Request for check rail chairs

Mountsorrel branch are looking for 100 check rail chairs if anyone knows of any. We have contacted all the usual places and had already purchased all the stock NR had (at a good rate) but are really struggling to find any more. New ones are an option, but obviously expensive unless we can find a number of other customers to increase the batch and the price.

Track is now laid all the way to the end of the branch (leaving the area for the halt clear). Ballasting will be completed in the next couple of weeks and a tamper has been funded and will visit soon. However we need to get the remainder of the check rails in before we can run any trains over the whole length.

The other good news is that we ran a class 37 and a mk 1 through the bridge last week with more than enough clearance. Obviously when it was an industrial branch it wouldn't have had anything so big through it and the team had to give the curve more room to allow for larger vehicles. But I am pleased to say the calculations and hard work have paid off.

There will be some demonstrations trains run over the first part of the branch to the farm crossing during the upcoming Swithland Gala next week. See the thread under Gala's for more info.

 

Have you tried Barrett's in Carmarthen?

Congratulations on your remarkable progress BTW.

 

Hi Sche,

I am intrigued by your comment that you ran a Mark 1 coach through the Swithland Lane overbridge, and that there was "more than enough" clearance. You are, I am sure, aware that it is not as simple as being able to fit the stock through without knocking the door handles off.

The bridge is, nominally, of 12'0" straight span, but being made of roughly dressed stone this varies appreciably throughout its length. The formation is best described as low-fixity, and will move about in daily use.

The clearance between the structure and the kinematic portion of the C1 gauge that the Mark 1 is constructed to is, therefore, at best, 275mm. The ORR's current guidance on infrastructure considers that a clearance of 450mm is normal, but allows that this may be reduced to 250mm on lines where the passenger windows of all vehicles do not permit people to lean out.

The traditional "Standard Structure Gauge" included in the Department of Transport's Blue Book on Structural Clearances specifies a mandatory 675mm clearance between the kinematic envelope (which is larger again than the kinematic gauge, and takes into account such things as end-throw, the track's geometry, and how the formation may move under traffic) and structures longer than 2m. Although largely superseded on the national network this is effectively the Structure Gauge currently in general use on the Great Central Railway.

If we allow that the "Mountsorrel Railway" has decided to follow modern-day guidance* (which may, in itself, prove a double edged sword in the future), then I still suspect that they will not be permitted to run passenger workings through the bridge without fitting bars, or locks, to all of the windows on the coaching stock - including the sliding lights over the main windows. Has this been agreed with the TOC (GCR) and the various rolling stock owners ? I imagine that such stock will not prove very popular with many of their typical passengers, and this might lead to vehicles becoming "branch use only".

Of course, if you have persuaded the Inspectorate to allow you to run unmodified Mark 1 coaches through the bridge, then I shall shut-up, wind my neck in, and offer my sincere congratulations on your powers of persuasion. Even so, I don't think that "more than enough clearance" could *really* be held to be an accurate description.

On the plus side the vertical clearances appear fine, and if any vehicles run away from the Bond Lane end now, you can pretty much guarantee where they'll end up

Regards

Flip

*What the ORR publishes as "advice and guidance" might just as well be read as "instructions".