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Ferry Meadows Railway "News" Thursday 26 August 2010 New Coach Shed Coming Soon It's been quite a while since I last had any news to post, but at the moment we have quite a bit to add, so here goes. At the start of this week we received the good news that planning consent had been granted for our new 84' long coach store. This will be sited to the north of Ham Lane Station just off the end of the platform. We are hoping that work will start towards the end of September and we hope it will take no longer than four weeks to complete. Once that is done I can get on with laying the new points and track work into the shed and fetch the coaches we bought at the beginning of the year, they are in storage down in Hampshire. Once we get them back here there is quite a bit of work to be done before the start of next season. As soon as the children go back to school in September we can start work on the turntables, we have to replace the trolleys that go round at both ends, this will allow us to use the Rio Grande loco we bought in January as it's to heavy to turn round at the moment, so we intend to replace the 60mm rollers with 200mm cast wheels with rubber tyres, fingers crossed that will solve the problem. We also have permission from Nene Park Trust to construct a passing loop half way down the track, this will enable us to run two trains at the same time when we have any guest loco's come to stay, or by using both our own loco's now we have a second set of rolling stock. As i'm sure some regulars will have noticed we have fitted gates to the crossing near the engine shed, this is purely for safety reasons, It's to stop children ( and adults ) walking down to the turntable when we are operating, as you push the loco's round it is quite easy to miss a small child on the other side, and it wouldn't do young or old legs any good to be knocked over by two plus tons of steel.
Thursday 13 May 2010 Rio out for the first time With Easter and May day behind us we have now turned our attention to getting Rio up and running, the engine had not been run properly for about two years so the first thing to do was replace all the oils and filters, fit a new timing belt, drain and refill the hydraulic tank, next came the wiring loom after years and years of alterations, it was full of dead ends and bits joined in all over the place, it took two whole days to rewire and tidy it all up. The old round fuel tank that was mounted on the rear of the tender is also being replaced, it just looks wrong so we are going to have a new tank made that will fit down inside the tender, it will hold enough fuel for about two days running and it will also move the weight lower down and give we hope a better ride. Today at 11.45 we rolled her out of the shed for the first time under her own power, it was just a quick check to make sure it would fit on the turntables, it looked good out in the sunshine, well we think so anyway. There is more work to be done over the next few weeks before we can press her into service, now we have made a start we will keep the news page updated. Tuesday 2 March 2010 New Locomotive Arrives The tender for the new locomotive arrived in Ferry Meadows at 3.15 pm today, the front half or boiler arrived on Wednesday 24 February at 4.00 pm, we had to move it in two pieces due to the weight, when complete it weighs 2.2 ton and that's a bit much for your average 4x4 and twin axle trailer. Both journeys went without any problems, loading was as easy as just driving it onto the trailer, we then disconnected the hydraulic pipes, removed the tender, tied it all down and we were away, but when we arrived back at Ferry Meadows we had to winch the boiler off the trailer, without its drive unit, that is in the tender we had eight wheels locked solid. When we arrived with the tender unit today we had to paint the track with vegetable oil and tow the boiler unit out of the shed, once that was done it was a simple matter of unloading the tender and coupling them together again, we were then able to start her up and drive her back into the shed under its own power, once this was complete we washed the track down with hot soapy water to get rid of the cooking oil. Since arriving in the park we have taken off the ugly fuel tank that sat on the back of the tender, this will be replaced by a smaller tank that will be inside the tender and out of view, we also removed the oil, fuel and air filters, drained both the engine oil and all the hydraulic oil, and as we write this we are about to change all the belts on the engine and do quite a bit of rewiring, this is in quite a bad state. Any other refurbishment will wait until we have given her a run up our track to see if we encounter any problems with our curves, points or turntables, we will keep the news page updated as we go.
Rio and Charles together in a very untidy and crowded shed, we really need more room!!
