Peak Rail General Discussion

And a shot of them unloaded at the head shunt,( pic mr S Graves)

 

I saw it coming back through chatsworth but couldn't stop,to take a pic due to them cyclists . It was a busy day in Northern Derbyshire with all the events

 

I'm assuming Ixion is a runner?

 

Hasn't been for years

 

Is this loco going to be used as a donor for the LMS 10000 or is it going to become restored?

 

58022 is the 10000 donor, with chassis and other components, they already have the correct EE engine and EM2 bogies.
Ixion is supposed to need new traction motors and a lot of other work.
Dave

 

the Wickham triple and cart which was being refurbished by the shed contractors is complete and ready to be transported back to Chinnor for use by their permanent way department , work on the training coach and dmu continue, another of our own coaches is now inside being sanded down ready for repainting, on my own department we've been fitting the bolts and templates in the ground ready to concrete the front legs of rowsley cabin in the next few weeks,front first then move to do the rear legs, Andrew has been putting all the box drawings into CAD,some 3000 bits that make up an average cabin,very usefull for seeing problems before you build anything,I should have a few images to post later on.

 

For a requested £3 donation on the door, all welcome to:

"Living North Eastern" - digital presentation - David Thomas (York)


David is on the Council of the NRM and his father and grandfather before him were both railway footplatemen. A lavishly illustrated story of the lives, legends and locos of York enginemen 1889-1967.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Presented by: Peak Railway Association (Sheffield Branch) at
The Harlequin Pub (upstairs function room)
108 Nursery St, Sheffield S3 8GG

bus routes 3, 7, 8, 8a, 83 and 83a stop near the front door.

hope to see you!
Dave


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David Sharp
Peak Railway Association, Sheffield Branch

The branch programme, and directions
to The Harlequin, can be found at:

http://www.peakrail.co.uk/SheffieldBranch

 

Called in Rowsley today to fit the lever badges that Mr. Briddon had manufactured up for us,lovely looking and will be eventually stencilled with the numbers though they are also drilled to mount plastic or brass fascias too,also fitted the demonstration lever to the box wall,did some tidying up and otmrdered the concrete for the box legs which will be the next.job

Elsewhere noted the dmu and education coach as well as one of our own were being sanded down ready for repainting in the shed and the 040 FD&EC no3 was having her regulator and brakes attended too as well.

I'm told mr waterman had been down earlier too,the fencing through the site has been completed,next comes the resurfacing work,down the line towards riverside,work continues on making the current footpath wider and surfaced for the cycle track.

 

Are PR investing in some cycle racks at Rowsley South? I'll certainly be calling in when I'm on the mountain bike

 

its early days Woodster,but yes I believe there are some initiatives we are looking closely at utilising when the trail fully gets to opening that could benefit the railway.

 

Those turnover signal levers look more awkward to work than 'normal' ones!

Dave

 

Actually the opposite for for several reasons;

1, they're half the height of traditional levers which gives a clue as to the pull needed,larger levers create more pull and leverage !so shorter levers would be a nightmare to work if they didn't have a trick up they're sleeve

That trick is that being a wire system you can't push a wire but can pull it easily,so every movement whether a signal or point is a pull,hence the one continuous wire from lever to item and back again,this also means that because wires expand we need to keep every lever and hence every wire in tension,this is done by large self adjusting weight mechanisms, all this means that turnover levers can be used with little effort other than moving the lever, it's the self balancing and tensioning weights that do the work for you.

In this country we only really do part of that by using weights to help pull heavy signals off, if we'd done the same on points we wouldn't have had half the problems of heavy pulls most points have over distance

2. The use of turnover frames is pretty widespread all over the world,especially Europe, it's not uncommon for there to be pulls of a quarter mile or more on points operated from them,so that should give a massive clue on the ease of the lever,they also get some serious use in ridiculously hot regions,no adjusters constantly been tensioned by the bobby,again all done automatically by the weight systems.

3.its far easier to both replace the turnover levers and gear,there are a few things you have to closely keep an eye on,but again all tried and tested by most of the continental,railways over time and work quite well.

The only real difference in operation is that the lever kicks over itself and down to the floor,that's something you get used to when using them and the reason you plan the levers to work together to be grouped together,again the levers are mounted off the floor to mid waist height so the lever is always half way up or down your arm movement,not over stretching them.

And everyone wonders why they never caught on in this country, probably politics, here's a foreign system with benefits outweighing your own contractors frames ,would upset the proverbial apple cart somewhat!

