Weedkilling & Roofing - 25/26th July 2019

After steam finished service on arrival at Aviemore on Thursday 25th, the class 08 diesel shunter driven by Steve Robinson headed to Boat of Garten to pick up the Weedkilling train and hauled it back to Aviemore it was then propelled spraying between 4 and 6 miles per hour, with Mike Tough and John Sinclair controlling the spraying and Cess booms - retracting them when required, to clear lineside structures, platforms etc. 

 

I operated Ground Frames so loops could be done at Aviemore, Boat of Garten and Broomhill, sidings and yards have previously been done by hand, by our Contractor.

 

 

Above snap taken, whilst tank wagon and fire pump used to rapidly fill 1 Tonne (1000 Litre) spraying tank with water to save time, even then we did not have time to do the Dulnain extension but all felt that a 2130 finish was late enough, glorious hot weather so lets hope the weeds lapped up their poison with gusto! 

 

The following day Mike was back to the Railway and reports "the last bits of work were done to the below -

 

Thanks to the Robert Walters for his organisation and prompting and the Ellon squad (with some help from the PWay squad) for the exterior woodwork paintwork has been transformed. 

The scaffold was modified the day before to allow safe access onto the roof above Jim Clark is fixing a new ridge flashing below -

to replace a defective stuck on one. 

The refitted front downpipe was painted black & some cracked roof slates made good 

We look forward to seeing the scaffold taken away next week & the box will look as good as it was when built in 1923 (Then the inside could do with a smarten up over the winter ..contact Robert at Boat Station if you can help) 

This is one of the various listed building Strathspey Railway Company own and are responsible for at Boat of Garten and is still in daily use just now and an important part of our Heritage Railway .

The scaffold access established it to be in good condition at nearly 100 years old with localised & now repaired wet rot at one corner ... it is good for the same again we hope."
 

Thanks to Mike Tough for photos and info.