18-3-12 Added detail on 2012 works.

PW or P Way, as it is often, is responsible for the maintenance and renewal of all of the railway track on the NYMR.

The department is made up of about 6 full time staff and a number of regular volunteers usually working together.

Some volunteers can only attend midweek whilst others are Sunday regulars. There is work for all.
We will even take any staff from other departments who have nothing to do over the winter period.

The work is a mixture of regular tasks and one offs. However all need to be tackled with professionalism and safety has always to be at the forefront at all times.

The regular items of work include Track Walking or Patrolling where staff are given the task of walking through a stretch of the line and look for any faults, some can be dealt with there and then but others are recorded and dealt with at a later date. This will depend on the priority of the work as to when, it may be that day or a couple of weeks away.

Staff are trained for this task but often have assistance with them as 2 pairs of eyes are better than 1.

The main base is at Newbridge yard near Pickering where the heavy plant is based, this all comes under the department and includes Cranes, Tamper, Regulator and other weird looking machines all designed to take the effort out of track maintenance.

York Area Group works closely with the department in the acquisition and funding of equipment, such as wagons and plant for the department. Some of the group members are also certified in the operation of the equipment with more planned for the future.

Out of the main running season the departments heaviest workload usually kicks in with track renewals or other major civil engineering projects along the line.

We all know about the Bridge 30 story with the replacement of the worn out bridge, but to achieve that the track either side of the bridge was also renewed over about ½ a mile.

At the same time as the main works were going on, work was also proceeding at 2 other bridge sites 18 and 20. In Newtondale and Northdale.

Sometimes however we do need to resort to manual methods of track renewal but hopefully not too often.

This year 2011 – 12 the outlook is busy again with work at 3 sites in Pickering, 1 near Newbridge, another at Levisham and another at Moorgates.

If anyone is interested in working with the department contact:-

Bryan Blundell via the York Area Group website contact page
http://www.yorkareagroup.co.uk/?page_id=170

or contact the PW Supervisor Martyn Cannings at Newbridge.
pway@nymr.co.uk
01751 475302

The York Area Group website has posted a number of the photos taken over the winter 2011 – 12 of the various worksites on the NYMR.

http://www.yorkareagroup.co.uk/?page_id=765

These include Levisham track renewal, Newbridge track renewal, BeckHole reclipping, Trout Farm crossover replacement and of course the replacement of Bridge 30 in Pickering Station. They are in no particular order, just as they arrive with me.

Bryan