 

Here's something from my colleague Jan Ford on he subject that may be of interest,there's not much in English on the net regarding the subject,yet oddly enough there are systems in Australia and English speaking nations worldwide, more a case of how the information is located on the net in them country's and how much access you can get to it, I luckily gained a copy of a german publication on it all,and am slowly going through it back into English with googles online help but there's a lot buried in archives that's of use,I was told about the Cheltenham archives of ex Westinghouse corporation who also manufactured the frames,gaining loads of drawings and plans in the process.

http://janfordsworld.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/double-wire-working-of-points-and.html

One of he things I have noted is that here's no such thing as BR standards, the frame itself at rowsley appears to have had BR body isms many times using ex LMS bits,there's also parts of other frames in there too, all good fun, I've since come across at least another four in this country in various locations,museums etc.

 

The Ashover light railway society folks hve had a stand and stall up at Bakewell

 

Have any of the management issues been cleared up yet with the female MD that was mentioned a while back by andrew briddon? Really hope they can sort these in house issues out & crack on.

Also has any progress/planning etc been made yet with extending beyond rowsley??? It's something that's been talked about for donkeys years but as of yet hasn't grown legs & got off the ground, plus why is it such a crawl along at peak rail? Never really seem to get much above 20mph or so & on the return leg 31270 only gets opened up for about 30 seconds of thrash if that.

Maybe it's sumat to do with the state of the track/trackbed etc. Be great when the apprentices kick off & start work on ixion, although i'd guess their going to have professional fitters working alongside???

 

Now in answer to those questions; as you know this page was not setup for gossip but for news,politics is something left for agms of which I'm sure there are other websites your questions will probably find answers upon, I'm not here to gerrymander gossip,slander or innuendo unfortunately.

On going beyond rowsley,yes there is some forward planning and it would be nice to see something soon from the railway going out on the way forward,like the share issue booklets of past giving some details, a lot of planning in the background has gone on which has delayed things when you consider we are also dealing with the cycle way and it's needs etc all of which have been documented on here previously, my own department has already started on what's needed to alter rowsley north points to get passenger running beyond rowsley north wood, and there's much to do on earthworks,clearing track that every volunteer past present or future has spent much grey matter upon trying to,suss out what's needed,especially when you're going near areas of SSsI such as rowsley woods,dealing with the river derwenthe bridge over the a6 issue,the cycle way etc.

Best answer is as soon as we know,you'll know.


Not sure about the apprentice question, though you'd probably be spot on,the contractors in the shed and other groups on site do get folks trained up as they go on their respective works and projects, and there would hve to be a degree of overlooking by the owners,groups or restorers to make sure things are being done right , I believe mr waterman was down the other day and he's a big believer in apprenticeships given that he is currently working alongside the setting up of rail academy's for hs2 so who knows, most of the groups down the line do have young volunteers ,apprenticeships would be a next way forward, it's one of the things discussed that we would like to get a regular work bank going on the railways own restorations at rowsley so if someone turned up say next sat,they could be doing a,particular project etc.

As soon as we know you'll know, now enjoy that sun

 

Forgot to say, one side of the new access bridge metalwork at north wood over the stream has been erected, the other soon to follow,I didn't get a pic but it is in the style of traditional cast iron palisade type fence of old, looks very nice an a testament to the skills of Rod the fabricator, well done sir

As a aside bit of news ,ashbrooks have started to build their new compound over the bridge which makes way for the bit taken up by the cycle way around the rear of their site, the fencing works the cycle way at rowsley are complete and the pile of spoil atop the site has been spread around to fill In various places.

 

I'll have my five penneth worth on the apprenticeships. There is government funding available to fund the delivery of apprenticeships and also grants of up to £1500 per apprentice to support the employer. I won't go into the detail of the funding breakdown or the Apprenticeship Levy. But you do need a training provider / College to be able to offer the relevant frameworks - it's not a case of learning everything on the job some of it has to be undertaken in a workshop (if it's engineering for example) and there will also be elements of mathematics and English. As you can expect Derby College have excellent engineering facilities working with Bombardier, Rolls Royce, JCB, Nestle, etc. Locally, Israel Newton in Cromford engaged one or two apprentices - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-26867098

 

I was wondering will it be waterman railways fitters if they still exist or staff who look after the PR diesel fleet who'll be working alongside the apprentices to resurrect ixion. Also with PR why is it usually a train consisting of load 6 MK1s?

Half of them are normally locked out of use & on days i've visited during the summer months etc, there only seems to be enough passengers to fill about 3. Wanted to ask too is there issues with the trackbed or trackwork etc as it always seems a real crawl up to matlock, never seem to get near 25mph.