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Latest News: Archive
April 2011
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Latest News: Archive
April 2011
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King Edward II in steam. 2nd April 2011. Photo: George Saville |
In front of 3000 enthusiasts at Didcot, Great Western Society chairman, Richard Croucher, spoke of the massive 20-year task thst his team had undertaken in restoring the locomotive 6023 "King Edward II". They had taken a scrap yard hulk and rebuilt it into the impressive 4-6-0 express steam locomotive standing there, in steam, on the turntable.
King Edward II currently sports the BR experimental blue livery dating from the early 1950s and was requested of the Great Western Society by many photographers; the loco will eventually be repainted in Brunswick Green.
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Cut wheels. 2nd April 2011. Photo: Leslie Dale |
King Edward II was sent to the Barry scrap yard in late 1962, being rescued by the firm Harveys of Bristol in 1984. It languished there until being relocated to Didcot in 1990. Restoration had been deemed impossible as the rear driving wheels had been cut through with an oxy-acetylene torch following a shunting accident.
Dennis Howells, a railway signalling designer, has led the twenty-year restoration project from start to finish. The restoration cost £700,000 including a new main driving wheelset and 1100 smaller orders placed with a myriad of suppliers.
King Edward II is booked to run summer services on the Mid-Norfolk Railway, starting on Saturday 4th June and culminating in a Steam Gala on the weekend of 16th and 17th July, running jointly with Great Western design Pannier Tank No. 9466.
By Matt Goodrum, Toby Rawlings and Gary Hall.
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Scraping grime off the fishplates. 3rd April 2011. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
The Northern Section team started off another round of cleaning and greasing our rusty fishplates, tackling 19 sets between the Summit and Northall Green. This is a deceptively tiring task despite being able to sit down for most of the time - only another 128 sets to go!
P Way took out an early works train to Yaxham to deliver new sleepers to Whinburgh cutting, with the train returning before the first service. Enough to satisfy the day's work were unloaded and we then set about changing them. It was a very hot day for April and everyone was glad when we moved into the shade of the trees towards the northern end of the cutting later on in the day, having started off under the power lines where everything had been cleared. By the close of play we had reached the south end of the old station yard and had changed 45.
With help from P-Way's Trevor and Owen we had a total of ten volunteers on our Northern Section Works Train. The first job was to drop off the new sleepers; with well over 130 in total we had to stop the train at each location and carefully hand them down from the wagons. Getting this out of the way means we save fuel by not running trains in May and June, although we still need to lay out the sleepers with a trolley. In the heat we lost count of how many we actually changed today but guess it was about 44.
With a smaller turnout than normal we decided not to tackle the sleepers in the run-round just north of Norwich Road but instead worked our way up to Neatherd Road changing several cracked chairs. After lunch we made a start on digging out the ballast from around some of the sleepers to change.
Two Northern Section members spent the morning changing sleepers. Four were replaced in the run-round loop at Dereham just north of Norwich Road level crossing (which itself marks the start of the section). Because of the double track and a very close boundary fence the sleepers had to be slid out and in underneath the main line, so there was much more digging out and backfilling to do than usual.
By Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford and Roy Malyon.
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Trolleying ballast to where it is needed. 2nd April 2011. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
The Southern Section team continued with the tidying up following last year's ballast drop. The turnout at the north end of Thuxton passing loop was slightly short of ballast, while the track approaching it had slightly too much. We have now tidied up the whole area.
We have been clearing the scrub from the Trout Farm Bridge (1687) towards Garvestone. This is a particularly challenging section on a steep embankment with very nasty blackthorn bushes. Overhanging branches were reported in this area, growing towards the track, and three visits are being made to ensure adequate clearance throughout the forthcoming growing season.
This section still contains unburnt remnants of previous clearance and will be given more time later in the year.
The Wednesday group have spent many weeks clearing vegetation in the section between the Tiffey footpath and the Sewage Works in Wymondham. They have made a tremendous difference and many high overhanging branches have been removed by 'Eddie-the-Pole Saw'.An estimate made by Ernie yesterday, is that it will take the whole gang 6 weeks to burn what he has cut by himself in the last fortnight! Pole sawing is very tiring and Eddie has worked tirelessly for many weeks throughout this whole section.
The area just south of bridge 1675 was like a tunnel of trees and now this has been opened up; this not only improves visibility but acts to help keep the track bed dry, an important fact in the very wet section at the southern end of the cutting just south of Chapel Lane Bridge.
Other members have spent days strimming brambles and sapling regrowth.
The Southern Section permanent way team were working at Yaxham, changing the remaining sleepers in Whinburgh Cutting. It was an intensely hot and sunny day, and we got roasted despite using copious quantities of sun-cream. Our work was therefore curtailed and the speed limit will have to stay in place until we can complete the work when it is cooler.
It is with great pleasure that the Wednesday group can now say that they have cut the overhanging vegetation from Long's Farm Crossing all the way to the Abbey Platform - a distance of a mile and a half.
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Owen screws down sleepers. 30th April 2011. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
This mammoth task has taken many weeks to cut and burn and has resulted in improved visibility and dried the track-bed in the section just south of Chapel Lane Bridge. The water meadows have been opened up as a viewing point and hopefully we can now keep the area under control.
The southern section team changed around 40 sleepers in Toftwood Cutting today. Because of the risk of theft, we delivered the new sleepers on the day we were scheduled to install them, with Owen driving 73 210. We very quickly settled into the rhythm of the work and managed to get them all changed and backfilled with a little time to spare.
By Owen Stratford and Leslie Dale.
S&T spent a very productive day down at Thuxton installing some upgrades and modifications to the signalling as well as carrying out maintenance. The first upgrade was in preparation for the visit of King Edward II and any other steam engines. The colour light signals at the entrance to the loop revert to a red aspect as soon as the first wheel of the leading vehicle passes an insulated rail joint 6m in front of the signal. This is unfortunate for an engine with the driving position at the rear, like a steam engine, as the driver will see the signal returning to danger. We introduced and tested new circuitry so that the signals now revert after the last wheel of the train passes them. We also changed four relays to smooth out the aspect changes on the colour lights and make them less sensitive to vigorous lever pulling on the semaphores. Maintenance included a change of the circuit controller on 4 signal which had developed an earth fault and the entire A loc was wire-counted to prove correlation with the drawings.
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Adjusting the platform. 30th April 2011. Photo: Leslie Dale |
Western Region locos (such as the "King" that is to visit shortly) are often slightly wider than those found on the rest of Britain's rail network. Yaxham platform is closer to the track than the standard specifies. In order to ensure that wide visiting trains can fit through the platform at Yaxham, we have been sliding the coping stones back 70mm to conform with the standard.
Under the eagle eye of foreman David Roe, the slabs were set back along the souther third of Yaxham platform today. The approach ramp will need a different approach with somewhat damp dry mix, before they are set in place. Chris Remon has completed the cutting of the tarmac along the whole length of the platform so that we can continue with the work another time.