Saturday 29th May – The team worked up at North Weald, Tom and Andrew continuing work on the interior of the BR Brake Van, and priming some of the exterior boards in the dry, so they are painted and ready for fitting. Meanwhile Bob and Simon worked under the signalbox, fitting lock slides and oiling other slides which form part of the safety interlocking. The photo below shows Bob at work, and alongside him are some of the lever lock covers, which he has taken home, sanded down and repainted in his garage – another example of the wide range of ways our volunteers can help restore the railway.
Bob Gillman working on the lever locks under North Weald signalbox
Sunday 30th – The team continued work at North Weald, with Ben, Bill and Will working on the Brake Van (fitting the boarding that was prepared on Saturday), while the Pway team worked over Kiln Road bridge, carefully levelling the track, before adding ballast. The deep-dig ballast renewals and levelling will help ensure that our passengers have a smooth ride over the bridge, and the new ballast side plates and repainting will ensure the bridge both complies with the recent RAIB safety recommendations and will last for a good number more years.
General Overview through North Weald, showing track laying, construction continuing on the Up Platform extension and signalling install progressing
Off-site, Simon and Steve took the railway van to Malden & District Society of Model Engineers, where we picked up some signalling items that they no-longer required following re-signalling works.
Photograph taken at Malden DSME, showing an impressive gallery of signals
It was good to meet up with the group there and see the excellent layout they have achieved, and the signalling preserved there.
Malden DSME's new signalling works for Hampton Court Junction
EOR is very glad to have the opportunity to re-use and so preserve in working order the items they kindly donated, some of which were saved from the original Nine Elms signalbox! We look forward to welcoming Malden DSME members to EOR in a few months time when we are operational.
Bank Holiday Monday saw a team working at Ongar continuing restoration work at the station. Tom and our new volunteer John spent the day tidying the new General Manager’s office and had an excellent day undercoating the room to former GER colours. Steve meanwhile made a start on patching up many of the holes in the plasterwork around the station and bonding up the chasing for the new sockets and fittings. Andrew saw an opportunity to continue the excellent work on the Ongar frontend of the thumper unit and removed the more awkward paintwork. Doug our Pway man popped in for a few hours to do some track work at North Weald, including adjusting the position of one of the insulated block joints, which are essential for the signalling system.
Tuesday 1st June saw the Tue gang continuing the restoration of Ongar’s Grade II listed station, repointing the Footwarmer Hut, and putting the final touches to the new Volunteers Rest Room painting, before then turning their attentions to a tidy up of the station in readiness for the forthcoming Open Day on 4th July and continuing the restoration of the Station Master’s office during the wet weather.
Finally I like to say a big thank-you to all those volunteers who have been down over the last few days, and been helping out in what-ever capacity – it all helps progress towards getting the railway restored and running trains again.
(Reports by Simon Hanney & Steve Elam)