Mid Week "potterings" and Weekend works Aviemore - Week ending 11th April 2021

  Small mid-week squad, fire in the messvan was priority number one, as it was bitterly cold, Georgie complained that I didn't have stoker MacPhail's abilities, eventually we unloaded the tools and proceeded to worksite.

Timber changed for a shorter one as was interfering with new layout. Georgie packing, Mike drilling & Roddy ready for screwing down.

Switch laid out, towards new road, planned to terminate at coal bench (once footbridge and old signal cabin removed) note amount of interlaced secondhand timbers.

Old ferrules replaced with new, easier said than done, removing old is time frustrating part and couple of AS2 chairs were screwed down, after reaming old holes.

  All the old holes had to be filled with pegs (thanks to Roger making them sometime ago) and hammered in flush with surface.

We finished later than we expected as we were all preoccupied with the tasks in hand. 

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Above looks prior to work commencing (nearly all smiling) and a tad cold!

We welcomed - Bart (left) for the first time, hopefully not his last! Lauren, Justin and almost an old hand now Kevin (far right) 

Angus reports "Large squad assembled at Aviemore, promptly split in two - Andrew, Roger and me started plugging holes is sleepers. Holes too small in some, so Andrew & Roger used belt sander in carriage shed to sand down hardwood plugs to size. About  50 plugs done.

Later Andrew and me helping Georgie laying rail and keying it" (must have been cold for Georgie to be wearing a high viz jacket)

Ian reports from the "heavy lifting squad!" - 

 "we freed off the stock rails from 2 sets of check rails for the new points as the stocks were scrap, and referuled these and the other switch which was not already in place. We then dug ballast out to permit the fine alignment of the siding towards the former Speyside Bay platform. Following this we dug out the last 2 sleepers requiring changing and changed the first 6 of the last batch for this year from the signal box down towards the switch into the carriage storage shed...although they were not drilled and rescrewed or filled in."

Highland Mainline quieter than usual due to a derailment at Dalwhinnie in the early hours.

Thanks to Ian, Lauren, Kevin, Andrew, Martin, Roger, Justin, Bart & Angus kindly supplied the photos (thumb included) and half report.

 

Recent Broomhill Improvements - 2nd/3rd April 2021

Recently Broomhill Loading Bank has finally been rebuilt.

The wall which had been built to suit light traffic above long ago for horses & carts, perhaps some timber traffic had failed to cope with the Railway’s mobile plant working near the edge above it, it being the storage area from which ballast is loaded on to wagons by the JCB or Colmar Road Rail Vehicle.

It was established the wall comprised of a thin face of granite maybe 9 to12 inches thick which was not tied to a more roughly built granite rubble wall behind.

The face was removed, the rubble cleaned back to leave a 9 inch gap & steel rebar was drilled into the rebuilt face & the wall behind the void filled with longitudinal rebar & concreted full height.

The original granite copes were reused & steel rebar drilled into them & linked in a reinforced concrete beam behind recessed below the wall to ensure the copes will not be disturbed.

Consideration was given to doing it all in reinforced concrete but the final fine appearance in rebuilt 150 plus year old granite justifies the method used by professional Stone Mason - Alex Walker to whom we are very grateful.

Thanks to Mike for info/photos.

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This year we have cut down a lot of trees that were required to be removed for the continued safe running of the Railway, consequently John and Ian decided to redress this Eco imbalance by purchasing & planting a good number of bare root trees around Boat of Garten & Broomhill Stations.  

Good Friday & Saturday saw some of the PWay squad assemble at Broomhill Station.

Roger watering and Angus surveying his skills hammering in of the stakes, to support the plastic tubing that Mike acquired. 

100 bare root beech planted to form hedging along the fence

a further 25 assorted trees were planted around Broomhill Station.

Thanks to John (& Partner) and Ian for purchasing and planting, with Roger, Angus and Mike assisting. 

Many thanks to https://www.munros-nurseries.co.uk/

on the Black Isle who supplied all the saplings at an affordable price, with some thrown in for free.

At the other end of the line, it is believed that Justin and Angus replaced fishplate bolts at Aviemore Shed and Fergus, Martin and Kevin's (favorite job) - digging out ballast for replacing 17 sleepers close to the Signal Box, with Georgie continuing to lay out sleepers for new work (no photos as yet)    

 Thanks to John for info/photos 

 

Aviemore & Boat PWay - 20&27 March 2021

 Another big squad, which Georgie split up Saturday past but alas some had to go to the virtual Strathspey Railway Association AGM for most of the morning. 

The masked young PWayer came back for more - despite nursing muscles he didn't know he had after the previous Saturday, overseen by Roger. The maintenance of this crossing finally completed after lunch.

