NYMR - Levisham Station Group - The home of the Wombles!

19th February 2012

simon — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:14:53 +0000

Yet again it’s been another below freezing finish, -5ºC tonight, and the trains have stopped even if only for a fortnight! We can get on again without interruption!? All the signals we disconnected are back together. The S&T have been busy reconnecting track circuit cables and continuity bonds. It’s surprising how many holes need to be drilled in the rails to get all this fitted. The sleeper bays have been topped up with ballast and the line marked up ready for the tamper to come and do its stuff this Wednesday. All the cross track semaphore signal wires have been carefully clipped to the sleepers, putting them out of the way of the tamping tines. The duct route to the north end drivers flasher has been backfilled and the lineside there tidied up. The lineside fence we removed to install the turning chamber on the other side of the track is now back in and the area levelled. A top layer of loco ash, when we get some from Pickering, is required to return it to original condition.
We have been using the road stone recovered from the level crossing to fill the potholes in the unmetalled road near the cottage and top up the level where dips had been forming. Further stone has also gone into the station yard to fill land where there was a dip coming off the tarmac. We were helped in all this digging by Beth Peppercorn and Mathew Fisher from the MPD, who are experts with shovels! Thanks very much, all help is appreciated. They also assisted us in collecting scrap rail from the station south yard, load it onto a PWay trolley and move it up to the station ready for collection by the Pway team.
Elsewhere, Malcolm and Tony have been painting the bench sections in the General Room and one of the 12’ benches is now back out and ready for use. They have started applying the teak oil to the park benches, again to make them ready for the new season.
The Weighbridge was open to serve our visitors (and the staff!) and they now get their last weekend off next week before the trains are back full time for the season.

12th February 2012

simon — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:37:58 +0000

It has been a weekend of contrasts. Yesterday started at -10ºC, whereas today has been very mild with a lot of the snow melting. First up on Saturday was clearing the snow off the platforms, crossing and footpaths following Thursdays latest snowfall. Work has continued on the S&T reconnections following the level crossing renewals. The S&T have terminated the cables we ran in last week for the level crossing barrier and lights. We have completed the new duct route to the north side flashing drivers white light and installed the old cable in it. This has been reconnected today. A lot of spare equipment has been tidied up today around the crossing and the spare troughing taken down the line into store. Surplus materials have been tidied away and waste materials moved away for disposal. All the old rails are now stored in the middle of the station ready for taking away for scrap.
With the trains running again for Half Term week, Weighbridge Teas have been open again serving our visitors as well as keeping the volunteers warm and refreshed. Between seeing to the refreshment needs, Malcolm also painted our platform benches undergoing refurbishment. Don’t forget Weighbridge Teas are open next weekend as well.

4th February 2012

simon — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:48:09 +0000

Help get me out of here, I’m a snowman! Blimey its been cold today. We started at -8ºC and it didn’t seem to get much better during the morning, particularly when a bitter wind added to our misery. Everything is frozen solid down to 6” deep making digging virtually impossible. Even the mini digger took umbrage and refused to start until Edward fetched his test meter and Mark threatened it with a set of jump leads.
The new (to us) check rails for the crossing have now been brought up to the station and one has been trial installed to ensure it fits – and it does! Following the cold this morning it then started to warm up a bit before the snow started at 2.30 this afternoon, and it was still falling at 6.30 when we called it a day. A couple of inches of snow now covers everything, but it doesn’t stop us Wombles! The new duct trench, to the north end level crossing white light, was dug whilst a new trough route from our new UTX to the level crossing barrier and road lights were installed. We helped the S&T run in the new cabling to the latter in the new route, ready for them to connect it up. David’s team were working well in the morning but with the coming of the snow they all left quickly before they got stuck here.

3rd February 2012

simon — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:20:52 +0000

Yesterday was yellow plant day. The Pway Dept turned up with their Ballast Regulator and Tamper to deal with their track relay north of the station. The tamper also tamped our up line through the level crossing at the end of the day. It has made a big improvement to the line and level of that line. They are returning on Tuesday to do the down line and give their relay another go. Thanks go to Mark, Danny and Mathew from the Pway for their assistance cutting the old rails and drilling them for the new fishplates
All the poor sleepers have been replaced and chairs screwed down. New ballast from our virtual quarries has been placed underneath and between the sleepers. Today the level crossing has had further panels made and installed and it is now starting to look very good. The grampus wagon full of spoil has been tripped, by the PWay, to the new accommodation pipe bridge down the straight where we have now unloaded it, with a lot of assistance from the mini digger. Our maze of ducting has increased with a new link between the new UTX and an existing chamber – all 6’ of it with more to do tomorrow.
It has been bitterly cold all day but nice and sunny and we didn’t stop until it got to -8ºC this evening. Regular teas from the weighbridge are a godsend-thanks to the staff every day.

1st February 2012

simon — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:35:22 +0000

Well, the new rails are in! Thanks to herculean labours of my team we have all the new rails in, the old rails cut to fit and the whole lot clipped up! Thanks to Mark and Danny from the Pway for cutting the rails and drilling the fishplate holes. The rest of the Pway team came through with another ballast train for the relay north of the station and also to inspect our works. One or two minor tweaks were required but no major faults.
The undertrack crossing is nearly complete now, just a small amount of hand digging is required before the pipes and chambers can be installed. Further sections of the new level crossing deck have been manufactured by a dedicated team, and they are now awaiting us handing the track sections over to them to work without hindrance.

