Winter 2006 update
12 February 2006 - thanks to Ben for this article
As it has been a while since the last update we thought it would be a good idea to do an article for the website bringing things up to date - what's been happening behind the scenes, and what the future holds for 2006
Short, wet, cold days since October have prevented any serious work to the machines over the winter - indeed as detailed in the last article the Permaquip has remained securely wrapped up! Mark has managed to visit on a couple of occasions since October to work on electrics and engine. We are also still in regular correspondance with our contact at Fastline with regard advice and other parts we may be able to acquire during refurbishment of a couple of their tampers at York.
Merchandise
A mention should be made of our merchandise campaign in the run up to Christmas - thanks to everyone who purchased a CD or a calendar! The sales of these along with extra donations and sales of a few OTP books meant that we made a significant profit after our costs for printing etc were recouped. We are potentially looking into producing more items in the future but for the time being the CDs are still available [url=http://www.ontrackplant.com/otppg/index.php?info,merchandise]here[/url]
CVR changes
As many of you will know the ownership of the Colne Valley Railway changes hands officially on March 1st this year as the current owners take retirement. Unfortunately none of us could make the meeting that was held at the beginning of January to discuss what this would mean for the railway although we have subsequently heard that the changeover will not affect our group or the machines in any significant way - and the rent stays the same which is good news!
Mowlem visit
We were advised that Mowlem were disposing of a couple of items of plant during October so myself, Vince, Mark and Roy went to visit their Rugby yard to have a look around. The two items were a Plasser unimat tamper and a small ballast regulator. Both were in reasonable condition having been in undercover storage for a number of years but following the trip we realised that machines of this size were at present a little way out of our league in terms of resources and cost! I believe they are being made available now through the industry magazine. Our thanks though are due to Gary and Kevin for making us welcome.
[url=http://www.ontrackplant.com/photo.php?photo=2449]Unimat tamper at Rugby[/url]
[url=http://www.ontrackplant.com/photo.php?photo=1775608]Ballast regulator at Rugby[/url]
Australian OTP!
At the end of November myself and Keith met up with an OTP enthusiast from Australia! Nic Doncaster was over in London on business and so we took the opportunity to have a chat over a beer or two - fascinating to hear about how things happen over on the other side of the world in terms of track maintenance and he seemed equally interested in what our group had achieved over the last year or so. He was kind enough to give me some copies of his newsletter and in return he took away an OTPPG calendar and CD!
[url=http://users.chariot.net.au/~nldoncas/nicspages/fairmnt.htm]Nic's website[/url]
[url=http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/Trackmachinesaustralia/]Nic's Australian OTP Yahoogroup[/url]
Into 2006...
So what does the future hold? We hope to make our first proper visit to the Colne Valley next weekend (18th February 2006) to continue progress with the bodywork and electrics on the Matisa. Of course we will then be working towards firing up the Rolls engine again for the first time in several years and hopefully getting her moving again (although this is still a little way off.) The Permaquip requires a lot of work to the cab area as already detailed in previous articles although we may be able to start the engine fairly soon...
We are also keeping our eye on a couple of small machines around the country and some enquiries have been made although nothing has yet been finalised.
Finally I guess it just leaves us to say thanks again to all who have shown us support this far and if you are planning to visit the Colne Valley Railway this year please let us know and we may be able to co ordinate visits - it would be good to put faces to names!
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