Boat of Garten Water Tower - 17th December 2022

 Another weekend of the week long cold snap and more snow, meant  P'Way had other duties 

After Stoker MacPhail (Angus) lit the coal fire in the Ladies'  Waiting Room (our preferred messroom having mysteriously been flooded by a burst pipe) the squad moved onto yet again clearing and salting the platform edge, result as above right. Ian clearing Broomhill platform and Georgie clearing points at Aviemore.

Concern that the Water Tower could get water into the steam locomotive were justified,

the previous day Georgie had  made and lit braziers to try and thaw things out a bit, Mike soon discovered that we could get water out of the tower on the main platform (bit of a flood ensued, Martin & David breaking the ice that rapidly formed)

Angus and Mike re-lit the barziers.

Then it was discovered that no water was getting from the mains pipe to top it up, so we boiled water in a bucket hanging over the converted oil drum brazier, much as we tried to pour the boiling water over the piping it never did thaw.

To see how much water remained in the tank was another not simple task as the hatch lid atop the tank was frozen solid, bars and hammering to no avail

this time the humble bucket of boiling water did the trick - sufficient water in the tank to keep the steam locomotive running for weekend.

Passing traffic above  - the Santa Train arrived with the class 31 diesel leading and 46512 providing the steam heating.

Thanks to (Left to Right) - Mike, Angus, David, Martin and Ian (off shot buying the squad coffee and biscuits from the shop). The drone like photos bravely supplied by Angus from the top of the water tower.

 

Festive white stuff cancels P'Way work - 10th December 2022

A few hardy souls fortuitously made up the P'Way squad today.

"Boat of Garten down platform being cleared of 4 inches of the festive white stuff (Fergus, Angus and Ian above) Georgie & David cleared all the required switches at Aviemore before all moved onto Broomhill Station and loop, as the planned re-sleepering was deemed impractical today YO HO HO"

Santa Express passing P'Way Depot (aka Morley's) at Boat of Garten.

Thanks to Mike for photos/info and the squad.

  

 

Another Friday Packing - 2nd December 2022

Another Friday was organised so that some more lifting and packing could be done whilst no service trains were running. Fergus was cajoled into being the Jacker Packer operator and bravely agreed, as Ian was away, by the time he got into the swing of things a hydraulic hose sprung a leak and the job was stopped early afternoon. 

   

Mike foreground, Andrew and Bob (who took the photo) all assisted in manually packing the sleepers either side of the joint that the Packer cannot do due to the fishplates getting in the way of the railhead clamps. All, including Bob's dog had an early long walk back to Boat of Garten as Georgie was called away to Dalfaber Level Crossing, leaving the class 27 and messvan on site.

Thanks to all that participated.