Tomorrow's Train

This week's trackwork past Marley Hill signalbox is at a stage where passenger trains can run, so No.6 will haul trains from Andrews House to Sunniside, East Tanfield and return at 11, 12.15, 1.30, 2.45 and 4 pm.

Photo Appeal : if you take any photos of people at Tanfield which may be useful for this blog, please email them to

Trackwork at Marley Hill Signalbox, inter alia

Malcolm using the Husky to drop and plough ballast

Trackwork Continues past Marley Hill Signalbox

Loading ballast behind Marley Hill shed

Track Across Marley Hill Flat Crossing Continues

Ian and Geoff temporarily fishplating at the crossing

Track Replacement Around Marley Hill Flat Crossing Continues

Vic continues to prepare the trackbed

Monday Work

Malcolm, Malcolm and Phil stripping out a
BH panel under Gibraltar Bridge

Sunday at Tanfield

Matthew cleans No.6

Tomorrow's Train

No.6 will haul trains from Andrews House to Sunniside, East Tanfield and return at 11, 12.15, 1.30, 2.45 and 4 pm.   (BST returns today, so we are back to the standard 5 train B timetable.)

Renishaw Ironworks No.6 and train at Andrews House



Preparatory Work

Coaling Renishaw Ironworks No.6 ready for Sunday

Wednesday Work

Ken and Geoff swapped over the Husky brake blocks

Various

John Earl introducing staff and pupils from
St Augustine's RC Primary School at Marley Hill

Monday at Marley Hill

We unloaded the replaced track panels around Marley Hill curve:

Some panels had been cut for ease of handlng

Progress on No.2's Boiler

At the Severn Valley Railway boiler works at Bridgnorth, there has been progress recently on the repair of the boiler of No.2 (HL 2859 of 1911).   All photos courtesy of Duncan Ballard and Richard Charlton.

Front flange and longitudinal stays ready
for installation of new front tubeplate

Today's Trains

No.6 will haul trains from Andrews House to Sunniside, East Tanfield and return at 11, 12.15, 1.30, 2.45 and 4 pm (ie B timetable for Mothers' Day - the leaflet incorrectly states the A timetable with 4 trains).

This is the first day of operation after the temporary closure to enable us to tackle a backlog of maintenance, which has largely been done.

 Matthew shows what mothers are for

Various

John Earl introducing children & staff from
Swalwell Primary School to the railway

Trackwork Along the Line

Pending reopening on 18 March, there are a number of jobs to complete; several of these were tackled today :

Using pea gravel to pack the 5" deep timbers which
replaced the 6" timbers at East Tanfield bay point .....

Trackwork on East Tanfield Curve Again

Today, we continued spot resleepering on the curve leading into East Tanfield station :

Dropping off Vic at Boyd's crossing on the way
(Boyd's derelict cottage framed by the boom)

Trackwork on East Tanfield Curve

Today, we worked on the curve leading into East Tanfield station :

Trackwork at East Tanfield

Work continued with replacement of crossing timbers at East Tanfield :

New Track Inspector

One of the three red kites around Causey Bankwell House today, keeping an eye on progress

Trackwork

The bay turnout at Causey station required several new timbers:

Removing the chair screws .....

No Trains Tomorrow

Andrews House tea room and shop, as well as Marley Hill shed area, will be open to the public tomorrow, but the line will be closed to permit ballasting near Boyd's crossing, and renewal of point timberwork.   We are also taking the opportunity to perform extra maintenance work on the running locos.

Passenger trains should next run on 18 March (Mothering Sunday), on the B timetable (11, 12.15, 1.30, 2,45, 4).   Prebooked afternoon teas on 2.45.

Trackwork continued ....

The track gang continued work started yesterday on the East Tanfield turnout:

After some preliminary work, bait time

Blog Appeal

Tanfield Railway
The World's Oldest Railway
Industrial Steam Heritage in North East England

I put the the above wording on the header of this TR blog, thinking that it would be picked up by search engines, increase hits, and spread the word about Tanfield goodness.   Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work.   Further, because this blog is mainly photographic, key text is not present in pages, and therefore not returned by search engines.

Anyone have any ideas apart from verbosity or including the same key words on every page?   Can this be done by invisibly embedding text which search engines still 'see'?

Answers on a postcard or email

More Trackwork

Some timbers in turnouts at East Tanfield are being replaced.   The turnout with most timbers to change was started this afternoon.

Mark, Malcolm, Angela and Ian removing chair screws,
with Dave keeping them right

Various

Loading more ballast at East Tanfield for Boyd's

Back to Ballasting

Ian loading ballast, Marc removing foreign material

Monday as Usual

There was a reasonable turn out of volunteers for track work, so we set out to adjust sleeper spacing adjacent to rail joints, as well as attend to a few missing fixings.

Work Continues .....

Back at Boyd's, the track gang worked in cold wind and sleet to change temporary for permanent rails - this task was completed by mid afternoon, by which time it was cold but at least dry.

No Trains Tomorrow

Andrews House tea room and shop, as well as Marley Hill shed area, will be open to the public tomorrow, but the line will be closed to permit rail changes near Boyd's crossing, ballasting, and renewal of point timberwork.   We are also taking the opportunity to perform extra maintenance work on the running locos.

Passenger trains should next run on 18 March (Mothering Sunday), on the B timetable (11, 12.15, 1.30, 2,45, 4).   Prebooked afternoon teas on 2.45.

Usual Work

Malcolm heads out with Vic and a hired excavator
(our digger's tracks and sprockets need replacement)

Similar Stuff

Angela painting Houghwell Burn bridge rails,
while Dave weeds