Track Pack - February 2012
Ken West 1929-2012
I imagine most of you will have heard the very sad news of the passing of Ken recently. For those that haven’t it is with sadness that I inform you that Ken passed away on Saturday 11th February after his short illness. Such a character, Ken’s cheery face, his cheeky comments and sheer professional style of driving have gone and will be much missed by us all. We all send our sincere condolences to Ken’s wife, Margaret and all the family at this very difficult time.
Ken's obituary can be seen on the Isle of Wight County Press web site.
Hello Folks, a warm welcome to another edition of our ever-popular monthly journal (I hope)! I am writing this from the comfort of my heated and luxuriously furnished office here at Havenstreet whilst my colleagues are out on the lineside cutting trees down on the embankment near Woodhouse, working with the Friday gang who’s job it is to burn the smaller branches from said trees and tidy the site. As winter turns to spring so our thoughts turn to another year’s operating and the need to get our regular maintenance done before trains start in earnest. With that in mind we move on to next months bash and what is in store for us…….read on chaps and chapesses!
March 2012 Working Weekend – Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th
This winter has been quite kind to us, very dry and in the most part mild, with just a couple of weeks recently reminding us that it can be cold in January and February. Spring, we hope is just round the corner, and our annual job of fishplate greasing is nearly upon us again. It seems no time at all since we put the grease pots and sprayers away only to get them out once more and do it all again.
This year will be an “outside nuts” event and will entail the use of outriggers for the ironmen. We are seriously thinking of changing this system as the outside nuts do require these outriggers, which can be problematic at times. It may be simpler to have all nuts on the inside and colour code instead with spray paint. We will be considering the merits of this in the next couple of weeks but we may have a go at changing all outside nuts this year to inside and this may take a bit extra time and a little effort but will save time in future years. Watch this space on this one. Our routine will be much the same as previous years; Saturday will see us make a start at Smallbrook Junction after mustering at Havenstreet bright and early. We will aim to progress along the single line during the day finishing as near to Havenstreet as possible on Saturday night. Sunday we will gather once more at the PW hut for prayers and a re-grease and then carry on from whence we left off the previous evening and head for Wootton. Should the weather and the Gods are with us we should see the new platform extension at our Westerly terminal before teatime on Sunday. All are welcome as usual and we would love to see all our regular volunteers out there enjoying the free exercise and great banter that makes this tough weekend so enjoyable. Many hands make light work so if you fancy a dirty weekend, now’s your chance, book early to avoid disappointment!
What’s been going on?
Cold Causes Clogged Cargo Causing Considerable Consternation for Civils Crew
Wow, the temperature gauge in my car said –7°c when I set off on at 8am on Saturday 4th February to attend the working weekend. That was after several very cold nights previously and I had a feeling that the ballast train booked was going to be a little frozen. I was right! A very cold diesel locomotive could not be started until warmed through by means of electric heaters and the ballast wagons had 16ton lumps of stone inside, each little stone welded to the next by nature’s freezing power.
D2059 propels the ballast train towards the work site.
When at last we got going to the first drop point on the Wootton single line near bridge 15, we opened the hopper doors and what happened, nothing! The ballast held together in one great lump and laughed at us. Shovels beat the bits we could reach into submission but the rest held firm and resisted all attacks.
Time and effort paid off eventually and little by little we managed to tease more out of the wagons but it was a long painstaking business. What we thought would take a morning to do turned into an all day job but we did manage to get what we wanted where we wanted it by the end of the day. There was absolutely no waste as each drop was made by fighting the ballast to get it out of the wagon rather than the more usual fighting to stop it falling out when you had enough! I think everyone had a good time and managed to keep warm even though the temperature struggled to even reach zero and it was a chilly one all day.
Sunday found a very much-depleted gang wrapped up against the cold working at Havenstreet. We spent a while in Griffins sidings looking for suitable rails for the Up loop. The west end signalling requires some subtle changes to be made to the track circuit arrangements at that end of the station. This required us to find a couple of rails that matched the part worn rails already in the loop. After examining lots of rails stockpiled in Griffins we finally found two that we wanted and using the ironmen moved them to the loop ready for cutting and re-use. After all that excitement we picked up the old rails that had been in the headshunt at Wootton, recently moved back to Havenstreet and moved them round to the PW hut. After lunch the drilling machine was used to start making holes in these rails for the spacers and bolts to be fitted to make it into a signal post. We hope to use this post at Callaways crossing for the Smallbrook distant signal. At present this is a lattice post that has got a bit of a lean on it and we hope to remove it in one piece and bring it back to Havenstreet for assessment and possible re-use as the Down Advance Starter should it be suitable. My thanks to all the hardy souls that turned out for the weekend, a snowy weather forecast had deterred a few but we managed to avoid the white stuff here and carried on work as normal albeit in rather arctic conditions. Thanks to you all.
The Gang take a breather after beating the ballast into submission!
What else has been going on?
Much of our time seems to have been spent on the Wootton station job, with more concrete mixing being done for the foundation slab for the new buildings and for the platform edging on the extension. Leaf blowing has been done in many areas and “the beast” is proving to be quite good at its job, leaving a clean formation behind it and banks full of leaves.
The tree felling team of Pete and Ian have been busy at Smallbrook in preparation for the works on the new station building and toilet shortly. We have also taken a few trees down on the embankment near Woodhouse crossing, being of poor quality and in need of thinning out.
The Friday gang have finished their work on the bank from Havenstreet to Rowlands Lane and have taken a couple of weekends off to set themselves up for the spring onslaught. Once again I have to thank them all for all their efforts in providing a superb lineside vista from the trains.
Well, that’s all for now folks, I hope to see a few of you for the black hand gang reunion 2012, can’t wait.
All the best from
Dave, Pete, Phil and Ian