Peak Rail General Discussion

small update apart from all the usual goings on;

s&t

David and myself spent last friday finishing off the left hand window set on the box, were now on the final two windows.

this week has been a sortie of several mornings of work here and there on various jobs, the charging circuit for the gate lamps at darley dale being one little job to look at.

will be down again at weekend working on the box.

noted the class 37 being worked upon last week too.

 

following taken from the Peak Rail Forum;

SATURDAY 10TH & SUNDAY 11TH JULY - Anything Goes Weekend

A weekend not to be missed for any railway enthusiast. Featuring steam
locomotive
68013, diesel locomotives 37152, 44008, 47635, D9525 and visiting locomotive
14901.

Other attractions over the weekend.

The newly refurbished turntable will be in operation on both days and all
locomotives which are running on either the passenger or freight service will be
turned over the weekend.

Our own resident steam crane will be in operation over the weekend providing
demonstration lifts at approx 2.00pm onwards.

The Heritage Shunters Trust will be supporting this event by providing Brake Van
rides with a selection of their industrial locomotives from 11.00am onwards.

The Derbyshire Dales Narrow Gauge Railway will be operation on both days from
11.00am onwards.

On the platform at Rowsley South Station the Derwent and Wye Valley Railway
Trust will be exhibiting a display of one of their current projects which is the
restoration and reinstatement of the original Darley Dale Footbridge, together
with
a tombola with the proceeds going towards this.

The Renown Repulse Restoration Group will be having a stall on the platform at
Rowsley South Station selling a wide variety of new and second hand railway
items.

Normal fares apply as follows:

Adults - £6.50 (all day rover)
Senior Citizens - £5.10 (all day rover)
Children under 3 years FREE (maximum of two per paying adult)
Children (3 - 5 years) - £1.50 (all day rover)
Children (6 - 15 years) - £3.50 (all day rover)
Family Ticket (2 adults and up to 3 children)

(All locomotives are subject to availability and Peak Rail reserves the right to
vary any of the details of this event without prior notice)

For further details please telephone 01629 580381 or visit www.peakrail.com

 

Locos

The class 50 lads were busy cleaning down the engine to go in Repulse and repainting it.

the H.S.T group were working on the class 14 exhausters system and Mr Briddon senior and younger were busy running and fettling the narrow gauge tamper,John was working on the wickham inspection car replacing the alternator which has been giving some problems.

elsewhere Henry had the narrow gauge fleet out in use and Penyghent was running too.

Jobs about

Tom senior and the lads were working on the brickwork around the shed road pit.

Pete and myself have been busy on different dates, another window has been completed on the box,this leaves one and a third left to do, some battery work has also been completed on the S&T

 

thought id also mention the "Festival of transport" at darley dale, normally held in the large fields behind darley dale station, this year on the 11 and 12th september.

LINK IS BELOW.

http://festivaloftransport.org/page4.htm


from their webpage theres camping available, if the weather holds itl be a fantastic all round day out too.

 

From the Peak Rail forum;

Monday 5 July 2010 at 8.00pm

For a requested £2 donation on the door, which includes sandwiches at the
interval, all welcome to:-

A pot pourri + "RAILS ACROSS THE POND"
digital presentations - Ken Horan
(a change to the original version of the printed programme)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sadly, Paul Pratt who was due to present our July meeting died on 10 January.
To keep the booked overseas theme for this evening Ken Horan has kindly agreed
to return to present "Rails Across the Pond" which starts with a day trip to
Dublin and Inchicore Works in 2008, then crosses a much bigger pond to see
steam & diesel in the western states of the USA (also 2008).

That will form the second part of the show, after the interval. The first 45
min pot pourri will be a real mixed bag where "what you see is what you get",
says Ken!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

presented by: Peak Railway Association (Sheffield Branch) at
The Harlequin Pub (upstairs function room)
108 Nursery St,
Sheffield S3 8GG

http://theharlequinpub.wordpress.com
(the old site got hacked)

bus routes 47, 48 and 53 pass the door.

hope to see you!