Wednesday 20 January 2010 New Locomotive and Coaches On Tuesday evening we
purchased another locomotive and four coaches, the loco has quite a
history it is a Rio Grande style loco designed by David Curwen ( Famous
for building steam locomotives ) and built by Severn Lamb in 1971, it has
spent all its working life at Drayton Manor Park until 2007 when it was
sold to a private owner and has been in storage ever since.
Sunday 5 December
Santa Fun Run 5 December Thursday 26 November The lads made an early start today getting the Tarmac down, they were trying to beat the rain that was coming in. Wednesday 25 November By Wednesday the new concrete was down and we started to lay the new rails in place, after fixing them down and cleaning up we had an early finish, things are going well so far.
Monday 23 November Work Started On Crossing At 8.30 this morning the work started on the new crossing, things moved on at a good pace, we should be ready on Wednesday to start laying track and new sleepers.
Sunday 18 October New Level Crossing
Our last days running for the summer
season is November 1st, the following week we will pull up the old level
crossing between the engine shed and the new turntable, it is getting very
tatty and the sleepers under the tarmac are rotting away and the surface
is becoming uneven, as soon as that is complete we intend to relay the
track and re-ballast from the crossing and right through the station. Sunday 23 August 2009 It has taken a while but I finally got the video page working, you will find some videos of the birthday weekend on there, but there are more to follow soon. Thursday 6 August 2009 Waverley Day We went on Wednesday as planned to Rudyard Lake Steam Railway in Staffordshire to pick up Waverley, the trip went very well and we arrived back at FMR at about 5.30, after unloading we connected the tender and pushed her into her new home for the next five days.
On Thursday morning bright and early,
myself and Adam Jeffery started to prepare Waverley for carrying
passengers on our line, the first problems that we encountered were the
method of coupling ( we use chain, Waverley uses a bar ) so it was out
with the welder to add new couplings to the ends of our carriages, this
all worked fine then it was onto the braking system ( we use spring brakes
that are pushed off by air, Waverley uses a twin line system the same as
Rudyard ) to overcome this we installed a separate air tank in the front
coach, this was pumped up by our loco going down the line and used by
Waverley coming back up to the shed end, no problem. Below are a couple of photos, Lawrence in the middle dressed in black is a driver on the Evesham Light Railway, but he lives only a couple of miles from FMR, he is building a 10.25" Darjeeling Locomotive, it's 90% complete and when finished we hope he will run it at FMR, fingers crossed. More photos from last weekend will go in the Photo Album page Soon.
Above is Lewis having a footplate ride. The crew above from left to right are, Nigel (Driver) Adam (Owner/Driver) Sandra (Guard FMR Owner) Lawrence (Driver) David (FMR Owner/Driver/Tea Boy) Keyleigh (Guard) and of course the star of the day "Waverley" Saturday 8 August 2009 Nene park trust 21st Birthday Party
On Saturday morning with the whole crew
in tow we arrived at FMR at about 8.30, Sunday was another good day with full loads most of the day, the birthday event finished at 4.00 but we carried on again until around 6.00 then it was just crew and family taking turns in receiving driving lessons on Waverley from Adam. It just leaves me to say a big thank you to Adam and the rest of the Waverly Group for allowing her to come to FMR, we really enjoyed her stay and hope to have her back again next year. Monday 11 August 2009 We loaded Waverley up this morning for her trip back home and set off about midday arriving at Rudyard about 4.30 the offload went like a dream, it's much easier the second time. Once again thank you to Adam and the rest of the group. Saturday 25 July 2009 Guest Locomotive Waverley On Wednesday the 5 August we will be taking delivery of a steam locomotive called "Waverley", it will be at FMR for five days and will run public trips on the 6-7-8-9 August, this will coincide with Nene Park Trusts 21st birthday weekend.
