Recovering NR donations & Tidying at Aviemore - 21st September 2019

 

Small but productive squad enjoyed glorious weather today at Aviemore.

 

 

Peter here noting the end of railhead, just beyond the turntable at Aviemore.

 

Ian possibly thinking of charging Driver Steve (More 4 TV Celebrity) a Car Parking Ticket!

 

 

After a bit of shunting, most of the donated Network Rail rails, Switches and Crossings, timbers and baseplates were loaded onto the P'Way train by Georgie using RRV.

 

 

A Northbound mainline Scottish Railway Preservation Society charter is topped by a class 47 and

 

 

tailed by a 37.

 

 

Our own slightly older locomotive is more atmospheric, whilst Ian and Peter clear out surplus ballast from a Grampus wagon. Another non service day is required to get the last of the donated material. The Road Rail Vehicle (RRV) suffered an oil warning, so a general tidy up finished off the day.

 

Thanks to Georgie, Steve, Ian, Peter and Mike- who supplied all photos/info.

 

 

 

 

 



 



Lateral Resistance End Plates - 7th September 2019

The plan was to load more Network Rail redundant material, from the far end of the Car Park at Aviemore but the PWay train was found to be at Boat of Garten.... So Georgie consulted her Job Bank and re-tasked the Squad.

  

 

Above looking South into the Loop a Aviemore Station, the short section of flat bottom rail keeps on trying to resemble a fifty pence piece! instead of a smooth curve.

 

 

We slewed the track into the correct alignment and dug deep thin holes to accommodate the four "Lateral Resistance End Plates" (easier said that done as we came across old metal pipes and worst of all, old bits of buried sleeper - novel use of the sleeper drill made it easier for Bruce to use his sharp pruning saw) above Roger leaning on the end plate (he is on light duties!), waiting for Mike to get to the correct depth, with Iain having just filled and compacted the "ballast".

 

Sleepers drilled and Georgie screwed down the chair screws - hopefully it will not creep back to the old alignment!

 

 

After lunch In Georgie's usual fashion "a few dipped joints to do Boys" - This consisted of doing Measured Shovel Packing on nearly every joint right up to the platform ramp of our old Speyside Station, certainly Iain and Bruce (right) were thourghly reacquainted with the dark art of MSP! and all of us were knackered by the end of the glorious afternoon.

Thanks to Bruce, Mike, Iain and Roger (half day) and Georgie who still had to unload all the tools after we had gone.   



 

 



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.



Improvements at Boat of Garten - 26th June 2019

Bill McCarthy reports -The Electrical Department improvements at Boat of Garten Station continue 

 

- above "New Lamp we have fitted to the Gas House. We also had help from Benny in the Engine Shed to modify the bracket to take the lamp. Nick Winter fitted the light and external waterproof switch and Neil Ellision shot blasted and painted the whole thing"

Thanks to Bill for the info and Nick for the photo.

 

Continuing on from last years very successful mammoth Station re-paint at Boat of Garten, Colin Frost and the Ellon Gang were asked to paint Boat of Garten South Signalbox - possibly portrayed to them as mostly a brick building with a few windows!

 

Top with cap on is Colin and right is Ray, others are mentioned later - Simon Smith whose hobby is photography took this image and others, that may appear hopefully in the Strathspey Railway Website in due course.

 

 

They rose to the challenge and so did the suitably contractor tagged scaffolding.

 

 

The weather for the Monday and Tuesday was terrible rain/drizzle for Colin and Ray but the day we the PWay squad agreed to help was glorious (might have been too hot to work on the Track anyway) Myself, Roddy (closest above) and Jim (next) were detailed to sand down windows and paint with undercoat. Mike did some joinery work and replaced window putty that was life expired.

 

 

All in all we had a good day and hopefully we assisted the Ellon Squad. The mid-afternoon ice cream provided by the Station Mistress - Eileen Scott was much appreciated by all.

 

 

As were the new temporary vantage points

  

 

provided by the scaffolding.



