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• The WSRA have issued the following press release...
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The sheer scale of one of the biggest railway infrastructure projects ever undertaken on a UK heritage railway can be readily seen in the recent aerial pictures of a new loco and train turning ‘triangle’ which is being built in a unique way at Norton Fitzwarren on the 22-mile long West Somerset Railway (WSR), running from near Taunton to Minehead.
What makes the project unique is that the 100,000 plus tons of fill materials required for the scheme is used ballast which comes free-of-charge for re-cycling to the West Somerset Railway Association (WSRA) - a registered charity which is developing the site - via a partnership scheme with Network Rail.
Network Rail’s ultra-efficient, £50 million High Output Track Relaying System and Ballast Cleaning (HOBC) train is based nearby at Fairwater Yard and currently undertaking a two-year £750 million programme of major rail improvements in the South West.
This impressive train leaves its base each evening to clean and re-pack a length of track ballast, returning to Taunton in the morning with spent ballast suitable for screening and re-use.
Using the WSR’s recently refurbished mainline connection, Network Rail offered to deliver the HOBC’s spent ballast directly to the WSRA site which is just half a mile away, thereby saving the HOBC travelling to unload at Exeter or Westbury and avoiding lorry movements in the area.
The HOBC is now delivering up to 1,000 tons of stone at a time onto the WSR after its overnight operations on the main line from Paddington and Bristol to the West Country. Then, the WSRA’s own contractors sort, clean and grade it for re-use around the site, building up the new track formations and embankments.
The vast 33-acre site, adjacent to the former Great Western Railway main line between Taunton and Wellington in Somerset, will eventually have three miles of new track and allow locomotives, and even whole trains, to be turned in just three simple movements so that the increasingly popular heritage line can welcome more visiting steam trains from further afield.
But the three-year, six-figure construction project has also catapulted the voluntary–run, but commercially-minded West Somerset Railway Association (WSRA) into the sharp end of the construction supply business too.
The WSRA is busy recycling almost another 100,000 tons of surplus ballast and infill which it is now selling locally as a commercial product. It also confidently expects to supply this re-cycled stone by rail to new construction projects in West Somerset.
As an incentive to encourage developers to ‘go green’, the WSRA is also offering a draw prize of a luxury four-star dining train trip on the West Somerset Railway, plus a special pass to travel on a steam locomotive footplate, for bulk aggregate orders.
The Environment Agency has not only assisted with advice on the design and construction of improved flood culverts for the scheme, but also supported and fully endorsed the WSRA’s use and sale of re-cycled aggregate under the Governments’ WRAP initiative.
The WSRA’s contractors, John Luffman Trading of Tiverton in Devon, constructed the flood schemes before moving onto the embankments themselves whilst the WSRA has assisted with track laying expertise – a new area for Luffman.
As part of the contract, Luffman’s have also brought sifting screens and plant to site to produce varying grades of certified aggregate for sale. Being recycled material, it is free of aggregate levy, making the stone an attractive buy for both small and bulk purchases.
Up to 20 men and six earth moving machines have been working on the site, and Luffmans are also dealing with stone sales on behalf of the WSRA.
Not surprisingly, the income generated from stone sales is being used by the WSRA to fund the rest of the construction works, some of which has also involved the recent expensive removal and re-routing underground of an overhead 33Kv power line.
Commenting on the scheme, West Somerset Railway Association Project Manager and professional civil engineer David Holmes said: "This has to be one of the biggest, exciting and most rewarding construction projects taking place on any heritage railway in the UK because it really is a 'Win, Win' for all concerned in the partnership.
"Network Rail is saving money and avoiding the need for many lorry movements in the local area; we are building a much needed turning facility for our trains using recycled material; the surplus quality stone is being sold locally at low cost to fund the project, some of which will be delivered to site by rail and reduce lorry journeys; the village of Norton Fitzwarren has gained a flood relief scheme, and we’ve generated work for 20 men locally over a two-year period!
"We will only be in the stone trade for two years at the most, so our sales simply won’t affect the existing bigger suppliers in the long term – there should be room for us in the marketplace. The WSRA is a charity, so we’re hoping local construction firms will come to us first for their stone and reap the dividends from buying a low-cost but quality product."
West Somerset Railway Association
4 June 2007
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Turning triangle project steams ahead...
