Ainderby Complete

Contractors completed the installation of the new deck and tarmac at Ainderby during the week. Only the gates remain to be refitted. Andy C and the our trusty p.way van were the first across.....

Ainderby Station Crossing Renewal

Thankfully the weather had cooled- off a bit before we tackled this job, as it would've been a real chew in the recent high temperatures.

The crossing comprised life expired bullhead track with wooden sleepers, basically just buried in tarmac with a flangeway formerly protected by a wooden strip which had long since rotted away. The road surface was becoming very worn and uneven, with numerous patches and holes presenting an additional hazard to cyclists in particular, so the decision was taken to go for complete track and deck replacement. The presence of a nearby primary school dictated that the necessary road closure was booked for the summer holiday period.

We had a good turnout of volunteers on both Friday and Saturday, ably assisted by a JCB from our friends at Scarr Plant Hire. First job was to lift off the gates (which are double track width), followed by breaking up the tarmac with a pecker. This revealed a surprise to us: a reinforced concrete conduit running through what would have been the "six foot", capped with short transverse lengths of old bullhead rail and containing mechanical point rodding. The true purpose of the manhole in the middle of the road  (which we initially though was drainage related) was suddenly revealed, giving access to the conduit for inspection purposes. We know there was formerly a signalbox at Ainderby together with some sidings, so this is obviously how the rodding runs crossed under the road at the crossing. It was all getting very "Time Team" for a while!! However historic and interesting it all was though, it was ultimately in the way of the new cill- beams, so there was some additional unplanned work for the pecker to break it all out.

Saturday saw the replacement EG47 sleepers lifted off the Flatrol wagon then laid out, spaced and lined through the crossing, followed by dragging and lifting-in a pair of 60 foot flat bottom rails ex- Redmire. The whole lot was then clipped- up by hand and roughly packed with some leftover ballast in the yard, allowing the works train to reverse over and drop the contents of a Dogfish hopper wagon through the four foot. Although a start was made lifting and packing the new track to the correct height, we were all starting to tire by this stage so we called it a day. This last task will be completed on Monday and Tuesday, with the specialist contractor arriving on Wednesday to install the new cill beams and deck units.

Before we started, with the poor tarmac and mystery manhole evident

Digging out the spoil, which resembled topsoil, from the crossing

Initial excavation complete

Pecking out the old concrete conduit which held the mechanical point rodding

Spacing the new concrete sleepers

Starting to put the rails in

Rails in place

Clipping the rails to the sleepers

Four foot run from the Dogfish complete

Making a start on lifting and packing

The Forgotten End of the Railway

Although currently out of use for regular passenger trains, the 5 3/4 miles of track between Leeming Bar and the East Coast Main Line at Castle Hills (Northallerton) still sees occasional traffic, including most recently visiting steam loco 35018 British India Line. We've also got an incoming railtour on September 1st, and of course we're obliged to maintain the whole line in a useable condition should the MOD ever wish to run a freight train to Redmire.

So this August/ September sees a package of works at the eastern extremity of the railway to basically keep it going! Works include heavy spot- resleepering between Ladyfield user- worked crossing and the River Wiske viaduct, track and deck renewal through Ainderby Station level crossing, edge beam renewal at Yafforth and last but not least, upgrading of road and rail signal lights to LEDs, also at Yafforth AOCL.

The Wednesday gang helped with taking delivery of new crossing edge beams and deck units at Ainderby, after which Andy W marked- up 60 life expired sleepers at Ladyfield. Saturday saw the gang dig the sleepers out of the weed- choked ash "ballast" ready for changing, followed by another tree- bashing session to let some daylight in.

Good to see a couple of new volunteers, Steve and Dave (thank heavens they're not called Andy): we really need all the help we can get!