Two rail switches of Minkiö yard were under complete renovation during winter. The switches installed back to their original places 24. to 25. April. Switches are more than a hundred years old, so most of the metal parts had been either repaired or completely renovated. For example, the middle of the intersection of tracks of the second switch was in such bad shape that the workshop produced a whole new parts made of direct rail. Also all wooden sleepers under the rails were changed.
The switches were assembled at the workshop ready elements, which were transported by truck trailer to Minkiö. Another switch was loaded onto the low roller wagon, which elements are transported to the final assembly site. Second switch is located next to the road, so the elemets could be unloaded directly to the installation site from the trailer.
Elements were installed with an excavator and a final fine-tuning was made by hand. As expected, the work did not go entirely smoothly, because matching the new elements to the right positions includes plenty of minor adjustments - the rails had to be cut, holes had to be drilled and sometimes even sledgehammer had to be used!
After a hard weekend, the first switch is almost ready for traffic, but installation of the second turned out to be so complicated, that time ran out. Installation completed in May Day weekend, because both switches must be ready until first week of May when charter traffic season of Museum Railway starts. Some fixes were made in next weekend.
Video of Jokioinen side switch test run on May 8. 2010
Photos of installation
(to open image gallery please click thumbnail photo)
