Memoirs of a Railway Volunteer - Part 5

The Early Years at Darley Dale – Part III

At about the same time as the first steam run to Matlock, we began laying track
in the Up platform at Darley Dale. First the trackbed was scraped down below
sleeper bottom level, and the chairs and small components spread out along the
platform top. The last of the new sleepers, 130 or so, were laid out and
chaired up, together with the best sleepers we could find at Hams Hall to
complete the length. Tracklaying end on into a confined space is usually
difficult, and this was worse than usual. There were coaches in the Down
platform already, and no rail access over the crossing, even for works trains.
We couldn’t get a JCB in because of the sleepers. There was only one method
left, so we carried the rails in by hand across Station Road.

This involved getting everyone on site in pairs with the rail tongs, balancing
the rail on a small steel workshop bogie in the entrance to the South Yard, and
dashing across the road when the coast was clear. Well, you try dashing with a 40’ rail. We set a block of wood against
the kerb on the far side to protect the concrete, and with a little luck, the
rail would lift up and skid over the top. I believe we tended to use 40’ rather
than 60’rails here, not surprising really!

By the beginning of February this new track had been extended beyond the end of
the platform and had been very carefully lined and levelled, to use as a guide
for the reconstruction of the Midland section of the Up platform.

The first step in this work was to remove the coping stones. The method was to
hammer a couple of fat chisels into the gap under the each coping to raise it
slightly. About five men with crowbars could then get a good purchase, and flip
the stone backwards onto rollers, short lengths of scaffolding tube which
enabled the coping to be rolled back, clear of the platform edge. Then the wall
could be taken down, and the stones laid out in courses on the track. Behind the
wall was a mass of rubble bonded with black mortar, which had largely perished,
and all the loose stone and general rubbish had to be raked out and shovelled
onto the platform top. After a new foundation had been cast where necessary,
the platform wall was remade, and the void behind filled with concrete and
stone. In the process we raised the height of the platform edge by five inches,
and set it back slightly.

In fact raising the platform saved quite a lot of work, as when the time came to
tarmac the platform top, we simply added a new layer over the old, which was in
a poor state. We were also digging trenches for drains and to put in the
electricity supply to the lamp posts, which were salvaged from a goods yard in
Nottingham. There were plenty of crossing timbers which were not quite good
enough to use in the track, and these were accurately laid out at the rear of
the platform as a rear kerb and a guide for the Midland pattern fence. Beyond
the platform, the tracks were being linked to the North Crossover and the
carriage siding.

Through the spring these works built up to a climax known as “The Day of the
Mega Shunt”. Various rolling stock acquisitions and deliveries had led to the
South Yard becoming very crowded once again. Over the years I have formulated a
theory, the Oaks Law of Siding Capacity, which is that the time taken to shunt
increases exponentially if sidings are more than 75% full, and that one siding
in each group should be kept empty at all times. However we had managed to get
our sticky fingers on all sorts of desirable goodies, and I was as responsible
for the congestion as anyone. Derby Branch had financed the purchase of a
Salmon bogie rail carrying wagon from Tinsley, something which Mick and I
wanted very badly. The company had bought a tamper, I think from the Derby test
centre, and this was receiving a lot of love and attention from Andy Lynch, Mick
and others. Andrew Bodden had bought a 15 ton diesel crane, with various short
flat trucks. On top of this, we had evacuated the remaining rolling stock from
Buxton site as theft and vandalism were becoming too much of a problem. The 8F
and its support coach were now in the south yard, along with all the turntable
components. One reason for getting the extra freight stock was so that
materials could be loaded onto wagons and kept mobile.

The first of the crossing gates was easy to hang, with the diesel crane sat
inside the south yard. Mick welded the steel mesh onto it, we painted it white
and it looked very nice. To hang the second, the crane would need to be in the
middle of Station Road, and the paradox was that we couldn’t use the level
crossing until it had been completed and approved by HMRI. The solution was to
book a days road closure, for Sunday 28th May. To make things more interesting,
I had secured the donation of another four wagons from Chesterfield Cylinders,
which I had been keeping an eye on for ten years and which suddenly became
available. These were delivered on the Friday before the move took place.

The imminent shunt provided a spur to the completion of a number of other
projects, particularly the painting of the signal box, which had scaffolding
round it, and the assembly of track in the North yard. A large contingent of
volunteers turned out on the day, and Colin Fearnley filmed the event for
posterity.

