Fishplate Lubrication
Posted: 23rd September 2024
New Fishplate Lubricating Equipment
Fishplates need to be lubricated regularly to allow the track to expand and contract with temperature. Traditionally, this has in
volved removal of the fishplates. Technology has moved on and lubricants are now available that are able to penetrate rail joints without the need to dismantle them. The lubricant is carried in a cylinder, pressurised and sprayed along the top and sides of each fishplate. Hence one person, accompanied by a lookout, can now complete in one day what used to take the entire gang several weeks. The equipment is reminiscent of the ‘Ghost Busters’ film.
Image – Paul Bailey
Down Yard Crossing
Posted: 23rd September 2024
Completion of the HK Down Yard Crossing – Summer 2024
The infrastructure team have completed the vehicular crossing over all the new trackwork in the Horsted Keynes
down yard and connect it to the crossing over the line down to Sheffield Park.
The old crossing over the line to the line to the south of Horsted Keynes was moved when the running in line crossover points and three-way points were put in back in 2019. The down yard has a number of points requiring a mixed solution to complete the crossing. New wooden gates were installed on both sides of the main line. These consisted of one wide and one narrow gate on each side, the narrow gate was for foot traffic and the wider gate for vehicles.
Images: Bruce Healey
Fencing Gang
Posted: 23rd September 2024
The Fencing Gang has retired
Over the years the Sunday fencing gang have been stalwart workers behind the lines mending fences all around the railway. They have been one of those unsung hero groups that exist around the railway beavering away at largely unnoticed but essential work out of sight of most people. However, they have decided that it is time for them to call time and retire as a group. Their efforts will certainly be missed by the main infrastructure group because there will be more work for them.
In the photograph, they can be seen standing in front of one of their last jobs, the re-fencing of part of the ’narrows’ immediately north of Kingscote following the land purchase of the top of the embankment.
Signal Posts
Posted: 23rd September 2024
‘New’ HK and SP Signal Posts – Summer 2024
A ‘background’ task is to construct some
signal posts out of old rail. Mike Hopps has built two more rail posts; one is to replace the HK down distant (1R) south of the tunnel (which apparently is too tall for proper sighting) and the other is for a new Sheffield Park advanced starter. This is to be set further away from the end of the platforms to allow for shunting of longer trains in anticipation of the proposed longer platforms being built in due course. The posts were built to original Southern Railway drawings, the design of which made use of old rail and point rodding.
Image: Mike Hopps
Safety Fencing on wing walls
Posted: 23rd September 2024
Regulatory Changes
We are now required to fence off the wing walls of our over-bridges. We are installing post and rail fencing with concrete posts. The image shows the completed fencing at New Road (Horsted Keynes).
Image: Bruce Healey
Widening the Narrows
Posted: 22nd September 2024
Clearance and Fence Realignment
Spring/Summer 2024
Just north of Kingscote station lies a section of the railway unofficially known as “The Narrows”. This is the only part of the railway that Bluebell only owns half of the original track bed. It sits on top of a high embankment and is divided into two sections by the bridge over Turners Hill Road. The two sections are owned by two different land owners who decided not to sell their part of the embankment to us before we opened the railway up to East Grinstead. The one nearest to the station between Vowels Lane and Turners Hill Road has decided to sell us their part of the top of the embankment but not the embankment side. It is not a large slice of land, a little less than 100 meters long and approximately 5 meters wide.
As soon as the purchase was complete, the dividing fence was removed and a new one installed on the new boundary.
Image Kevin Tucker
Horsted Platform 1 and 2
Posted: 22nd September 2024
Replacement of the Gable Ends
Spring/Summer 2024
Both of the gable ends of the canopy over platforms one and two have been repaired. This was carried out by contractors and fully repainted to produce a very good-looking finish.
(image – Jon Goff)
The contractors, MJ Padgham, are in the process of repairing the valence along the edge of the roof over platform 1 together with replacing and re-aligning the rain gutter to prevent the rain over-spilling the gutter and causing more damage.
The roof has settled slightly unevenly since it was built, which meant that the rainwater didn’t always flow correctly in the gutters and overspilled in places.
Platform 2 Coping Stones
At the north end of the platform all the copings have been lifted and either re-laid or replaced using coping stones from platform 1. This end was tackled first as there were a couple that were out of line and were too close to passing traffic.
(both images Tim Crump)
Platform 1 work starts – and a mystery is uncovered
Posted: 1st September 2024
Spring 2024
With the stock now removed from Horsted Keynes Platform 1, a proper assessment of the state of the coping stones and the supporting wall has now been made. The supporting wall is in a very poor state and needs rebuilding. Some of the coping stones had a considerable overhang – why this was the case caused some puzzlement.
(Photos – Jon Goff)
Removal of the track showed that showed that Platform 1 was originally straight the south end and had been changed at some stage. A map dated 1910 shows that the modification had been made by then presumably to accommodate a set of points south of the platform to allow trains to or from Ardingly to use either Platform 1 or 2. Curving the south end of the Platform 1 required a change in alignment of the track at the platform which was apparently ‘solved’ by increasing the overhand on the coping stones – a problem which will need to be resolved before returning Platform 1 to service.
