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Latest News: Archive
June 2010
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Latest News: Archive
June 2010
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31 438 crosses the road at Thuxton. 12th June 2010. Photo: Owen Stratford |
Today has seen a major milestone in the construction of the new passing loop at Thuxton. For the first time since 1965, trains can now use the up line across Thuxton level crossing. This has been the culmination of 18 months' hard work, and is the last major effort to complete the permanent way. There is still a significant amount of work to be done before the loop can be opened to passengers, including completing the construction of the platform and signalbox, installing most of the signalling, and many smaller tasks.
Fundraising is ongoing, as we still need to raise £15,000 to reach the £50,000 target to complete the work.
By Bill Collins, Peter Browne, Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford, Robin Stratford and Roy Malyon.
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Tidy cess after the ballast had been shovelled out of it. 5th June 2010. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
P Way spent the day at Thuxton again. It was a horribly hot day with no wind, which made it just wrong for shovelling ballast. Unfortunately this was the job for the day, to collect ballast off of the bank sides and place it in the loop. Barry and Owen had some signalling work to complete before next week's level crossing works. We installed the crank to take the up platform starter wire run towards the road. The base had already been installed. We cut the channel to size and punched the fastening holes in it. The crank was then cleaned back to metal and all of the pieces painted. Whilst this dried, the thimble joints were installed onto the chain and shackles. The crank was then installed and fitted up, with ducting installed for the various parts. Finally we backfilled the various excavations.
We spent the morning in Dereham yard loading up parts onto the wagons ready to go down to Thuxton next week. The train was then formed up and we identified more parts and sorted them out ready to clean down and paint in the future.
The Wednesday Group cleared and burnt vegetation that was getting too close to the track just south of the Trout Farm Bridge (1687).
The road at Thuxton is shut for drainage works for two weeks by the council, and we had arranged to renew the up side level crossing in the same closure. Today saw us make a start on the renewal. We took a works train out in the morning with the loco collecting the hoppers from Thuxton and running them to Hardingham to be loaded. Meanwhile the remainder of the train was shunted at Thuxton into the loop. The crane was used to bring up the two rails for the level crossing and also to unload materials from the train into position. Once the council works had completed for the week, we took possession late on in the afternoon and lifted off the gates and removed the up side posts. We were only permitted to work during the times when they were not on site since both works being carried out simultaneously would cut off several houses in the village. Our highways contractor then removed the surface of the road with David loading the material with his JCB onto a lorry for removal. He also dug the new hole for the hinge post to be reset into. Finally the panel for the level crossing was craned into position before we shunted the hoppers and mermaids into the south loop ready for tomorrow.
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Lifting and packing. 12th June 2010. Photo: Owen Stratford |
A large P Way contingent descended on Thuxton to install the track across the up side of the road. We started off by removing some edging near the platform that clashed with the wire run location. Meanwhile the two rails for the road were cut to length and installed. The whole panel was keyed up and aligned before we set about lifting and packing it and the 60ft panels on either side. Another group installed some ducts over the road to take signalling wire and the D&F gang fettled the hole to take the hinge post. With the track installed, 31 438 was used to make the first trip over the road to prove that everything was bedded in correctly. We then waited for the last train to clear the line before starting up the crane and planting the hinge post. This was aligned and bedded in before we called it a day.
P Way spent today completing the track works at Thuxton across the new level crossing. We installed a metal duct that will take the wire run to the up platform starter and connected up a length of wire to prove the alignment through it. At the same time all of the timber edging was made and installed to separate the tarmac road from the track. This is a particularly fiddly job and involves chainsawing sleepers, firstly cutting the ends at an angle to fit against the rails and secondly notching the backs and sides in order to make them fit around the sleepers, chairs and anything else in the way! The cut surfaces were treated with preservative and the edging spiked to the sleepers. Once the last of the pieces that needed to be in the ground were fitted, we ran the ballast hoppers to drop stone through the crossing and on the three panels on either side. The ballast locally around the crossing was dressed and boxed off with the remainder left to shark at a later date. The next job was to install a temporary stop post on the up side for the gate to fit into when across the road. It is temporary until the gate is shortened by a few feet to bring it into final design length. The gate on the up side was then re-hung on the relocated post and the stop post bedded in. Finally we had to install a temporary timber deck for 24 hours in order to re-open the road prior to the tarmac being laid on Monday evening.