Early in the morning we closed off Station Road, and the crane advanced with the
second gate slung from its jib. Getting it to hang exactly right from the post
took some care; the gate was roughly 26 feet long, weighed a ton, and the
margin of error at the far end was about one inch. Once it was properly set,
the fun started. So much stock had to be moved in such a small space that every
working locomotive we possessed was in use, controlled by radios. Colin’s film
shows six engines in action – Class 25, 08, Janus, Yellow Peril, Ruston 88DS
and The Duke. The aim was a general shunt of the South and North Yards, plus
the spreading of two trainloads of ballast, roughly 200 tons. We made full use
of our opportunity and the shunting went on until after 9pm.

We were a very happy band of lunatics in those days. One shot shows John Philips
and myself with tinfoil on our heads. There was a reason for this. At that time
there was a policy that photographs in the magazine must not show volunteers
without hard hats, and these were painted in by the editor. The results were a
little odd, and we looked as if we were going around with shiny blobs on our
heads. This time John and I thought we’d save him the trouble.

After the shunting we went back to our more mundane tasks. The platform work
continued, and many dumper loads of spoil from this work were tipped on the
lineside at the North end. The passenger entrance ramp was built and Mike
Purslow put in a heroic amount of work to transform the area round it into a
garden. This involved sieving many tons of muck to produce reasonably fertile
soil; often he was still at it when we came back from the pub.

The level crossing was ready for testing by the beginning of June. In signalling
parlance, it was manually operated, mechanically locked and electrically
detected. Trials took place on Sunday 2nd June, and these showed that road
closures should be no more than three minutes each. The original target for the
single track barrier crossing was two minutes. We also dropped another 160 tons
of stone in the platform. All this stone and much more was arranged by John
Allerton. This end of the railway, though far from finished, was now definitely
under control and the remaining jobs were being steadily completed – gates
painted, lighting columns erected, drains and fencing finished off. The gate
lights were wired in and the specially made red targets arrived. Mike Hancox
and his building team had the toilets structurally complete and were beginning
to fit out the inside.

At this time working on the railway was a communal activity, and it was quite
normal for every compartment in the sleeping coach to be occupied, plus various
odd bodies sleeping in the signal box, the station building and other odd
corners. As we stoked our barbecues on the platform, the evidence of rapid
progress was all around us.

The influx of rolling stock continued, and a couple of Mark II coaches arrived
at about this time. To create more space, we built a “blind siding”. There was
just enough room alongside the feed mill to build a further siding on the down
side of the South Yard. It was long enough for five or six carriages, and was
filled with long term restoration projects. The main line was slewed to get
them in rather than installing a set of points. The reasons for this were first
of all to save the bother of installing another junction with the main line,
secondly the clearance off the side of the feed mill was very tight, and if we
had been able to shunt this would have created a potential hazard.

One of the largest remaining projects was the construction of the run round loop
and platform at Matlock Riverside. More sleepers were needed, so the salvage
crew went back to Hams Hall where the Lichfield branch had been plugging away
in our absence. Powergen were becoming very keen to have certain parts of their
site totally clear, and I planned an intensive collection to take place midweek
in September. I hired two tractors, six trailers and a crane. The aim was to
set up a shuttle, each tractor would take a loaded trailer up to Darley Dale,
leave it to be unloaded, and come straight back for another. If all went well,
we intended to load 20 tons of rail every two hours, for eight hours per day
for three days. The loading team consisted mostly of myself, Bob Grange, Dave
Ives and Sam Cotton, with help from Lichfield branch, and the four of us booked
into a local pub.

Mick Thomas was in charge of the unloading party, and I think it is fair to say
he had doubts about our ability to shift so much rail so quickly. So did Bob,
who had kindly offered to wring my neck if things went expensively wrong. The
combined hire charge was about £3-00 per minute. I had spent a couple of
Saturdays dragging rails into nice neat stacks, so that they could be loaded
two or three at a time, and marking the centres with paint as an aid to
craning, and I was fairly sure we could do it. Andy Wood was working with Mick,
and around noon on the first day I gave him a message to pass on with
considerable satisfaction. Reception was poor so I kept it short. “Convoy One
loaded. ETA 1400 hours”.

