Welcome to Project Wareham Newsletter No. 10 Photo: Andrew PM Wright Welcome It is fantastic, after years of talk, meetings and e- mail communications, to see masses of progress on the ground! This tonic is most definitely needed, and enables the public and our many teams to see the result of the financial investment being poured into the Swanage Railway by the Coastal Communities Fund, the PB Legacy Fund and also the Swanage Railway s element of the Poole Wool Re-signalling Project which saw 350k invested in the signalling equipment linking Corfe Castle with Basingstoke. Some time ago we agreed that the target date for the start of 51-day trial in 2016, that will see four return trips between Swanage and Wareham, is to be Wednesday 22 June. To some this will seem a long way off, which is very good as there is masses to do! You will read elsewhere the progress on the progress in Dorset; whilst most of our attention is also considering the fate of 16 wheelsets! Project Wareham As Project Manager Alan Cracknell reported back in early August, the wheelsets were transported to Knorr-Bremse in Scotland for a full assessment and overhaul under a contract the Swanage Railway has with ZF Engineering. We have engaged with ZF to oversee the overhaul of the final drives and management of the overhaul of the wheelsets, and our work is being undertaken in parallel with similar work for Chiltern Railways who still operate some Diesel Multiple Units north west of London. Currently we await a full report from ZF, which will include costs and timescales for these items that are clearly the most important that will keep our four DMU vehicles rolling along. Elsewhere, General Manager Matt Green continues to lead the updating of our Safety Management System which will be the most important element of the Railway s Non Mainline Safety Certificate application. He and Len Pullinger, who has been assisting us with this work, reported progress to the Project Wareham Project Board meeting on Thursday 15 th October. Immediately after this report, there was a review of every element in anticipation of our submission for a Passenger Operating Licence. Both of these important applications need to be completed in December. Rest assured that work on all fronts is progressing very well, and certainly as quickly as we are able! Hats off to all of you who are PWN No 10. Oct 2015 Page 1
assisting us at this time; for the rest of you, hold on to yours, and things are moving pretty fast at the moment! Thank you to you all for your fantastic support at this time. Frank Roberts Senior Project Manager Project Wareham Frank Roberts feeding in the new 50 pair cable between Corfe Castle and Norden Photo: Andrew PM Wright Community Cable Laying Exercise On Saturday 10 th October there was a classic team event in support of Project Wareham. As part of the installation of Norden Gates Level Crossing, there is a requirement to install a 50 pair cable between Corfe Castle Signal box and Norden Gates Relay Room, and it was hoped that the Army would undertake this work. In the event we managed to pull together around 20 people for a wide variety of backgrounds, and we installed the fairly heavy cable with 100 x 0.9mm conductors, and also took the opportunity to install a 24 core fibre optic cable along the same route. The main cable was load onto Cable Wagon within minutes of its arrival at Norden on the Friday, and then within a few hours, all cables (there were actually 3) were laid out along the track. In preparation for the Cable Wagon had a new floor welded on by Jason Kingdon, members of Team Herston painted up the wagon, and Andy Dunster, Nick Field and Will Spicer fixed all of the lighting and cables ready for night working, The main Saturday included a long briefing, but then a quick dividing down into three teams to install a new Under Road Crossing (URX) at Castle View Crossing, then feeding all cable under the Main (Line) at Skew Arch Bridge and another crossing at Lakeside. If you have done any cable pulling in a previous life you know it is physically challenging! The cables were also fed into the new URX at Norden Gates, installed by the main contractor Andrews in September. Then the Cavalry came in the form of the Sygnets who used a load of poles with hooks on which were used to lift hundreds of lids on the top of the concrete troughing. The last part of the work required feeding the cable into 60m of 6 PWN No 10. Oct 2015 Page 2
diameter pipe along Corfe platform and into the signal box. I was dreading this, but Tony North and the Wednesday Gang had paved the way the previous week and installed a steel cable that 8 of us used to get both cables fed right into the Frame Room in the Corfe Castle Signal box. Anyone for terminating? (4 x 50pr to do!). Thank you to Ops, Andrews for loading and being good eggs (but no bacon sarnies sorry Mark), Andy Dunster and Steve Barker for the Fri Shunt, the Signalmen Peter P (Fri) and Mike W (Sat), also the Lookouts Peter and Stuart, Marbles and the twenty or so Sygnets, the RN rep Jules Stevenson (son of the late Eric Stevenson), the RAF rep Andy Blyth, Alan Watts, Will Spicer, Nick Field, Harry Barrett and Patrick Wagstaff who came down from London for the job. Knitting with 50 Pair cable! Photo: FER Members of Team Herston and Lookout Stuart Magnus (with the signal behind his head!) at Skew Arch Bridge Photo: Andrew PM Wright. Sygnets in Action seen here lifting some of the hundreds of concrete lids allowing cables to be inserted below. Photo: FER Norden Matters As you might will know, there were changes in the way the Norden Park and Ride car park is managed back in September. Purbeck District PWN No 10. Oct 2015 Page 3
