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Visit to the West Somerset Railway work site at Norton Fitzwarren triangle, Tuesday 7th July 2009

On 7th July 21 members and friends visited the Norton triangle WSR site, to see the work being done to transform this 33 acre site acquired by the West Somerset Railway. The initial intention of the WSR was to use the land to provide a triangle of Railway track, which would allow locos and coaching stock to be turned within the site, thus reducing flange wear, to be followed by the development of further facilities. So far it has been a challenging but fascinating project, encountering site service issues with constraints of national grid, power lines and sewers to be worked around/ re-routed, plus drainage issues to be overcome, and a restriction of road and lorry movements to and from the site. Plus of course there were the usual planning application issues to be dealt with! 

Used ballast has been provided by Network Rail as construction material for the building of the triangle, avoiding the need for many lorry movements in the local area. For this the rail line connection between NR and the WSR has been upgraded, with an almost daily movement of ballast between Taunton and the Norton site using the lengthy High Output ballast Cleaner (HOBC) set based at the nearby Fairwater yard (less than a mile away), and re-opened in January 2007 as the base for Network Rail’s track relaying operation in the South West.. 

Used ballast brought onto the site is sorted by contractors John Luffman Trading, and that suitable for creating the rail embankments and formation retained and laid out, whilst surplus is disposed of. Network Rail has also supplied surplus track to assist in the construction process. 

It was a fascinating visit to a site until now closed to the public, but soon to feature as the new home for the August Steam Fayre on the WSR, instead of the fields usually used at Bishops Lydeard. As the accompanying pictures show we were also able to see some of the evening freight activity on the adjacent main line south of Taunton. Our thanks to the Malcolm Anderson from the WSRA for giving us this guided tour and insight into the work in progress..

Our guide for our visit to Norton triangle, Malcolm Anderson from the WSRA, has kindly let us use a selection of his photos taken at Norton triangle in recent months.

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