Amazingly this was the last PWay Work Weekend before November without any service trains on the line and a big squad was requested and the Gang didn't disappoint! Meeting at Boat of Garten on a bitterly cold, wet morning for our own PWay Train to the worksite.
Our first task to warm us up was digging out round the pre-marked sleepers (above Angus and "Action Man" Andy), so they can be easily extracted by the Road Rail machine, or so we thought!
Georgie did mention that a "couple" had to be removed by manpower, as can be seen from above. The Road Rail machine jib is not long enough, so a rope was supplied and Jim in between the rails is supervising the Tug 'o' War.
Where the cutting hampered the extraction special sleeper tongs were provided to lift the 1/4 ton or so sleeper, and of course all to be repeated to get the replacement in, once the compacted bed had been broken up and skimmed.
In total 4 out of the 9 replaced had to be done this way - not quite a "couple"!
It was mentioned that it must be 30 years since Georgie last changed concrete sleepers by hand and now we know why!
A welcome sight was the last of the defective sleepers being loaded onto the Flatrol wagon before we piled into the lovely warm Messvan to convey us back to Boat of Garten.
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