Trackwork

The workshops at Springwell were particularly well endowed to allow the Railway to be essentially self-sufficient. Not only were there facilities for building wagons from the wheels up and for maintaining steam and diesel locomotives, the workshops also manufactured components for the Railway's track. For example, the Railway was able to manufacture its own pointwork. This gave the flexibility to provide track formations that were suited to some very awkward situations such as the very sharp and heavily graded curve and associated pointwork at the exit from the Wagon Shop.

The two views below show different types of 'nose'. In the first, the two running rails have been scarfed to form the nose. This is a characteristic Bowes-manufactured formation. In the second, the two components are simply cut to the rquired angles and then bolted together. The latter formations are 'bought-in' components.


Bowes manufacture	Bought-in

Another interesting feature can be found on Springwell bankhead - again of Bowes manaufacture. When the haulage rope on the self-acting Springwell incline is running down to the bottom at Wardley behind a descending full set of wagons which has departed from the right hand dish on the bankhead (looking down the incline), it runs across one of the rails of the left hand dish (see here for an explanation). When the set reaches the bottom and the ascending empty set has been run off the kip into Springwell Yard, another full set must be run out of the Yard and into the left hand dish, ready for descent to Wardley. This entails running over the haulage rope which is fouling the rail.

The solution was to notch the rail so that the rope could run 'through' it. The rail was reinforced with a grooved block to guide and support the rope. The block was also made so that it slightly lifted the flanges of the wagon wheels as they passed over, thereby clearing the rope. The device is illustrated below:


The rope coming off the bankhead return wheel (behind the camera) is guided through the groove by the small ropewheel in the foreground. Note how the wagon flange has been lifted clear by the block

Bowes Trackwork