Peak Rail General Discussion

https://www.facebook.com/festrail/posts/10158490446120716:0 If I've got the link right it should be relating to the ALRS loco Spondon having been restored by the chaps of the Ashover group up at Rowsley in their new shed

 

Just a small infill bit of news recently reported on in the railways own in house magazine, to go with the fine work that Ben and the trust and the railway have been doing on Darley Dale station lamps,which Ben was busily undercoating this week between dry and wet days, the report on the restoration of the ex Darley footbridge which has started, the missing columns which dissapeared while in previous storage at the Midland Railway have been recast as have the headers that go atop the columns to support the spans and steps,there's still more on that side to be done before the main spans themselves are cleaned and refurbished and that's best left to Ben and the trust to report on as and when that side of things is done but from an early perspective having the previous drawings for the original errection at Darley Dale has allowed my own department to start moving the location cabinets out the way of the up platform staircase leading to the roadway whose bottom steps will be litterally where the cases are, the battery case will have to move and is the easier job while the signalling case will be transposed sideways soon and depending on cabling slotted out the way hopefully behind or below the footbridge but as plans progress wel update more, for now we've been busy looking at cabling works,getting the locations repositioned and removing redundant materials of the old signalbox base so we can actually get at the site of the base on the up platform, just like an iceberg there's a lot going on behind the scenes before you can see any real progress on the main bridge itself.

Thought you'd like a small update,for more news see the link below

http://www.dwvrt.co.uk/dwvrtnewspage.html

 

Another small update

The Ashover Light Railway folks have loaded Spondon for her trip to the Ffeistiniog railway quirks and curiosities event ,if you're on Facebook the following link should take you to a few pics https://www.facebook.com/ashoverlight.railwaysociety/posts/1814369735491150

I spotted Dave midweek carrying on with the radiator room refurb on one of the class 50s,the side grills are back in now,Dave tells me the radiators themselves are away for refurb at a specialists, speaking off grills,D8 has her grills refitted too,final,painting jobs now on before she's back into service.

Myself and Andrew spent Friday evening moving cables around to get them out the way of the footbridge steps on Darleys up platform as they'd been run everywhere when the old signalbox was up there,now there all in one place and clear, the next little job for us is to reposition the location cupboard,aka Egyptian style with rollers and poles

Have a warm n sunny weekend folks

 

Il start with my own department first.

Andrew,David and myself started work on reducing the height of the arm on church lane 13 signal today to move the working gear clear off the rotten top to the post, it is planned when we can to replace the whole post with a new one,either new wood or another idea is a square metal post,cut and rewelded u to give it a tapered finish as is the traditional wood post,but that's in the near future,for now the works simply get the working gear clear of the problem spot at the top,which after we freed the arm from the post we found to be a large void inside the rear of the mounting bracket,at the point it must have had its original arm fitted in its past railway life on the network, ironically there's also bracing parts within the wood so it must have been know to have a split even back then.

The arm itself was the easy bit and with its weight came out sideways through the bad part of the post top, a new bush sleeve inside the mount and through bolt needed to be made up from parts at rowsley as the old one was seized inside the mount,the down rod needed rewelding and then adjusting ,the lamp bracket has had to be through bolted also and a fair amount of either gas bottling or welding parts to get the main signal back in use for tommorow.

Next time, the standing platform will be fitted and the ladder bolted to that which I fettled up last week as there was not time to fit it at the end of the day, the top of the wooden post will need to be chopped off also though that will likely require the electric saw unless the large bow saw goes through.

The post having been tapered means that we may or may not be able to get the old finial rebolted back on ,I could route around the top to accommodate the finial when the top is saw off,but it's likely that a great deal of sawing vertically will be needed to give it the seat to sit on at the top as its recessed in.

My thanks to David and Andrew for a great deal of Fettling today.

Elsewhere, managed to quickly call in at Rowsley,some chaps were testing a two rail ultrasonic tester,somewhat different than the ones I normally see as this one was trolley based,certainly looked fun, managed to bump into Harvey and noted more work was on going on carriage 7494 bogie,which is now back in black gloss having had a lot of work done on it.