Council (PDC) has made arrangements for the facility to be opened & closed by a contractor, and others look after the toilets and other matters. If the public become aware of an issue with the Park and Ride facility they are asked to call PDC on 01929 55656. Members of staff are requested to record any observations (good or bad), and any issues in the log book located in the station Ticket Office. Norden Gates Level Crossing Whilst most of the work at Norden has focused on the Road Rail Interchange (RRI), Andrews has provided new concrete bases for the barrier machines, for the main wig-wag road traffic light, and two other bases for future use. A new 9-way Under Road Crossing has also been installed across the main road, and the first cables were being pulled through this new facility within days. Reflection on Project Wareham in the years to come will focus on our delivery in the context of restricted resources; nothing new there! Whilst our teams have work well, we are relying on the good favour of others who themselves have professional and family priorities elsewhere. Our LX Project Design work has been undertaken by Dave Helliwell, who has been supported by Dave Scarisbrick, who in turn are now being joined by Principles Tester Dave Fry, who has more recently been guiding our Testers. It s complicated with all of these Daves but also as they have very intense roles within various signalling schemes elsewhere on the mainline. The result is that Norden Gates LX will not be commissioned until early in the New Year. This slight delay will not have much real effect on the critical path of Project Wareham, but will need to be managed as it will affect the cash-flow of the Project by two months; to the tune of 100k. Meanwhile good work elsewhere proceeds with Mike Southey and others at the Crossing itself; whilst the Team of Testers David Garlick, Brian Smith, Nick Gosden, Robin Sowter, Dave Cobb and Graham Britton-Jones look into every nook and cranny to get a real appreciation of what has been going on. Finally, John Tilly, our Independent Competent Person visited this week for two days; his role is to ensure the project stays on track which I am pleased to report, he reported it is! Level Crossing Surface Replacement Over-night on Thursday 8 th October a three-man team from Level Crossings Installations Limited joined with SR staff to remove the old Bowmac crossing (across the road), remove old Strail equipment (in the Old Road Rail Interchange) and then replace four rails. An immense amount of work undertaken in a short window of opportunity, and by the end the whole site was cleared up, and left ready for the delivery of two locomotives by road the following week. PWN No 10. Oct 2015 Page 4
I would like to thank Tyler Herrington, Will Fooks and Jamie Rudge who worked hard that night as well as Jim Wheeler, Barry Light and Jon Bridgland who assisted throughout; and of course Andrew PM Wright! I was indeed proud to be part of the fine team that worked into the small hours of the morning. Concrete Overrun The first work was the excavation and subsequent concreting of an overrun on the Swanage side of Wytch Farm Road. This will have several uses: a footpath from near the entrance of the Park and Ride Carpark, a cycle way and an overrun for vehicles accessing the entrance (bell mouth) of the new RRI. Norden Gates Thu 8 Oct Andrew PM Wright Norden Gates Thu 8 Oct Andrew PM Wright Dig! Dig! Dig! Since the last newsletter the new Road Rail Interchange has seen substantial progress from a very muddy site to a site that is clearly recognisable as a RRI.. The concrete overrun being poured 2 Oct JAB Excavating the new RRI The largest piece of work was the excavation of the new RRI and its bell mouth (road entrance) and the shipping of the resultant spoil up to Embankment 4. This involved some initial excavation to enable Jim Wheeler, Barry Light and the P Way Crew to lay a temporary track spur into the site so that rakes of hired Sea Urchins could be shunted in. Our contractors, Andrews, using a 36 ton excavator, dug out over 150 wagons full of very wet and mucky clay which was then transported up the line to Embankment 4 where it was unloaded and used to provide a wide and more substantial profile to E4. PWN No 10. Oct 2015 Page 5
crews put in full days not finishing until well after the last train had departed Norden each evening. A huge thank you to all that volunteer crew who worked so hard and gave of their own time over two weeks and to the signallers who made sure that Corfe Signal box was staffed from early in the morning and, of course the Operations Team for organising the rota: thank you all! Excavation well underway at the new RRI JAB Trackspur Once all excavation had taken place the temporary track spur was removed, ballast laid and the permanent track spur laid by the P Way team under the leadership of Barry Light and Jim Wheeler; this will form the key element of the new RRI. Spoil being unloaded at E4 JAB New Bellmouth Following the laying of base layers and installation of drainage the concreting of the new bell mouth commenced on 13th October. The concreting will be finished in sections over the coming weeks. This in itself is a challenge as it must be laid in such a way that access can still be gained to the RRI site without running over newly laid concrete: an organisational nightmare itself! The spoil being distributed onto E4 JAB A huge thank you The shipping of the spoil to E4 was undertaken by volunteer crews shuttling rakes of 3 or 6 Sea Urchins back and forth to E4. For two weeks PWN No 10. Oct 2015 Page 6
