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.
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| Before we started, with the poor tarmac and mystery manhole evident |
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| Digging out the spoil, which resembled topsoil, from the crossing |
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| Initial excavation complete |
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| Pecking out the old concrete conduit which held the mechanical point rodding |
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| Spacing the new concrete sleepers |
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| Starting to put the rails in |
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| Rails in place |
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| Clipping the rails to the sleepers |
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| Four foot run from the Dogfish complete |
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| Making a start on lifting and packing |
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