There was one hold up, which took a little diplomacy to resolve. I was asked to
have a word with the power station manager who had serious concerns. “Mr Oaks,
one of our pylons is missing.” Not exactly missing as such; it was back at
Darley Dale. Next to the old concentration sidings was the line training
school, and part of its stock in trade was a dismantled pylon which had been
lying in the grass for a very long time. Nice thick galvanised L section steel
in a variety of sizes, with holes punched in the ends and bags of nuts and
bolts to suit. A real adult meccano set. I had been given permission to take it
months before by the head of the training school, which was being closed down,
but we hadn’t had the time and transport to get it away before this point, and
I had taken an opportunity the week before to get the main legs away with a
load of sleepers. Meanwhile the manager concerned had retired without telling
any one about the pylon. Understandably perhaps, Powergen felt they still had a
use for it, so we sent it back again. All that galvanised steel angle. It would
have come in very handy for the turntable, the water tower and all sorts of
future projects. If anyone ever does hear of a pylon being got rid of…

Otherwise the job went as smoothly as these things ever do. The crane leaked
hydraulic oil steadily, and I had to hire a third tractor unit to shunt
trailers around at Hams Hall. At the end of three days we had got away roughly
220 tons of rail, enough for 1500 yards of track, plus eleven sets of turnout
components which were tricky to load, but very valuable. By Andy’s account
Mick’s language was worth a guinea a minute, as fast as he cleared one load
away, another turned up. There was a succession of neat stacks of rail on the
Down side of the trackbed towards Church Lane. We threw a monumental party in
the South Yard that Saturday to celebrate. I presented the barbecue chef with
a new house speciality- Hams Hall crispy duck, which had flown into a pylon
that day. He declined my offer. According to my diary, not much was done on the
following Sunday morning.

Afterwards the urgent need for clearance was explained. The power station staff
scooped up all the old ballast off the concentration sidings, which was then
spread and rolled near the coal tippers. Then the staff caravan club parked
their caravans on it, scores of them.

Quite suddenly the programme locked up. All at once we knew what we would be
doing each weekend for several weeks to come, and everything had to be done in
sequence and on time. 202 Field Squadron Royal Engineers (T.A.) were booked in
over the weekend of 17/18th August 2001 to help rebuild the ex-Cheedale Halt
platform at Matlock. In advance we had to recover sufficient sleepers from Hams
Hall, cut into the existing single line at Matlock, install a turnout, build the
platform line, ballast it and tamp and complete the fine alignment work as a
guide to build the platform. Once all that was done, the track on bridge 35
would have to come out for an indefinite period to allow contractors access for
bridge repairs. There were no alternative options and no margins for delay.
Well, we did it. The T.A. came and camped in the South Yard and built 100 feet
of the platform structure in a weekend.

The design of the platform at Matlock Riverside is perhaps worth a look. I think
it was originally invented by Martyn Ashworth, and refined slightly on the
advice of the T.A. engineers. It can be constructed very quickly, and is just
about idiot proof. The basic component is a trestle. First get yourself a
circular saw, plenty of railway sleepers and a large quantity of threaded steel
bar, to be cut to make bolts as required. Slice one sleeper in half, and another
lengthways down the middle. Two halves of a sleeper make the uprights, joined by
one sleeper across the bottom, and two across the top, on either side of the
uprights. One half of the sliced sleeper is bolted to the rear upright, and
this makes both a post for the back fence and a lever for lifting the trestle
vertical. Paint all cut ends with preservative.

The trestle will be roughly 4’2” tall with the boarding on top, and the top
surface must be exactly 3’ above rail level, so if you dig a paving slab into
the ballast, a bit below sleeper bottom level, this is going to be pretty
close. If in doubt, dig down a bit more. The slabs go in one sleeper length
apart. Stand up a pair of trestles, and nail three sleepers across the gap, one
each side and one in the middle. Add a diagonal brace at the rear, and keep
going down the line of the platform. Drill for additional bolts to fix the side
sleepers to the uprights. The platform structure can be levelled with a template
off the track, so the accuracy of the individual trestles is not critical. Just
jack up the front of the trestle and add packings underneath, and then cross
level to the rear and pack that in turn. Once the basic trestles are prepared, a platform can be built very quickly.

Eventually we had the main structure complete and set about adding the top,
which is mostly made of second hand floor joists. The timber in these is
often of better quality than any new timber at anywhere near the price. A
small gang set to work with hammers, and if I remember correctly this included
Mick Bond, Bob Grange and Tony Joyce. One man set the sleepers out, and the
other three each worked down one of the lines of supporting sleepers knocking
in the nails. We had got quite a rhythm going, with three hammers marking time,
and it looked as if we might get all the available boards on in one day. Only
one problem, not enough nails, and by lunchtime we were running low. It was
Sunday.

