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Ecclesbourne Valley Railway

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by martinr1, Sep 12, 2014.

  1. gwalkeriow

    gwalkeriow Well-Known Member

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    To clarify using the normal screw coupling the Pullman and standard gangways can be coupled using gangway adaptors ( if fitted ) when using the emergency coupling the gangways cannot be coupled and should be locked out of use.
     
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  2. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    Ecclesbourne Valley Railway Annual Classic Transport Weekend

    Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th July 2018

    Cars, motorcycles, lorries - plenty of classic gather at Wirksworth for a weekend of travelling back to the past. An intensive train timetable will operate on the Duffield line - two train operation using the passing loop at Shottle. The ideal opportunity to view progress on the signalling work so far. Please see our website for more information and timetable.

    Meanwhile, an ex Network Rail ferry van has arrived from Peterborough, to be used as a stores vehicle; it is dual air and vacuum braked and must be one of the very last steam age freight vehicles left theoretically on the network, though I gather it stood out of use in an overgrown siding for 20 years or so.
     
  3. FearOfManchester

    FearOfManchester Member

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    Interesting briddon blog this week showing a ferry van being delivered to Wirksworth, what's it being used for and where's it being kept?
     
  4. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    The ferry van is intended for mobile storage duties in the Wirksworth station area.
     
  5. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    The roster for the Transport Weekend, 14/15 July, both days, is 47406 on five coaches, plus a 3 car met-cam DMU on the Duffield service, plus a Barclay tank on brake van rides on the incline. 31 206 will work the Tuesday afternoon tea service.

    Meanwhile the perspex bottom ex-Blackpool battery tram is back for more bogie tests.
     
  6. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    73 210 has had its vacuum brake reinstated and has moved under its own power, it still needs cleaning up. The line up for the diesel weekend on 11/12 August should be: 08 605, 08 704, 31 601, 31 206, 33 103, 73 210. Two trains will be in operation on the main line, 10 return workings on Saturday plus 14 up the incline, 8 on Sunday plus 12 up the incline, also shunter and brake van workings from Platform 1 and up the Wash Green headshunt.
     
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  7. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    [​IMG]
    DSC_0306.JPG
    1.5MB

    DSC_0302.JPG

    This is the new crossing box at Idridgehay, Midland -ish rather than exact Midland style, but we are working to a budget. Therer are no current plans to install signals here, it is simply a gatekeeper's shelter.
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2018
  8. Gav106

    Gav106 Well-Known Member

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  9. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    Not sure what happened there. However, press on the DSC_0306 download and wait a little.
     
  10. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Still doesn't work for me. I think you're trying to link to a private album or email attachment, try downloading it to your computer then re-uploading it direct to NatPres.
     
  11. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    The picture of the new crossings box seems to be there now.
     
  12. Gav106

    Gav106 Well-Known Member

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    Screenshot_20180802-080916.png
    Not for me. This is all I get when I click on the link.
     
  13. ChurnetMan

    ChurnetMan New Member

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    Same, here. As flying scotsman said in his post, I think you need to download the images form the yahoo mailbox and then upload directly to the forum. Unless you want to give us your email account login details...
     
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  14. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    The Jinty has gone back, so the trains are quieter, at least for the moment and the various Autumn campaigns are getting under way.

    The Birmingham students are due to visit over the weekend of 21/23 September, and the aim is t make a serious start on a new carriage siding, among other jobs. Mike Fairburn and the PW team have been levelling ground and laying out turnout components to give them a fair start. This is a change from changing sleepers and clearing ditches which is what they have been doing all summer.

    The Shottle signalling scheme continues, the box foundations have risen up through the embankment to track level and S & T equipment is slowly building up from various sources. We have some promising contacts but we are still looking for a complete lever frame, if anyone has one in stock, around 12 levers minimum.

    There are several rolling stock projects in progress, one which stands out at the moment is the restoration of TSO No.444o, which has been absolutely and utterly stripped out to a bare shell with no floor. New lower sides have been welded in and new ends are being fitted.

    After a gap in 2017, the Wirksworth Model Railway Exhibition is back and will be held on 13/14 October. Rumour has it that work will have begun on the new station building by about that date.
     
  15. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    Birmingham Students 2018 Visit

    Last weekend we had Professor Schmid and his latest intake of students for their annual visit. There were 32 students from various countries including the UK, some with plenty of railway experience, some with no experience of hard manual labour at all, plus the University staff.

    Preparation started several weeks beforehand with Mike Fairburn and his midweek volunteer team levelling ground and laying out materials, also ringing round our friends to obtain missing components.

    As usual the students arrived on Friday night and I gave them the site briefing early on Saturday morning before they were split into teams. Standard stuff: welcome to the railway, don’t walk on wet wooden sleepers, make sure you can lift something before you put forth all your strength, bent knees, straight back and Beware of Trains.

    Job 1: take out a rail in front of the shed as we needed to expose an awkward drain for maintenance.

    Job 2: change rotten sleepers in the run round loop

    Job 3: we handed out plans and instructions for the construction of a left hand B8 turnout which is required for a new carriage siding; this was a slightly bigger challenge than planned as the Komatsu road-railer was out of action and all components would need to be placed by hand. The turnout was to be built on levelled ground next to its intended position, to be lifted in by sections at a later date.