Now it s back to planning and design work for me! As the other 6 members of the PWay and The first section of the new Bellmouth JAB Not always full steam ahead: Whilst a lot of progress has been made there have been a few challenges such as a BT inspection pit being exactly in line where a new kerb need to be laid, poor soil conditions requiring a lot more excavation, the need to review the designed drainage system and the appearance of a spring of water needing additional drainage to avoid long term problems. But as is said: there s no such things as problems, merely opportunities to succeed!! In the coming weeks: There s still a lot to do with the following works due: Completion of concrete bell mouth, Installation of ballast bins, Construction of front removable barrier, landscaping and planting around RRI, fence construction, resurfacing and road marking of Wytch Farm Road by Dorset County Council and installation of new road signage on Wytch Farm Road. Jon Bridgland Project Manager Project teams drove away from Norden level crossing at 03.30hrs on Friday 9th October I am sure they were all thinking much the same as I was - "What a month!", and "I need a rest!" Since the August Bank Holiday we have done as much track work as we normally do in 2 years - 960 yards of complete relay, a level crossing, and a new siding to form the future RRI. A week later I have begun to look at what remains outstanding in the Permanent Way job list, and have produced a long list of snagging and tidy-up activities that flow from the major works just completed. There are certainly a lot of manhours still needed, but the emphasis is more on large quantities of repetitive tasks like sleeper changing and tree felling which we are only allowed to do in the Winter. From my point of view I will be focussing on assessing how much we have left in the kitty and how to spend it to achieve the best possible railway next June. We have a lot of tamping to do, but before that can be put to into action I will be carrying out a full level and alignment survey from 127 1/4MP to 129 3/4MP and designing a track that the tamper can put into place to one day be fit for 50mph operation (but don't ask when). In the course of the design work, I will be correcting gradient profile errors caused by PWN No 10. Oct 2015 Page 7
subsidence and trying to get a new gradient profile through Furzebrook that is acceptable for the construction of the platform that we hope, one day, to build there. I also aim to correct the awful alignment through Creech Bottom Crossing. PWay alterations can be expensive, but not if they are done right-first-time to meet well defined long term goals! Out of that major design input will come a calculation of further ballast requirements so you can expect to see another ballast train on the branch in a few months time - probably another 900 tonnes. I believe there is a bit of extra money to come from the Sponsor-a-Sleeper initiative. If it comes our way (as it should!), it will help me to squeeze one last bit of icing onto the cake - the welding of the track renewal into full CWR. This requires another 46 welds on top of the 48 we have already done, but it will be well worth it. Jim Wheeler Hon PW Advisor Passenger Train Operator Licence Over the last few weeks there has been a lot of background work going on in preparing for our application to become a Licenced Passenger Train Operator. Mark Woolley gave a summary in September s Project Wareham News on the various licence conditions we need to satisfy ORR. You will soon be hearing from Matt Green on the draft high level SMS that will shortly be available for consultation, and be used to submit our application for a Non Mainline Safety Certificate in December. We have made good progress with Network Rail in the Track Access Contract, particularly in agreeing a cap on Schedule 8 penalty payments for delays to other operator s service, and are looking to finalise the Agreement in the next few weeks. Network Rail has then to submit the Agreement to ORR for approval. DfT have been advised for our proposals for Through ticketing, in an Agreement with SWT for an Add-on fare, ATOC have confirmed their agreement, and we are expecting a response from DfT soon. It is planned that detailed discussions with SWT will be in January 2016. Work is progressing with the Disabled People s Protection Policy (DPPP). A draft Making Rail Accessible Helping older and disabled people has been produced, taking into account ORR s guidelines, and discussed with David Rawsthorn and Martin Trott. We plan to finalise and submit a draft document in in early November for their initial review. ORR have recently re-issued guidance writing Complaints Handling Procedure that has reviewed and discussed with David who is producing a SR PWN No 10. Oct 2015 Page 8
document in November after the DPPP draft has been completed. Alan Cracknell Project Wareham Signage Update We are in receipt of the replica cast iron Mile marker plates which are going through the painting process. We need to drill the mounting holes and mount them on the existing line-side rail posts along the extension; those also need to be drilled, scrubbed and painted white. An order has been placed with Bridport Foundry to manufacture patterns and cast replica cast iron Bridge Number plates 2 through to 15. We hope to receive these before Christmas. Train 6C16 consisting of 15 Autohoppers, with six Sea Urchins about to be attached at Woodpecker Siding, passing over Norden Gates LX on Tue 06 Oct. (FER) It is hoped that we can put out an appeal in the next edition of SRM to raise funds to give members the opportunity to take ownership of a tangible asset by way of Sponsor a Plate at 50 a plate (with no obligation to future maintenance). Thanks to Pat Cattle for assistance and use of his facilities at Herston Works. Peter Frost Signage Project PWN No 10. Oct 2015 Page 9