Eight Volunteers and two Staff made a very good sized squad, the first task was to Slew the track under the expert guidance of Georgie, deciding where and which way -
Sleeper ends dug out, Track lifting Jack the (above) right rail, carefully dug out hole for the Slewing Jack by Ben (Mike gave him marks out of ten each time) and then Mike heaves the heavy piece of equipment into position and pumps the handle to hydraulically push the track over by the desired amount, then pack ballast in the voids left at the sleeper ends, drop the Lifting Jack and finally release Slewing Jack - repeat at next prescribed location.
This is the temporary roller coaster view after Measured Shovel Packing (MSP) but before the train runs over it and irons out the lumps and bumps. In the distance can be seen John and Stuart, who all day repositioned any loose elastic spikes and replaced damaged ones (and removed the jammed piece of ballast under the baseplate photographed in the last Blog.)
One of these days I will learn how to electronically crop a photo! Anyway the above was taken from the start of the old The Great North of Scotland Railway divergence, which headed over the River Spey and our train from Broomhill approaches on The Highland Railway Line, shocking how quickly the broom has grown at this location. A very tiring warm day meant we finished early and the Inverness contingent stopped off at Carrbridge for a well deserved ice cream.
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