Our scrapbook - Barchester Towers Railway (Page 9 - 2015)

Started in February 2006, these scrapbook pages are where we can put some of the photos and stories that don't belong elsewhere. If you want to print these photos, you might care to ask for the original as the ones on this page are compressed for display. Of course if you have any story or photos to add please send them to us! There are some YouTube movies on this page - you might have to tweak your browser to see them. May 2015: adjustments for mobile viewing.

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Scrapbook - Page 1: 2006. Page 2: 2007. Page 3: 2008. Page 4: 2009. Page 5: 2010. Page 6: 2011 and 2012. Page 7: 2013. Page 8: 2014.

January

Rain and visitors to Sydney mean thant not much has happened this year so far. More pictures will appear when there is something to show. Meanwhile here is a surprise I had when clearing fallen sticks and leaf litter in preparation for extending the new siding that will eventually become the bottom leg of the zig-zag.


When disturbed it moved further into the pile and then stopped moving. So it was time to do something else for the rest of the afternoon!

February


Minhoo from Korea. Later he helped dig the new route down the hill.


After works to replace the slew points at the bottom yard with a second-hand set of standard points, as well a small extension of the top end, an end-to-end run is again possible. In the first three minutes we pass through an area that was totally covered with lantana. We are slowly winning the battle to let the bush regenerate. Before setting off on this trip we pulled hundreds of lantana seedlings out of the soil that was still soft after heavy rains this summer. Near the end you can see the start of the zig-zag ("switchback" for our American friends).

For those interested, the relay controller has been replaced with an electronic controller (a Curtis clone). The controls are more complicated but now it is possible to drive hands-free.

We don't know what happened to the sound. We might try again later.

March

Busy with bush regeneration so not many pictures. However while sitting down taking a break at the big log we were surprised to be visited by what was either a large grey wallaby or a small kangaroo. It came down the hill through a gap in the lantana that we had cleared an hour before. It is satisfying that our work is appreciated, but sad that we did not have a camera ready.


John came up for the week to lend a hand. Here he is on the oldest part of the track.


After everyone left there was time for a quick inspection of the line and the regeneration work sites. Sometime overnight a trestle cap timber had completely failed. There had been no trains or people that we know of, so perhaps a kangaroo bounced in the wrong place. Fortunately there were four posts in this trestle. Also it was lucky that one post moved just enough for a sag in the deck to be noticeable, otherwise we would not have discovered the fault until something heavy crossed the bridge. That hardwood piece will be replaced by treated pine but it will be some time before trains run to the top end again.

April

Yuka spent two days at Barchester Towers before returning to Japan on Easter Sunday morning. There was time for just one trip up the line before the rain set in.



Yuka on the broken bridge.


Yuka about to descend.


On Saturday afternoon the rain eased from torrential to merely heavy. Here are a few murky shots taken with the phone. The stream under the long bridge was flowing, a rare treat in these parts.


Heaps of dead lantana left from our bush regeneration work last month. This hill should look good next year.


The long cutting in flood. As the track in on a 1 in 30 gradient water normally flows away easily but this time there was just too much run-off. Deepening the track drains is a new item on our to-do list.

Holly, Tracey and Minhoo visited at the end of the school holiday for what might have been the last day of summer weather, until it rained of course. The workers were allowed a little time off for walking to the beach.


Every year there is a little less to see of the Maitland boilers.


Four wise monkeys.


They insisted, they really did. (Note the phone.)


Bell birds. These pests are becoming more exposed now that the lantana is in retreat. Now all we need are some more predators.


Ready for work at the bridge site.


While others work on the cutting.


The broken bridge with the track propped up and beams retracted.


A rare sighting of a "land mullet", seen from the train on the way down for morning tea. These are the largest members of the skink family of lizard.


Ready for reconstruction of the broken trestle bent. Next time!

May

A quick inspection after the late April storms. We picked up a few dozen twigs and branches from the track but there was no damage to the track itself. However elsewhere two huge trees had fallen. One had been weakened by bellbird dieback. The other, apparently healthy, had snapped off about five metres above the ground. The fallen piece of this tree was at least 31 metres long.