30th January 2012

simon — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:46:48 +0000

Well, the fresh labour has arrived and been hard at work. New ballast has been part unloaded from the wagon to our ‘virtual quarry’ for use later and the clay spoil put in its place. The new rails on the up side have been moved up and the first installed.
We have had visits from the S&T to drop off fishplates and the Pway came through with another ballast train for the relay just beyond us.
The last of the timber deck materials have been collected from the timber yard together with more lineside fencing materials. The latter should keep us going for a few weeks whilst more of the crossing deck has been constructed ready for installation later this week.
After a good days labour in the fresh air, most of our fresh staff went to bed early!

29th January 2012

simon — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:31:29 +0000

Well the major works on the crossing are now underway. Saturday started with everything frozen and very icy. The mini digger soon sorted that out and we commenced excavating the crossing, whilst another team was making the timber decking. The signal wires across the track outside the signal box were all disconnected to allow the track to be removed and the S&T department disconnected the last of the electric signalling cables. Later that day the rails on the up side came out, and it was time to shovel the rotten sleepers out of the way so the old ‘ballast’ could be excavated and removed.
Sunday dawned frosty so it was on with another layer of clothing and back out there. The area in front of the signal box was cleared level and new ballast was barrowed in from the grampus wagon in the platform before replacement sleepers were relaid.
At the other side of the crossing the sleepers, which need replacing with check rail chaired ones, have been lifted out and the bottom ballast re-levelled ready for the new sleepers. We have dug the new under track crossing across the up side and half way under the down side. This needed to be 5’ deep! The new turning chamber was dropped in and the new ducts laid. This latter activity was again done under floodlights.
The S&T have commenced reconnecting the electrical cables again, once we had relaid them through the existing undertrack crossing at the south end of the signal box. They have a fair bit more to reconnect once the tamper has been through on Thursday – tampers and S&T cables don’t seem to like each other!
The Tea Hut team have been down each day to keep us well supplied with tea and sandwiches. Thanks a lot it is really appreciated. They are also here all week to keep us going. Hilda and others have also been providing child care, so Beth can ‘play’ with the mini digger.
Tomorrow we have a lot of additional labour coming to help us, from Network Rail, to barrow the spoil from the crossing away and lay the new ballast. I’m not sure they know what they are letting themselves in for!
Elsewhere, one of our 12 foot platform benches has been repaired, ready for repainting and use in the new season, and a damaged wheel barrow has been welded up ready for use tomorrow along with the rest of our ‘fleet’.
Sunday ended with a bit of a snow shower which made the sub-surface clay a bit sticky to deal with and the staff a bit damp, but after finishing for the evening, a hot shower, a change of clothes, a lovely hot meal (provided by Beth), and some beer we all felt a lot better.

22nd January 2012

simon — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:54:14 +0000

Well we have been blown from here to there this weekend but at least the weather was mostly dry, and warmer than last week. We have continued work on the level crossing. The concrete edge beams across the road are now cast, as are the remainder of the footpath sections. Some of last weeks Crete didn’t survive the frost so we repaired that as well. The new chambers for the undertrack crossing have had the cable outlets cut ready for installation. All the existing buried concrete troughing has been uncovered and the lids carefully lifted to expose the cabling. We have collected half of the crossing’s timber deck and begun pre-building some of the sections so we can quickly install them when the concrete has set. As last weekend the floodlights came into their own once the sun went down.
The S&T were here on Sunday for two separate jobs. Part of the team were here to test the HD signalling link, with help from John Bailey and John Bruce here and Ivan Noble and Norman Hugill at Newbridge. Apparently the test went well, once they had sorted out the ‘limp wristed’ operators at Levisham! The rest of the gang were here to start the cable disconnections to allow us to take the rails out next weekend. It’s a surprisingly slow process when you have to do it carefully and recover all the parts for refitting.
New lineside fencing had also been collected during the week and is now laid out on site ready for fixing next week. The undergrowth has been strimmed as well, so we can see where we are working.

15th January 2012

simon — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:55:15 +0000

Brrrr! Its cold down here. Saturday was bright and sunny but it did start at -8ºC and finish at -7ºC. Saturday night peaked at -10ºC but it was a balmy -6ºC this morning. Saying that, it did warm up later, driving off the frost before it returned this evening. As we write this it is back to -5ºC.
This weekend we have been working on the level crossing. Work began by digging out the compacted ash and stone from the cess (road) side of each corner to allow us to set up the formwork for the new edge beams to be cast in concrete. At the same time the first 2 of the many cross track cables have been recovered back through the old tight duct into the new duct route, keeping them clear of the tamper in the future. We now have flood lights set up around the crossing allowing us to continue when the daylight fails. The cynical also said I could set up 24 hour shift working! (Good grief NO-the rest of the staff!)
Sunday was more of the same. The west side cess has now been excavated right across the road, the void being filled with temporary timber sleepers for the week. We also managed to pour the concrete into the new beam positions as it actually warmed up during the middle of the day.
Up the line the Pway Dept have continued relaying the main line from the bracket signal up to the outer home. Again for them the frost doesn’t help matters but they hope to get the works completed (bar the tamping) by the middle of this week.

14th January 2012

simon — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:54:53 +0000

We have now confirmed the works for the level crossing. The rails are to be replaced and a new timber deck is to be laid to replace the ash. The main works are planned to run from Saturday 28th January through to Sunday 5th February. All the work will be undertaken by ourselves, so if you want to pop down and give us a hand (or bring us some cake!) please feel free. Contact your Station Master on 07764 390689 to confirm. Weighbridge Tea staff have kindly agreed to attend each day to keep us plied with drinks and make sandwiches. Excellent!!!