Boat of Garten temporary watering - 26th November 2015

 

Yesterday Georgie, Stuart and Mike were at the Boat of Garten Water Tank.

 



Above is the new pipe at the base of the water crane awaiting the replacement base section which is being made at present, I believe by a local Blacksmith, however it is the intension not to use the crane during Winter services this year or in the future, as it is susceptible to being damaged by frost.

 

 

 

A temporary watering facility was rigged up, which will be replaced with a proper gantry supported pipe for next years Winter services...... all this effort is to improve on the previous years method of watering at Aviemore - pumped from a rail tank, with plain mains water. This year our steam locomotive 46512 will get lovely treated water, lets hope she appreciates it! 

Information and photos courtesy of Mike Tough.

 

 

 

 

 

Water Treatment plant at Boat of Garten - 21st November 2015

 

Andrew MacCracken continued with Winterisation of points at Boat of Garten until completion (proper PWay work), then he assisted the rest building external box around the water feed pipes,

 

 

above, the silver tape is the trace heating and then insulated with rocwool, below.

 

 

Then moved inside building to dwang out the ceiling and insulate with 50mm kingspan and 150mm of rocwool on top.

 

 

Not the warmest of days but apparently Stuart did supply biscuits - knowing him they may have been getting close to their "Best before" date!

Thanks to John Wood for photos and information.

 



Point Winterisation - 20th November 2015

 

Small squad today no thanks to another Strathspey Railway meeting, with the Winter Santa  Services (fully booked) starting a week today the opportunity was taken to do some "Winterisation" of the of the slidechairs of the points.

 

 

Above Mike having scraped each chair clean, Stuart applies  

 "Kilfrost Rail Plus" which is a specially formulated anti-icing fluid that prevents ice from forming, works to minus 35 degrees Celsius apparently, not that we want it to get that low! Today was cold enough.

 

 

All the points at Aviemore were completed thanks to Fergus and Stuart, "assisted" by me and Mike mid-afternoon (there were some muttering that we upset their routine!) 

 

 

AGM Day & Water Tower - 7th & 8th November 2015

Well once again the Strathspey Railway Association Members' Annual General Meeting clashed with our own Pway Weekend. The Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) again freely supplied by the Blue Square Diesel Group, conveyed 64 Members and Guests from Aviemore to the Bridge over the Dulnain, 

 

 

Stopping off at Broomhill and contrary to appearances there is not a mad dash for the exit or the Ladies! but for the free tea/coffee provided by Helen and Nick Thomson, Broomhill Station Masters.

 

 

Here Maureen Cuthbertson, closest and Diane Beveridge were admiring the view before a pesky photographer interrupted!

 

 

The DMU pulled back from the Bridge so that Members could alight to inspect it and all too quickly it was all aboard for the trip back to Aviemore,

 

 

where approximately 60 of us had hearty Soup, Sanwiches and Tea/Coffee in the Cairngorm Hotel prior to the actual AGM in the function room next door.

 

On the Sunday a few of us gathered at Boat of Garten to thread new pipework under the Track as the pipe from the Water Tower to the Crane on the opposite platform had burst.

 

 

Here Jim Hardy and Andrew McCracken simultaneously shovel earth in to backfill until realised its an electric cable and needed the requisite yellow warning polythene on top of it! Not too much digging required though. Unfortunately it rained and my camera doesn't like it but good progress was made and we are waiting for the Blacksmith to reconnect the crane. 

 

 

 

Water Work Aviemore - 25th October 2015

The temporary water feed to the dining set in the carriage shed had been run on the surface from a tap at The Lodge and this needed to be buried before the winter weather set in.

So the first task was to locate the mains water pipe that was installed some 30 years ago, that feeds from The Lodge to the Steam shed. Luckily Big Davie was present working on another task with Colin Stirling and he recalled seeing a picture of it being laid close to the running track, probably some three feet down.

Nobody knew for sure what other services might be lurking below ground, so hand digging was required.  After about an hour of digging through the surface of the compacted rubble that forms the yard we were lucky, and the pipe was located, in the cess, much closer to the running line than first thought.

 

 

Avoiding the Telecomms cables running the length of the yard, the trench was dug by Stuart and Georgie and the 32mm pipe installed.

Sunday the job was completed, with the fitting of an external stop cock valve and internal tap, that feeds a hose that runs to the catering set. 

 

 

 



 

 

Some of the happy team with the job nearly done.

Colin, Nick, Ray, Hayden and Georgie.

Thanks to Colin Frost for info and photos and my Wife for the not so simple cut & paste!

 

 

Spey Lodge Work -24th October 2015

 

 

Today a large squad comprising Colin Frost and three friends from Ellon plus Mike,Jim Clark, Colin Stirling, Bill Johnson, Davie, Ken and paid staff - Georgie, Stuart and Henry assembled to carry out various tasks close to Spey Lodge, Aviemore.

 

 

  Above trench was dug from the mains water to the Roy Hamilton Shed, after problems in finding old water main and turning water off, a pipe was eventually laid, with further pipework in shed still to be completed at a later date. Also a Telecoms trench dug to the Strathspey Railway Association Spey Lodge (which provides cheap accommodation to Volunteers)

 

 

A new back-up oil boiler and tank positioned onto paving slab plinths. This has to be plumbed in and set up prior to the December Train Service, in case the pellet boiler should let us down again when most needed.  Special thanks to Jim for staying on later than he was supposed to the make the water pipe connection & we hope he did not get too big a row when he got home!
Also thanks to Mike Tough for info and he claims to have been too busy for more photos!

 

 

 

 

 

Water treatment at Boat of Garten - 14 October 2015



A water Treatment Plant has been installed in the Centre platform brick
building at Boat of Garten to provide clean treated water to the water tower
to improve the life of the steam engine boilers.

 

some of the trenching required

 

 The water pipework into the
building for the water treatment plant had been put in by the Permanent Way
Staff.

outside

 

and in

 

With the technical plumbing bits neatly done by Jim Clark (apologies no photo of the man in action!)

 

 Also a drain pit had been dug for the water
from the treatment plant when it back-flushed.  .

 

At the same time as this was being carried out Colin Frost and Ray Kenyon (above)
completed the fitting of insulation muffs on the exposed outlet water pipe
from the water tower. Last autumn trace heating tape had been fitted to the
outlet pipe and insulation muffs fitted but there were insufficient muffs to
complete the job. Colin Frost kindly offered to purchase the remaining
insulation required and fit it, in order that the trace heating would work
more efficiently this winter.

 

 

 An electrical supply was
also required for the controls and chemical pump and the SR electrical
department attended to assist with connecting this up.

 

Above after the installation engineer attended on 14th Oct to
connect up and commission it. (hiding Jim's pipework!)

All that the plant now needs is enclosed with a frost proof box & suitably able helpers needed soon to do this.