 

News snippet from the Ashover Light railway folks who had "Spondon" running at an event at the Ffeistiniog railway,where it makes its own way over the Cob at Porthmadog

If you can receive Facebook here's the link https://www.facebook.com/ashoverlight.railwaysociety/posts/1818023728459084

 

a picture forwarded to me credited as Ffestiniog facebook page I told,Spondon as she travels through Minffordd yard

 

Peak Rail presents:-

Rob Foxon "Railways Remembered" Film Show:
'STEAMING INTO THE PAST'

Monday 8 May 2017

Central Library Theatre (near The Crucible), Tudor Square, Sheffield S1 1XZ.
Doors open 1900, show starts 1930


Tickets on the door £7.50

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This new and entertaining programme of rare and classic archive films explores a treasure trove of history from the golden age of steam railways in an all-regions look at Britain’s railways, spanning more than seventy years of working steam on the silver screen.


Highlights of the evening’s programme are:-


● The Victorian Railway Scene – Genuine Victorian footage of trains at Bushey on the LNWR mainline in 1898


● Northamptonshire Ironstone – Industrial steam in action at the Desborough Co-op ironstone quarry in 1905
.
● The Basingstoke & Alston Light Railway – Strange happenings at Buggleskelly in the 1930's.


● Lion & The Coronations – Newly discovered footage of the making of the classic LMS film Coronation Scot being screened for the first time.


● The GWR Jet Train – Clearing snow from the tracks in South Wales during the severe winter of 1947.


● British Railways Special Operations – The Chipperfields Circus train in Sheffield in 1961.


● Railways & Music – The happy association berween railways and music in films; the transition from steam to electric traction in a specially composed musical work, setting the scene for Inter-City travel in the seventies.


● Plus much more....

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Details of our 2017 Meetings and Film Shows are in the 2017 Sheffield Branch Programme available in the foyer, or on line at www.peakrail.co.uk/SheffieldBranch
Interval drinks are available (please pre-order at the bar on arrival).
In the foyer, our usual sales stand with bargain-priced second-hand books, model railway items, videos & DVDs.


Hope to see you.
Dave


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David Sharp
Peak Railway Association, Sheffield Branch


0114 274 5478

07950 787 231 (text or phone)


d.sharp@sheffield.ac.uk

For Sheffield Branch programme details (including parking and directions):
http://www.peakrail.co.uk/SheffieldBranch


(all meetings open to non-members)

 

S&T

John,Andrew and myself spent today cutting off the top of 13 signal above the rotten bit with a fair Bit of sawing to boot, then using Andrews reciprocal saw we fluted the semi decent top part to accommodate the finial back on,before completely repainting the signal in base coat,on Saturday this will be finished weather permitting in top coat white gloss, we also had a spell playing with the locks on church lanes gates as with the heat they had dropped again slightly, I've now finished up some more t spars to go on gates 1 and 3 as these have over the years shown sagging near the end, so some metal plate has been welded up and drilled out to be fitted to the spars to stop further spread ,these will be painted also this week and the edges cut to neaten them up before getting fitted to the gates toward the end of the month now that signal thirteen interim works have been completed, one item we did note that wel take care off with the welder on Saturday is to Reweld back on one of the tensioning bar support eyes which has snapped off on gate 3

I've also the footboard upon the sprung trap ground frame at rowsley to replace on Saturday with a grp plastic product as the old one has started to crack at the edge.

Locos

Mr Briddon has had a podcast done on Buxton radio covering RS8 as it was once a shunter at Tunstead and Mr Briddon is currently restoring it,the link is as follows below:http://discoverbuxton.co.uk/peak-district/podcasts/

Penyghent has finished being painted up finally ,picture courtesy K Rigby



Sent from my iPad

 

Just to mention that the truck that delivered Spondon back to Rowsley on Saturday also had a famous narrow gauge loco on board - the 1905 Polar Bear, originally built for the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man. Shame they couldn't have left it with is for a while .

Dave

 

Locos

Mr Briddons rS8 has a website dedicated to its restoration now http://rs8restoration.co.uk/index.htm with Tarmac limited's assistance, I'm told the old and new replacement engines have gone for shot blasting at Lant Lane.

