East View Farm Railway

Hi there

What a lovely day we had at our running day on Saturday. Excellent weather, good company and some brilliant running of trains.

John, Keith, Brian, Richard and myself were there to set everything up. Later on we had Dave with his son Andrew, Stuart with Isaac. Ben joined us for a while, and in the afternoon we had John and Jane’s friends from the local Parkinson’s support group. So it was a busy day.

We had Chieftain, Isabel, Prospero and the Shay running with all our coaches

We were so busy on Wednesday finishing the new track that we had not done any preparation for this day so we were busy getting everything ready in the morning. Prospero and Isabel were steamed up about noon and we cautiously took them and Chieftain along the new track with lots of ‘advisors’ watching the progress. (all went very smoothly !) Dave had a drive of Chieftain and his son Andrew had a brief drive of Prospero. When Stuart and Isaac arrived, Stuart took lots of photos. Isaac had a drive on Prospero.

After lunch John’s visitors started to arrive so we buckled down to some serious driving as we gave them trips around the track.

From my point of view this was the best day I have ever had with Prospero. We ran for around three hours and Prospero only dropped below 80 psi once when the fire was a little low but I soon recovered it. At 3pm I took out the fire and drained the loco down but it would have carried on running if I had wanted to do that.

Around 3 pm we stopped for tea and some delicious cakes, the latter kindly provided by our visitors. It didn’t take us long to put everything away in the sheds. So all in all a very enjoyable day . (Peter)

 

 

Hi

Well we have been quite busy this month dodging the showers, nevertheless, excellent progess has been made on our extended layby loop. The track is all laid now,connected and laid more or less to level. We have put the top ballast layer on the outside and between the rails, but we have had to leave the side next to the timber edging until we have laid in the signalling and track sensor cables. 

After much deliberation and measuring on site, we ordered  6 x100m drums which we hope will be enough ! The cables arrived on Saturday afternoon so we can now lay these in and complete the track ballast and final tamping and levelling, ready for running.

 

 

The tractor crossing was concreted on Wednesday too…While all this has been going on, the usual gardening work continues as nature don’t not stop things growing!!!!

Kevin made a visit too and it was good to see him out and about again.

Hi

We planned a running day on 15th and despite the awful weather forecast we went ahead with it and did ok. We managed to get ‘Bronwyn’, ‘Isabel’ , and ‘Prospero’ steamed up and they all had good runs with Keith, Brian , Isaac and Peter (and Andrew) having drives. The ‘Shay’ and ‘Chieftain’ were out too with Dave Jones having a drive on ‘Chieftain’, as did Richard, and it was good to welcome Dave’s son Andrew, who had a go too, even trying out ‘Prospero’ ! , so I think he enjoyed himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the weather held off with the wind picking up during the morning, then the rain came down in a sudden deluge just after lunch which soaked everything but we got the all the stock under cover and gave them all wipe down, in the dry

So an enjoyable day which saw the newly laid track at the end of the old headshunt given a good test which allowed it settle so we can now progress the levelling and tamping with the track in that area during our next sessions.

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