Ketches Track Relay – Tidying up
Posted: 1st March 2024
With the rails now joined back up, the site needed to be cleared for ballasting and tamping. The equipment and track are loaded onto the Road-Railer trailers to be taken back to Horsted Keynes. The track sections are then unkeyed so that the concrete sleepers can be recovered for further use and the life expired rail sent for scrap. After a delay due to bad weather, fresh new ballast was dropped onto the freshly laid track using two of our ballast hopper wagons pulled by the 09 diesel. As the stone was dropped, the road railer with the plough bucket attached followed the wagons and spread the stone out over the track out to the sleeper ends ready for tamping.
Track ploughing image: Jon Goff | All other images: Mike Hopps
Ketches Track Relay – Day 6
Posted: 26th February 2024
By the end of Monday 26th February, all of the new rails were in place. There is still plenty to do with ballasting and tamping to be done.
The sleepers are stacked to the side of the formation prior to the relay in stacks of 8 or 16. When required they are moved 4 at a time using a bar which has 8 lugs which fit the eyes on the sleepers. The sleepers are then craned over onto the prepared formation. As the rail has not yet been laid, a tracked crane is required rather for this than a road-rail vehicle. The sleepers are swung round into position. Wooden spacers are use to correctly distance the sleepers from each other and the marked line denotes the position of the sleeper ends. Even so, a degree of fettling with a bar is needed to get the positions close to their final position. The rails are lifted in as can be seen from the previous entry.
As the rails are being craned in, the pandrol track clips and insulators a re laid out. We are laying track on a curve so while the outside rail is full length, the inner rail needs to be cut with the rail saw.
The outer rails had the fishplate holes drilled in advance of the relay but because of the curve and the requirement to cut the inner rail to length, one pair of holes are drilled in situ. The Milwaukee electric drive is used to tighten fishplate bolts. In the image on the right, the setter (blue tool on the right) is used to position the sleeper laterally and provide any lift needed to bring the sleeper up to the rail. The setter is not required for every pair of clips. The tool on the left is a puller which draws the pandrol clip into place.
The rail has been relayed from the north. At the south end, the rail now meets to old 96 pound bullhead. As can be seen, there is a considerable difference in the shape of the rail and special junction plates are required. These can be seen lying on the sleeper end. What cannot be judged is the difference in wear between the new flat bottomed rail and the old rail. This leads to a step in height at the rail head. There are a variety of junction plates which allow for this and bring the railheads level. Needless to say that the junction plates we initially brought along did not have the correct step. This will be easily rectified the next day.
Images: Jon Goff, Mike Hopps and Bruce Healey
Ketches Track Relay – First 3 days
Posted: 21st February 2024
19th February saw the start of the track relay of 19 track panels at Ketches. The 96 pound rail is life expired and will be scrapped although the concrete sleepers will be retained for re-use.
A ‘rail snipper’ was used to cut the track into short sections for easy removal later. This part of the trackbed is in decent condition and as that section is slightly raised, a terram and polythene sandwich layer was not required (unlike the remaining 23 panel section south of the present relay where the track bed is in poor condition.
By close of play on Wednesday 21st, the bed had been bulldozed and then compacted with a triple ‘whacker’ and the first four 60 foot track panels had been laid. Wednesday the 21st was a particularly wet day with further rain predicted for Thursday 22nd.
The prepared trackbed – the white posts to the left were put in before the relay and mark 2 metres from the old rail. Having removed the old track, the posts can be used to reinstate the former line of the track as marked by the yellow line. This line marks where the sleeper ends will come.
All images – Jon Goff
Sheffield Park Station work completed
Posted: 9th February 2024
The shutdown up to the half term break saw the completion of the work at Sheffield Park Station. For platform 2 the tasks were:
- Removing all the track in platform 2
- Digging out the track bed in platform 2 to the correct depth
- Installing new point rod stools the whole length of platform 2
- Digging a new drain down the length of the platform and lining it and the track bed with a waterproof membrane
- Replacing the wooden sleepers with bullhead concrete sleepers
- Trimming the rails to get rid of the dipped joint
- Redrilling the rail ends and putting the same rails back
- Ballasting and tamping with new ballast
- Digging out a lot of holes and installing point rodding concrete supports
- Service and re-timber the half-sets, (point blade sections) of the points at the south end of platform 2
Meanwhile work was continuing on Platform 1:
- Replacing the steps and brackets up to the footbridge on platform 1
- Digging out and levelling the south end of platform 1 including lowering the manholes lamp posts drains etc.
- Repair the corbel brick layers at the south end of platform 1
- Installing cable ducts and a new manhole on platform 1
- Erect a new lamppost at the bottom of platform 1 ramp
Sheffield Park work starts
Posted: 15th January 2024
Just two weeks into the New Year and Sheffield Park station is looking like a big building site. Track already lifted from Platform 2 and the formation being dug out to remove the clay and pebbles before relaying properly with the now usual Terrram and polythene sandwich. At the same time as drainage is installed, new stools to take point rodding will be positioned ready for the new signal box installation. 7 point at the south end which leads to the Pumphouse siding is also being replaced. Over on Platform one, the whole of the south end is fenced off as a secure site while work is going on to improve the edging of the dock, remedy failed corbelling on the platform face and correctly aligning slabs. While the work proceeds, ducting for future proofing any electrical upgrades will also be installed. The steps and supporting brackets on the footbridge, platform one side are also being renewed to complete the job which we started on platform two some years ago. A bit of a challenge when work started yesterday morning as the temperature was -4° C and locks were found to be frozen. Thankfully the sun came out later on which improved working conditions.
All photos: Mike Hopps
