You asked and we listened! Each month for the rest of 2011 we will hold guided visits around the Works. If these are successful then we'll continue into 2012.
Full details can be found on the KRS Website www.rail-services.net/visiting.html
Much has changed since the Eastleigh 100 celebrations so take the opportunity to come and find out for yourself.
Only 20 places are available on each visit so download your application form and apply now to avoid disappointment.
A charge of £10 per person will be made with all proceeds going to the Mayor of Eastleigh's charities.
We look forward to seeing you.
Friday, 2 September 2011
Sunday, 21 August 2011
New Sidings
The School Holidays normally represent a bit of a quieter time with staff taking much needed Holidays to recharge their batteries and spend time with their families - even the MD has had some time off!
Despite this, work has still been going on completing the new sidings, both inside Bay 5 and outside at the south end of the site. These will shortly be completed and give us an additional 250 metres of under cover siding space and another 200 metres of outside siding space and if the commercial demand is there then more track can and will be laid.
Bay 5 is already host to five sets of underground cars and one of the external sidings already has six bogie tanker wagons on it! We try not to let the grass grow under our feet, or should that be tracks!
It's worth keeping an eye on the KRS website, especially the Latest News section (www.rail-services.net/news.html), as that is updated regularly and will often be the first place you'll see new developments.
Despite this, work has still been going on completing the new sidings, both inside Bay 5 and outside at the south end of the site. These will shortly be completed and give us an additional 250 metres of under cover siding space and another 200 metres of outside siding space and if the commercial demand is there then more track can and will be laid.
Bay 5 is already host to five sets of underground cars and one of the external sidings already has six bogie tanker wagons on it! We try not to let the grass grow under our feet, or should that be tracks!
It's worth keeping an eye on the KRS website, especially the Latest News section (www.rail-services.net/news.html), as that is updated regularly and will often be the first place you'll see new developments.
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
End Of An Era ( and start of another )
It was with a bit of sadness today that we moved the last remaining traverser at Eastleigh Works for its final journey. At one stage there were at least three on site, one at the London end (perversely labelled no 2, although referred to as number 1) and two more at the Southampton end of the site.
These last two were chopped up during Alstom's scorched earth policy when they were retreating from site in 2006, but the last one soldiered on to live under KRS operations. Despite a hiccup when a demolition lorry managed to bring down the catenary stanchions, it remained in working order, albeit little used in recent years.
Why so?
Well, for moving large volumes of single vehicles, a traverser is a jolly useful bit of kit to have around. The problem is that most of our trains are now either in fixed car formations or only need to cross over the traverser to the opposite line. In this case it becomes a hindrance to shunting, somehow always managing to be in the wrong position.
The writing was on the wall when we laid a turnout into Bay 4 to allow longer trains to access a road that previously could only be reached by the traverser. This meant that it now couldn't reach the other two roads so we plain tracked them as well.
The discovery of tin worm in the deck supports in 2008 didn't help. Although the main structure was still sound, the cost of re-decking a piece of kit that we didn't need meant that it just sat in position on the road into Bay 5 ( the former C1 road)
What has finally killed it is the winning of a contract to maintain tube trains on site. The traverser has a series of idler rollers between the rails that are high enough to foul the centre shoe of these trains, and as the new storage sidings for them are on the line served by the traverser, it had to go.
We've seen it off in dignified style though. This morning at 7.30 we connected it up and drove it to the end of the lines to a position where it will be cut up. It worked perfectly, despite not having moved since Eastleigh 100 in May 2009. A small audience of us watched it happen and solemnly agreed that they knew how to build things in England in the past.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Within 12 hours the space where the traverser was sitting has been fitted with new shiny concrete sleepers (with Gucci Pandrol Fastclip fixings for those who know or care about such things).
We have used the down-time created by the civil engineering necessary to install the new sidings, to sort this whole section of track out in one fell swoop.
When its all finished in a couple of weeks we will have two newly built turnouts and over 200 metres of covered road, in what was once a derelict space.
The approach tracks will be smooth and level and quite up to the job of repeated shunting of underground cars
So sadness of the loss of an old bit of Works history, but combined with new installation and growth in our business. If it had to go, that's a pretty good reason.