This couldn’t be allowed to spoil a good day, so I drove over to Chesterfield
where the local branch of a national DIY chain was open. There I collared an
assistant near the nail section. There were large bins full of nails which had
to be weighed out by staff.

“Have you got any large unopened drums of five inch nails in stock?” He went off
to make enquiries.

“No”

“Have you got a weighing machine which weighs out more than one pound?” He began
to look a little worried, I think he saw where I was leading. Once more he went
off, and returned distinctly unhappy.

“No”

“Well, I would like to buy fifty pounds weight of five inch nails, please”

“You wouldn’t like to b*****r off and buy them some place else?”

“No.” It took him quite a while to weigh them all out, but by the end of the day
there were very few left. Originally this platform was to be called Matlock
North, but watching the water go by as we built the platform, I had the idea
that “Matlock Riverside” might be a better commercial proposition, and this was
adopted.

By now the tamper was working, and we set about the repetitive task of
ballasting tamping and boxing in from Darley Dale southwards. The tamper was an
absolute godsend, and produced a very high standard of track, which we simply
could not have done manually. The other remaining major project was the
footpath fence, which was a condition of our lease and was built by
contractors.

We were itching to run trains, for crew training and experience as much as
anything else, and began a push pull service in December 1991. This ran from
Darley Dale to Bridge 38, starting on one of the foggiest days I can remember.
Beyond this point the line remained under engineers possession, and ballasting
and tamping continued. Also about this time we built a workshop in a double
garage in the south yard. It was intended as a very temporary stopgap at the
time. The story of our efforts to design and build a more efficient facility
over the intervening sixteen years would be a complex story in its own right.

Salvage operations at Hams Hall continued. From time to time we would recover
chairs, up to thirty tons in the course of a Saturday morning. We would hire
ten ton tippers from Matlock Transport, and throw 500 chairs on each as they
were driven slowly along the dismantled track. Bob Grange and Tony Joyce were
regular passengers in my car for these trips, and one frosty winters morning
there was laughter and happy glugging noises from the back. They had found my
special bottle of Sheep Dip Whisky, well it kept the cold out.

I booked a final midweek expedition to the power station in March 1992. We were
under pressure to complete, as the site was to be redeveloped as a Channel
Tunnel freight terminal. Another three days, another 200 tons of rail, with all
the preparation work that implies. By now the transport budget was all but
exhausted, and we were seriously short of space to put the stuff. I invited a
couple of other railways to help themselves to the leftovers. I needed to clear
out the permanent way stores hut as Messrs. Wood and Brandon had orders from
Mick Thomas to recover the structure to provide materials for the crossing box
at Darley Dale. One of the remaining items inside was a rail saw. Our guests
from one railway were quite ecstatic.

“Oh look – a hand operated rail saw!”

I remembered so many past battles, and thought how far we had come. Watching
the newcomers, who were good lads but inexperienced, I realised what a hard
bitten and well drilled team we now had.

“ You take it lads, I think you need it more than us”.

The railway was opened to Matlock on 2nd May, 1992, by His Grace the Duke of
Devonshire. I felt it was time for a break. There was a very good team in
charge of construction – Mick, Bob, Gary Dixon, Chris Richardson and others, I
was hardly indispensable, and I would have done my work very badly if I was. I
resigned from the Peak Rail board in June 1992 and resolved to concentrate on a
normal domesticated life. I was never cut out for that, and my absence did not
last, but that is another story.

Tim Oaks

 

Tim, I have just read all 5 of your long posts this evening. I have found them extremely interesting, very well written and they highligh the difficulties that new railways face when trying to establish themselves.

I hope to read more of your experiences in the future.

 

Sadly i was the one that had to taken the pylon back! Hams Hall was also the location of being chased by the security staff as "someone" had forgotten to tell them that there would be a small 7.5t truck picking up smalls etc.

One other point to mention when the TA arrived at Darley Dale Station they held a court martial for a driver (a woman by the way) who had hit a civilians car in Liverpool - now that was a sight

 

The security staff had it in for us generally as they used to demolish the track on overtime at weekends before we arrived. Hams Hall was a funny place - part power station, mostly country park. I wandered into a building up nearr the coal tipplers one day, in case there was anything to be sniffed out when, this bloke popped up and said, "you can't come in here - this is the beekeepers stores"!

Tim