East View Farm Railway

Hi there, just a quick update to let you know that progress on our ‘tunnel loop’ extension is coming on well. John has been busy making up more track sections for the loop and the first new crossover point is laid in. John has also tweaked the second crossover point which is now connected and is looking good.We have also now laid most of the membrane for the ballast and extpect to complete this soon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have also been trimming to the trackside bushes/trees as ther are romping away as they do !

It is also good to see Richard back with us after the protracted problem with his leg wound healing which it now seems to be doing ok. 

Hi there, well we have surprised ourselves again as we have really got into the creation of our longer, layby, passing loop, with a vengeance…Peter and Brian got things started whilst John and Keith were away, by breaking out the concrete crossing , phew, hard was it ? yes !!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then John has been making up track sections, so we took out the layby entry point and installed a straight so we can keep running trains,

Then we started to dig out for the new track base, which was going to take a while !!! (we are not as fit as we were !!!!) , so Ben borrowed his mate’s digger and did it for us over the Bank Holiday weekend, which is a fantastic help, thanks Ben.

So some new track is now laid in position and looks good, so we  can now get on with the edging, lay some membrane and get some under track ballast down to get the track level right, fantastic , we are well impressed! 

Four of us , including old Ray who is now in a Care Home at Stalham bless him, had a ride over to Hemsby for their Parklands week on Wednesday and enjoyed the variety of locos that were out and about, catching up with some old friends, and enjoying some refreshments, another great week, well done the Parkland Boys and Girls.

Steaming up

Hi

We decided to have a ‘Coronation specials’ running day on 6th May, and so ‘Isabel’, ‘The Shay’, ‘Chieftain’ and ‘Prospero’ all did their bit to celebrate the King’s Coronation. Isaac was particularly pleased to learn a bit more about firing and driving ‘Prospero’, and was a very happy Boy!

Isaac driving ‘Prospero’

Brian B came over last Wednesday to do his inspection of ‘Prospero’ and Peter was very pleased that all was well and the loco is once again ‘certificated’. It was good to see Brian as he has been in the wars again but is getting there, slowly!

We have started to prepare for the second track from Laurel sidings to the Layby with the removal of the concrete crossing checkrail so we can  take up the concrete as we need to re align the track into the new curve here.

We have also now fitted the new double glazed window unit in the clubroom kitchen area, which we are very pleased with, good work John and Keith (mostly!)

Hi

We had our first, fairly low key running day on Saturday 8th April when ‘Bronwyn’ ‘Prospero’, ‘Chieftain’, ‘Viceroy’ , the ‘Class 08’ and ‘The Shay’ all came out to play. (maybe not so low key !!!)

John, Keith and Brian B with ‘Bronwyn’

Peter’s family visited and they all enjoyed themselves having plenty of rides and some drives. Peter gave Isaac his first experience of driving a steam loco, which went down very well !!!!

Peter supervising Isaac driving ‘Prospero’

Brian B came over and had a drive of ‘Bronwyn’ and the ‘Gronk’, once he discovered it went without having to put any coal in !!!!!

Brian B with ‘Bronwyn’

So a very pleasant afternoon and it was good to have trains running again, let’s hope for many more running sessions throughout the year!!!!

Oh and why the sheep? well Jane and John are helping a local, young shepherd by allowing his flock to graze the East View Farm ‘grass’, which they are doing nicely and providing some entertainment!!. There are lambs too with the two newest ones making an appearance here a week or two back. Lovely to see , proving it’s definitely Spring !!!. 

     John and Peter working on the signal lights

Hi there

It always seems a quiet time of year but we have kept ourselves occupied with a variety of tasks that we didn’t get round to yet, such as sorting our tools so we have a set in the tool van and a good set in the pit shed  (with an additional shadow board to keep things tidy., thanks Keith). It’s all part of an exercise to find out what we really have accumulated over the years so we can have a sort out  !!!

We have also made a start on our next exciting project to provide a longer loop from the Laurel Siding headshunt around to the layby siding, which will give is just two passing loops that will help the bi-directional running. We needed some more rail to complete this excercise, so we decided to purchase some new 16mm alloy rail  and use this in the storage shed so we could use the 22 mm rail in there on the new loop to match the existing .We have replaced one track so far.