These last two were chopped up during Alstom's scorched earth policy when they were retreating from site in 2006, but the last one soldiered on to live under KRS operations. Despite a hiccup when a demolition lorry managed to bring down the catenary stanchions, it remained in working order, albeit little used in recent years.
Why so?
Well, for moving large volumes of single vehicles, a traverser is a jolly useful bit of kit to have around. The problem is that most of our trains are now either in fixed car formations or only need to cross over the traverser to the opposite line. In this case it becomes a hindrance to shunting, somehow always managing to be in the wrong position.
The writing was on the wall when we laid a turnout into Bay 4 to allow longer trains to access a road that previously could only be reached by the traverser. This meant that it now couldn't reach the other two roads so we plain tracked them as well.
The discovery of tin worm in the deck supports in 2008 didn't help. Although the main structure was still sound, the cost of re-decking a piece of kit that we didn't need meant that it just sat in position on the road into Bay 5 ( the former C1 road)
What has finally killed it is the winning of a contract to maintain tube trains on site. The traverser has a series of idler rollers between the rails that are high enough to foul the centre shoe of these trains, and as the new storage sidings for them are on the line served by the traverser, it had to go.
We've seen it off in dignified style though. This morning at 7.30 we connected it up and drove it to the end of the lines to a position where it will be cut up. It worked perfectly, despite not having moved since Eastleigh 100 in May 2009. A small audience of us watched it happen and solemnly agreed that they knew how to build things in England in the past.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Within 12 hours the space where the traverser was sitting has been fitted with new shiny concrete sleepers (with Gucci Pandrol Fastclip fixings for those who know or care about such things).
We have used the down-time created by the civil engineering necessary to install the new sidings, to sort this whole section of track out in one fell swoop.
When its all finished in a couple of weeks we will have two newly built turnouts and over 200 metres of covered road, in what was once a derelict space.
The approach tracks will be smooth and level and quite up to the job of repeated shunting of underground cars
So sadness of the loss of an old bit of Works history, but combined with new installation and growth in our business. If it had to go, that's a pretty good reason.
Monday, 27 June 2011
KRS Website Updates
After a bit of a lull, so much going on there's not been time to keep the News page updated!
Now bang up to date, the KRS Latest News page gives an insight into what's happening and links to some pictures and videos
With so much more in the pipeline I'll try and keep the News page updated more regularly.
Cheers,
Carl.
Now bang up to date, the KRS Latest News page gives an insight into what's happening and links to some pictures and videos
With so much more in the pipeline I'll try and keep the News page updated more regularly.
Cheers,
Carl.
Saturday, 25 June 2011
All Change please
June is turning out to be an interesting month in our corner of Hampshire. Not only has Test Cricket arrived at the nearby Rose Bowl (it rained, quelle surprise) but there has also been a game of musical chairs with the rolling stock at the Works.
The Observer Corps contingent on Campbell Road bridge have seen a variety of comings and goings, some by rail and others by road. Apart from the usual swap over of wagons for repair and overhaul, we have also seen some long stored wagons leaving for further use. Freightliner,DBS, DRS and GBRf locos have been on site to collect rolling stock and a number of wagons have been scrapped for component recovery.
Even one of our long stored 508s had a day out to Working recently, in company with the sparkling Arlington liveried translators and a GBRf 66.
But perhaps the most telling sight has been the delivery of ex Victoria Line tube stock by road. Unlike previous deliveries of mainly derelict vehicles, these ones are straight out of service and in good condition.
Without going into commercial details, we are expecting quite a few more of these over the coming weeks and are preparing the site to accept them, including providing new sidings. Although this is not the first time we have laid new tracks, in the past this has been limited to putting back pieces of line removed by Alstom. Now we are investing in some serious new facilities including 250 metres of under cover roads in what used to the the Works machine shop. Two brand new turnouts are being manufactured in Wales for us and these will arrive on site shortly.
To be honest the old machine shop area (or C1 road as it was recently known) has been a bit of a dead space for us since it was stripped of useful equipment in the Alstom closing down sale. Now a 120 x 15 yard space has been prepared for the new roads to be installed, with one hundred years of accumulated dust and rubbish being removed.
