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Latest News: Archive
September 2009
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Latest News: Archive
September 2009
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By Matt Goodrum and Gary Hall.
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Changing Sleepers near Swanton Road. 6th September 2009. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
The main Pway crew joined the northern section team today to help us change another batch sleepers, bought with money donated to our sponsor a sleeper scheme. This acted as something of a training session for the northern team to prepare us for for an increase in the rate of replacements planed for next year. With a good turn out we were able to finish the job early enough to take the works train to Hoe and collect fire wood to sell on. In doing so 73 210 "Selhurst" became the first electro-diesel to reach this far north on the MNR. Not content with just this most of the team returned to Dereham to unload, while 3 members stayed at Northall Green to make a start felling trees in advance of the Large Burning Day on the 20th September.
An excellent turnout of ten volunteers saw us clear a large section of the line side to the south of northall Green bridge, approx 30 trees were felled including several large oaks with branches that were impinging on the running line. The main trunks were left whole in the hope of selling these to raise further funds at a later date.
Meanwhile, Graham has been working hard (with a little help from other members of the team) and he has finally solved the problem of the "water feature" next to Dereham allotments. This will stop the water flowing across the track at this point and mean we can look in to repairing the track damage in this area.
By Trevor Brackpool and Owen Stratford.
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Rails installed. These will support the signalling mechanism. 6th September 2009. Photo: Bill Collins |
The hardy souls at P Way returned to Thuxton for what is hopefully the last time for a few weeks. We set about finishing off the south end of the loop, by aligning the siding off of the back of the crossover so that it looked vaguely respectable! Meanwhile, the cess rail off of the front of the points was unkeyed before all of the fishplate gaps were set and greased with new bolts installed (We had previously done the 6ft rail). Finally we engaged in a really fun bout of ballast shovelling to distribute the excess into beds that were low. A couple of us moved up to assist with the signalbox works, drilling a few more holes in the rails that form the lintels above the rodding opening at the front of the box. This will enable them to be bolted together for stability. We then lifted up the two to sit on top of the blockwork inner wall, with the third being placed on the floor to await the outer brick wall coming up to the same level. Finally we drilled four holes into the signal ladder for the up platform starter to enable us to mount the hoop in a better location relative to the post fittings.
This weekend the PW gang drilled holes in the rails and put them into position ready to be bolted together in pairs. The rails which will form the lintel were placed on the course of blocks at the front. The one which will sit on the brick course is also ready for when the bricks are up to the same level. Many thanks to the Pway team, we could never have done this on our own. All the corners are now started and some of the brick infill has been laid. It may not look as though much has happened but a lot of time was spent "laying out" bricks around the blocks to ensure the best possible pattern of stretchers, closures and Flemish bonds.
On Saturday the four members of our team replaced the timber on the footpath on the north side of Green's Road level crossing. We then changed two rotten sleepers in siding number one. By this time the stock had been moved out of siding three so we could finish levelling and packing the plain track between siding two and the future shed point that is in siding three. We were pleased that two others came to help on some of the packing, as by this time we were getting rather worn out.
The S&T contingent completed the installation of the Thuxton Up Starter on the south end of the platform today. We had not been able to fit the ladder on the last visit because the bracket did not align with the mounding holes in the post. Since then a different suitable bracket assembly was prepared and this was fitted to the post as the first job. We then bolted the hoop to the ladder and secured this to the post and backfilled the base of the ladder in the hole in the ground. Once in place, the remaining post fittings were assembled, with the arm, off rod and bracket, and lamp all being bolted into position. The wire was fitted onto the off rod and also secured in place ready for connecting to the ground connections later.
P Way were waiting for materials to begin on this year's programme of resleepering and so we went to Thuxton in order to shovel ballast instead. We started the day in Dereham doing some point maintenance before catching the train to site. Once there, we greased the remaining fishplates in the south end of the loop before working our way through a pile of ballast that was dug out of Church Lane accommodation crossing when the panels were installed. The ballast was sieved, with good ballast being trollied up and placed in the 6ft towards the level crossing and the muck being piled up on the trackside. Meanwhile a couple of other smaller crews were working elsewhere. One team regulated ballast on the main line where it had been put into the 4ft and used this to build up the shoulders and the other team put a second coat of paint onto all of the nuts and bolts on the new signal.
The p-way team continued to tidy up the piles of old ballast that are heaped by the accommodation crossing south of Thuxton. This involved sieving the piles, topping up the shoulders with the recoverable ballast, and tipping the spoil down the banks to form a cess. There is more still left to do at a later date.
By Roy Malyon.
A group of 13 volunteers finally managed all the vegetation clearance necessary to allow the section to be flailed that is south of bridge 1677 (Crownthorpe) to the accomodation crossing north of Wymondham Sewage Works.
The five strand downside fence north of Hardingham between Bridges was 1683 and 1684 was completed today. Just under a mile of wire has been used on this section. The next stage is to improve the fencing round the actual bridges.
09/09/09 will be remembered as the date when some of the Wednesday group finally finished the vegetation clearance throughout the cutting south of Crownthorpe Bridge. This work which has taken weeks of tree felling also included replacing many of the catch-pit lids in preparation for flailing. The majority of the group spent the day felling overhanging trees near the Sewage Works Bridge (1675) and just south of Chapel Lane Bridge (1674).