It’s been a busy few months for our dedicated track team, working out of sight out at the Loop Line. Great progress has been made towards reopening this side of the ‘triangle’ between the North Junction and the Loop Platform.
This long-running project started in January 2017, after the final train crossed it in December 2016. This was our beloved O&K steam loco No. 1, under the control of the late Bob Edwards. We turned the loco on the triangle to even out wear on the wheels.
With the track lifted on the north side of the bridge, a lengthy project started. This turned out to be way more complicated than we had hoped. Great progress was made up to 2020, then the pandemic hit, followed by the devastation of the 2023 flooding. Work finally resumed in 2026, and we are currently very close to the first test train passing over the bridge and down through the Loop Platform.
Work this year has concentrated on properly adjusting the track alignment along the platform to ensure the gap is minimised, yet clearance is acceptable on the curve. Dips and twists have been laboriously repaired. We have adjusted the rail joints along the south side of the Loop Line to ensure they provide correct expansion gaps (and give a nice clickety clack when trains pass through).
Getting the Loop Line completed and the South Line eventually brought back into service will bring back operational flexibility lost for nearly a decade, and new destinations for galas and other events will once more be possible. There’s a fair bit of work still to do, though, but this is huge progress for us for now.
Would you like to join our track team? Check out our volunteering page and get in touch today.