Peter and John replacing Track i

Also as part of this plan, we have been for some time looking at  the different ways of installing automatic colour light signals on the railway and  Peter (with some input from Kevin and others !!!!), is now looking at utilising a ‘raspberry pi’  ‘computer’ to work the system. John has also been busy making up a signal head out of 5 mm plastic using those 3 light led ‘push for on’ , lights used in cupboards etc. We have dismantled them and removed the switch and rewired them to be on or off via a  switch in the ‘mini computer’ system,and the initial one looks very impressive !

The other job we have started is to fettle and repaint the point levers giving each one a number to identify its location when requiring attention.

  Point number lever 4 done

Hi there

Well the days do seem to be getting longer so maybe Spring is just around the corner ????? We are keeping busy ish with one or two jobs around the railway. Keith and Peter have started to take in the point levers to give them a good clean and a repaint, with each one being given a number for ease of location identification. We have purchased a new window for the kitchen end outside wall of the Clubroom as the old one was getting past its best, so we are ensuring we have all the materials needed to allow us to fit it in one session, hopefully, next month sometime depending on the weather. The work to the Shay is now complete with the whistle sound unit fitted and working.

We are also planning to build an open wagon to carry ballast to work areas which will be really useful when we  carry out planned trackwork alterations. More on that later ! This plan has also encouraged us to make use of the lathe with Brian B and Ben’s help. We have two wheeled axles that we are going to use and the axles have been turned down (think that’s the correct technical expression) with a shoulder formed to take the bearings, and we are now just compiling a list of materials that we need to build the vehicle.

Apart from that we still meet on Wednesdays and Saturdays to chat, plan, put the world to rights, have a cuppa or  two and try to finish off the mince pies, cheese straws and stuff left over from Christmas and the New Year !!!!.  

Happy New Year everyone, let’s hope it will be a good one !Take care

We would like to wish you and your families a Very Merry Christmas and let’s hope for a Healthy and Prosperous New Year with lots of trains of whatever size! Take care

From all the Boys and Girls at the EVFR 

 

 

 

 

Hi there

Last Saturday (19th Nov) saw us having our annual meeting to bring our members up to date with our finances and jobs to be done. All is looking good and once the ‘meeting’ was concluded and we had had a cuppa and some ‘nibbles’ , we got some trains out to have a play, by which time the sun had come out. So ‘Isabel’, ‘Prospero’ and the ‘Shay’ all made an appearance and completed several circuits through the day all running very well indeed. It was a cold day but very enjoyable in the lovely sunshine, 

 

 

Ray had a ride round with Keith and JP behind ‘Isabel’;

Hi there we had a great day on Saturday when we had another running day.  In the morning  Brian B came over with his good lady (Wroxham shopping??) and successfully tested ‘Isabel’ and ‘Bronwyn’ for us, so they can remain ‘in ticket’ ,so we were able to give them a run, which was great, both running really well , and Peter steamed up ‘Prospero”, so it was great to have our three steamers out together, with ‘Chieftain’ also having  some trundles round the circuit. The weather was great and our visitors enjoyed the trains , the chat and the refreshments, as did we.

 Busy station scene

                                                      Peter with ‘Prospero’ steaming well!

 Not a lot else to report apart from more investigative work on the Shay to enable us to gain better access to the hydrostatic oil reservoir to see how the oil is escaping. (P.S. on Wednesday we managed to gain access and found the reservoir was slightly ‘unthreaded’, so managed to remove it (thanks JP!) and checked it all over, refitted it,  put some oil in, started the engine and ran the loco up and down the yard, checked for leaks….none, result! Happy Boys)

 

Keith with ‘Isabel’ entering the station

 

Hi there

We had a lovely running day on Saturday (20th August), when we ran only battery electric locos as a precaution against fire as we have had no rain to speak of here and everything is still tinder dry. So we ran ‘Chieftain, ‘Viceroy’ and the Class  08 with all of our rolling stock at some time, and had a great afternoon in the lovely sunshine.

‘Chieftain’ in charge of the afternoon freight

The Class 08 also did some freight runs !

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Viceroy’ with Keith driving

We also thought we would run everything round in the opposite direction which was fun too . Oh yes, and we used our newly commissioned turntable to turn some stock round which is very easy to use and we are delighted with it, it is a very useful addition to the railway

. Peter give the ‘Shay’ a spin on the new turntable