Churnet Valley Railway General Discussion

What's the reason for the German sleepers?

Availability or Cost or both?

 

I believe it was all that was avail;able at the time we wanted them back in April. At that point we had a programme to replace 200 - 300 sleepers in a couple of weeks and had to ensure we had the sleepers in stock.

 

If you ever decide to line and letter a Mk1 coach using the same Gills Sans medium typeface that British Railways used you can download the original artwork which is on a grid for ease of copying, it is on the Flicker website. The correct size of the lining was 3/8" gold/ 1" black/3/8" gold

 

Is it going to get it’s “M” prefix at some point? Also by the 1960’s (maroon ends) the maintenance category “A” had been reduced to a smaller letter at the bottom, as in “TSO(A)” I notice my old CK M16155 seems to have a maintenance category A (100mph front line stock) at one end and a maintenance category B ( 90mph excursion stock) at the other! Nice paint job though and it’s good that the lining paint and the number are the same colour. I can confirm the black waist lining is 1” having revealed several originals when rubbing down blue livery.

 

This is an example of the 'M' that this coach needs, it was printed in 1966 and is printed in the original gold lining colour ( Middle Buff) that they used for lining and lettering marroon coaching stock. Note: they never used yellow. You can see a detailed close up of a coach with sprayed marroon ends in a 1968 episode of the Avengers entitled "A funny thing happened on the way to the Station". I am not sure where the carriage sidings were but i suspect it was Willesden on the WCML.

 

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/ghost-railway-leek-brought-back-6343126

Seems like good news, let’s hope we see some concrete action ASAP. Sooner there’s a platform at leek the better any hope of getting funding for mainline reconnection


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Finishing touches being applied to the new sidings at Froghall. Jacking and packing to level small dips, and keeping the cant within limits and moving ballast around. Hard work but in bright January sunshine very pleasant.

 

The last stage of the Froghall sidings coming together with the buffer stops being moved into place. Awkward heavy beasts to get right. Both still need to have sleepers fitted but nearly there.

 

Just wondering - what happened to the idea of running to Endon? Is the track still checked/maintained in any way? Has it all become overgrown again?

 

Replacing sleepers and crossing timbers this week, also trying out a new pair of jacks.

 

Good to see I’m working up a sweat holding on tight to the depth gauge

 

A mixed day this week but photos only from one of them - sorting out the drainage and a dipped joint close to the canal on the Consall Curves. Very dirty ballast had to be loosened with a pick before shovelling it out, jacking and packing with clean ballast.

Once that was done we went back towards Chedd and replaced the pads on two panels of the concrete sleeper section with RD clips

 

Turns out I’ve not posted on here since some kind of flu thing happened two years ago! It was about that time I was supposed to be enjoying the delights of the ‘Borders Explorer’ jolly up the cleared Stoke line, I have rang up maybe once or twice in the 2 years since then to tentatively seek an update, only to find the CVR booking teams to be rather too keen on providing me with a refund, which I have refused each time, seemed to me like a lockdown struck railway needed it more than i did! Anyone on here ‘in the know’ have any update on where things stand? I’m guessing in the 2+ years since the track clearances some remedial works will be required before any dates can be set!

 

Having thought that the two Froghall sidings were finished today we were correcting the rather severe cant on the second turnout. Lots of jacking and packing . We also found that we have had a new arrival. Polar express this year at 125mph?

 

I am not really in the know, but I think all efforts are now on getting the line back into Leek. Not sure what is happening on the line towards Endon.

 

Quick update from leek courtesy of Simon Hambleton

 

With help from the PWay Institute we have relayed 10 panels of track in the valley section between Consall and Froghall. Preparation for this happened over the preceding weeks
Loading sleepers at Froghall and unloading on site and ready for use Dropping ballast
and then, once the main work had been done (no photos I am afraid) dismantling the removed panels

 

Update courtesy of Richard Waterhouse


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In case anyone is wondering, this is the extension from Leekbrook to Leek. All the work is by contractors.


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