High Level Track Replacement 2023
By Chris Bassett,
Brian Dale, Jeremy Bench
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At a board meeting in late 2022 it was decided to replace the outer rail on the high level track. This was due to it been worn out to the central web in several area's. Chris Bassett took the leading role on working on this project. From the first few photos you can see that when the tracks are all joined at the same place, any movement due to heat pushes the track well out of line. This has caused the track to ware unevenly at this point. Rectification was done to prevent this from pushing out. The old track was made in 16ft lengths. We had no option as the new replacement was only 10ft. So we are having to stagger the joints. This should help keep our track more in line.
We started this in early 2023 by trying to take out and replace a single rail. This appeared to be straight forward. We then took out one short length then moved the next two sections of track back. This was the setting up of our plan. What we aimed to achieve was that a joint would not end up on a straight to curve section. The rail must include both straight and a curve. We are hoping this will prevent the track from pushing out at these positions
Getting ready for the first transition from straight to a curve. Rail was slightly over bent to allow for it to spring back
Getting ready for the first transition from straight to a curve. Rail was slightly over bent to allow for it to spring back
Unfortunately the project ground to a halt. Some local thief's decided they wanted to take our rail for scrap.
We shall continue soon. Maybe the beginning of 2024.
That's all for now