DECEMBER 2007

Platform report by Iain Macintosh, as told to Joe Taylor.  

Before the report begins proper I  would like to thank the following people who have all made the platform progress possible; they are Ian Crooks , Joe Taylor, Ian Hall, Pat Burne and all from Burne hire.

19th-23rd November.A mini digger from Burne hire arrived and was promptly used by Joe to remove piled up ballast which was previously scraped  up prior to assembling the points during July. This was dumped into the previously excavated station area with the dumper, then the tractor & trailer. This was carried on into the dark evening using the on-machine lights, taking until the 21st. A sleeper was removed from the last track panel to make way for the UTX (under track crossing) to accommodate the new 6ft drain to replace the old drain (see track report). The spoil was also dumped into the station area for backfill; this took until the afternoon of the 23rd when the digging out of the platform wall was started. Unfortunately the machine went off hire the next day so it was not completed until the following week.

Track weekend by Joe Taylor.

2nd Dec 2007 .A good turnout of volunteers was seen despite the dreary wet weather. They made light work of the task in hand, and the three track panels were completed northwards using BR1 baseplates & AL23 maintenance spikes, and Pan 11s & Pandrol clips. The exception being the sleepers which were taken out for the excavation of the new 6ft drain to replace the old one dug out for the platform footings (see platform report). The set of points are complete from the switch toes to the heel baseplates, the rest bolted down intermittently up to the run round loop; the rails pulled together with a tie bar to assist in the drilling and bolting of the baseplates - the rails set at 1435mm or 4 feet 8½ inches for those still measuring in imperial!

Volunteers that day were Andy Lee, Andy Laing, Alan Anderson, Claude Harper, Geoff Ruderham and his son Andie, Joe Taylor and of course the person in charge Alastair Connell.

 
Future work includes:
Bolting down the rest of the points
Level the track and points using sighting boards and under ballasting
Securing the downline catch rail onto the baseplate
Fixing of the points lever and stretch bars on the switch toes
Scotch (secure with chocks of wood) until in use
Final fine lining of the track into the soon to be built platform.

October 2007

TRACK WEEKEND, 13TH / 14TH OCTOBER 2007

A mild, sunny day on the Sunday (very UN- Whitrope like weather!) unfortunately failed to entice many volunteers out on our last big track bash of 2007. For those who were unaware of the event, please accept our apologies as this one wasn’t communicated as well as it could have been. As a consequence, progress over the weekend was limited to installing sleepers on the three panels of track we started laying in August. This task consumed a further thirteen brand new sleepers, with the remainder being recycled from another panel which Joe Taylor had kindly stripped down for us beforehand. All the new sleepers were fitted with “Pandrol” baseplates and clips.

On Sunday afternoon, Alastair Connell and Andy Lee trial fitted some long, self- tapping coach screws at the level crossing in an attempt to secure some of the sleepers which have been lifting under the forestry trucks. The crossing deck itself is still temporary, with the fitting of a permanent deck being dependant on us obtaining a level crossing order and the cessation of the current timber harvesting.

The big track weekends are now over until February, but work will still be taking place on site: please contact either Alastair Connell or Iain MacIntosh if you are planning a trip up to Whitrope, otherwise keep checking the web site. The plan for 2008 is to continue with the main monthly weekends, with dates advertised well in advance, but also to build up to fortnightly work parties with some of our more experienced volunteers taking their turn to be ”Person in Charge”.

The next big jobs on site will be the construction of the platform foundations and walls and alterations to the site drainage. On the track front, we will be laying three panels north from the short section where the carriages are stood. This will take us across bridge 199 and may well see the first use of concrete sleepers on our track to date. The ultimate goal for this time next year, if we can get our light railway and level crossing orders sorted out, will be works trains operating between the Golden Bridge and the tunnel portal- the first trains over the Summit since the track was lifted! If you want to see us achieve this huge milestone, PLEASE, PLEASE lend a hand- you will be made most welcome.

August 2007

TRACK WEEKEND, 25TH / 26TH AUGUST 2007

The points continue to make good progress, with all the closures now cut and plated- in, all the rails aligned and a start made on drilling and fitting chair screws. Further components have also been sourced, with a sole- plate and a full set of check rail baseplates delivered and fitted. The main jobs still remaining are gauging, fitting all the remaining chair screws and slewing the adjoining plain track.

As planned, a start has been made on the next three panels south of the points, with the rails in place and fishplated- up, but looking noticeably sparse in the sleeper department! Thanks must go to Joe Taylor for dragging the rails up the trackbed with the tractor, and to all those involved with the repairs required to get said tractor working. As the new southern extremity of our track coincides with the northern extremity of our planned station platform, there will now be a break in track-laying to allow the construction works to go ahead. With the platform wall due to be built on top of the existing cess drain, we will also need to dig a new drain along the “six foot”, together with the associated cross- drains and catch-pits.

