Timbers large and small - 14th & 21st August 2021

14th  August - Mike reports - Another big squad met at Boat of Garten splitting into three!

A team finished south box foot crossing John both Ian’s & Angus subbed for Fergus

B team started fishplate oiling heading North until the Nethy Road under bridge when Georgie arrives with sighting boards & measured shovel packing gear to sort some dips in new point work into Pway depot .. I thought Sam & Bart needed that pleasure & we split up again

 leaving Michael, Les, Dave & Mike to carry on & we reached short of Milton 1 where concrete sleepers start

Michael stayed a bit cleaner today!

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Yesterday we met at Aviemore yard in light rain, our first house keeping chore  

was to stop the S&T point rodding wearing away our sleeper! - dug out bed so that sleeper could be relocated one inch further South. Angus sourced wood planks and nailed to keep the assets apart in future. The next job was to replace two mysteriously damaged sleeper chairs by Spey Lodge level crossing, by the time complete, Georgie had organised the timbers for the main task of the day - 

replacing life expired switch timbers and opportunity was taken to move the switch lever, for operational safety reasons away from the recently laid track,

  Above Angus removes planks, Bart disconnects point lever, Michael and Kevin dig out.

after much huffing and puffing right 12 foot 6 inch timber was replaced and the left "good" one was pulled through, gauged drilled and screwed down.

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Timbers packed and boxed in, new wood was cut to size by John and his many battery tools and Bart got a lesson in how to hammer in nails!

Thanks to Kevin, Michael, Bart, Angus, Mike & Ian and John who completed the foot crossing below

 

using all three bags of staples attaching the anti-slip mesh.

Nearly end of fishplate oiling and foot crossing - 7th August 2021

 Alasdair Jackson kindly sent the following two photos of fishplate oiling for week ending 17th July, I was on holiday at the time and did not appreciate

A - the size of Iain's piece!

B - the distance covered in a day - being about a mile and a half.

Thanks to Iain, Bart, Sam, Georgie (in shorts!) and Alasdair.

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Yesterday saw a large squad assemble at Boat of Garten Yard.

 Mike's squad continued with the dreaded fishplate oiling through the switches & crossings and very long loop line at Boat of Garten.

Above left to right, new recruit Bob, Michael (could do with braces!), David, Sam & Bart and Mike reports that it seemed that the crossover at the South Signal Box had not been done in decades as they were very difficult to loosen.

 Fortunately there were plenty of breaks for passing traffic. Sharp eyed PWay buffs will notice the lack of foot crossing? (other things maybe of interest too!) 

John's squad lifted the rather dilapidated existing South Signal Box foot crossing

 only to discover a number of track sleepers that were rotten, which were awkward and time consuming to change!  Above left to right Ian, Fergus, John and Iain.

Using John's vast array of power tools, the rest was relatively plain sailing although Fergus at one point had difficulty finding a real hammer!  To be completed next Saturday.....by the same "Special" Squad.

Thanks to all that attended, I think Andrew and David managed to escape being photographed and photos/clip from John, Mike and Ian Lamb who is submitting an article for inclusion in Hornby magazine.