Turkish Delight
Your webminder has been contacted by a Holmside builder in Turkey who thinks so highly of my engineering skills that he asks my advice and has put my picture on his wall.
I will try to remain modest.
An absolutely freezing February 4th
We arrived to find the stumps of two of the trees felled in December to have been professionally ground away. (Cost £200).
So the first job was to move away the debris.
The removal of the stump just outside Old Oak box will enable the headshunt to be increased to a useful length.
Crucial work continued on the Old Oak turntable led by Tim; crucial because the track level at the turntable will set the datum level for the track through the station. Only when the datum is fixed can track laying begin.
Otherwise :
- Alan S aided Alan A in King maintenance (taper pins securing the inside piston rods to their crossheads.)
- Cliff re assembled some new parts on to the hard working Clan Line
- More track panels were assembled
- More ballast brought down from the main dump at the gate.
- Cables for new track circuits at Dingly laid out
- Robin assembled new drive levers for the cranked Dingly points to force the switchblades hard on to the stock rails.
We finished early as the snow clouds gathered, longing for the balmy summer to come !
Bleak January and we work again
Bob was here again after his marathon drive from Wales. More track circuits were alive when I put my head round the door.
For the rest of us it was back to basic trackwork at Old Oak;
making point and track panels. Some platform roads re-laid with ballast brought from the gate by rail.
This rail movement meant that the approach track to Old Oak was not renewed today.
Tim continued in the turntable pit and completed painting the raised turntable.
There was much discussion about whether to provide a platform for the 'siding'
leading to the turntable since it is not unknown for passenger trains to arrive here.
The difficulty being that we would either loose one of the two other sidings or shorten them. The president, who wanted the siding, is reflecting!
The webminder was deluged by pictures - thank you Mike and Jamie - so there are 20 picture in the slideshow below.
Slideshow of the day from Mike H and Jamie
First Working Day of the New Year
Tim Reynolds reports:
Loads of activity at Old Oak and when we left it looked like a bomb had hit it.
Network Rail have nothing compared to the many trees we had on the line.
Alan felled several trees and one photo I have called 'tree fellers'.
Track re-sleepered and when I said I would take a photo of the workers they stood there with a cup of tea in their hands.
Alan S kangoed the old foot crossing to allow for the new track alignment on the approach to Old Oak.
Bob soldiered on in Dingly box and a drain / soak away has been dug into Old Oak turntable pit.
Slideshow of the day from Mike H and Tim
Nearly Christmas, December 17th
Webminder absent assisting Santa at the Romney Railway so notes and photos by Tim
Weather was kind but cold and it did not rain until home time. Work force a bit low with no Essex / Herts contingent. A retaining wall was started by Andrew and Hayden, whilst Scott and Tim cleaned the Old Oak turntable. Rails were rolled to match the new track alignment on approach to Old Oak. Pictures show points being re-sleepered and general construction activities. Cliff steamed Clan Line for his guests and ran from the loco shed to Baytree via Dingly Dell. Jamie presented June with a present of flowers and gift tokens from the team.
A new Winter Working Season
How did we get away with running on railway with so few sleepers?
The task for this winter is to relay Old Oak station and yard together with the branch just outside Old Oak. This part of the branch has an unfortunate switchback over a substantial tree root. A problem that cannot be solved by cutting the root lest its enormous tree come crashing down.
Our recent relaying projects have involved digging out the material below the old trackbed. An unwanted outcome is the enormous spoil heap seen in the left background of the photographs above, so this time the minimum spoil will be removed resulting in a slightly raised track level.
Photographs show Scott (above) and Jamie (in fetching red trousers) and Dave on the left.