Future Work

As mentioned in an earlier post work will begin on the next part of the extension to the south of the current railhead.  This post will look at what lies ahead in the short and medium term.  The short term intention is to finish the track to the accommodation crossing so that services can run under Gasworks bridge.  Guy N took a walk around the site and sent some pictures before work starts so that we will be able to see the before and after.

We start with a look just off the end of the welded rail, the peg marks the start of the gentle curve to the left which then leads on to the long straight before arriving at Weston station.  As you can see this section has been jacked and packed but still requires further work and ballast before trains can run.

At the other end of the curve we see the proposed temporary railhead before the ballast pile.  Beyond the pile lies the already laid track which stretches to the cattle creep which has already been replaced.

The notes on the sleepers indicate where the curve finishes and the straight begins.

The next challenge is to link up the two sections of track but first we must indulge in a favourite CHR pass time, digging holes and filling them up.  Just after the ballast pile is an accommodation crossing to access the fields on the right.  We have to say a very big thank you to our neighbour for allowing access to this field for clearance works and being a good neighbour the last thing we want to do is dump additional drainage water to create access difficulties.  The accommodation crossing slopes from left to right and in order to take away the water than runs down the access road we need a proper drainage system connected to the recently laid drains alongside the track.

The following picture shows the marked up position of the drain and how it will link in with the access chamber installed as part of the bridge-lowering exercise.

The slope of the ground can be seen so it is important to get the water run off correct to avoid crossing problems and waterlogged ballast.

There will be longitudinal drains alongside the track connected to a cross drain on the far side of the crossing.

Not to mention other 'buried treasure' in the area as we have to work round a gas pipe which runs alongside at this point.

In the final view you can see the position of the east side drain at the crossing and the overall fall across the crossing of the access track.  In the past this area had become waterlogged due to ineffective drainage so we are working to correct this.

The first working parties should start this weekend and will continue until completion.  Once the drains have been installed and checked we can then move on to connecting up the two sections of track allowing us to runs trains to the cattle creep.

Work will continue as manpower and funds permit, if you would like to make a donation to make things happen quicker you can do so on the CHR site or by following the link on the top right hand side of this page.  Many thanks for all your support so far.

Thanks to Guy for the pictures and there will be further updates as work progresses.

Until next time.