Shunting at Leyburn!

The weekend gone saw the eastern two thirds of the new Leyburn loop brought into use as a siding for the time being. A works train was also run on Friday to get various wagons loaded/ unloaded/ moved to Leyburn in readiness and in the right configuration for the west end points installation in November. A number of other logistical moves were completed to support various jobs over the winter period.

Saturday's job was further spot- resleepering of the panels towards the west end of the loop, plus making a start on the S&T fit- out on the east end points. The plan is to install a ground frame here in the short term, pending installation of whatever permanent signalling scheme the railway's management decides upon. It was nice to do some "Sick & Tired" work for a change though!!

The hired- in JCB prepares to load the remaining flat bottom rails at Redmire to the Salmon wagon

Followed by recovering the 20x F19 concrete sleepers which have lain next to the bridge for many years

Which were then loaded to the Flatrol

And finally we part loaded a Dogfish to top up last month's mini- relay behind the Jonas Centre

The Class 14 arrives at Leyburn from Redmire

P.Way's finest discuss the next moves......

Unloading a Sea Urchin wagon at Peter Blacks UWC, to create capacity for more spoil from Leyburn West

The whole works train reversed into Leyburn loop

Close- up of our works train loco

Andy W performs the critical task of leaning on the Flatrol

Proper shunting at Leyburn!

We shunt around for hours and hours

Parts of the loop have now been boxed- in following the recent tamping. Starting to look the part!

David C prays for divine intervention

He's now a fully fledged S&T fitter you know (or so we've told him)

Apologies for the lack of service.....

Apologies for the long gap since our last update, but your blogger's been on holiday and generally busy elsewhere. That's not to say things haven't been happening on the railway, far from it!

Recent work has however been rather mundane, compared with say, tamping the new loop at Leyburn. Spot replacement of defective rails and sleepers has been the order of the day, with work concentrated on Redmire (5mph TSR removed), Spruce Gill UWC (another 5mph TSR removed) and between Wensley and Westfield Farm. The Saturday gang also managed to fit a hand-lever to the new points in Leeming Bar yard, saving our Ops colleagues the time and effort in having to scotch and clip them every time.

We've hopefully got a works train out and about on the 19th, sorting out the logistics for a number of forthcoming jobs including the installation of Leyburn West points (which just about fills up our diary for November all by itself).

If any of our readers are involved with heritage railways elsewhere, we're on the scrounge for the concrete "stools" which support mechanical point rodding, say 20-25 of these beasts. They can be with or without the metal frames and wheels which fit on top: we've got plenty of those! Drop us a note if you can point us in the direction of any. We need to install them soon, before we top up the shoulder ballast on the loop following the tamper's visit!

A couple of freshly installed bullhead rails at Spruce Gill UWC, replacing old 90lb rails with head cracking

A couple of newly changed sleepers at Spruce Gill

Michael M boxing- in behind his Leyburn colleagues up near Wensley

Safe to say this sleeper has been long deceased....

Off home, with a cheeky pile of firewood loaded to the trolley!!