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Latest News: Archive
October 2010
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Latest News: Archive
October 2010
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We have recently acquired a CIG unit, 1497 "Freshwater". Originally based on the Southern Region, it will be able to operate in push-pull mode with our Class 73 loco, 73 210 "Selhurst". This unit, and its sister 3 CIG "Farringford" (painted in Southern Region green) were the last two remaining slam-door units which saw their final day in service on 22nd May. It has come straight from mainline service on the Brockenhurst - Lymington Pier branch, and so is in excellent condition and will enter service straight away.
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In mainline service. 18th September 2009. Photo: John Hendy |
By Matt Goodrum, Toby Rawlings and Gary Hall.
Five members of the Northern Section spent the morning between Hoe Level Crossing and Bridge 1700 jacking the track back up to the correct level before packing ballast underneath the sleepers as required. This section of line is on an embankment with certain bits having sunk more over the years than others. After lunch we replaced about 100 missing or worn rail keys in the rain before finishing a little earlier than usual.
Seven Northern Section members, including a new volunteer, continued the clearance of lineside vegetation at the "triangle" (the corner of a former field owned by the railway) 1/4 mile north of Swanton Road. Overhanging branches were removed using a pole saw to save taking the whole tree down, while scrub was cleared from around the open ditch. All of today's cuttings along with two piles of dry material were burnt. However, the wind direction prevented other piles closer to Dereham from being lit.
Seven members of the Northern Section team spent the day in the middle of Northall Green Cutting. During the morning we backfilled around 28 sleepers - what ballast exists here is very dirty so finding and then cleaning it, using a couple of old shopping baskets, took long than usual. After lunch we replace missing or worn rail keys over 27 track panels - we have nearly completed this task, only another 30 panels to go. At 3 o'clock the regular end of day bonfire was lit, this time to dispose of material from around Bridge 1697.
With the help of the railway's excellent pole-saw, several branches from neighbouring conifer trees have been cut back in the short section north of Norwich Road in Dereham. Weeds from the retaining wall were also pulled up and anything else growing through or over the boundary fence removed. This has resulted in a far better sight line for train drivers between the two level crossings.
A group of people showed up early this morning at County School and started the preparation work to install the wooden Great Eastern signal post that we received along with the signal box from Halesworth. Once in place, all hands were on shovels to get the hole filled in and packed down.
Meanwhile, another team were installing a new 17 1/4 mile post. While there, they trimmed the vegetation and lifted and packed a large dip in the track.
By Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford and Roy Malyon.
Throughout this week, Norfolk County Council had a road closure at Whinburgh for resurfacing works just south of Bridge 1690. Luckily MNR was able to arrange for Bridge 1690 to be included within the road closure and members of the Wednesday gang attempted to repair "hit and run" RTA damage.
This complex task was made difficult due to the very wet weather conditions throughout the week which resulted in members visiting the site, on the Saturday of the Gala when the works were planned, and then at times on the following 8 consecutive days. As well as repairs to the railings and steel sheeting, the badly broken corners at the exit of the bridge were repaired with 30 bricks and 10 x 25kg bags of sand/gravel and then painted white to try to make them visible to road users.
In addition Dave Roe's painting team undertook the painting of the 'actual bridge' section.
A small PW group assembled at Thuxton today. One fearless member managed to paint the No. 11 signal post (that's the very tall one). The rest of us collected up a couple of dozen discarded sleepers and trollyed them to the embankment just north of bridge 1686. We then positioned them on the west side of the line to stop the ballast falling away down the slippery slope. After lunch we buried the signalling cables that remained on the west side of the lines up to the North Points. As we hadn't had nearly enough fun for the day we crossed the line and dug a large pit by the North Location cabinet into which, at a later date, we will place the excess cables that come out of the cabinet. It was then time to catch the last train to just north of Wymondham where a broken fishplate needed changing. After this was done, rather than just sit around enjoying the late afternoon sunshine and waiting for the returning train, we repacked a nearby dipped joint.
The group achieved much today to improve visibility for Thuxton's northern colour light signal. Four huge fires were lit and cut vegetation was burnt as well as felling and clearing 5 trees that were leaning towards the track. The pole saw was used to remove many overhanging branches on other trees.
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Replacing sleepers in Whinburgh Cutting. 16th October 2010. Photo: Simon Addington |
P Way returned to more mundane routine maintenance today. We were having fun at Whinburgh changing sleepers. Having been dropped off at the Mustard Pot bridge 1689, we worked our way back towards Dereham. With a good sized gang who were all suitably enthusiastic, 42 sleepers were changed and backfilled, with ballast being topped up from the lifted formation where required. This took us to the 9 mile post, with 23 sleepers to change in the coming weeks to take us to the next road bridge.
A small crew went foraging today, to prepare for the collection of the signalbox frame that will be installed into Thuxton after it has been restored. This is stored on a yard in the Fens, and we spent the day gathering up the components into ordered piles ready to be loaded onto a lorry. Some time was also spent figuring out how all of the pieces went together as this will be the first time that we have installed a cam and tappet frame. After some head scratching, we concluded that this was all rather cunningly arranged and quite clever.
PW were in Whinburgh Cutting, continuing with the spot sleeper replacement. We were down towards the main road bridge (1690) where we changed the remaining 23 sleepers delivered previously. This was easily completed in good time and all of them were backfilled. This only left the task of shortening the TSR to complete before we were collected and returned to Dereham.