On arrival at Boat of Garten the squad were pleasantly surprised to find the PWay train being readied for departure.
Although Dave Green above detected a strange noise emanating from the class 08 locomotive (not that Steve Robinson our Driver, had any major concerns). Unfortunately three of the squad had a Strathspey Railway Association meeting to attend to in the morning, so it left with Georgie, two Johns and Andy,
whom amongst other things I think went Up the line heading towards the "Summit" collecting all the old fence posts (into the Flatrol as above) that have been replaced by Fergus during his marathon stock-proofing of our Up boundary fence.
After the meeting, Mike drove Ian and myself to Kinchurdy Bridge and thankfully the PWay train came and picked us up, as it is a long walk to worksite. Whole squad dined in the Brake Guards Van, which Andy McClintock had tidied out as well as tending to the stove.
After Luncheon the Squad split up into quite a production line at the re-sleepering site.
John Wood somehow is still smiling, after removing the majority of the circa 744 screws using the increasingly heavy Bance.
Thereafter John Hornby came along pulling out the screws from the chairs and placing to the side.
Followed by Ian Stanworth and myself removing the old wooden ferrules and a few split plastic ones.
Then Andy McClintock, who feels like he is still 18! places the new plastic ferrules in the chairs
for Mike Tough to tap them in using a hammer - at high speed!
Andrew McCracken joined us after a Rails to Grantown meeting and Georgie delegated quality control of the screws to him - those that didn't have a sharp well defined, non corroded thread edge, being scrapped and Georgie replaced by better ones.
As the weather closed in the task was completed and we all took the train back to Boat of Garten - dropping Mike off, for him to suffer the very bumpy road back.
Thanks to all involved, I hope I haven't missed anyone!
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Station Master at Boat of Garten - Robert Walter's photograph show rapid progress by Nethy Steel on storage shed in yard on Friday below.
And a couple of snaps from me below, when contractor not working yesterday.
Project Lead - Mike Tough, hopes for completion next week, only with favourable weather conditions - fingers crossed.
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