Mountsorrel Heritage Centre

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Easy.
Rails bend and if you design it right and take care laying it you don't get a kink.
The same applies to laying full size track.

 

When you get down to 2 & 3 chain radius curves, as all decent industrial lines should have, you need to Jim Crow the rails to avoid kinks at the joints.

 

With our 32 mm gauge garden railway we took the rails out of the sleeper bases, rolled them through a roller rail bender and put them back into the sleepers

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That's why the Newbridge pit rd was so tight, We couldn't find the Jim Crow.



How long before someone asks what a Jim Crow is?

 

You will certainly get a different answer if you asked an American........

 

Google was my friend.

Noel

 

Does anyone know the etymology of the name?

 

Don't know how it ended up as a term for track bending, but it was one my Father used for a similar piece of kit which was used to straighten bent trolleybooms when he was a trolleybus fitter at ICT. I remember from a thread on a US preservation forum that the track tool name is used in Aus & NZ as well.

 

How on earth did I miss this thread?!
I am myself a volunteer at the Heritage Centre (you can see me in my green overalls in several posts a few pages back).
If you have any questions please make sure to ask me, I'll happily answer any!

 

Hello Hando

You guys and girls doing a great job at the heritage centre well impressive.
So much going on , variety and progress.

 

The 17th May is the hoped for reopening date for the Heritage Centre according too their FB page......
https://www.facebook.com/Mountsorrel-And-Rothley-Community-Heritage-Centre-43876650405/

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Very nice to see the steam test train in that link Johann. A good "bark" from the chimney!

 

Hopefully there will be a Public steaming of Colin McAndrew fairly soon after the Centre reopens in May, as it's all fit to operate and the Operating Insurance details should have been sorted by now.
Will advise on here as and when I hear anything, though keep an eye on their Website/FB page as well.

 

Although not publicly running yet, Colin McAndrew is going to be given a test run tomorrow as our shunting team has a new training regime (with small engines come big responsibilities).

 

Hope the test running goes well tomorrow.

 

They are putting photos on their FB Page every day now as a countdown to reopening on the 17th showing the various improvements that have been done to the site during the period of closure.

A good indication of what has been achieved is this one of the Memorial Garden area enclosed by the NG track circuit and its immediate surroundings....



Which can be compared with the same area seen in this portion of a photo I took last July....



A fair bit of groundwork had been done up to when I was last there in early November, but an awful lot has been done in the last 4 months to finish it!

 

The work done by the Mountsorrel team is very impressive. They have made a huge difference to the whole site and have obviously involved a range of volunteers.

 

According to the latest supporters e-newsletter, the parts for the lift bridge have now been delivered.....



Looks like it will take a while to sort through to find what they have actually got there..

 

Saturday 22nd May, all being well, should be the first Public steaming day for Colin McAndrew at the Heritage Centre.

 

From the website.........
"We hope to re-open on Monday 17th May (governments Covid-19 guidance permitting). This includes the Heritage Centre, our Museums, Granites Coffee Shop and our Nature Trails. You will NOT need to book in advance."