Connected Up

The new point and connection into the south road of the rolling stock shed is finally in use, and the Mk2 BSO has been successfully shunted indoors for attention. It takes its place alongside the Mk1 RMB, which in turn has taken the top spot on the pit road recently vacated by the shiny green "bubblecar" DMU. There are one or two finishing-off jobs still to do in the yard, including fitting a point lever and spreading/ levelling some of the spoil we generated, but for the moment its job done!

Elsewhere the troops have been battling the recent high temperatures to keep the railway running. Another 5mph ESR has been imposed near Redmire: while digging out to replace sleepers through an old farm crossing we discovered loss of profile on the rail foot, and once again old NER 90lb bullhead rail was the culprit. This particular rail section has been the bane of our lives this past 18 months, and the line between Preston Under Scar and Redmire is starting to resemble a patchwork quilt given the number of 95lb closures we've had to cut- in to remove defects.

New point complete for now

Both shed roads now in use

RMB and BSO. The new shed is a fantastic asset for the railway

The shed's previous resident. The newly repainted "bubblecar" is now out and about in the Dale 

All Back to Normal

The dust has settled after last week's emergency rail defect removal at Preston Under Scar. Saturday morning saw the last 4x 30ft rails, ex- Argill Farm track renewal, loaded up and trollied from Wensley to Redmire to fill the hole in the run-round loop. The first train was top and tailed, but the loop was up and running for the following services.

A quick lunch, then back down the dale in the trusty Transit to Leeming Bar to move the new yard points another step forward. These points are now in use, albeit in the "through" direction only (the back siding), and a few moves have taken place back and forth across them, including dispatch of steam loco Jennifer and delivery of a rail blue Class 33 diesel. The next task is to connect up the diverging track into the second road of the shed. 

By the end of the day we'd got the right hand switch cut- in, the associated connecting rail to the crossing nose joined up and screwed down and an acceptable alignment achieved by applying appropriate pressure this way and that with a couple of track jacks. We're very nearly on the last lap with this job now, and it'll be nice to see it finished and be able to move onto fresh adventures!

One half of the switches connected up

New point and new visitor!

Emergency Works

Planned completion of the points in Leeming Yard had to take a back seat this last week when routine inspection identified further rail defects, this time under the road bridge at Preston Under Scar. Four sixty foot lengths of replacement bullhead rail were temporarily borrowed from the run- round loop at Redmire and ferried to site on hand trolleys, with 30 foot lengths of worn rail making the return journey from Leyburn. Train services were curtailed beyond Leyburn during the day on Saturday, but the replacement rails had been installed in time to allow the evening "Gin Train" to run over the full length of the line.

First two sixty foot rails "borrowed" from Redmire loop, ready to be pushed to Preston Under Scar

The remoteness of Preston Under Scar from road access points meant some big trolley pushes, and in turn some hot and tired volunteers, but it was a case of getting stuck- in to get the railway back up and running, and our thanks go to all involved.

The opportunity was taken to change a couple of poorly sleepers while the rails were out of the chairs

Once the rails had been changed at Preston, we pushed 30 foot rails all the way from Leyburn to fill the gap in Redmire loop

Replacement rails being installed

The first use of sheradised (corrosion resistant) Panlocks on the WR?

The Leyburn gang have been busy spot- resleepering between Wensley and Westfield Farm, and this work will continue for a few more weeks to come.

And finally...........here's an interesting find: possibly the oldest rail chair still in service on the WR running line? This venerable specimen was spotted on Preston bank, proudly stamped 1889. Guessing this has seen quite a variety of motive power pass it by over the years!!

Almost as old as Mike B!

Another Busy Week

Lots happening as ever on the Railway, with progress on a number of fronts. Last Friday saw us make a start on "heavy maintenance" at Westfield Farm near Wensley, where we've had to impose a TSR due to various issues including rail creep. In order to pull the rails back and regulate the gaps at the joints, we've first had to establish an "anchor" at the west end, so we've got something solid to pull against. Ineffective elastic spikes in BR1 baseplates have been replaced with two part maintenance spikes, which open up in the worn holes in the sleepers a bit like a rawlplug. We also changed 5x sleepers and trialled the ultra- thin NRS1 baseplates for the first time on the WR.

Saturday saw us making a start on the switch panel for the new points in the yard at Leeming. The existing track was dug out and dismantled, serviceable hardwood timbers installed and the switches laid roughly in position. We were ably assisted by Roger on the mini-digger, but the two 11 foot timbers for the hand lever had to be dug into the banking by hand.

Works tackled midweek include collecting yet more redundant materials kindly donated by Amey Rail from Doncaster, changing even more knackered sleepers where we had another broken fishplate at Wensley and further work on the points in the yard.

First use of NRS1 baseplates on the WR, having replaced loose and ineffective BR1 baseplates and spikes around a joint

Andy G demonstrates how to hammer in maintenance spikes, as well as his bald spot........

Hardwood timbers laid out for the new switches in the yard

End of play last Saturday

First switch cut- in on Wednesday. Starting to look like points now!!