What have the volunteers been up to?

Latest updates from EORVS departments

As with most preserved/Heritage railways the backbone of the workforce is invariably its volunteers. The Epping Ongar Railway is no exception, with a small (but growing!) dedicated volunteer core working hard most days of the week. This page has been designed to provide latest updates and information on what the volunteers have been working on and how their time, effort and sometimes money! is shaping the railway.

Why not come along and join us, meet the teams and have a taster of what the railway can offer

April/May Update

No passengers but the railway is busier than ever! It has been an eventful Spring and we hope to keep you abreast of a few of the developments. The working volunteers have battled come rain, shine, and snow to continue the varied essential engineering works during the shut-down: As ever if you are available and ever wondered what its like at Epping Ongar Railway do come down and get involved; you will be assured of a warm welcome, plenty of cups of tea and helping to enable us with an essential piece as we work to bring steam back to the line.

Ongar

Trackwork/Clearance. On 11th May some of the 5foot Finnish stock was removed. The remaining Finnish stock is being placed at its own platform in the former goods yard, and will become a static display, and provide accommodation for a shop and possibly refreshment facilities. (Photographs Michael Wall)

Station Buildings. Work has been done to clean and tidy the ticket office, the old taxi office which is now used as the Station Masters Office on running days and the Booking Hall. This meant removing old and redundant electrical and telephone wiring (pictured is Mike Hardy carrying out this task Photograph:Eddie Veckranges.) The wiring has tended to build up over the years where old installations were removed and new installations put in place. This had left an unsightly mess and made painting difficult. We have also managed to uncover some old features, like a little spy hole located in the ticket office door. The eyeglass had been covered over by paint but can now be looked through since the paint has been scrapped off. Preparation has also been made to redecoration of the ladies toilet.

North Weald

Permanent Way team are continuing with major trackwork improvements at North Weald and other areas of the line.
As you can see the team are very dedicated - even working in the Easter snow! (photographs Michael Wall)

Signalling: The weekend and weekday parties have finished painting the stairs, been working on the windows (applying undercoat and glossing both inside and out), refurnishing the inside including moving the sink and putting the box back to how it was originally. Our sparkies have been putting the finishing touches to the transformers and starting a wiring audit of the signal circuits, and we have made a start on stripping the old paint and light rust off the Saxby & Farmer lever frame ready for repainting. Simon also borrowed a Minolta Colorimeter from Writtle College and measured the exposed paintwork, some dating back to 120 years ago when the box was build in GER days, to measure the exact colour of paintwork - so we can get paint mixed to those scientific colours in a few weeks time when we come to repaint the inside.

And..

Driving Courses During the shut-down, Steve Weal, our Train Crew Manager, is running mutual improvement classes to cover the theory of safe and efficient driving of vintage stock

Still to do:

Signalling. Install signalling of Ongar approach (possibly via ground-frames) to safely control the points in the station approach to HMRI standards.

Trackwork. Re-gauging the run-round loop and re-modelling the Ongar approach – this is to reinstate the run-round loop, so an engine can move around its coaches. It will also mean easier access to the loco facilities and safer shunting.

Undertake major reinforcing works on the embankment at Blake Hall, to stabilise the track-bed and increase the axle loading capacity of the branch.

Correct track along the line to improve the ride and remove temporary speed limits to regain punctuality and passenger comfort.

March Update

Much has been achieved on EOR in the last few weeks; the P-way gang have been tackling the track-work and have now reached the North Weald area (pictured), jacking and packing and greasing fish-plates. The pictures below show the working group at the Epping end of North Weald station, as they check fish-plates and align the trackwork.

The signals gang have been meeting on Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays - putting the finishing touches on the window frames and exterior, the Tuesday gang have been putting the finishing touches to the new steps and the team is looking forward to commencing the next stages as we work to signal North Weald. Our sparkies have also been replacing the old china fuses with a much safer MCB fuse-board and re-commissioning the signal transformers, stripping out redundant wiring, installing bus-bars and fuse banks. We are also currently seeking sources of old signalling equipment that we can use to reopen North Weald, and if you can help in any way, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Simon.

The Thursday gang have been busy with vegetation clearance along the line, always an excellent way to keep fit, blow away the cobwebs, get to see new parts of the line and enjoy the great outdoors. They have also been working on the brightening the general station areas. As ever, if you have ever wondered what its like to work on the line, wonder no more - come on down, as there is always a friendly welcome.

'Breaking Ground' Gardening Project visit North Weald

The Breaking Ground Gardening Project Team from Newham visited the railway on Wednesday 20th February and set about cutting the grass and vegetation around the green that fronts North Weald station.
Jackie Fromling leads the team and they offered their help with cutting some of the vegetation. One of our volunteer team Jamie Smith, who is also a volunteer for that project arranged it and they came down and did a wonderful job for us. I’d like to apologise to Jackie as we didn’t have more of our volunteers present, however, hopefully if they come down again, we’ll be there and perhaps do them a nice lunch!
We are always thankful to any organisation that gives their time to us, like Ford’s, trainees from LU helping with track work at the moment, as this helps us make great strides in moving forward.

North Weald benefited last year from the planting work done by Peter & Ros Collingwood, The Signal Box is being restored by Simon Hanney and his Team and now the green areas around the station will be much tidier all helping North Weald look much healthier and cared for.

January/February 2008 Permanent Way Trackwork

Essential track maintenance is being carried out during the three month closure of the railway with many volunteers taking to the tracks to help out our Permanent Way Department. They are greasing fishplates, repairing sleepers and ensuring that the track is level and safe for the re-opening.

