Isle of Wight Steam Railway

December
A warm welcome to this our last offering for 2007 and a very Merry Christmas to you all. It is at this time of year that I wish I could write to you all personally and thank you for your help and support throughout the year but sadly this is not possible and my thanks have to be channelled through this newsletter. Once again this year has flown by and it has been a good year in our department. Faults have been very few and far between and we have reaped the benefit of having the line tamped in November of last year which gave us virtually a year of trouble free track. We have been lucky that no major problems with our bad formation areas have manifested themselves until recently. The fact that so much work went into the track before and during the tamp gave us the opportunity to get on with lots of other jobs during the year. Fencing although not a glamorous job is a very essential one and has progressed well during 2007 with more sections of previously poor or non-existing boundary fence replaced with new, we even managed to help out with a replacement fence in the overflow car park for the summer show. Sleeper changing continued throughout the year with many summer Wednesday evenings spent out on the track. Crossings have not been neglected with both Guildford and Forest crossings having makeovers and now look smart and have the standard arrangements of fencing around the pedestrian areas. Several weeks were spent at Wootton on both the platform edging stones and the repainting and repairs to the signalbox. The platform work was especially worthwhile as temporary repairs had got nowhere over the years, the decision to do a complete job of re-setting the stones was definitely the best option and has paid dividends with no further problems with the platform edging. Cutting back the lineside vegetation has also featured highly in the years activities, and along with the Friday and Saturday gangs massive contributions, has continued to provided a clear and good looking lineside for our visitors to enjoy. The views this provides are stunning along the line and adds another dimension to the railway experience for visitors. Our lineside I am pleased to say resembles the look of the good old days when lengthmen would keep the banks well trimmed and looking superb. We can now say without doubt that we have control of most of the lineside vegetation throughout the whole of the 10 miles.

This Autumn we have embarked on a major S&T project to get 110v power to all locations around the Havenstreet site and powering most of the signalling system through this mains based system rather than batteries. This along with signal lighting will make the S&T more reliable and less likely to fail due to flat batteries.

Finally with Christmas almost upon us we turn our attention to the Wootton project which will be started in the New Year and will prove to be a challenge with many aspects of the job to be completed before we start running in March of 2008.

So without doubt, the unstinting help that Pete, Phil and I receive from the regular working weekend groups is essential and very gratefully received. Likewise the Friday and recently Saturday volunteer lineside clearance gangs have done a fantastic job over the last year and our thanks go to each and everyone of you.

So to you all, have a wonderful Christmas, may all your presents not be socks and underpants and best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year. We look forward to seeing many of you over the coming year and once again thank you all for your valued help.

To help you get through the excessive diet of Turkey, sprouts and plum pud we have once again attached a Christmas wordsearch for your delight, hope you enjoy it and it does not prove to difficult. If you find yourself still trying to find a few names on New Years Eve, give up! I have probably got the clues wrong!

January Working Weekend Sat 5th / Sun 6th

Having just received verbal conformation from the Railway Inspectorate that we can go ahead with the work at Wootton in the New Year we can now put some flesh on the bones of planning.

The basic plan at Wootton is to provide new drainage and new improved formation for the extended run round loop using sand and plastic membrane under the track ballast. To move the single line points down towards Havenstreet to provide room to extended the run round loop and in the future the platform. The existing signalling arrangements will be removed and replaced with a basic ground frame operation similar to Smallbrook. New ballast will be put in where necessary and the rails from the new points position towards Havenstreet through the crossing at Packsfield will be replaced by nearly new second-hand rails in stock. The rails recovered from the running line will be used to extend the run round loop. New sleepers will be used in the running line thus releasing used good quality ones for the run round loop. We will replace timbers on the points as necessary with new. Hardwood sleepers will be used to replace the sleepers through Packsfield crossing. We will also lift the track through the crossing to the correct design.

We plan to start major works with the help of Kevin Cooley and his plant on Monday 7th January but with much work needed beforehand we would love to see as many of you as possible.

On Saturday we will have a works train to deliver to site at Wootton the rails and sleepers we require. We will have to unload the rails long the lineside approximately where we will need them. We will have sleepers loaded onto the Lowmac or flat wagons and these may prove difficult to unload so we may leave this to when we have mechanical means. Once we have finished with train movements on Saturday and on Sunday we will set about the many tasks around the Wootton site. All signalling will need to be disconnected and many items on signals will need to be dismantled and returned to Havenstreet. Rails and sleepers on the run round loop will need to be removed and stored out of the way. Lots of materials etc will be needed on site and will be transported to Wootton along with tools and equipment. We will also be cropping rails and re-drilling them ready for use. So a busy weekend is in store for the first bash of 2008. We will also need a lot of help during the following few weeks as the job progresses. Trains will be run to bring in materials all through the next week or two and many hands will make light work.

We hope to see as many of you as possible on either the weekend or as convenient to yourselves during the following weeks. If you could let me know in the usual manner if you are attending the working weekend and