Bellbird-damaged tree after the storm

So now we have a fence to fix, and we shall not be short of firewood for the next few years.

June 2015

Not much work on our line - the excuse is that we went to North Wales for a reunion to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of the Ffestiog Railway deviation project. A brief report is here.

Yes, well we have been back for months, some digging and repairs, but not motivated to maintain this page. Will catch up later.

August


"I don't like heights but if the master is up high then I had better go up and see if he needs help."

September


A neighbor gave us as many bricks as we could carry. This load of 137 weighs about 480Kg, which was a good test of the garden line. Next to do the same on the main line.

October


Here's our new driving carriage. The main improvement is that it has a motor so that all wheels are now driven. This is a test run without the engine.


Risa-san is now Lisa. Here she has just returned from our first run on the main line with the engine and the powered driving carriage.

November 2015


The other weekend we went to start the train. Guess what we found in the battery box.


Antechinus and babies.

Needless to say, we found plenty of other thngs to do that did not need the engine.

Francis, Lebin and young John came to visit.


Our wooden track collection started in about 1952 and extended into the plastic era.


John learning to drive. (The lower leg of the zig-zag is on the right.)



Now it's time to try driving solo.

Soon after this someone heavy trod on a rail and tipped it over. This was a steel rail that had been down since about 1987 (track alignment last done in 2002). Although the running surface was like new, the bar had rusted into a tapezoidal shape with a narrow bottom. The result was that once disturbed the rail would no longer sit tightly in the channels on the sleepers. We replaced it with a length of new rail which has a rail shape rather than a rectangular profile. This gives a positive connection between the rail and sleepers, but for replacement work the old chairs have to be removed on that side of each sleeper. When either of the two screws didn't budge then the sleeper had to be changed for a new one with a single chair to hold the opposite rail. Sorting this out was tedious but finally screwing down the new rail only took a few minutes. Thanks Francis for helping. You can come back any time!


New rail in place on old and new sleepers.


Bringing back the tools and recovered material for rework - some other day.

December


For the technically minded, these are wheels from our favorite riding car after at least 25 years use. They did stay on the track but the unworn edge of the wide tread bumped over points and crossings and had begun to damage the grass on the tramway sections of the home garden line. They have since been turned to restore the treads to a normal 3° taper. We doubt that the woodwork will last another 25 years.


Mayuko test driving the old driving car after its 10-year overhaul. Now it can be used in three ways: behind the solar engine, running free with a spare bogie at the front, or, as in the video, autonomously with a spare electric bogie at the front. (It's just a souvenir video so please forgive the rockclimbing at the start)

Many visitors comment on the absence of cockroaches in the house. No, we are not fastidious about cleanliness, but we do have a few unpaid helpers.


Huntsman high on a wall.


Gecko living in a wall cavity.

Christmas Eve. A quick visit with Mayuko, Peter and HeeKyeong.


HeeKyeong drives the old engine and the new powered driving car around the 10m radius curve just after the long cutting. Then Peter arrives at the bottom points.


Emerging from the truss bridge on the way down.


Everyting worked, so now to add another car. For safety we follow Snowdon Mountain Railway practice and keep passenger cars above the engine, both going up and going down.

New Year's Eve. Before setting off to watch the fireworks were pleased to see Wendy, Tamoko, Yoko and Juma, our last passengers for the year. (Photos by Sean.)


Tamoko at the new lowest point on the line.


Yoko and Juma.





Juma by himself comes back under gravity.

That's it! See you next year.

Back to the main page: BTR. Scrapbook Page 1: 2006. Page 2: 2007. Page 3: 2008. Page 4: 2009. Page 5: 2010. Page 6: 2011 and 2012. Page 7: 2013. Page 8: 2014. Page 10: 2016.

This page is: http://dazed.org/btr/2015/scrpbk15.htm (Page 9: 2015).

This line last edited: 30 March 2016.