Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Progress, Wednesday 30th June
At Wirksworth, the R & M division of the C & W dept spent a most fulfilling day working on the flatrol (or whatever, the maroon flat wagon with the wooden floor) They have added new timber to the sloping ends as well as replaced damaged panels in the deck of the wagon. It is now back in service. The flat wagons are bearing the brunt of per way activities, this particular wagon was redecked on its arrival about 8 years ago by Rod and Dave Mee. It is in daily use and has carried several thousand sleepers as well as other materials. Thank you to Rod and Mary for putting in an extra day to make the wagon ready again, more sleepers are coming on Monday.
The per way gang changed 30 sleepers and greased up 8 1/2 pairs of fishplates. They found another sheared bolt and new materials were added as required.
60 concrete blocks were added to the southern end of Duffield platform in order to get the platform face up to the new height, The coping stones will be going on the southern end in the next couple of weeks. Real progress is being made.
Work was also carried out to mark up the joints on the main line ready for welding alternate joints, this will reduce maintenance as well as make a smoother and quieter ride. The rails in the tunnel were examined and the tunnel rerailing programme has been brought forward, materials have been ordered.
Back at Wirksworth a courier arrived to recover the air conditioning plant from the cabin by Wash green bridge, he couldn't lift it. A couple of hours later, an electrician from Bristol arrived to detach
the items from the cabin! (Hum, I wonder if they want a Project Manager/ Logistics Supervisor to plan the work).
The Booking Hall was open and a 'stagger' of walkers parked at the station whilst they went a-rambling.
Tomorrow's works train will be a little late departing from Duffield whilst it waits for some bodily fluids.
Phil
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
2 for 1 Website Voucher
Use the link on our homepage to download a 2 for 1 voucher which enables you to get 2 for 1 on Adult Day Rover tickets on standard non-event operating days throughout July and August 2010.
If you have 4 adults who would like to visit, simply print two vouchers!
See you soon!!
Progress, Tuesday 29th June
After overnight rain, everything smelt fresh again, and a nice day followed.
Per way had another good day and managed to change 36 sleepers, they also managed to add easing oil on the fishplates from 134 - 135.
The carriage team were again working on the TO, where more T&G side walls were added, as well as some partitions going up around the loo areas. The new experimental lighting was again tested in their workshop and proved most illuminating!
The flail was in use in the swamp area north of Cemetery Lane and then working the Down side of the Gorsey Bank line. This time it was much easier now that all of the electrical bits and pieces used in connection with the Tube Lines project have been removed.
No 3 was again in action, this time some of the drivers were being examined, I am pleased to say that two have now got their wings - or is it wheels?!
The VCT have ranged far and wide, collecting material from Wirksworth before heading south with materials. They collected posts and rope from the area near Jebbs Lane, the posts being cascaded to one of out local farmers who sought our help to reinforce his fence. The fence was
complete from the railway point of view, but we able to help our community where we can. They also replaced a fence post knocked over at another accomodation crossing.They collected some waste material from near 139, as well as doing more work around F5. What busy little bees!
The Starter motor has been removed from Tommy, and awaits testing to see what problems are to be found therein.
A few Admin notes from Stuart Smith:
There have been a few new faces, or ones that we have not seen for a bit, Stuart will be holding another PTS course so he requires names.
Please call in at Wirksworth on Tuesday or Thursday for your photo to be taken for your new PTS cards.
The new Rule Book and Sectional Appendix will be added to the members section of the website very shortly.
Now some of our members have been passed out as steam crew there are a few vacancies coming up for training courses.
The timetable for the upcoming steam Gala is being corrected and will be available in the next couple of days.