Less spectacular but just as useful, we are also reinstating two sidings at the bottom end of site that used to serve no2 traverser (long gone).
The investment by Knights Rail will top £100K for these new works and is a further sign of our confidence in the business at Eastleigh. I've even moved into a new office in the main office block. Of course its a complete coincidence that the room is the one that Mr Drummond had for his own use in 1909 (yeah right). It is very useful to be able to look out of the window and see what is going on in the yard.
So its all go at the Works, with new trains coming in and other long standing residents leaving us. One I will be both sad and happy to see leave this week is the NRM owned 306 unit, which is going back to the heart of the Great Eastern. We've even managed to get it moved by rail which means it will enjoy a scoot on its old stamping grounds through Shenfield on Tuesday evening. My first job on BR was working on these (we called them rattlers) so its good to have been able to help this historic survivor find a good home. I will of course have to visit it at the famed Chappel Beer Festival in September. Only for research purposes, you understand.
There's still a lot to do in the coming weeks. The contractors move in shortly to start digging up the floor to take the new tracks in the C1 road and our forgotten ex MOD Ruston LSSH will be seeing the light of day for Arlington to do their magic on it. Having used an 08 recently I appreciate what a good design the Ruston is and two are always better than one.
So a long post this time as there's been a lot of news to cover. We've got a visit by the great and good from the NRM coming up shortly and maybe even some more steam news in the offing. Meanwhile its back the mundane work of sorting out the latest leaks in the roof (I blame the cricket for the weather) and doing our bit to keep the trains running in the south of England, just as the place has done for 100 years.
The Observer Corps contingent on Campbell Road bridge have seen a variety of comings and goings, some by rail and others by road. Apart from the usual swap over of wagons for repair and overhaul, we have also seen some long stored wagons leaving for further use. Freightliner,DBS, DRS and GBRf locos have been on site to collect rolling stock and a number of wagons have been scrapped for component recovery.
Even one of our long stored 508s had a day out to Working recently, in company with the sparkling Arlington liveried translators and a GBRf 66.
But perhaps the most telling sight has been the delivery of ex Victoria Line tube stock by road. Unlike previous deliveries of mainly derelict vehicles, these ones are straight out of service and in good condition.
Without going into commercial details, we are expecting quite a few more of these over the coming weeks and are preparing the site to accept them, including providing new sidings. Although this is not the first time we have laid new tracks, in the past this has been limited to putting back pieces of line removed by Alstom. Now we are investing in some serious new facilities including 250 metres of under cover roads in what used to the the Works machine shop. Two brand new turnouts are being manufactured in Wales for us and these will arrive on site shortly.
To be honest the old machine shop area (or C1 road as it was recently known) has been a bit of a dead space for us since it was stripped of useful equipment in the Alstom closing down sale. Now a 120 x 15 yard space has been prepared for the new roads to be installed, with one hundred years of accumulated dust and rubbish being removed.
Less spectacular but just as useful, we are also reinstating two sidings at the bottom end of site that used to serve no2 traverser (long gone).
The investment by Knights Rail will top £100K for these new works and is a further sign of our confidence in the business at Eastleigh. I've even moved into a new office in the main office block. Of course its a complete coincidence that the room is the one that Mr Drummond had for his own use in 1909 (yeah right). It is very useful to be able to look out of the window and see what is going on in the yard.
So its all go at the Works, with new trains coming in and other long standing residents leaving us. One I will be both sad and happy to see leave this week is the NRM owned 306 unit, which is going back to the heart of the Great Eastern. We've even managed to get it moved by rail which means it will enjoy a scoot on its old stamping grounds through Shenfield on Tuesday evening. My first job on BR was working on these (we called them rattlers) so its good to have been able to help this historic survivor find a good home. I will of course have to visit it at the famed Chappel Beer Festival in September. Only for research purposes, you understand.
There's still a lot to do in the coming weeks. The contractors move in shortly to start digging up the floor to take the new tracks in the C1 road and our forgotten ex MOD Ruston LSSH will be seeing the light of day for Arlington to do their magic on it. Having used an 08 recently I appreciate what a good design the Ruston is and two are always better than one.