 

kestreleyes: With the departure of the 8F, is Peak Rail likely to seek a second "austerity" type 0-6-0 or an industrial to be available when Royal Pioneer gets to the end of its ticket, or will the line be diesel-only then for a while?

 

I for one would like to see our 8 return to the dales where she was restored, but if she is going to be as neglected as before then why on earth would we want to bring her back..... After several attempts by myself to break the stagnation in negotiations I decided enough was enough....
I had NO say in her going to the churnet valley railway, and have no say in what happens afterwards, but without some form of recognition from the PLC that we even exist anymore then why would we bother.... Believe me when I say we tried (Wrote) on at least 4 occasions to have face to face meetings with the board and on every occasion we heard Nothing back ! Ignore any spin from the management of peak rail, we wanted nothing more than to run 8624 at peak rail, but the sad fact is that they wanted us to hand her over on a silver plate, no steaming fees and complete control. Because we dared to say NO we recieved nothing but a glorified f**k off tablet. What a strange and frustrating game this preservation game is................

Simon H.

 

back to the original question, zebedee has been in kit form now for a while and the plans are to bring the frames upto rowsley at some point to continue working on her, i know paul was busy with the wheels and robin on various bits n pieces,not being a loco person i couldnt tell you much on this as i wouldnt know the big end from my own so to speak, the latest raffle tickets that went out with the AGM notices are for the money to go towards refurbishing zebedee and it does say on the website that this is a priority for the coming year.

im a member of the 8f group as an armchair supporter myself and can remember the days bringing scrap lead and tins down for vince to strip down and redeem for bits on the restoration, so it was a shame to see her go elsewhere for the season ,but as the lads say she does need earn her keep! and a spell out at the ELR/CVR will certainly go a long way towards that, being also a CVR volunteer id love to see their 4f stay on the line and get more use but it also needs to make its keep!,i suppose there are other lines in the same quandry and i dont wish to go into politics i know very little about,but it would be nice to have the lady back for a gala next year.

other loco wise, tim and the gents did some preparatory work on Duke a few months back to prevent further corroosion of parts,and theres still another j94 on site and vulcan also in various states of work.

itd be nice in an ideal world to have a rolling programme to keep two in steam and one in the works so to speak.

can anyone add any further who knows more about locomotives than me please!

 

As a former volunteer on Peak Rail and on the 8F I can't blame the lads for taking the 8F away. She needs to earn money to pay for her next overhaul not sit on a certain Directors mantle piece and be brought out now and again. I fear the 8F will be the last loco larger than an 0-6-0 that Peak Rail will ever see now, shed or no shed. I myself was suspended and had a letter to pull me up in front of the board just for asking a question (that's right just a question) about Matlock. Needless to say I've never set foot on the railway in toe caps since.

Regarding the other locos on site I believe Duke needs a new inner firebox and other boiler repairs, she was hammered to death the last time she was in ticket. Due to being left outside she also needs a new bunker and probably a lot more besides, Tim would know a lot more. Zebedee has been in overhaul since I left PR and that was some time ago! The other J94 (Heritage Shunter groups?), I believe, needs a major overhaul and is basically un-restored. As for Vulcan I'm surprised she's still there, I thought she was heading to pastures new as well (MRC springs to mind).

If the 8F needs a new home next year I'm sure the CVR, ELR or NYMR would welcome her with open arms.
Dave

 

I believe that in the past there has been a considerable drop in revenue when steam is not offered on normal service days for whatever reason. Therefore it would appear to be a short sighted policy not to have a realiable reserve in place.

 

I have to agree with Dave - the Duke was hammered to death. I am so hacked off with the Peak Rail affair i haven't renewed my membership.

 

getting back to the original purpose of why i created the forum thread;

Todays update;

S and T

Pete and Myself spent sunday both working on the signals (the double arm one for the derwent end of Riverside) has had its detection box braxcketas and boxes fitted,the weight arm and crank arm brackets have been moved to the final positions and fitted up and various back blinder arms fettled up and reset, nuts and bolts here and there have been refitted with better ones where needed.

the signalboxes third window set has been finished,some beading along the sliding window has been completed, window number four beckons next.

