Laverton at Last

Many of you have been wondering about the loop at Laverton.  It is with great pleasure that I can announce that the loop is now available for use and that passenger trains will run into the loop from Saturday 9th March.  After much sterling work by Permanent Way and more recently by the S&T department the loop is now complete and the ground frames installed and working.  It was touch and go at the end as we were in the hands of the tamping machine which, in the nature of these complicated beasts, was reluctant to work properly and then broke a hydraulic ram half way through the job.  However on Tuesday the tamper completed the job and the final connections to the pointwork were made.  Thanks to Charlie and Steve for their work on the tamper and to Mike and Kevin Hoskin for their assistance repairing it earlier in the week.

The above picture shows the view into the loop from the south.  You can see the ground frame on the right of the points.  The blue/brown lever locks the points in the straight ahead direction and is itself locked by the Laverton Staff, which is the permission to enter the Toddington - Laverton section and is carried on the locomotive.  The black lever changes the points to allow the loco to run round the train and can only be moved once the blue/brown lever has been reversed.  Note the locking bolt apparatus in the middle of the point, this slides a bolt through the locking stretcher which is the shiny bar in this picture which is fixed between the two point blade toes.  It is a safety requirement for passenger operation that all facing points (points which can change your direction) are locked in position in this manner.  In the far distance you can see some p-way wagons in the engineering possession beyond the loop head shunt.

This picture shows the view from the north.  The ground frame on the left only has one lever and is not locked.  This is because this frame is just for run round and shunting and is not for passenger moves.  The limit of passenger operation is the bridge over the road to Wormington (in the centre ground of the picture).
Behind us is the line which will eventually go to Broadway.  This is currently an engineering possession and can only be accessed by trains involved in track work.

The loop still requires some ballast shovelling to finish it off and no doubt the p-way team will be seen in the area in the near future.

Neil Carr.  Operations Manager.