Winter Progress
Seventh Working Day, March 6th
Progress races on! The pictures speak for themselves. But look at those temporary ballast heaps. Hopefully the heaps will disappear when we lay the up line through the platforms. Invisible in the pictures is the remaining gap in the down line beyond Spinney signalbox; rails re commence at the crossover point. At t end of the day there was railway from the tunnel to the platform.
Sixth Working Day, February 20th
Good progress was made and within a couple of hours all 20 odd tons of ballast had been moved from the gate to various storage points around the railway.
Work continued at Spinney station where all the ground work has been completed between the two points on the down line. Five new track panels were completed ready to be installed next time.
Alan A successfully repaired the air compressor we use to raise steam on the locomotives.
Fifth Working Day, February 6th
Once again No pictures, but the bloke on the right gives the idea of a lot of what went on :
D I G G I N G.The line through the down main platform was dug out taking a lot more time and a lot more energy than might be imagined. Hopefully some new (and expensive) ballast will be delivered just before the next working day and the idea was to barrow some directly under the down main.
Meantime Alan S & trusty apprentice Nick installed the rebuilt tunnel mouth point, Bob T and Mike H made running repairs to the dilapidating points at Dingly whilst Alan A attacked the unresponsive compressor.
Progress is slow but we might just make it for Brownie Day. Learn the song!
Alec's first trip with his new loco, February 5th
Alec says "It all seemed to go very well!
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Fourth Working Day, January 23rd
The last working day in December and the first working day in January were lost to snow.
we reconvened on January 23rd and continued with re laying the down main from the tunnel to the gate.
A dull and overcast day as you can see. Can you recognise any of the three workers in the picture? Can you even make them out?
Sadly, near the end of the day, Richard was in collision with the loaded spoil wagon and had to attend A & E where a chipped bone was diagnosed. Apologies to Richard plus good wishes for a speedy recovery.
Third Working Day, December 19th
The great freeze struck again for the second time this year ( remember last January? ). Only a few hardy souls turned up including intrepid reporter Alec for whom we depend for this news since the East of London team stayed east of London and built point machines (well half a point machine) - see Pictures, Winter 2009 / 10.
Locomotives: The Smith family removed the 78's tender for maintenance and Shaun brought the
black 5 back from maintenance.
S & T (Geoff and Richard) continued work in Bay Tree whilst Robin and Alec carried on with point building; they can be seen admiring their work in this winter's pictures. Alec took the picture above which is the result of a hose freezing, bursting, then melting and spraying the surrounding trees to form icicles.
Roll call at the railway (apart from those mentioned above) was Nick, Dave M & David D.
My reporter does not mention June for which he should be soundly reprimanded since I am sure all were kept well supplied with tea! Thank you June.
On the Second working Day Robin's team continued to work on the down line through Spinney station. One and a half points were rebuilt and old ballast was removed in preparation for the re-lay.
The picture on the left shows point building in progress at our usual build position in the bridges gap outside the engine shed.
In the engine shed Alan S continued fitting the loco lift whilst in Bay Tree Richard and Geoff resumed the refurbishment of Bay Tree box. Hopefully we will get our levers back next year!
First Day
We brought all the signals in and washed them. The Scot and King Jack were cleaned and drained; I believe all locos are now ready for the winter.
Track was lifted on the down line at Spinney from the tunnel end of the platform as far as the signal box. On the up loop the point for the short spur towards the signal box was lifted together with the old mechanical linkage to operate it. This track work will probably require us to purchase more ballast. John Munday has taken away lots of sleepers for drilling ready for assembling panels next time.
In the engine shed Alan S and Nick began installation of the hydraulic lift to improve access to the rolling stock racks on the side wall.
Dave Marsh surveyed the branch cutting with a view to replacing the rotted retaining walls. Tom hopes to obtain railway sleepers for this purpose but, like the ballast, this may be an expense members will have to share.
Other pending issues are to repair or replace the compressor with a machine that is completely reliable, to ensure all water is drained from the system especially the new water crane at Dingly and the electric pump also we hope Geoff will be able to complete the refurbishment of Bay Tree signal box.
Visiting us today were Brown Owl, Tawny Owl et al who intend to visit us with a group of Brownies next summer.