So a long post this time as there's been a lot of news to cover. We've got a visit by the great and good from the NRM coming up shortly and maybe even some more steam news in the offing. Meanwhile its back the mundane work of sorting out the latest leaks in the roof (I blame the cricket for the weather) and doing our bit to keep the trains running in the south of England, just as the place has done for 100 years.
Monday, 6 June 2011
And now for something completely different (cue a large foot descending from Heaven)
Two things happened in May 2001 that were personal milestones for me and that had a direct bearing on the long journey that eventually ended up with me taking on the deserted Works, with its rusty tracks and rows of Ford Transits back in 2006.
Firstly on 11th May I said my last farewells to my Dad at his bedside, after he had been through a long illness. It was Dad who first kindled my interest in railways as a kid. He had grown up a stones throw from Kings Cross in the 1930s and had seen all of the Gresley pacifics, P2s and even no. 10000. I was dragged along to just about every fledgling preservation centre in the 1960s and was just old enough to remember being shown steam at Waterloo in 1968. Little did any of us know then..........
In fact if you look closely at the crowd shot of 4472s non stop run departure from Kings Cross there is a short trousered lad who looks surprisingly like me.
As they say in the King James Bible, in the midst of life we are in death, and I'd like to think that my old Dad will be looking down approvingly at what we are doing at the place that maintained and built the engines I saw on the narrow platform ends at Waterloo all those years ago.
Well played old un
Another happier date was the 10 year anniversary of the founding of Knights Rail Services Ltd which passed on 31st May. Unless you have run your own business you can't really understand how proud you feel when dates like this come along. Lots has changed since we started, not only with Knights Rail but also with the whole rail industry. A colleague of mine suggested that putting my own name on the business was a dangerous move because if it went bust people would associate it with me personally. I disagreed and with hindsight I think I was right. Having my name up there on every letter, invoice, bill and contract made me focus on how important it was to make the thing successful. I still marvel at how often other companies change their name. Perhaps if the directors had their own names in the company they might be in it for the longer term.
So a different sort of post this time; a bit more reflective than usual.
Normal service will be resumed shortly as we come to terms with what looks like being a crazy time for us as business takes off. Too much to write about here (always leave em wanting more Darling) but you know its a good sign when we are laying new lines both inside and outside. Oh and for a clue, watch the number (not the length) of conductor rails on site
Two things happened in May 2001 that were personal milestones for me and that had a direct bearing on the long journey that eventually ended up with me taking on the deserted Works, with its rusty tracks and rows of Ford Transits back in 2006.
Firstly on 11th May I said my last farewells to my Dad at his bedside, after he had been through a long illness. It was Dad who first kindled my interest in railways as a kid. He had grown up a stones throw from Kings Cross in the 1930s and had seen all of the Gresley pacifics, P2s and even no. 10000. I was dragged along to just about every fledgling preservation centre in the 1960s and was just old enough to remember being shown steam at Waterloo in 1968. Little did any of us know then..........
In fact if you look closely at the crowd shot of 4472s non stop run departure from Kings Cross there is a short trousered lad who looks surprisingly like me.
As they say in the King James Bible, in the midst of life we are in death, and I'd like to think that my old Dad will be looking down approvingly at what we are doing at the place that maintained and built the engines I saw on the narrow platform ends at Waterloo all those years ago.
Well played old un
Another happier date was the 10 year anniversary of the founding of Knights Rail Services Ltd which passed on 31st May. Unless you have run your own business you can't really understand how proud you feel when dates like this come along. Lots has changed since we started, not only with Knights Rail but also with the whole rail industry. A colleague of mine suggested that putting my own name on the business was a dangerous move because if it went bust people would associate it with me personally. I disagreed and with hindsight I think I was right. Having my name up there on every letter, invoice, bill and contract made me focus on how important it was to make the thing successful. I still marvel at how often other companies change their name. Perhaps if the directors had their own names in the company they might be in it for the longer term.
So a different sort of post this time; a bit more reflective than usual.
Normal service will be resumed shortly as we come to terms with what looks like being a crazy time for us as business takes off. Too much to write about here (always leave em wanting more Darling) but you know its a good sign when we are laying new lines both inside and outside. Oh and for a clue, watch the number (not the length) of conductor rails on site
Saturday, 7 May 2011
Getting Back To Work
The bumper period of bank holidays has almost passed and we can now get back to the mundane job of earning an honest crust at the Works.
