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New Railway at TWI
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Laying rail track at TWI |  |
TWI's facilities are spread over a 40 acre site in rural Cambridgeshire. The new TWI building is some distance from the restaurant facilities, and so a people mover was planned that would enable TWI staff and visitors to make the journey in comfort on those wet and windy Cambridge days, when walking is not so much of a pleasure.
The people mover is actually a 2-foot gauge tramway, with the rails buried in the ground so that mowing of the grass is not made complicated. The line has a run around loop at each end, and at the restaurant end there is a siding to a shed housing the rolling stock and locomotives.
The people mover was planned as a very low budget operation, and so the components have been acquired from a variety of second hand sources. The 50lb rails are ex-Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway, originally rolled in 1901 at the Dowlais iron works in South Wales. The heads are worn after 100 years of use, but the webs and flanges are in excellent condition, showing what good corrosion resistance these early steels possess. The sleepers and four sets of points were acquired from an NCB sale, the rails being attached by a mixture of dog spikes with plates, or pandrol clips. An ex-Coal Board 1991 Hunslet battery electric locomotive was purchased and modified so that the driver could stand up! It now looks like a diesel shunter. The three coaches are from the Southport Pier railway, and are being modified from their open seating to a closed carriage arrangement and each will seat up to 16 people in comfort.
The new railway bridge at TWI |  |
Two interesting features of the tramway are under construction at TWI. One is a bridge of about 35m in length in 7m spans, where the run around loop at the new building end crosses the fire engine access to the building at a height of 4m.
The other is a simple steam locomotive somewhat in the style of an 040 Hunslet, with a welded boiler and fabricated cylinders rather than castings.
An additional use for the tramway is provided by Thermit Welding (GB) Ltd, who have offered to weld the rail lengths together to provide a continuous track. This will provide a test bed for TWI to assist in the validation of new developments in long-range ultrasonic testing techniques.
Bevan Braithwaite OBE FReng
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