Fishplate greasing

Slewing Jack

How the track should look!

Restoration of 'Badger'
By Doug Pinkney

I started working on the Badger in January 2006. I was asked to have a look at the brakes, which appeared to be stuck on. Badger is in fact described by the manufacturers Permaquip as a points tug - Probably manufactured late 70’s early 80,s with no parts are available!

The sticking brakes turned out to be a seized front wheel bearing which necessitated removal of the front hydraulic motor, removal of the front wheels, raising the front end on blocks to roll out the front axel assembly. The fault must have occurred before it came to our railway but when the bearing first seized up it must have produced a lot of heat and smoke because there were signs of burning paint on the underside of chassis. Once the wheel had been pulled off with a 10 ton hydraulic jack !! there was nothing left of the bearing and what grease had been in the housing was a mass of black charcoal.

With a new bearing and a lot of metal bashing Badger was ready to roll. That’s when the next problem revealed itself. Now it was free to roll but would not stop. The newly acquired lack of friction revealed the hand brake to be non existent and for the moment the wheels have to be chocked. Soon after arriving at our railway the Badger was in collision with the DMU pushing in the two front panels of the crew cabin and wrecking the gull wing access door which had to be removed. The sad looking tug with the damaged front and a considerable amount of rust has continued to be used on maintenance work but this useful work horse was in danger of becoming a candidate for the scrap yard.

I can’t remember exactly when I started on the body work but it seems to have been never ending. The cab panels were made first and the roof had the rust removed with the resulting holes filled with glass fibre. The idea was to get it water tight preventing further corrosion damage. Most panels have been riveted onto the body frame as rivets cant work loose, and all the metal work has received copious amounts of paint to stave of rust. Perhaps the most interesting part of the restoration has been the manufacture of a new door. The original frame was not only bent but rusty. New box section steel has been welded into the framework and I purchased an eight by four foot sheet of steel to make the front door panel. I have never done panel beating on this scale before, but like so many challenges thinking about it was worse than getting the job done. A day at a car scrap yard secured a replacement gas strut that powers the door lifting mechanism. And glass from a Volkswagen campervan, once used by surfers, forms the new front window, hence the surfing stickers on the glass. Having acquired the glass I then cut the hole in the new door to suit. The door handle came from an old Ford Cortina.

Badger then received a final coat of JCB yellow paint, rain guttering was fitted and the cabin interior painted. I returned to the scrap yard for a car hand break lever which I was connected to the foot brake mechanism Hopefully, that’s it! but I suspect working on the Badger will be a long love hate relationship. In conclusion I would like to thank all the people who have been volunteered to help me from time to time.
Doug
NB. Badger got it’s name because it’s first task after arriving at EOR was to take a member of the Essex Wildlife Trust down the line to look at the badger sett.

North Weald New Year's Day Working Party

Some of the volunteers decided it might be a good idea to get out of the house and do something physical instead of just eating and watching TV. So where better than to be at North Weald doing some work on the Signal Box!

(above) As you can see, Mike Cornish is putting the finishing touches to the frame of the steps which have had to be completely rebuilt, see picture on signalling link. The stair rail and uprights will be added soon allowing work to start inside the box.

(above) Gary Griffith (North Weald Station Master) set about scrapping the old putty from the window bars. Simon Hanney also in the picture oversaw the work for the day.

Not seen in the pictures but working for the day was Ron Abercrombie who was hidden in the darkest part of the signal box in the basement sorting out some of the electrics – perhaps that’s the best place for him to be, sorry about that Ron. Kevin Smith repaired the cement work at the base of the signal box allowing excess water from the guttering and downpipes to drain properly away. Eddie Veckranges repaired the raised flower bed as wells making teas and lunch for the gang. So we didn’t quite get away from eating but at least we did some exercise.

(above) Simon, Gary and Kevin Smith are seen shutting up shop for the day.
If you think you can give a hand to this job or any other work then why not join us.

16th September 2007

Signal Box restoration work

Summer 2007

North Weald Flower Beds

Thanks to Peter & Ros Collingwood for planting the flowers on the flower bed, by the path opposite the Goods Shed and around the platform at North Weald.
They cleared and redesigned the flower bed as well as planting a lovely array of plants. Also they added some more half barrels of plants along the platforms. The effect looks stunning and was admired by passengers waiting for the train at North Weald. Thanks to also to Walkers Nursery of Roydon for donating the flowers

August 2007

Track Donation

The Epping Ongar Railway is very pleased to have received a donation of 200 yards of track, a 60ft switch and 800 tons of second hand ballast from Carillion and Rail Link Engineering. The track was originally part of the old Midland Mainline Up & Down Slow line on the approach to St Pancras station. Changes on the approach to St Pancras station to accommodate the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link had made this track surplus to requirements. It is good to see that in these times of increased environmental awareness, major companies such as RLE and Carillion, are willing to go out of thei way to ensure that any redundant materials are reused; and what better wa than to donate them to a heritage railway where they will benefit not only that railway, but also the local community by attracting more visitors to the area and possibly the reintroduction of a commuter service. The donated track will be laid into the old bay platform in North Weald goods yard and is the first step in developing what will become our main engineering base. We will still need several sets of points and more track to achieve our ambitions for North Weald. A major objective of which is to reinstate the original run-round loop in preparation for an eventual loco hauled service (preferable steam!)

All opinions and statements on our web site are that of the volunteers and not Epping Ongar Railway Holdings.

• Back to top