rails had rusted tight together since last having any attention (at least 20 years ago) we did rather well.
By Roy Malyon.
The downside fence south of the platform is now complete except that Steve Tweed requires more metal dropper bars for the southern half. Two volunteers spent today tidying up the old wire and posts.
The mystery of what happens to the downside drainage from immediately south of the new fence to Yaxham Level Crossing was solved today when a buried catch-pit was discovered. Three volunteers discovered that the downside water turns at a right angle to emerge in the discovered catch-pit on the upside, opposite the southern end-post of the new fence.
Four volunteers continued with vegetation clearance well south of Yaxham towards Toller's Lane.