 

 

 



Sighting and Concrete Sleepers - 8th & 10th June

 

On a bright Saturday past, Ian Stanworth and John Wood under the Supervision of Georgie, put their Strathspey Railway Association sponsored chainsaw certificates to good use, clearing sight lines from both Signal Boxes at Boat of Garten and Morley's North Yard.

 

 

Various branches and small trees cut down and taken away by JOKK the JCB to Boat of Garten Yard.

 

Then onto Broomhill to repeat the process.

 

Spot the difference!

 

 

 Hopefully improve the sighting for Broomhill Level Crossing, by 4pm job done, as were the chainsaw operators!

Thanks to John for info/photos.

 

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Network Rail and Bam Nuttall as agreed, provided a 360 degree Road Rail Vehicle, bogey and operator to Strathspey Railway for one week starting Monday 10th June.

 

The first task was shifting the concrete sleepers (which are the remnants of some of the short track panels, painstakingly broken up from Aviemore Mainline works - see Blog 12 December 2018) from Boat of Garten Car Park to the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) trackbed North of Morley's, using above machine to load, unload our P'way train hauled by the recently repaired ex BSW shunter locomotive, driven by Steve Robinson, with Georgie Supervising proceedings.

 

Strathspey Railway is very appreciative of the assistance given here by Network Rail and Bam Nuttall.

 

Thanks to Mike Tough for info/photo.

 





 





Summit PWay and Improvements at Boat of Garten - Week ending 18th May 2019

Recently I had a midweek day off, so headed to box in a few of the "new" sleepers with ballast near the Summit, hard going on my own and in the baking sun 

 

but I took the opportunity to take a take a break now and then! - above the late running first service train of the day, gingerly passes due to the high fire risk.

 

 

Sometime later in the opposite direction The Royal Scotsman hauled by our own class 31 at linespeed of 25 miles per hour. Think I only managed 25 sleepers before dehydration kicked in and I headed back to Boat of Garten to sign off and take water.

 

 

Where I came across David Childs who has been doing a massive amount of unseen skilled labour, inside and out, on the Island Platform Waiting Room.

 

 

For sometime now loose cabling has been hanging off the footbridge, 

 

 

as part the planned electrical upgrades at Boat of Garten by our own Electrical Department, the opportunity was taken, to finally camouflage (blackboard paint has its uses!) and secure them in position. Thanks to I think Nick Winter, Neil Ellison and Bill McCarthy for skilled work, photos/info.

 

Finally, a shot from the footbridge showing the sleek, unobtrusive, low profile....            WEEDS!

Less permanent evidence Mike Tough has been busy again!



 

 

 

 

 

 



Re-sleepering at Summit and RH & DR - 4th May 2019

On Saturday 4th of May a good squad of Ian, Mike, John, Bruce, Roger & Fergus all made their way to the "Summit" worksite by car, Iain arrived by the eco-friendly way, on his bike.
 



 

Fortunately John the Railway's Fitter had managed to cobble together a parts bin drill, as our one had failed in service last PWay Weekend, although it was slow going drilling as the sleepers are hard and knotted, blunting the bits rather too quickly. John Wood's battery drill also assisted in drilling some  the 430 holes! (using all his 4 batteries in the process)

 

 

Despite the weather being awful: squally showers of hail sleet and rain, at least abating the recent high fire risk. Excellent progress was made, Mike and Bruce managed to change 6 of the 12 remaining double sleepers, which will need drilled and screwed and then only the entire length needs all the ballast neatly boxed in! (with future tamping with our Jacker Packer planned)

 

Thanks to all that attended and John Wood for photo and video clip (edited by Graham Sutherland) and more info from Mike.

 

 

Meanwhile I was with R.MacPhee and R.Anderson on a short Heritage Railway break at the other end of the country admiring the 15" track gauge of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, complex but much lighter work to change sleepers here!

 

 

"Hurricane" left and "Hercules" ready for the right away, both built by Davey Paxman & Co in 1927, seen here at New Romney, was the final day of our pleasant jaunt South.