"The Dash to Duffield" - Ecclesbourne Valley Railway
 

I am starting this thread as a Diary of the progress in reopening the remaining five miles of the Wirksworth to Duffield Branch line just north of Derby.The target date for completion of the work is September 2010 ready for a reopening on 8th November 2010, the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway's 10th Birthday.

The one and half miles of continuous welded track from Idridgehay to Duffield is well in hand (See photo posted today) and this week we have strated to work are way through Shottle Station.

There were so few good sleepers in the first two panels that they were lifted, the track bed scraped, new sleepers laid and rails replaced. This was accomplished in two days with our volunteer force, many of whom are over 60!

The first photo show the cleared track bed, the second two lengths of rail in place, the third the complete reconection, the fourth a general view of Shottle looking south towards Duffield; the platform is on the left just before the road bridge, the left hand turnout goes into the yard and the right hand turnout is the start of the passing loop and the fifith shows the sleepers laid out.

CWR eh? What is the proposed line speed ? 140mph :eek:

Should be a good blog, John, I will keep an eye out for updates.

If a volunteer force, many of whom are over 60 can do that in 2 days, why does it take network Rail 2 weeks? Well done to you all.

Usually drop in on the EVR website and read the daily blog - interesting ;)

Sadly only 25mph. However part of the cost of the new welds is being met by one of our customers as we are inserting lengths of rail with know faults, so they can recalibrate their flaw detection equipment.

I hasten to add that the rails remain perfectly safe at our line speed!

Thanks everyone for your interest.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Hi John ,Just read about this in Heritage Railway,Great way to increase your monies,good luck with it all keep us informed PJ

If you would like a step by step guide to welding continuous rail, follow this to the EVRA website, go to Today and then Thursday 2nd October.

http://www.evra.org.uk/index2.htm

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Great set of photos John H-T, just a pity that no one did a write up as to what each photo was about. A short description of each part of the weld would have made a big difference to someone who had never even heard of continuous rail until coming to the UK.

Good Luck John H-T. Hopefully, a group of us from the Bramley Line will pay you a visit one Sunday soon. Trying to arrange this with certain members.

Bramleyman,

This week end is the model railway exhibition and we are running a full timetable.

After that limited Sunday Service apart from Santas and closed Jan-Feb.

Gala Weekend 28th Feb-1st March 2009, will be there both days, follow this link:

www.e-v-r.com

Best wishes,

John H-T.