WN42 - More of the same - by Kerry Young - 3rd may 2007

3rd May 2007

You know, I find trying to find something different to show for pictures every week is quite an act. Sometimes, there's more than you know what to do with and at others like now, one feels one is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Anyway, let's see what I managed to dredge up for this weeks entertainment...................

It has often been said that we have any number of bright sparks in our outfit. Never more than this morning. Our Jolly Roger is cutting off the point lever hardware from a very tired sleeper. When we are donated old track, it is usual to take the lot and dispose of the rubbish as time permits. Here we are cutting the bolts holding a bellcrank to a sleeper. The steel will go to scrap and the wood in this case will be firewood. In the better weather, I arrive just after 7:30 and we often do this sort of work early to get it out of the way. From next week on, I will revert to my Winter hours, arriving just after nine.

The next four pictures, I dedicate to those hardy souls who through the wretched weather of the last week laid the trackwork as seen here going to road three. Road two has been started, but lack of ballast stalled progress.

Shown here, a proper transition plate being used to join the lighter 56Lb rail from the carriage shed to the 70Lb rail being laid. Quite a number of these plates around the yards
are home made, but our Peter is doing a really good job of the trackwork these days.

This gives you some idea of the conditions the gang was faced with, as well as heavy drizzle at times. For the pedantic among us, road two has yet to be levelled.

On the electric front, the MG set was ready to be fitted back inside 'Ec7'. Sadly, we found two of the mounting blocks were decaying on the wooden feet as seen here. Time to make up some more blocks.

What better way to try out the new (to us) thicknesser, while making up the blocks. Graham watches as the slab he entered passes through to Joe.

Seen this before? Well, almost. This time we are on the way back in. Bert is about to undo the D shackels and Mike watches the progress.

John Robb takes a spell from the library to be crane operator for the job.

At the end of the day, there's nothing for it but to slide the set in sideways with a lump of wood. John doesn't seem to approve.

The easy bit is over. Now to match the two wiring conduits and the mounting bolt holes for the set itself. Joe won't be standing there looking for long. I finished up on my back trying to feed the wires into the boxes and align the conduits.

Later on, I went back to the compressor I wrecked last week and began the business of removing the hard to get at grime of ages. I burned a lot off with the gas axe. I had a real inferno on the go for a while. With the dry carbon left afterwards, the angle grinder with the cup wire brush worked wonders. So why am I in the picture? Blame Joe Pickering for that. It was his idea!

Now one for fun. As we left, the sun broke out and being at a low angle, we thought it opportune to get a picture of Castle Rock.

Not as sharp as I'd like, but the enlargement is considerable. Even so, you can get a good impression of the relief of this local landmark. I do hope my friend Andy Selfe from South Africa will get a buzz from this picture of his point of reference.

So that's it for another week everyone. Again, I'd like to take my hat off to those who despite the conditions, did such a grand job on the track work! Cheers, 'K'.