Track Pack - January 2012
A Happy New Year to all our readers!
A big hello to you all and welcome to your first 2012 issue of Trackpack. We are off and running again after the break for Christmas and New Year with our first working weekend under our belts, more of which later. Our work is dominated by the Wootton project at the moment, and the race is on to get everything finished for the start of the season. The half term operations will only use the Smallbrook section, as Wootton platform surface will be in no fit state to allow use by the general public. The Christmas trains were a great success again this year by all accounts so finishing a very good year all round. Lets hope that 2012 bucks the trend of financial doom and gloom that seems to be the norm lately.
Right, on with the news starting with the next working weekend…
February 2012 Working Weekend – Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th
With many tasks going on it is going to be very difficult to pin down what the next working weekend will consist of, but it will almost certainly be a mixture of work at both Wootton and Havenstreet. We may possibly have a ballast train on one of the days as the bad areas that need regular packing are getting very short of stone. Being such an expensive commodity these days we will have to spend a lot of time dropping small quantities and then making sure we have enough by spreading it out and dropping a little more if required. Gone are the days of opening the doors and letting the lot go in one drop, money is tight and therefore we need the value out of every ton dropped. The ballast train will be subject to loco and crew availability and therefore may or maybe not an option. Other projects on the cards for the weekend bash could be another rail built signal post to construct and also some moving and cutting of rails in the up loop to facilitate track circuit requirements. All that along with any requirements we have for moving materials to Smallbrook for construction work there or continuing work at Wootton gives us the potential for having a very busy and interesting weekend’s work. It certainly seems like there could be something to suit all comers for the February bash, we hope to see lots of you lovely people and the usual terms and conditions apply.
What’s been going on?
Terminus Turnout Takes Trip of Ten ft To Turnround Tremendous Tanks
Our first working weekend of 2012 took place at Wootton amid the new platform extension works to move the engine release points approx 4 metres (11 ft) back towards Havenstreet. This is in readiness for the larger Ivatt tanks introduction sometime in the future and will allow space for them to clear the points to run round. The decision was taken to move the points back rather than try to dig out behind the existing buffer stops due to the unstable nature of the ground conditions at Wootton. The points moving towards Havenstreet effectively reduces the platform length a little but this has been taken into consideration in the platform extension build and will still allow for a five bogie coach train plus loco to be accommodated in the longer platform with some room to spare. The points were marked up and then broken down to component parts, which were moved using our contractors and their plant, working specially for us on the Saturday of the working weekend to assist us with the task. Once the metal work was out of the way the timbers were removed allowing the ballast to be scraped away by Ollie Mackett using his digger. Sections of around ten timbers each were done in this manner and by the end of the day the point was back on the timbers on a lower bed of ballast ready to be re-assembled.
The locomotive release points are prepared for their move.
So, by the end of play we had got a very smart looking set of points again and only one timber had to be replaced in the move due to rot and considering the ground conditions at Wootton it was a miracle that we found only the one unusable one. That was a big bonus as we would have been stumped if there had been many more to change as our stock holding of suitable timbers is small to say the least!
Once again I extend a big thank you to all those hardy souls that made it for the first bash of the year. It is always tricky to get a job such as this planned and executed making best use of the staff available and there is always a bit of standing around machine watching but overall it was a magnificent achievement, so thank you all very much.
The points in their new position - 11 feet towards Havenstreet.
What else has been going on?
We have been spending most of time over the last month at Wootton working with our contractors on the platform extension. The construction continued right up to Christmas and involved providing lookout cover over some of the running days to protect the contractors. A great deal of concrete has been moved by wheelbarrow from the car park to the extension site, quite a distance and very hard on the legs and shoulders. We used the Permaquip trolley and large trailer to ease the burden a little but it still caused all of us a few aches and pains in various muscles and felt as if we had arms longer at the end of the day than they had been at the start. The platform flooring consists of concrete beams, that have concrete blocks between them most of which had to fitted by hand and also gave us a fine aerobic work out and more aching limbs.
Since moving the point we have refitted the trackwork around it cutting in the rails to suit and bringing some rails up from Havenstreet to form the new longer headshunt. Moving around the sleepers by the track drain also required some trimming of ends with chainsaw and re-drilling to suit. Once all that had been done it was time to start lifting and packing to correct level, this being done using level survey information done both before and after the move. The BLH machine was used for the majority of the work with some difficult to pack timbers being done using the traditional older method of Kango hammers. Once the points had been done a few sections of loop and platform track were levelled to correct faults due mainly to soft ground conditions. Finally we worked through the section of track adjacent to the new section of platform to correct the levels and alignment after Christmas running so that the final construction of the platform surface and new coping stones are measured to the correct dimensions from the track.
The Wootton platform extension takes shape.
The latest work at Wootton has been to renew some drainage and fit ducting for services along part of the platform and up the roadway towards the car park. A sewage holding tank has also been fitted in the platform, thankfully the very dry weather has been a godsend and allowed us to dig very big holes in the Wootton clay and not having any difficulties with collapsing walls and water pouring into the excavations. The weather has indeed been very kind to us thus far, I am not counting my chickens though as I am sure there will be a sting in the tail of winter at sometime.
The rest of the railway has not been neglected but progress has understandably been slow, leaf clearance has been carried out on some sections and some maintenance lifting and packing done to correct level faults.
The Friday gang has continued to perform on the section between Havenstreet and Rowlands Lane Bridge transforming the banks from unkempt to a neatly manicured appearance with a great turnout of volunteers every week.
So, another year has gone and new one starts, we wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year, lets hope it’s a good one for us all.
All the best from
Dave, Pete, Phil and Ian.