There was a good turn out but only Georgie, Ben, Roger & Mike ventured out onto the track where between mp 91 & 91 1/2 (Croftnahaven) various routine maintenance tasks were dealt with. Other essential things had to be done however by the others. Those outside enjoyed a pleasant Autumn day in a peaceful spot
Also present were Ian who assisted Ian Stokes a Volunteer who was digitally
surveying the yard at Boat for a site for a storage shed Strathspey Railway Association are planning to
progress. Ian also had to assess tree clearance needed at Aviemore Head shunt
& was then with Neil Howie who appeared with a former work friend also Mike
& they got into the faulty jacker packer & it seems the problem has been
found & the machine will be in action soon. Valuable spares were retrieved
from the other machines & taken inside where 2 almost new rail saws obtained
by Davie Dow from a railway yard in Glasgow were spotted & admired .. well
done Davie.
The track work included clearing ballast from below around 10 sleepers at
mp 91 1/2 on the up rail to get rid of a horrible hog in the up rail top. By the
end of the day the trains had got the rail back to level & this was lightly
repacked & left to bed in further.
Afterwards & without Andy the expert measured shovel packing (MSP) tin man we did MSP at maybe 10
joints & dips around the curve & got a well done from the boss.
An out of focus Roger focussed on getting chippings to the MSP points.
Thanks to Mike for the above information and photos.
Yesterday's P'Way saw another calm dry Autumn day, the location very close to Kinchurdy Bridge and the task was to dig out the sleeper ends to start the improvement of the drainage, above Mike in foreground, then Fergus, Andy and in the distance Martin Macleod fortuitously filling in a gap in the Track Inspection Roster (Lennon his high viz dog off camera but thanks go to both of them for this vital task)
and renew the ballast shoulder which was previously dropped in the "four foot" (between the rails) Ben with a grape full of fresh ballast, Andy brushing the dirt off the sleepers and Georgie trying to tidy up our efforts on ballast shoulder and level cess.
Last Down train of the day passes over Kinchurdy Bridge and thanks to Fergus for clearing out the steps down the steep embankment, making it an easier walk down to our cars after an exhausting day.