The down side to all this activity has been the rapid depletion of our material stocks, with baseplates, “Pandrol” clips and fish-bolts all becoming rather scarce. Further track work on site will be dependant on sourcing suitable materials and this usually requires money to be spent! This report ends, therefore, with the usual plea for donations and assistance. Please continue to give both generously and help rebuild this famous and much missed line.

More images from the track weekend can be found here

July 2007

TRACK WEEKEND, 14TH / 15TH JULY 2007

The timbers and ironwork for our first set of points were delivered to site on Thursday 12th July. Unfortunately, due to our haulier getting his dates mixed up (he was meant to deliver on the Friday) we had no-one on site meet the lorry. To cut a long story short, the driver dropped- off the crossing about 20 yards from its intended position and one half set of switches was the wrong way round. Undaunted, our hardy track volunteers got stuck in, and armed with nothing more than pinch bars and our trusty track jack, had everything roughly in position by Sunday afternoon. This was, in fact, the extent of the planned work for the weekend, with lining, cutting, drilling etc. pencilled- in for our August weekend.

We also took delivery of twenty two “nearly new” PAN11 baseplated sleepers which will allow us to make a start on the next three panels south of the points. Joe Taylor has broken down three panels from our stockpile down by the Golden Bridge but a high proportion of the sleepers are too rotten for re- use. There will be a “mini track weekend” on 28th/ 29th July when Joe will be supervising the movement of the rails up the track bed and into position- all assistance welcome!

Finally, thanks to WRHA member Jan Littwin for donating one of the large, two- part type track trolleys to the Association. A trip was made on Saturday morning up to Jan’s main haunt, the “Shed 47” railway at the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum near Kelty in Fife, to collect the trolley and ferry it back to Whitrope. Cheers Jan- it’s so nice to have a trolley with a floor!

More photos of the track weekend can be found here

June 2007

TRACK WEEKEND, 16TH / 17TH JUNE 2007

Once more the weather gremlins did their best to hamper progress, with Saturday June 16th seeing flash floods at Whitrope which overwhelmed all the drains and culverts. Most of the gravel was washed off the driveway at Signalbox Cottage and deposited on the B6399, indeed this road remained closed throughout Sunday due to various floods and washouts.

However, with a JCB on hire for the day, the show had to go on, and the Down line through the site of the proposed level crossing was re-ballasted then lifted and packed to the correct height. The problem in the past here has been mud and clay washing down the forestry road straight onto the track, accumulating under the temporary deck timbers at the crossing. This has now all been removed and replaced with fresh ballast (reclaimed ex- Millerhill), and Joe Taylor has made a start on an interceptor drain immediately on the uphill side of the crossing to prevent reoccurrence.

Improvements will now be made to the crossing deck itself, with new packing timbers of the correct depth already on site awaiting cutting and fixing down.

As well as hordes of midges, Sunday brought a dramatic improvement in the weather, enabling us to complete the spot- resleepering exercise previously mentioned. In all, thirty six brand new pressure creosoted softwood sleepers have been installed through the curve north of the crossing.

South of the crossing, we skim dug the trackbed ready for building up the points and laying the next batch of panels down to the platform site. We also dragged up three sixty foot rails which will be used for the closure, or “belly”, rails in the points.

Re- building of the infill panel between the points and the level crossing is also complete, using up a further seven new sleepers in the process. The panel has been slewed to give the correct line into the points.

As you can see, we are continuing to make excellent progress in the physical reconstruction of the Waverley Route on the ground RIGHT NOW. Our next planned work is the delivery and assembly of the point work, which in turn will unlock the next section of formation for tracklaying. PLEASE help us maintain our current momentum, either by turning up at Whitrope or by making a donation: your support really is vital.

More photos can be found in the members area - here

D5310 WORKS A 3-DAY DIESEL EVENT AT KEIGHLEY & WORTH VALLEY RAILWAY

After a gruelling few months D5310 finally worked its first trains since the epic restoration. Between 15-17th June it worked no fewer than 27 turns at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Diesel Gala, together with other invited locos based at Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway.

Looking absolutely resplendent, D5310 was hauled at the rear of the convoy from Bo'ness down the West Coast Main Line, through to Carlisle on Wednesday 13th June. Setting off from the DRS depot at Kingmoor early on Thursday 14th June, the locos travelled through Carlisle Citadel station and over the Settle & Carlisle line to Keighley where they then moved on to the KWVR metals.

