TYNEDALESMAN
MAGAZINE OF THE SOUTH TYNEDALE RAILWAY PRESERVATION SOCIETY
NUMBER 154 SUMMER 2008CHAIRMAN’S JOTTINGS PAGE
Chairman’s Jottings
By Richard GrahamAmazingly, we have just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the day that the South Tynedale Railway started operating a public service from Alston to Gilderdale Halt. The northern terminus was a very primitive affair, and like many another railway station throughout the country, its name did not convey the fact that it was actually almost half a mile from the place it purported to serve It was another three years before the station at the Northumberland/Cumbria county boundary was opened. Progress beyond there was actually quite quick, but a number of issues arose that elayed the opening to Kirkhaugh until the late summer of 1999. It is hard to believe that back in 1983, with only two carriages and a small diesel locomotive, a service ran every hour from 10 am to 6 pm between Alston and Gilderdale Halt.
Apart from the year’s celebrations, normal business continues: We are still looking for someone to take on the role of Head of Operating. Tom Bell did an enormous amount of work getting the training records, certification, reassessments and personnel files up to date, such that it should be easy to keep them up to date. Whilst we are managing to cover the tasks, the job needs to be taken on by someone who can dedicate themselves to that, and not spreading themselves thinly over a number of disciplines. It would be a great pity to let the standard slip because there is nobody to do the job.
Partly prompted by the Railway Inspector’s visit earlier in the year, but largely because of the ever increasing amount of Health and Safety legislation, paperwork and formalization of record keeping, the Council of Management decided to employ Green Dragon Rail, a Health and Safety Advisory firm, to take the burden off the volunteers. After all, we are involved with a Heritage Railway, because we want to build, restore and run a railway, not because we want to be endlessly scrutinizing documentation and legislation. Our Volunteer Liaison Officer, Mike Ryan, has agreed to fulfil the role of ‘SHEF Focus’, through which, once all systems are in place, Health and Safety queries and updates will be channelled. (SHEF � Safety, Health, Environment and Fire).
I was looking back over some of the reports given at Annual General Meetings. In the early days, these were ‘off the cuff’, but I find typescripts of the Infrastructure’s ones dating from 1994:-
- “It seemed likely at the beginning of the year that the Light Railway Order for the Northumberland section would be a formality, but as we have heard, objectors and over-zealous staff at the Department of Transport delayed it and that put the stops on the biggest job that we had planned to do � Whitley Viaduct. �”
- “Extension works are still waiting for the Light Railway Order and hence the lease, but all of the trees have been cleared and preliminary investigations into Whitley Viaduct’s overburden have been made, to allow the County Council’s Engineers to assess the work to be done, so that our proposals might be approved.”
A year later:-
- “In August we had a routine visit by the Railway Inspector. Amongst his comments, he praised us on was the way in which we recorded any defects and the work carried out on a particular day on the daily duty sheet. However he was concerned that there was no real record of recording work done in relation to a defect and no adequate means of keeping a track of routine maintenance. As a consequence of this, I am in the process of producing a maintenance schedule with an associated tick chart, so that anyone carrying out a routine job can initial and date it. This will make it easy to see, at a glance, what is outstanding and at the same time, it will provide a list of jobs that can be carried out by anyone who arrives, when perhaps there is no organised working party and is looking for a job.”
And a snippet from 1996:-
- Of course it is during the week that the British Gas helicopter flies over the pipelines. Alston’s gas main runs alongside the railway from Lambley, and, as there was digging going on, the next thing the gang knew was a man had been dispatched to see what was afoot. “Are you taking this scrap out”he asked. “No, we are putting it in,” was the reply. “How far are you going? �” “Haltwhistle � but not today!” Roly Johnson’s words became the quote of the year. So we showed him where his gas main actually was, and he left!”
Then in 1999:-
- “After all of the concern over the Lort Burn crossing and the design of Kirkhaugh platform, and the doubts that they had engendered in people”s minds, a throw away remark of Her Majesty’s Railway Inspector said so much. “Surely”, he said “you had no doubts about it being approved.” ”
Do you remember 2001?:-
- “July saw summer with a vengeance. We started to get track distortions due to the heat. Loosening the fishplates and applying extra grease eased the problem, but a close eye was needed by the locomotive crews for a few days, to make sure that the line remained safe to use.”
Thinking of the things that concern us now, it is obvious that very little changes, and as long as we learn from things past, we can look forward to the next 25 years being just as productive as the last 25 were.
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For more information about the South Tynedale Railway, please contact:-
THE SOUTH TYNEDALE RAILWAY PRESERVATION SOCIETY,
Registered Office Address:-
The Railway Station, Alston, Cumbria, CA9 3JB.
Telephone 01434 381696.
Talking timetable - Telephone 01434 382828.Registered Charity No. 514939.
Limited by Guarantee: Company Registration No. 1850832 (England).E-mail enquiries - please click on links below:
South Tynedale Railway information - Send e-mail to South Tynedale Railway
STRPS membership information only - Send e-mail to Kathy Aveyard
Tynedalesman information only - Send e-mail to Tynedalesman compilersMission Statement for the South Tynedale Railway:-
�To provide satisfaction for our customers and volunteers
by operating a friendly, safe and efficient narrow-gauge railway.�
© South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society, September 2008.