    There was a footplate experience course in progress so we hijacked the steam locomotive to place the tool van next to the turnout site. Once the tools had been distributed, the first job for the turnout team was to lift the switches with jacks, place packing underneath and bar the switches into place, then space out the timbers. The students learned the basics of this work very quickly.

    We set some of them to cleaning and laying out chairs, then lined up at least twenty of them with rail tongs to carry in a 60ft bullhead rail to make the straight stock rail. Once that was plated up we had them carry in another rail to be cut to length for the inside straight closure and taught them platelayers Pythagoras*, this involved feet and inches which some found new and rather strange.

    The University looks after the students very well, with periodic distributions of coffee cake and biscuits as well as lunch. Perhaps more track gangs should try that.

    By this time the team on Job 1 had finished so we sent them to examine Job 4, a potential change of a worn crossing on another turnout. Eventually they concluded that it wouldn’t fit so we split them between the other tasks.

    The tricky bit was that the No.8 crossing was lying in the four foot of the adjacent siding, so that had to be picked up on jacks. Some volunteers came past to see what we were trying to do and went rapidly away when they found out. However, with enough jacks and timbers, enough students and enough patience you can shift anything, so the crossing was picked up and slid into place. Another volunteer, Graham, was supervising the gauging cutting and drilling and I had worked out the closure length.

    Around about this time, Tom Tait came over to the work with his best “redcoats-at-the-bottom-of-my-garden” expression. The students on Job 1 had dismantled and dug out 30ft of track for examination on the loop, on my instructions as the first sleepers they dug out were soggy old ants’ nests and the ballast was full of mud and lime dust. However, this might have isolated the “Clan Tait” DMU set, which was wanted in the morning and I promised we would get it out on time. I spent the rest of the afternoon supervising the digging. The students stuck it out until 6pm and promised an 8-30 am start.

    On Sunday I started with the Job 1 team; the initial aim was cut as many corners as necessary to get the DMU out, but in the end the DMU crew decided to thread another path through the yard so I left the team to do a more thorough job and went back to join Graham on the turnout. There were plenty of chairs to clean, place and key up; the students had powerful cordless drills and we loaned them a bance wrench. We also got the rail tongs out and lifted a check rail in another 60ft stock rail. The assembly was by no means complete, but it definitely looked as if it would be a turnout soon and the students were able to push a trolley along the straight leg to celebrate their achievement

    Meanwhile on Job 1 the others were busy assembling the track panel, loaded a trolley with ballast and got it reasonably packed to return to traffic. I think it is fair to say that the students had gelled into effective teams and the work was being done much more efficiently than first thing on Saturday morning – which was the whole point of the exercise, but all too soon it was mid-afternoon and the students had to pack up and catch the train back to Duffield.

    I’d like to thank everyone who helped over the weekend in the preparations. Professor Schmid reckons, and I’m inclined to agree, that this is just about the best University weekend so far.
    *Platelayers Pythagoras: lay two rails to gauge. Measure back 10'7" along one; to make the ends square it should then be 11'7" diagonally to the corner of the other one.
     
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  16. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    This coming weekend sees the return of the annual Wirksworth Model Railway Exhibition. Tickets for the exhibition will be on sale at Duffield as well as Wirksworth and there is a £2-00 discount on train tickets for exhibition visitors. materials have started to arrive for the first phase of the new station building.

    Meanwhile Wirksworth is planning a "Witches and Wizards" event for the following weekend, and a certain station is to be renamed "Hogwirks"
     
  17. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    The "Witches and Wizards of Wirksworth" went well. In fact it was our third busiest Saturday this year. Now we are gearing up for our various Autumn campaigns.

    The PW Dept will be taking possession south of Shottle during November for their re-sleepering and general maintenance campaign. For this month the passenger service will be a "Shottle Shuttle" with one of the Barclay tanks at one end and a diesel at the other and steam heat. The aim is to get the structure of Oddingley SB re-erected on a steel framework on the new foundation during this period.

    We recently acquired a quantity of S & T equipment including a dismantled bracket signal which will be invaluable, but there are many items we still require. Also recently acquired is a small quantity of PW items which includes all the components required to complete the turnout under construction for a new carriage siding. The formation for the new siding requires a lot of digging but has been making good progress

    The area at the rear of the maintenance shed is being cleared for work to begin on the erection of an extension bring the accommodation up to 6 coaches. Work has also started on the new station building; this follows a traditional Midland H pattern, the aim is to build one of the "uprights" first before proceeding along the crossbar. Fundraising continues.

    A black class 14 diesel arrived last week, not sure which one, but it is on a 1 year loan.
     
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  18. sleepermonster

    sleepermonster Member

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    The class 14 has been in use on the November "Shottle Shuttle" trains. These consist of a Barclay tank at the Duffield end, three coaches and a diesel, usually the cl.14 at the other end. The rake is steam heated, and hot soup is served on the train. It seems to be getting popular as it becomes better known.

    South of Shottle the PW dept have been changing sleepers and fixing drains.

    The station building is making significant progress: the underfloor heating elements have been installed and the concrete floor laid. Blocklaying for the internal walls is under way and EVRA midweek volunteers have been erecting timber frames for the inner skin of the walls.
     
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  19. nferguso_wyvern

    nferguso_wyvern New Member

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    A couple of pictures of the boxes taken in the Summer. I shall post some slightly more-up-to-date images but first is Idridgehay and the second is Gorsey Bank.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2018
  20. nferguso_wyvern

    nferguso_wyvern New Member

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    [​IMG]
     

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