Aln Valley Railway

Longhoughton Goods Yard - BS, DMS, KSW, TS, MH, AH, Continuation of work on road 2. Movement of materials. General tidy up. Sort tools., Baz and Dave arrived and refitted the bucket ram to 37.995 – it seems to be holding up this time. Baz then used 37.995 to move materials up for the “final” 30ft of road 2, while Dave and Mark swapped over the remaining 4 wheels on the Atlas, assisted by Tom and Alistair. Dave then set the Atlas up to enable it to be used in rail mode, and Mark coupled it to the match truck so this could be hauled up road 2. Baz then used the Atlas to infill road 2, with additional spoil being moved up by Mark on the Dumber and Dave loading with 37.995. The crane was then slewed through 90° and moved up next to the match truck. Tom was working on tidying the staff coach Mk 1, while Kay was working in the Mk 2s. A small contingent of Network Rail’s staff were present too, despite there being a “swarm” of track workers at Morpeth.

Longhoughton Goods Yard - BS, DMS, KSW, TS, DT, IC, RC, NB, Continuation of work on road 2. Movement of materials. General tidy up. Sort tools., Baz and Dave S arrived and moved the majority of items out of the “clean” half of the mark 1. The Atlas was started and sleepers moved, and a bit of spoil dug out. The Atlas was then stopped so Tom and Dave S could try and get a spare banjo bolt for the fuel return line (to no avail). On return the Atlas was restarted and more work undertaken on road 2. Tom swept up the clean half of the mark 1 and made a start painting the floor boards. The other continued with the mark 2s. An attempt was made to rail the Atlas, but line 2 requires some more preparation work first. The Atlas was parked up in the middle of the yard and the arm used to lift the front end so that the front 4 wheels could be swapped out for “new” ones. The back ones are still to do.

Longhoughton Goods Yard - , Continuation of work on road 2. Movement of materials. General tidy up. Sort tools., Baz and Dave arrived and started by continuing to clean the fuel tank from the Atlas, both inside and out. Mark assisted by rigging up a pressure washer. The engine bay was also washed down. The fuel tank was refitted and the fuel pipes and battery connections were refitted. After a bit of trouble priming the system, which was soon solved the engine was restarted and was running much better. The machine was then used to dig out some more spoil to allow for the insetting of road 2. Meanwhile the opportunity was taken by Mark to pressure wash the tractor and the dumper. Sleepers and rails were moved up from our stockpile ready to be positioned next weekend. Dave T, Kay, Tom and Neil continued with the mark 2s.

Longhoughton Goods Yard - BS, DMS, KSW, DT, TS, KM, NB (and some more NwR lads!), Continuation of work on road 2. Movement of materials. General tidy up. Sort tools., Another possession on the ECML this weekend so there were no trains passing. A few track workers around finishing off from last weekend (track stressing) and tidying their tools and equipment ready for collection. (working at Cramlington next weekend). Baz and Dave arrived, informed the NwR SAC that we would be on site, then continued with check over of the fuel system on the Atlas. The new fuel feed pipe was fitted and the filter bowl refitted after being cleaned. The machine was then started and a tea break was taken while the air & hydraulic pressures built up. It was then used to undertake some more work on road 2. The 2 30ft panels that were laid have now been properly assembled with pads, insulators and Pandrol clips. Fishplates have been installed to aid with amending the curvature of this line. Some further infilling has been performed, but spaces have been left to we can access plates and clips at present. Just as we were about to on-track the machine it developed hiccups again (caused by the pump pulling gunk from the diesel tank) and lost power. The decision was taken to proceed with the planned removal of the fuel tank, so the Atlas was parked up, the tool box removed to ease access and the fuel tank removed ready to be flushed out with Frosts tank cleaner. A quick tidy up of the site was undertaken: picking up some rubbish left by those involved in the renewals work last weekend. Tom continued with the painting of the clean half of the Staff Coach. Kay, Dave T and Neil continued with the Mark 2s. Kenny undertook some more work on the grounded van body.