An Admin note from Neil, please have a look at the one last push part of the website, and pester your friends with it
Phil
Monday, 28 June 2010
Progress Monday 28th June 2010
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Progress Sunday the 27th June 2010
Vot a scorcher. Oh, I'm sorry. What a scorcher. Well, today we did so
much I barely know where to start. At Duffield the Sunday gang (Gold
Card section) in a whopping performance, mixed, poured and laid 2 1/2
tons of concrete, or tones, as we say in the stock book, and constructed
40 foot of wall for the platform, before retiring for a sweet sherry and
an afternoon listening to Radio 2.
In the engineerium a Mess of Fitters, at times resembling the shed at
Bangalore, furtled Hydra; addressed the clutch of the narrow gauge
engine; tightened the nuts on the luggage racks of the Met Cam centre
car; refitted and polished its heater ducting; dealt with the clay
something of the blastpipe of Brian Harrison and then shunted her to the
water crane to be watered for Tuesday. This not being enough, there then
followed a frenzy of tidying up around the shed including the despatch
of scrap to the skip and the shockingly neat stacking of the bowsers,
this was then followed by the construction of a bothy for Iris's
generator, which now only needs a very small wire to connect it up
before it can be some considerable use.
A magistrate of conscripts undercoated the middle yard gate which had
been scraped yesterday and then painted the outside north end door of
the shed green and the inside grey. In addition to this a ballast top
dressing was applied to the headshunt buffer stop area following
yesterdays work to top dress the down cess drain. Weeding and gardening
continued on the Booking Hall embankment and the much admired flowers
were watered by Henshaw Enterprises.
The passenger service was busier than expected and once again the
weekend's results were better than last year. The Day with a Driver
spent all day with us before returning to Wolverhampton in a more
leisurely way than was the case yesterday. In the soaring temperatures
filming took place in D8001 which thundered round the corner to the
Hannages for the camera and this will shortly be available in HD and on
Blu-ray entitled "How to drive a Class 20 wearing only a thong".
All the best,
Anton
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Progress Saturday 26th June 2010
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Friday, 25 June 2010
New Stock List Available for Download
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Progress Friday 25th June 2010
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Progress Thursday 24th June 2010
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Progress Wednesday 23rd June 2010
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Progress Tuesday 22nd June 2010
Monday, 21 June 2010
Progress Monday 21st June 2010
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Mail on Sunday 20th June 2010
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Saturday 19th June 2010
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Friday, 18 June 2010
Progress Friday 18th June 2010
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Progress Thursday 17th June 2010
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Progress, Wednesday 16th June
A glorious day, with a rail temperature of 35 deg.
The Per way team raced to Duffield and collected any sleepers lying around, in odd wagons or in the long grass, they laid a total of 9 today (yesterdays total actually reads 15 changed - I just put 10 down to see if anyone reads this blurb!). A particular problem at Hazlewood was addressed, many years ago BR staff 'stitched' a shallow culvert by putting rails outside the running rails and bolting them around the sleepers leaving long ends of bolts exposed. These wer highlighted last week with a low ride vehicle for test. These bolts have now been reduced in size, and their ends removed. This meant a great deal of cutting.
The yards at Shottle and at Hazlewood were weed treated, as well as Shottle platform.
The roof of the Inspection Saloon had a coat of primer.
At Duffield, the Civils team unloaded more blocks, sand etc on the platform and continued to remove the facing wall at the south end, as suspected there were no footings, shuttering was built up reafdy for the first 45' to have a load of concrete dropped tomorrow.The Komatsu was again in use unloading the train.The machine has been finished with for a few weeks and will go back to mowing duties next week.
All of the site fire extinguishers have been checked and updated.
Tommorrow is a little hectic, with one vehicle carrying out a whole line test, another client working on the length of CWR on the Hannages, the start of dismantling the TBTC system on the Hannages, and next weeks client bringing bits in.
Phil
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Bus and Rail Gala
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Sunday, 13 June 2010
Progress Report Sunday 13th June 2010
A dry morning and a moist afternoon. In news from the south, the Sunday
P-Way gang at Duffield greased a selection of fishplates and proceeded
to jack and pack the road-rail access siding (the bit at the end of the
loop).