Recent events with D5310 almost scuppered the loco working at all, with a major generator fault requiring removal of the offending item for specialist repair which was carried out with only days to spare. It was then a race against the clock to refit & realign the generator only days before the loco was to move to KWVR. This work would not have been possible without the expertise of SRPS Diesel Group at Bo'ness, led by Stuart Sellar. Thanks must go to him and to the team at Bo'ness who worked extremely long shifts to ensure D5310 was ready to move south, after a day of testing.

More details and photos of D5310 can be found here

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April 2007

TRACK WEEKEND, 21ST / 22ND APRIL 2007

Damp and murky conditions on the Sunday failed to prevent a good turnout of volunteers on both days with excellent progress being made as a consequence. The cut and shut task is finally complete, with a continuous, gap free railway for the first time since the track was laid. A further twenty sleepers were changed and installation of maintenance spikes continued. Two further work days will see the section between the crossing and the south portal fully refurbished and ready for ballasting, which will hopefully take place later this year.

For those members who perhaps consider progress on the track-laying front to be a bit more sedate than they would like, please remember that our panels were in service on a main for some forty plus years, with minimal maintenance and, latterly, carrying very heavy freight tonnages. Each burst of high profile track-laying must be followed by many weekends of the less glamorous refurbishment work you will see in the recent reports. This all can, of course, be speeded up with more volunteers and further funds to allow us to buy materials, so if you haven’t been along to Whitrope on one of our Track Weekends, or made a donation to our track appeal, this big hint is for you!

Association Chairman Iain MacIntosh cuts a rail end to complete the cut and shut task

The Sunday squad manually slewing the track with bars

D5310 NEWS FROM BO'NESS & KINNEIL:

It is hoped that WRHA locomotive D5310 will work its first preservation passenger turns in Scotland this coming weekend, 28th/29th April at the Bo'ness Diesel Gala. MORE NEWS HERE

March 2007:

WHITROPE TRACKLAYING CONTINUES

Work on refurbishing the track north of the crossing continues, with a start made on spot- resleepering. We tackled the worst track panel, which needed seven out of twenty four sleepers replacing together with replacement of the BR1 baseplates and spikes with “Pandrol” baseplates, clips and screws. The panels we acquired from the Settle & Carlisle line back in 2003 unfortunately contain a high proportion of sleepers which fall into the “fair to poor” category, this being one of the reasons that Network Rail was renewing the track. There are around thirty more to replace on the track laid to date, and we will continue with this work as soon as further sleepers are delivered.

To boost our “green” credentials, all the scrap sleepers we generate will be recycled to build a vertical sleeper wall of the type which once stood opposite Whitrope Sidings signalbox.

MORE PHOTOS IN THE MEMBERS AREA

26010 STARTS FOR THE FIRST TIME

On Sunday 11th March 2007, 26010 (D5310) was started up for the first time in 6 years, at its restoration base with the Scottish Railway Preservation Society Diesel Group at its Bo'ness shed. Thanks go to Stuart Sellar, Keith Buckley, Al Cowan & Andy McLean.

Play the clip below by using the buttons on the bottom left.

TRACKLAYING PROGRESSES AT WHITROPE

The 2007 track- laying season got off to a flying start on February 18th with a good turnout of volunteers up at Whitrope.

The main task for the day was to prepare for the imminent arrival of our first set of points, which we will be installing at the south end of our run- round loop, just off the forestry level crossing. The point is a right handed, inclined flat bottom B8 which we have acquired from “way down south”, and will be delivered along with a full set of serviceable hardwood timbers which we are purchasing at a very good price.

As can be seen from the “before and after” photos below, we slewed the loop (or former Up line) over towards the six foot in order to tie- in with the new points, as well as rebuilding the first panel on the former Down line.

We also continued with the “cut and shut” job on the inside rail through the curve north of the crossing. This involves cutting the outer bolt hole off the end of every fourth or fifth panel then moving the rails along to the new joint positions. The purpose of the job is basically to allow for the inside rail being shorter than the outside, and to keep consecutive pairs of joints from going out of square. Trimming of the inside rail is best carried out in conjunction with the actual track laying work and this will be the norm in the future.
 

Where we encounter rail spikes which have lost their grip in the sleeper, these are being replaced with new two- part AL23 maintenance spikes. These spikes open up a bit like rawlplugs as they are hammered home, ensuring a good grip in the original holes. Unfortunately, only a small proportion of the existing spikes are sound so we are rapidly using up our limited stocks of replacements.

February 2007 :

The repair works on Shankend Viaduct are now well underway. By the beginning of February the waterproof membrane had been replaced and was being reballasted. Work continues on repointing the piers at the south end of the viaduct and as such two of the piers are currently clad in scaffolding.

At Whitrope, work continues behind the scenes on the railway project and once the weather picks up again will also continue on the ground with completion of works on the section already laid, and additional tracklaying.