Angus and Mike were detailed to plug all the old visible drill holes in all the renewed sleepers, with wooden plugs hammered in. Georgie had previously levelled new trackbed with JCB, then measured and marked up and then used the Colmar Road Rail Machine to lay all the above.

  The main squad of John, Martin, Ian, Kevin and Andrew set about re-sleepering Road 3, with a lot of digging required due to spacing constraints. In total seven were replaced enabling the removal of the "temporary" tie bars, which had become rather rusty! 

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The following Saturday (not a PWay one) John and Ian were down early to check for birds nests on a Scots Pine that Georgie wanted out of the way (she apparently has plans for the area) with none being found.

  John carefully planned the fell, as it was not a small tree and the new Morley's Shed was within reach.

 

Ian and John quickly de-limbed and segmented, as we struggled to incinerate quickly enough, (Angus in the thick of it) after phoning what used to be called the Fire Brigade - as copious amounts of smoke emanating for Morley's might be a bit unsettling for Boat of Garten residents!   

Mike had asked John to use his pole saw to try and cut back encroaching branches round Boat North Signal Cabin, as scaffolding is planned so that the Ellon Squad can repair and repaint the large structure, hoped to commence in May, progress will be viewed on S&T Blog - https://signallingstrathspey.blogspot.com/?m=1/

 Meanwhile Kevin had single handedly barrowed all the segments round to near the gate (close to his car which was similarly well laden!)

"Stoker MacPhail" borrowed one of John's many gadgets (leaf blower) to try speed up the going home process, just visible in the background is the curved edge of the old turntable pit.

 After many, many buckets of water it was extinguished, concluding another successful day.

Many thanks to - John, Ian, Roddy, Martin, Kevin and Angus  

Aviemore Headshunt And Tullochgorum Overbridge - 13th March 2021

On Saturday a good sized squad met up at Aviemore to finish the previously frost postponed re-sleepering of the necessarily emptied Headshunt.

Squad heading to site.

Slightly older hand Roger, was welcomed back after vaccine number two, who I am glad to see was on light duties and the back of a much younger potential new recruit - Justin, who was a big help with the impact wrench, removing and screwing down chair screws 

In total 27 sleepers dug out, changed, packed and mostly backfilled as the light faded.

Thanks to Andrew, Angus, Fergus, Kevin, Martin, Justin, Roger and Mike who took the photos and provided all the information.

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Defects having been picked up during track inspections on the soffit of Tullochgorum Overbridge and knowing that an ORR Bridge Engineer may visit during 2021, repairs were authorised.
A stone mason over a period of ten days cut out loose mortar and bricks in the jack arches between the four 1866 Falcon Foundary (Inverness) cast iron beams.

Before

After All gaps are tightly repointed

along with some open joints in the abutment & wing walls.

 Remedial work at other locations is anticipated - watch this space.

Again thanks to Mike for photos and text.

Caley 828 on P'way duties and S&C oiling - 6th March 2021

Steam Locomotive Caley 828 having recently passed her boiler examination needed a test run and Georgie needed a "wee shunt around" over the entire railway on Friday 26th February.

Mike got the above photo at Boat of Garten, Martin the Driver wasn't sure if he was coming or going half the day and Robert acting as Signalman had to second guess where the whole ensemble was destined for but fortunately Georgie as Guard knew!

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Good turnout yesterday, the plan was to finish off re-sleepering at Aviemore, alas the ground was frozen. Georgie quickly moved onto plan B  

Angus and Mike were sent "Wombling" over the track around Aviemore up to Dalfaber level crossing. A good number of bin bags were filled with the accumulated blown rubbish. At some point they called into Spey Lodge where Plumber Jim was building kitchen units - somehow they managed to accidently break one - both Mike & Angus were glad to make it out to the bitterly cold wind again!

The rest of us were detailed to oil nuts and bolts on the switches and crossings (S&C) Aviemore Station - easier said than done!

Above south loop crossing with Andrew, Kevin, Roddy and a bit of Martin, off shot is Ian, didn't know his own strength and was nursing his wrist,

which fortunately came off better than his spanner did!

The crossings were definitely harder work than the switches. More people here than passengers on Northbound Highland Main Line train. 

The North end of Aviemore Station run round loop has hundreds of spring like clips held down with T bar bolts and nuts, Ian was glad of the power tool!

Roddy painted track lube neatly onto component parts, ready for reassembly. We all worked well as a team in finger numbing conditions and feel this S&C task should be completed on a Summers day.

Thanks to all that contributed over both days.  

   

 

Limited Local PWay - Jan/Feb 2021

Another Covid-19 Lockdown from Boxing day, pretty much meant that Strathspey Railway went into hibernation again, except for Georgie! - seeking out and loading the required P'Way materials for the new rail connection for the proposed Aviemore Running Shed.

