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Latest News: Archive
January 2011
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Latest News: Archive
January 2011
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By Trevor Brackpool, Owen Stratford and Leslie Dale.
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Cleared lineside near Garvestone. 2nd January 2011. Photo: Owen Stratford |
With Saturday being New Year's Day, PW turned out on Sunday to pop back to Garvestone. We had decided to carry on from where we reached with the Christmas Veg Bash because clearing a little more of the scrub would make a massive difference. We soon had a roaring fire going and took out a blackthorn thicket. There were several apple trees in this area which we pruned and left standing. Danny wielded his brushcutter to trim back the hedge that was rampaging through from the neighbouring farmer's field. A large ash tree was also removed to tidy up the entire bankside.
P Way were working in Dereham yard today. We spent the time fettling the ballast where we had a hopper drop previously.
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Changing a cracked fishplate. 15th January 2011. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
Today, we took out a works train to carry out a load of the more minor jobs that fall lower down the priority list. After last year's tamping, there were several isolated cracked chairs and damaged sleepers along the line. We worked our way along changing all of these along with replacing the 4 damaged sleepers between Thuxton and Hardingham. A cracked fishplate that was reported by the section walker was also changed up at Danemoor and several dipped joints were packed in various locations.
The day started off with rain but despite this we had a good turnout of volunteers to start on the resleepering of the main turnout at the throat of Dereham Yard. After taking possession of the line we set about removing the chair screws from the point and replacing the ferrules at the same time. All of the old timbers were pulled out and stacked clear of the line and the new ones sorted and placed into position. With this job completed, the gang split up to work on two areas. One team set up the timbers into the correct positions and then gauged, drilled and screwed down the main route. The other worked on a few other jobs around the yard including topping up the ground where it had settled near the end of the bay after removal of a signal to Thuxton and removing a redundant foot crossing. We also fitted some gauge ties to the point into the bay which was showing signs of baseplate shuffle pending the scheduled replacement next year.
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Resleepering a turnout. 22nd January 2011. Photo: Simon Addington |
Trevor, Barry and Owen returned to Dereham today to continue with yesterday's trackwork. We aligned the main route of the main point before setting up the lead rail of the diverging road. This was then drilled and fastened to the timbers before we moved on to gauge and secure the last rail. This leaves the track ready to press on next weekend.
A small PW crew were in Dereham again today. The promise of 20 tons of ballast to shovel seemed to have dampened people's enthusiasm. We started off by setting up the southern point in Dereham that was re-timbered last week onto jacks. With the sighting boards set up the track was jacked up to level. We then shovel-packed the cess rail before setting up the rest of the point onto jacks and getting the cross level correct. This then enabled us to work along the other three rails and pack those as well. With the point packed to level, we slewed the plain line on the approach slightly to remove a kink and packed some of the track beyond the point to give a better vertical alignment. Finally we spent the rest of the day returning all of the ballast to the beds and the shoulders.
Sometime ago Bridge Engineer John Woods let it be known that he'd like to expose the riveted box girders for inspection, on the "running" side of the Crownthorpe Bridge deck, by removing most of the walkway. The need to create a new walkway is to be met by building it over the spare trackbed.
Taking advantage of the train free day David Roe, Bernie Bland, Fred Chapman and Leslie Dale set to descaling (prior to painting) the section of bridge to be covered up by the new walkway. They also remade the wire fence to protect the east side parapet gaps. Painting can be done on the next warm dry day.
We hope to assemble the new walkway on 12th March when there will not be many trains running.
By Matt Goodrum, Toby Rawlings and Gary Hall.
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Clearance around Bridge 1698. 2nd January 2011. Photo: Toby Rawlings |
With a turnout of six we headed for Hoe Road (1698) as usual to access the line but rather than walking south from here we decided to spend the day clearing the scrub from around the bridge. It took quite a while to get the bonfire going because of the sheltered location but we did manage to burn everything in the end. As always with this kind of work, especially near a landmark, the change is dramatic and very pleasing for those involved.
The group spent another enjoyable day felling trees and burning vegetation between Bridges 1697 and 1698 (Hoe Road). A lot of work has gone in to this short section over the winter; we are now nearing completion and this has produced many logs for us to sell, raising funds for the restoration of the line. Meanwhile two teams from the Probation Service were hard at work clearing the deck of Bridge 1699 and removing yet more vegetation further north towards Hoe level crossing.
Today we had a break from vegetation and instead seven members changed the 18 sleepers left over from last November between Bridges 1698 (Hoe Road) and 1699. As before the old sleepers were much thinner then the new examples which meant we had to break the bed under every one, slowing us down somewhat. We also managed to clean and backfill ballast into a few of the bays using our trusty shopping baskets, while the Probation Service continued work north of Bridge 1699.
Today we split into three groups: Toby, Tom and Simon continued the scrub clearance north of Bridge 1697 and loaded material on to the bonfire; Rob felled trees immediately south of 1697 to open up around the bridge; while Julian and Alan transported several loads of logs down to Hoe level crossing. With the exception of just four trees that lean towards the bridge, we have now finished felling between 1697 and Hoe LC. However, there remains a lot of scrub and general tidying up to do as well as several trees to tackle beyond Hoe and at Northall Green before the birds start nesting again.
It was a beautiful day and we started out the day clearing up the left-over spoil from when we installed the wooden signal post at the end of platform 2 at County School.
Some of the speed-bumps have been removed from the approach road to the station. Adjacent to each one is a length of rail to mark the edge of the road. We used the road-rail digger to remove the ones that were now surplus to requirements and place them elsewhere.
We have been donated some bushes, which we planted alongside the road. We then moved just north of the station where there is a bench that overlooks the meadow. We removed a few blackthorn bushes and some brambles to increase the view from the bench.
Andy Brown set himself up in the station and conducted PAT testing on all of the equipment in the station as well as any private electrical equipment that may be used on MNR property. Meanwhile, Eileen and Dave moved several items from the tea room area to the ladies' waiting room in readiness for a new window to be installed.