Tampermatic

A wet and wild day down the Apedale Valley has seen a stoic team of Trust members attending to the last job on the P-Way Winter Maintenance Programme. This was rectifying a number of joints which had become dipped. This produces a rather uncomfortable ride, and - if allowed to deteriorate badly - could become a derailment hazard. So un-dip the dipped joints must be. This is done by slacking off the fishplates bolts, jacking the joint to slightly higher than needed - to allow for settlement - and then tamping two sleepers either side uisng the ever faithful Kango hammers and the less faithful (but tolerated) generator. The generator is at the ragged edge of its performance envelope running two Kangos - but despite that, and the weather, the job got done. So, now we're ready to run trains to greet the Man in the Red Coat - which you can book here.

Early Christmas Present

Exactly one month early, Santa has been to the Apedale Valley Light Railway and delivered us a large new toy. To be honest, we were rather disappointed that it wasn't gift wrapped with a nice ribbon bow, but that's life. FR117 is our first fully enclosed coach, and should be very useful once overhauled and converted to meet our needs. As it will be by far our best coach, it will have to be allocated a Pullman name. Pullman Car Cathartidae was popular amongst those who unloaded it. In all seriousness (for once), we should record a big thanks to Paul Lewin and the FR; they didn't have to make these coaches available, and by doing so, they offering a big help to the minnows of the narrow gauge world.

Filming and Freezing

The weekend has seen some unusual goings-on for this time of year. The replica WW1 trench has hosted a film crew from the University for the Creative Arts. Some of the people working on the railway thought they were pretty hardened to the weather - but this lot camped overnight through the first snow of the Winter. Now, that is quite impressive (or mad, delete as you see fit). They also brought some quite impressive pyros and a real Armourer, another first for the site.

In closely related news, the dates for the Driver Experience for 2016 have been released - have a wander over to here for the list. Just the ticket as a Christmas present with a difference. No discounts for Black Friday, but we won't mandate camping on site the night before.

Impermanent Way

With the running season behind us, attention has switched to the winter maintenance programme. An intensive burst of activity took place today. It's a good job it was active, otherwise we'd either drown or freeze. Or both. Various sleepers past their sell-by date were changed - quite a quick job with the right kit and team. During this task, an eagle-eyed member of the team spotted what seemed to be a flaw in a rail; on closer examination this was a crack in the foot and web, probably emanating from a historic flaw. Although this was not going to pose an immediate threat to safety, it was a case of "We can't leave that". So, the rail had to be changed. Just to add to the jollity, it was a curved rail of non-standard length, meaning the rail had to be curved, cut and drilled on site. None of which is terribly good fun in the rain. It was at this point that our PWay engineer complained that the rain was only vertical; he trained on the Ffestiniog Railway, where the rain has a significant horizontal component. Get in touch here (unless you are from the Met Office).

Military Memories

After the general insanity which is the Halloween weekend, we all put our sensible heads back on for the end-of-season Military Memories weekend. Open from 1130-1600 on Saturday and Sunday, we will have two locos in steam (Joffre and HC1238), the Trench open for tours (with the Gordon Highlander re-enactment group), shed visits and various diesel locos performing with suitable military-themed freight trains. What's not to like?