At Wirksworth, the dry morning enabled us to deal with a great deal of
cleaning and scrubbing. Half the steam engine was cleaned, possibly the
top half, though Matt said the bottom half. Ted said it was the left
half and Bob said it was the right half. In fact it was probably the
front and back halves. Meanwhile the Class 20 crew adjusted their
locomotive's many working parts and also indulged in some cleaning. To
add to this frenzy of mops, buckets and rags, the Met Cams received the
full attention of Leigh and his scrubber, even on both sides, or halves,
as we sometimes say.
The Day with a Driver extracted his maximum value for money from our
selection of service trains and the entire and utter provision of
refreshments available both in the Booking Hall and the Bistro de Jeff.
The service trains were modestly busy in the morning but rather less so
once the heavens opened in the afternoon. The Duty Conscript, reported
to have been "on holiday" (at Her Majesty's Pleasure) assisted the
cleaning of the Met Cams, both interior and exterior; moved the scrap
picnic tables to the great picnic area in the sky, and then collected
assorted piles from near the garage, where the process of cleansing has
been almost completed apart from several intransigent barrels.
In the engineerium a bucket was constructed for the transmitting of
coals to the steam locomotive via the miracle of the fork lift truck.
All the best,
Anton
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Progress Sat 12th June 2010
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Friday, 11 June 2010
Progress Friday 11th June 2010
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Progress Thursday 10th June 2010
Monday, 7 June 2010
Progress Monday 7th June 2010
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Progress Sunday the 6th June 2010
A rather close day with the morning wake-up call being composed of a
6.20 am thunderstorm. Naturally this got us all up and a rapid start to
the day was made within three and a half hours. This was followed by a
cup of tea.
In late news from yesterday, the LMSCA proceeded with painting and the
Group Drive a Diesel party were very happily entertained to a morning's
shunting of bogies, amongst other things. Examination of the flywheel of
railcar 51505 resulted in progress and further work is now in hand with
the arrival of fresh tackle today.
At Duffield, a small but sturdy team progressed the fitting of 10 pairs
of lift plates, dealt with various base plates, greased themselves up
and addressed a panel of track in the tunnel, by the general heightening
thereof. In the engineerium the DMU team's most dedicated scrubbers
continued the cleaning of the luggage racks, one of those necessary but
interminable tasks. The rest of the DMU team being occupied with cream
tea testing in the buffet car, as well as inserting the weekly enema
into the till system.
The weekend in general was steady rather than busy, but some
gratification was taken when it was found that we had doubled Saturday's
passenger income compared to the same weekend last year. We also had a
Day with a Driver guest from Banbury and some courthouse notes were
exchanged. On the subject of the courthouse there having been no
conscripts this weekend, the odd job list was left to the rather bruised
and mildly groaning passenger dept. That the bruises were about the size
of paintballs was entirely co-incidental. The main thrust of this
somewhat aching process was the clearing, shovelling, weeding and
sweeping of the Station Approach footpath and the removal of a redundant
box half way along it.
Overall a pleasant weekend with no alarms or excursions except the
traditional cow on the line and inevitable wasps in the paint store.
All the best,
Anton
Friday, 4 June 2010
Progress Friday 4th June 2010
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Progress Thursday 3rd June 2010
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Progress, Wednesday 2nd June
After a dull and misty start, it was a day of warm sunshine.
The Civils gang continued work on Duffield platform by removing some
of the obviously loose stonework from the platform face. Their work has
already been seen by some of the locals who are again happy to see
progress.
The per way team were out in force on 'heart-break straight' north
from Duffield, where they laid 26ish sleepers. On return to Duffield,
some shunting was carried out and the Sturgeon added to the consist of
the train for tomorrow.
A trip was made to our purveyor of track components and various lift
plates were brought to site ready for work next week.
Tomorrow sees the last few of the present sleepers being laid, then a
collection of the pre-used ones will take place.
Phil