Boat of Garten North worksite concludes - 20th - 27th August 2022

Gang met up again at Morley's on the last formal P'Way weekend of the Month 20th August

Re-sleepering continued and has now concluded for the time being, above shows a bonded joint to assist with the continuity of S&T track circuits (not many were harmed!).

Another task is to re-ferule the worst of the old wooden ferules, the hardest job is trying to remove them, the best tool we have found is the handle of the sleeper nips as shown by Mike above but still at times a very frustrating job.

Then David inserts the new yellow ferrules and importantly are hammered down by Peter who joins us from the Leeds area.

Then where the screws are worn, new ones are used. 

Above spot the difference ? - on the right is a normal run of the mill chair screw and the one on the left has no taper on the thread and is used to give better grip in old sleepers/holes. 

To aid identification M is for Maintenance, AS above (& S) possibly refer to the type of chair they can be used on?

Squad were glad that 46512 was on the service train as at least it's whistle can be heard.

Thanks to Georgie, Mike, Andrew, Peter and David.

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Station Master or Royal Scotsman or Ballast Guard - R Walters report and photos 24th August "As soon as the last service of the day, hauled by the Class 2 Ivatt, has entered the single line to Aviemore, a ballast train sneaks out of the Up Loop, hauled by the Class 27 Diesel, whilst Royal Scotsman, complete with its own liveried Class 66 locomotive trailing behind our Class 31 awaits its guests before setting off for Dundee.

The ballast train loaded with spoil from the new Running Shed excavations proceeding past Royal Scotsman towards Broomhill, with newly renovated LMS Brake Van at the rear."

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Yesterday saw an extra P'Way day squeezed in, Mike and Georgie were very glad to see Bruce who is up from Wiltshire (below foreground)

appear just as the heat of the day was yet again taking its toll, re-feruling was finally completed and then a bit of track sluing and Measured Shovel Packing (MSP) and no doubt a bit of tidying ballast, all to Georgie's satisfaction.

Thanks to all, especially Bruce, thus enabling squad to move onto another worksite next time. 

Boat Trackwork - 6th & 13th August 2022

Mike Tough belatedly reports for Saturday 6th August - "worksite Mile post 90 1/2
Rail regulation after reports of a noisy joint ( did not say broken fishplates ) caused by cooler weather after hot spell
7 joints 6 rails had to be freed off the dreaded elastic spikes first
Then joint and other measured shovel packing."

With thanks to Georgie, Ian, Kevin Morris, Andrew, Mike Tough and especially Baptiste as it was his last P'Way day before he heads back home to Lyon, photos below from resident Station Master Walters,

who had the pleasure of him as a house guest and I think he benefitted from Baptiste's excellent cooking skills! (Glad to see the weather finally warmed up for him.) We wish him well with his future Rail studies and hope he can return someday - au revoir!

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Saturday 14th August again saw blisteringly high temperatures - squad met at the new locus of tool/messvan as the worksite is now not far away,- from Outer Up Home Signal to the start of the concrete sleepers there are apparently seventy wooden sleepers marked up for replacement, Georgie had previously laid out new sleepers at the sites of the worst condition ones first, certainly hauling out the old ones was easier than normal all being bone dry and some even in bits!

  We envied the farmer in his nice air conditioned cab! It was so hot that we had luncheon inside the P'Way lant Maintenance Shed aka Morley's (mark 2) and Georgie even treated us to ice creams (some had more than one! - Michael)

Here the guage was found to be slightly tight, necessitating removal of screws 2 chairs either side and then applying back to back track jacks to maintain the correct distance whilst drilling, rior to screwing down.

Thanks to Georgie, David, Bob, Iain, Michael and especially Fergus & Mike who also managed to do track inspections over the weekend.