  P'Way train awaiting signal from a wintery Boat of Garten - destined for Aviemore. Photo from the more than socially distanced brake van, by Resident Station Master acting as the lowly freight guard again!

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By the end of January, a limited local PWay squad assembled at a still snowy Boat of Garten, chainsaws loaded and fires lit in both brakevans, off we set towards Aviemore.

The rearmost brakevan detached near Kinchurdy Cottage and chainsaw operators Ian & Fergus, assisted by Andrew & Kevin set too cutting many overhanging trees on the Down side of the line.

On arrival at Aviemore our train propelled into the headshunt, where previously felled trees and branches awaited their fate! Georgie had hired a woodchipper for the weekend and carefully loaded and secured onto the flatrol wagon above, John feeding it, myself, Martin and Georgie dragged the offending foliage to site.

 Once finished at Aviemore we returned to Kinchurdy, where a considerable amount had been cut and dragged up the embankment to get chipped. On completion, just when thought we were getting home, Georgie suggests a big birch tree, rope attached to the train taking the strain, to persuade the tree to fall - not on the fence or the telegraph wires - it didn't and we made short work of de-limbing and chipping it. As the chipper was hired for the Weekend, we felt it would be a shame to waste a Sunday's hire with it sitting idle.

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 Sunday - On my arrival at Boat of Garten at 0800 the temperature was a cool minus 12 deg C and it took Georgie and me sometime to get the class 27 from the carriage storage shed onto the mainline as the point rodding was frozen solid, slidechairs were perfect, so must be have been an S&T problem! (not that we could use Signals! for fear of them sticking off or detection problems) 

Squad and PWay train picked up from PWay Depot and propelled to Lynchurn No 1 level crossing, dropped off Fergus & Ian with their chainsaws.

 We drew forward short distance to Drumullie LC, to again try improve sighting as above.

After Lunch John was assisted in the tree felling by Fergus. Georgie, Myself, Ian & Mike took turns in feeding the chipper. Thanks to John for this excellent shot.

It was a bitterly cold day and we all missed the bonfires that we used to have, to get rid of the vegetation.

Thanks to all that attended.

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Another weekend felling trees but alas no chipper, as the weather forecast was dire.

Fergus is a dab hand with his tree surgeon chainsaw, Mike poised to haul it all to lineside for ease of disposal another time.

 

Angus on the handsaw and Andrew encouraging it to fall the right way!

Not far from Broomhill, trees felled and one choked drainage ditch, to be rectified.

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Another weekend more recently again the chipper was hired and good weather was had, here near Fishermans' (foot) Crossing, previous day most of the already felled wood was chipped.

Decent lengths of soon to be firewood on one Flatrol and the rest shredded very efficiently (not on to the road!)

 As Kevin was missing shovelling  ballast so much he was detailed to do a bit of culvert clearing, here very close to Lynchurn number 2 level crossing, only adding to the flooding of the river Spey, which Fergus says he was looking at but I suspect he was also appraising his fencing work of last year.

Kevin and I were dropped off near Broomhill at the choked ditch, now that the shrubbery had been cleared, whilst Fergus, Angus and Georgie set about digging out the very muddy level crossing at Broomhill Station.   

On their return, Angus admires the improvement! (apparently couldn't find his wellies - sensible!)

Thanks to all that attended over the weekend. 

Early Christmas present from Network Rail - 21st December 2020

Yesterday Rob Law got an unexpectedly early phone call from Georgie - to get himself down to Millburn Yard, Inverness as soon as possible, to assist loading the Network Rail donated material which has been available for collection for sometime. 

The reason for the delay in picking it up, was sourcing the specialist "Trombone" trailer and then synchronizing it with our contractor with a Hi-Ab capable of lifting the weight. Above shows the lifting of the first of 24 x 60 foot rail lengths. 

  

The person on left is remotely controlling the Hi-Ab lift, Georgie (center) getting ready to sling the next crossing load.

The first lorry "loaded", although capable of 100 tonne gross weight.

The second being lengthened so it could take the check rails, crossings and closure rails, as the Mossend bound (4D47) Eddie Stobart / Russell's train departs, having dropped off containers full of Tesco's Christmas treats and now leaving with containers loaded with Norbord wood in them.

Today - rails now languish briefly at Boat of Garten Station, photo taken by a giant StationMaster (maybe trying to work out the car parking charges!) 

 Thanks to Transport Scotland for cajoling Network Rail into donating the scrap material, Vital Rail for taking the time/care to remove it, so that it can be put to good further use by ourselves, our haulage contractors, Georgie and Rob Law especially for instigating it all, as well as slinging and info/taking photos.

Wish everyone a Merry Safe Christmas..