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Laying Tarmac. 14th June 2010. Photo: Owen Stratford |
We returned to Thuxton to work on the level crossing for the last day today at 15:00. Once the council had finished their works, we took over the road closure again and lifted out the temporary deck. The tarmac contractors then started their work, laying in type one within the crossing followed by two layers of tarmac. After it had all had time to cool, the road was re-opened for the last time.
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Brickwork on the top half of the new signal box. 26th June 2010. Photo: Bill Collins |
The brickwork on the new signal box at Thuxton is complete up to where the woodwork sits on it. Painting the wooden frame and windows is well under way at Dereham, and we anticipate being in a position to assemble the frame onto the brickwork at the end of August.
It was a blisteringly hot day and so no one felt like working too hard. We started early to take a loco down to Thuxton. Once on site, the hoppers were attached and shunted around to the north end of the loop. We dropped two further hopper loads of ballast and sharked them up by the north turnout. The staff was then returned to Dereham for the first passenger train. The gang then split up. Half of the group made a start on digging the hole into which the 'up loop down starter' will be planted by the river bridge to the south of the station. This signal also will control trains across the level crossing. The P Way umbrella was pressed into service for much needed shade for the diggers in the hole! Meanwhile, the smaller half of the group installed the edging between the level crossing and the bottom of the up platform with serviceable sleepers. This was also hard going and we had to trim the end of a couple of sleepers by hand. The edging will separate the platform access from the ballast and signal wire run. Finally the signal box building crew was persuaded to build the two walls around the pits for the wire run to the signal. The loco was started again to shark the ballast around the level crossing finally before we caught the train home.
Mark, Paul and Owen returned again in the evening. (We must be mad!) We took the now-empty hoppers down to Wymondham, shunted the shark to sit behind the loco, ran round and then ploughed all of the ballast that had been dropped from Wymondham to Kimberley. It was quite hard work winding the ballast plough up and down to go over all of the crossings!
We started off for a couple of hours at Thuxton. The last edging was installed in front of yesterday's wall around the signal wire crank. The whole hole was then infilled behind the walls and a couple of half sleepers cut to cap the top off. We headed back to Dereham and after lunch prepared the signal wire pulley stakes to go down to Thuxton in a couple of weeks' time. It was far too hot and so we went home to melt.
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The pits at the base of the signal, before and after covering with earth. 27th June 2010. Photo: Owen Stratford |
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By Matt Goodrum, Toby Rawlings and Gary Hall.
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Cleaning fishplates. 6th June 2010. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
Seven Northern Section volunteers spent the day being bitten all over by insects in Northall Green Cutting; we also managed to clean and grease another 15 sets of Fishplates. The thunderstorms held off until the end of the day, with the rain bucketing down as we packed up and returned to Dereham.
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Burning cut vegetation. 20th June 2010. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
Just five Northern Section members managed to light twenty bonfires between the level crossing and bridge 1700 at Hoe. This disposed of a huge amount of pre-cut material left over from vegetation clearance last winter.
Today was a beautiful sunny day and we have all gone home a little bit red. We managed to clear out a catch pit down at North Elmham, where, unfortunately, the local youth feel that it is a depository for anything that they can find to fill it up. We then moved on to Dave's house to pick up 20 2'x3' paving slabs that he has donated to County School. We have obtained new gate posts for the farmer's crossing, that we installed in concrete. We will allow them to set until the next group meeting before we install the gates. We spent the rest of the day moving things around between storage areas to make room for the Tuesday/Thursday gang to put their equipment.
Dave showed up later and worked in the orchard area and also had a go with the lawn tractor. He is doing a really good job on keeping the orchard in a good order and a pleasant place to visit.
Andy was up as well sorting out his new Plant and Equipment workshop. He has positioned all of his work benches and supplies, and installed a fire extinguisher and safety kit. He has also started the road/rail digger and sorted out a few other problems with it as well. If all goes well, we should be able to mount it on the rails at the end of July after we have 3 of the tyres repaired or replaced.