Class 50s

Had a chat with Dave this morning ,work on the radiator fan (not a small thing by any means) is underway,the radiator elements are back and stored ,pic of the work and Dave

HST

The gang were busy testing the class 07 outside their shed,some repainting of other locos on the fleet was ongoing.

LMSCA

Ben was busy putting together the replacement period LMS notice boards for Darley Dale which will soon be finished,then il pop a few pics up when done, the rest of the gang were hard at the conversion of the guy van into an embroidery work coach to allow the reupholstering of carriages to continue without taking up he valuable shed space in the LMSCA,Harvey was showing me the 150 odd seat template parts that will then be reformed and upholstered,again not a small job by any means, one of the carriages currently having its ogde overhauled is nearly finished and then it's other end bogie will receive attention while jacked up.

S and T

We finished off putting the finial back on church lane 13 signal,repainting it,repainting the gate tops,doing some welding on the gates and also changing over an expired walkboards on one of Rowsleys ground frames too,plus some maintenance,Rod is continuing with the Rowsley box steelwork (pic attached)

 

Small parish notice correction ,Pete says RS8's casings and fuel tanks have gone for shotblasting,the rest has gone to Tunstead where it originally worked and they are helping restore her, Il be happy to see the yellow beast rise,possibly not yellow as I remember her at Dinting wel keep you updated on the progress folks.

 

Update from the Renown and Repulse folks for those on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/renownrepulse/posts/1527584847314304

 

Is Jennifer still the working steam loco or is Lord Phil back in use?

Thanks.

 

Its Jennifer,and the deisel is split between D8 and the class 31, no news on LordPhil but the magazine is due to be put together soon,so there may be some news in the next edition, Kev has been working on the 08 which is mrWatermans, I was trying to fathom out the workings of the cylinder Heads in the workshop that are for Fettling, nothing's ever small when dealing with locos, one of the prairies has had its side tanks craned off so the boiler can be accessed, again the locos are mr Watermans .

 

Thank you for the reply.

 

Andrew and myself spent the day replacing the barge boards on Darley Dale box as well as a great deal of repainting the box,the window boards and even the gate lamps.

Managed to call in at Rowsley in the morning to pick up the wood and had a chat with one of the gang working on mr Watermans locos, dismantling the pipe work in the smokebox and the remaining side water tank which will take up the next few weeks work,she looks in good nick but I'm told it wasn't long ago she was in service so I'm not surprised, all the old wiring such as the tpws cabling etc has been carefully removed and much of the boiler lagging too, hopefully in the coming weeks I may be able to update more on her as work progresses.

I'm also told that there's a move to get Penyghent over to the North Norfolk gala as well as other locos,another peak and two class twenties being planned as we speak ,no firm details at present as this is still awaiting pathing on the Network in a tight time slot but that should be a good photo opportunity for the enthusiasts at least.

 

some pics of the work

 

The Briddon's Class 14 left today, presumably for a visit somewhere.

Dave

 

Its gone to the Colne Valley,briefly spoke to Andy and Pete the other day while at Darley painting,its out on hire there for a bit

 

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


Mon 5 June 2017 at 7:30pm
"Old Flames"

reminiscences by Granville Dobson (Bradford)



The title comes from Granville's book about his cleaning and firing days at Low Moor shed in Bradford (1952-66). Upon closure he moved into Wakefield Control Office, before becoming train-crew supervisor at Leeds, responsible for all crew in-and-out of Leeds City station. From there he became an Instructor at Doncaster Training School until retirement. Enjoy Granville's dry Yorkshire humour and witty reminiscences providing an amusing evening. Just don't mention B1s!



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The book has short and punchy chapters and I really enjoyed reading it over Christmas. All copies are now sold-out but second-hand copies are available on Amazon for £5.66 incl postage, or they have 7 new copies listed from £154.97 !!!



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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

(E): d.sharp@sheffield.ac.uk
(H): 0114 274 5478
(M): 07950 787 231 (text or call)

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

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


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Don't be alarmed by the menacing new parking notices - Aizlewoods Mill have confirmed to me and Liz (landlady) that Harlequin patrons can contine to park in the evenings. No problems after last night's Great Central Railway meeting there!
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