The biggest recent news is the christening of the new extended Arlington area in bay 3 by the arrival of the Speno grinder for its annual overhaul. For those of you who remember the Works under it previous owners, or who saw it during the E100 celebrations, this is the former wheelshop area which was left as a large derelict area full of deep holes in the floor after Alstom had sold all of the equipment.
Arlington has spent large amounts of money relaying the tracks and filling the holes and consequently now has a workshop that is over 250 yards long.
The Speno grinder has been a regular sight on the network over the past few years and has previously used Effingham Junction's former carriage washing shed for maintenance. However its a complicated bit of kit and working under a low roof with no cranes had made this a difficult operation. Originally we planned to let Speno use a track in bay 4 near where Siemens carry out their unit overhauls but once they saw what was possible at the Works, the job just snowballed and it made sense to put it into the Arlington area. A joint team from Arlington and Speno has been working on the grinder which has been split into its constituent vehicles (try doing that with jacks !) and is undergoing extensive overhaul.
I showed a BBC filmcrew what was happening in the shop from one of the overhead cranes and they were completely dumbfounded at the amount of work that was going on.
"I didn't think that this sort of thing was still done in Britain any more" one of them told me.
Wrong!
The other development on site is the growing presence of class 66 locomotives. On one day last week we had 8 of them on Works, 6 for warm storage, one for fuelling and the last for wheelset and bogie overhaul.
Finally we said farewell to 33012 this week, when it left on its mainline test run to Swanage in convoy with 73136 (an old friend as first loco at the re-opened Works and the newly painted 73205. When I first agreed to let 33012 be overhauled at the Works I had little idea of how good a job would end up being done on it, with help and input from its owning group and many of the companies on site. It looked breathaking in the sun as it purred out on what was to be a troublefree run to Wareham at speeds of up to 75mph.
I'll miss having a Crompton on the Works.
Meanwhile it promises to be an interesting few weeks coming up with deliveries from London Underground expected to feature strongly. Must get round to laying down the 4th Rail
The biggest recent news is the christening of the new extended Arlington area in bay 3 by the arrival of the Speno grinder for its annual overhaul. For those of you who remember the Works under it previous owners, or who saw it during the E100 celebrations, this is the former wheelshop area which was left as a large derelict area full of deep holes in the floor after Alstom had sold all of the equipment.
Arlington has spent large amounts of money relaying the tracks and filling the holes and consequently now has a workshop that is over 250 yards long.
The Speno grinder has been a regular sight on the network over the past few years and has previously used Effingham Junction's former carriage washing shed for maintenance. However its a complicated bit of kit and working under a low roof with no cranes had made this a difficult operation. Originally we planned to let Speno use a track in bay 4 near where Siemens carry out their unit overhauls but once they saw what was possible at the Works, the job just snowballed and it made sense to put it into the Arlington area. A joint team from Arlington and Speno has been working on the grinder which has been split into its constituent vehicles (try doing that with jacks !) and is undergoing extensive overhaul.
I showed a BBC filmcrew what was happening in the shop from one of the overhead cranes and they were completely dumbfounded at the amount of work that was going on.
"I didn't think that this sort of thing was still done in Britain any more" one of them told me.
Wrong!
The other development on site is the growing presence of class 66 locomotives. On one day last week we had 8 of them on Works, 6 for warm storage, one for fuelling and the last for wheelset and bogie overhaul.
Finally we said farewell to 33012 this week, when it left on its mainline test run to Swanage in convoy with 73136 (an old friend as first loco at the re-opened Works and the newly painted 73205. When I first agreed to let 33012 be overhauled at the Works I had little idea of how good a job would end up being done on it, with help and input from its owning group and many of the companies on site. It looked breathaking in the sun as it purred out on what was to be a troublefree run to Wareham at speeds of up to 75mph.
I'll miss having a Crompton on the Works.
Meanwhile it promises to be an interesting few weeks coming up with deliveries from London Underground expected to feature strongly. Must get round to laying down the 4th Rail
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