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A first trial delivery of ballast was made today by the Network Rail HOBC which arrived at Norton Fitzwarren just before lunchtime loaded with 250 tonnes of aggregate recovered from Uphill near Weston super Mare. The shortened HOBC was top 'n tailed from Fairwater Yard by two Freightliner Class 66 locomotives and comprised an HOBC power car, five ballast hoppers and a barrier vehicle. When regular deliveries start next year the train will normally include eighteen or twenty loaded hoppers. The delivery went extremely smoothly and in just fifteen minutes the 250 tonne load was discharged over the newly constructed culvert where it will be spread in due course to provide a trackbed connection between the existing railway and the Association's site.
Construction work on the site has had to be suspended due to the recent heavy rain which has made the area more suitable for submarines and flippers than excavators and steel toe boots. The heavy rain has put the recently finished culvert and diverted ditch system to the test and even the compensation pond has been called into action with 150mm of water lying in the very lowest parts. When weather conditions permit however it is hoped attention will be focused on completing the first section of embankment and getting a track connection laid onto the land using material recently recovered from Taunton Cider and now stockpiled at Bishops Lydeard.
The trial was watched by senior figures from the WSR plc, WSRA, Network Rail, First Swietelski and the Association's Contractor John Luffman, all keen to see how the newly devised system would work. In the event all went well assuring that early in the New Year the sight of a fully (un!) laden HOBC will be common place at Norton Fitzwarren.
West Somerset Railway Association
28 November 2006
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