At Church lane, the new batteries seem to be working correctly, elsewhere another midweek trip to the motorpoint cupboard met with the discovery of a rather large wasps nest(theres also an ants nest to boot),battled over four hours of diving in and out the cupbaord to do some testing,in the end they had to be removed which the wasps werent really happy with, i think there must have been around 120 of them in there,now theres about a dozen and i still havent seen the queen!

Locos

The class 50 lads managed to complete work on 6 out of the many spare engine cylinders today, not an easy task when the torque spanner is a two man job!

Mr Briddon senior and younger have been busy working on the stores van and the class 14 exhauster and systems.

John has been working on the Wickham again,working on the battery and alternator systems.

Various people were working around the narrow gauge and the carriages,the linesiders were working on the gardens and de-weeding.

 

DARLEY DALE FOOTBRIDGE ARRIVES

Arch arrived with the remaining landing panels and lamp brackets, and has been positioned by the staircases behind the engine shed. Now all the surviving components are together, focus will turn to shot blasting and painting the sections which will be reused, preparing the components to be repaired as required.

Drawing work for the foundations is now completed, and clearance of the ground is now required at the station for surveying to take place.

Shortly be looking at gaining quotes for the erection of the new foundations, after which we can assemble the new columns and landings.

Wagons-

Midland railway wagon components arrived to provide parts for the Midland box van.


Fair few others around, lots of activity at the narrow gauge and picnic area. The bandstand looks very smart, whoever is responsible for that, nice one.

The heritage freight train and steam crane appear poised for the weekend.


Ben

 

weekly update;

With it being the anything goes weekend there were plenty of operating groups volunteers around, the class 50 lads,HST group,mr Briddon senior and younger,The narrow gauge lads and the class 37 lads were all around both operating the locos and working on various jobs

operating wise the j94,Penyghent,Class 37,class 47 and the two advertised class 14s were operating on freight and deisel trains, the steam crane was doing demonstration lifts and Pauls steam road roller was also on display flattening out some of the access roads, the narrow gauge was also up and running.

on carriage and waggon, John Powell was working on the Delacher van upon the sliding doors and repainting underneath the frames, the LMSCA lads were busy in their shed working on more of the NRM coach,Harvey was working too on other stock

s&t

Pete,David and myself completed the last of the main signals construction for Riverside,(a little bit of repainting the white still to redo), the last signalbox window was also cleared out ready for reglazing in the coming week and we cleared some more of the stores up and completed other jobs to boot.

the lineside team has been busy cutting down the summers growth here and there and more work has been done on the memorial and the ash pits at Rowsley too

 

Re: Midland Wagons - would these be the two that i saw on a low loader heading up the A6 about a week ago?

 

Yes. Don't worry, they won't be looking like that for long.

 

that would be the two new arrivals i was looking at then, if i know you carriage lads theyl be a work of art by the time youve finished with them!

not down this weekend but managed a few afternoons during the week

1. rebuilt a new noticeboard for the darley road/carpark as the old one was beyond repair.

2. took away old one and remade a spare one which has now been resited below the other one at Darley.

will make some more up when times available.

S&T

finished off painting the signals off, still to finalise the spring return rods bolting up and fit the cotter bolts that connect the contact box arm to the signal arm (small job for next time)

on the signalbox ,while it was dry ive repainted the frame of the final window up so it can be glazed, also took a look at the hidden sill, there is some rotten wood there but it appears the wooden block was morticed to sit into the other slide of the 3rd window and the rotten stuff was off the block not the sill, ive cleared it out and repainted it.

 

Lmsca lads were busy midweek rebuilding the shaped guttering on the NRM coach,the linesiders were busy controlling the growth around the site.

 

In the words of nessa, "whats occuring?"

 

soss!, been over the water in ireland for a week filming et hols,will be off the ferry this afternoon so should be back down tommorow,hopefully working on the boxes final window