Waverley was built in 1952 by David
Curwen, it is an Atlantic Class Locomotive with a 4-4-2 wheel set, it
started its working life in Bognor Regis then moved to Weymouth in the
1970s, it then moved on to Manchester then to Loughborough on the Great
Central Railway, when they decided to expand and do away with the 10.25"
track, Waverley was bought by Graham Ellis and moved to Mull Rail in
Scotland, that was in 1984 and it stayed there until 2002 when it was
bought by a syndicate of five people and moved to Rudyard Lake Steam
Railway in Staffordshire, where it still lives today. Saturday 23 may 2009 Today is the first day of the Whitsun Bank holiday, the bottom platform is now completely finished and these were the first people to use it.
*************** Sunday 17 May 2009 Today we had a visit from the Peterborough Punjabi Indian Community Association, around 120 adults and children have walked 4 miles from the city centre in very unkind weather, to raise funds for Epilepsy Action Week, when they arrived in the park there was a meal ready for them, after they had eaten we took the children and as many adults that wanted to come for a rather damp train ride, but as you can see in the photos they were far from down spirited, after the ride they all walked the 4 miles back to the city and they raised £16.000. This is an annual event for the group.
*************** Friday 15 May 2009 The top dressing is on the platform but the pathway leading to the station is still to be finished, but we can run this weekend with no problem.
Wednesday 13 May 2009 Taking advantage of the good weather the gang now have the kerb edges concreted in place and the crushed stone is laid ready for rolling in the morning. Tuesday 12 May Today saw the removal of loads of soil and the kerb edges laid out ready for concreting in place tomorrow, with a bit of help from our Dalmatian Sally.
The Second New Platform On The Way Monday 11 May 2009 We are starting work today on replacing the platform at Gunwade Station, the work has been on hold due to its location and the soft ground all around it, but now things are all firmed up and we have the time, it's all systems go to get the job done by Friday night, hopefully just in time for running at the weekend. Monday morning bright and early the diggers and the "A team" (The same gang that did the top platform) moved in and by lunch time the old platform had gone
From this
To this
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New Locomotive Coming In February, not sure on the date yet we will be taking delivery of another locomotive, a Type 37 to try out on our track, we will give it a few runs to see if it is strong enough to pull all of our carriages up the incline from Gunwade Station, if it is, we are quite sure we will buy it, so if you are about at half term come and have a look.
Type 37 Locomotive Visit The type 37 loco in the photos below made its visit to us a couple of weeks ago and we spent the day up and down the track giving it a fair trial, it had enough power to pull the carriages along but coming out of the bottom station and up the incline it would just sit and spin its wheels, Gavin who built and owns the loco said it was to light and unfortunately there was no way of adding the extra weight, about half a ton we needed, so it has gone back to Kirkby Green.
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New Platform Ham Lane Saturday 24 January Good news Good news Good news We intended to replace the platform at Ham Lane Station this year, but time was running out as we wanted to be up and running for half term, but! the contractor who is doing the work suddenly found a gap in their work load and they are starting work on Monday 26 January. We have been there this weekend taking down fences and pulling up the old platform, we hope they turn up now on Monday.
Above, Sandra and our friend Nigel are
taking up the old platform ready for work to start on Monday morning,
fingers crossed. Monday 26 January 08.30 The contractors are on site nice and early and moving on at quite a pace. The bad news is we have just had a telephone call today from the fencing contractor to say he had broken his thumb and couldn't do the job for us, so it looks like myself and Sandra are going to have a crash course in hole digging.
Platform cleared. New fence posts and kerbs in place. Tuesday 27 January
Stone in place and ready to roll. End of a long day. Wednesday 28 January
Top coat going on. Nearly there. Sunday 1 February
Job almost complete, the new fence is now up and ready for staining (our first attempt at putting up a fence, we are very pleased with the finished job) but now we have been stopped by the snow.
Tuesday 10 February
The work on the new turntables is almost complete, just a bit of painting and tidying up to do, we are aiming to be ready for the February half term school holiday.
*************** New "Green" Sleepers
There is also an ongoing campaign to
replace all the sleepers and ballast, and re-lay the track, this will take some time,
maybe into next winter, but the work done this year will also improve the
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