Snow and Milton tree/lineside clearance - 19 February 2022

Plan B swung into operation after yesterdays white stuff, rendezvous was changed to Boat of Garten Station.

Where the Station Master was grateful of our shovelling skills, in clearing a short section of platform as only a short train was running

.Some lineside clearance was carried out at the behest of the organisers of a forthcoming photo charter.

Once Georgie had cleared the points of snow at Aviemore to release the Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) from the shed onto the mainline, she joined the squad at the next worksite, just off shot from above clip and mentioned/photo in previous blog -

 

the split wind damaged tree near Milton No 2 level crossing

John above and Ian soon expertly felled them without touching any electrical wires

and looks as if Fergus' fence was unscathed too! The brash was laid down and Martin first in there for some firewood!

Thanks to Georgie, Mike, Michael, Martin and John & Ian for Info/photos, on what turned out to be a cool gloriously sunny day.

   

Broomhill re-sleepering & Milton tree - 12th February 2022

Large squad assembled at Broomhill Saturday 12th, which Georgie organsied into three teams :- changing sleepers, changing ferrules and changing baseplates from from spike to a type called Pan 11 and undertaking the associated gauging and fixing work.  

After Lunch the weather turned liquid, even though still managed to change 21 sleepers and heaps of baseplates & ferrules, work to be continued.....

Report of "sheep on the line at Milton" - John and Fergus were dispatched to herd them off

and to check fence lines to see how the incursion occurred, in doing so came across this storm damaged tree which is closer to power lines than we would like, this unplanned work also to be continued.....

Thanks to Ian (also photo/info) Iain, David, Bob, Kevin, Fergus, John (also photo/info) Angus, Martin & Georgie who was pleased with the progress made.

 

Digging out near Broomhill - 5th February 2022

 Despite the forecasted bad weather a huge squad still assembled at Broomhill Station, with the next longterm worksite just around the corner. 

The curve is reputed to be the tightest on the old Highland mainline North of Aviemore and apparently in days gone by the trains rattled round at the full line speed of 60 miles per hour.

Georgie's plan is to hold the gauge much better than currently possible. Commencing with spot re-sleepering - Above Bob, Fergus and Andrew make a start on digging out, a massive 37 were dug.

The weather was pretty awful with heavy rain and Mike didn't want to risk getting his phone wet (or lost again!) hence photo in the Porters Room at Broomhill being the only mess facilities available on this occasion - Kevin dragged along for the second time his mate Iain almost hiding behind his large flask but still smiling.

 John, Mike, Angus, Georgie and others had fun trying to remove the dreaded elastic spikes - of which more in the future I am sure!

Thanks to all that braved the elements and Mike/John for photos & info.

With all the recent storms affecting rail routes in the Highlands a route proving locomotive was run and fortunately this was the worst that occurred so far, near Kinchurdy underbridge yesterday.

Thanks to Rob Law (S&T) for photo and tidying up the debris with Georgie. 

MSP concludes work at Boat of Garten Station - 22nd January 2022

 

The unseasonably mild January weather meant that trackwork could continue.

First job of the day was to re-slew a length of track at the South end of platform 1 in Boat of Garten. Both sleeper ends were dug out, the platform end loosely filled with new ballast and the track slewed using jacks. The ballast was then tamped to avoid the track springing back. The jacks were removed, ballast tamped again and the length tidied.

After lunch the worksite moved to the North end of the platform for some Measured Shovel Packing (MSP), measurements taken using the sighting boards (alas no photos)

and marked on the chairs in chalk, cross levelled to other rail, then each alternate "bed" between the sleepers dug out to the bottom of the sleeper approximately 18 inches either side of rail. 

Track then jacked up, leaving a sufficient gap under the sleeper

then the prescribed number of canisters, full of small "chippies" are measured out onto a special shovel, 

and carefully spread (packed) under the entire width of the sleeper 18 inches either side of rail. If done correctly each canister should lift the rail 1/16 of an inch after bedding in.

The following links might show the process in L.M.S days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1MnK68Se-g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-v-5Uf1PVs

Then drop jack and onto next bed to repeat, once complete just a case of filling in the beds with ballast and tidy up, hopefully concluding the Station trackwork at Boat of Garten for the time being.

Thanks to Mike, Angus, Kevin and especially Ian & John who supplied info/photos and Fergus as he loves MSP so much!

Boat of Garten Trackscaping 13th - 18th January 2022

 On Thursday 13th our friends from Scottish Woodlands felled three trees that were causing concern to our neighbours at Boat of Garten.

Sleepers were used to protect the signal wires and signal ladders lying around. The whole felled trees were swiftly removed from the line by our Road Rail Vehicle (RRV) to level ground near the water tower and I suspect Georgie spent some time tidying the track shoulders to the North Signalbox by hand. 

On Saturday Ian and Kevin using chainsaws reduced it all to brash, kindles

and usable firewood blocks.

Meanwhile Georgie showed some of the newer members of the Gang, the intricacies of using the rail jacks. 

Thereafter the squad was large enough to split in two - Peter, above re-distributing "ballast", tidying and filling in the ten remaining sleepers

that the other squad changed swiftly by mid afternoon.

 

Andrew wasn't content with just the handle coming off his brush, in his efforts to fix it, he inadvertently split the head in two! Undeterred he continued removing dirt from the chairs for a short while, until his knees gave in.

Thanks to Georgie, Mike, Angus, Martin, Bob, Peter, Iain, David, Andrew, Ian, Kevin and Scottish Woodlands

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Andrew redeemed himself by attending again today - Tuesday 18th January, joined by myself, Roddy and Sam all the way from Inverurie.

We were grateful of not having to hand shovel the locomotive ash out of the two wagons that Georgie had tripped from the Aviemore Engine Shed, on account of the clamshell bucket on our RRV.

However the huge lumps of strong dense concrete mixed in amongst it were not at all welcome! 

Slowing us considerably, we did manage to create a reasonable Down Cess by the time we were knackered and it was getting dark, maybe the Engine Shed staff should sieve their " locomotive ash" with a kitchen sieve next time!

As ever thanks to all that attended.

First Week of 2022

To start New Year off - 2nd of January - Ian and John assisted Georgie in a surprise P'Way day. John reports and photos -

"Trench dug, 16 condemned concrete sleepers laid out on their side to provide a small retaining wall to provide a ballast shoulder and a better grip, line/ballast keeps tramping towards signalling equipment. 180 feet of excess ballast re-purposed and laid to provide 50% of the new shoulder. 

 

A lot of digging was done by hand, Ian and John both knackered by mid afternoon."

Three days later our mid-week P'Way was cancelled due to the white stuff above, our Stone Mason has not be able to progress for the same reason, the pink sheeting is a weather proof membrane.

Myself (above) Mike and Roddy had forewarned the Carriage & Wagon Department that their warm shed was now our destination. The set task was to heavy clean the interior of the above coach, we finished quickly enough to also externally clean the newly installed double glazed large windows (now spotless). Mike also managed to re-screw down the anti slip strips on Aviemore Station Level Crossing. We may well be back if the weather doesn't behave. 

Saturday the 8th saw a good sized squad rendezvous at Boat of Garten and due to the likely seasonal weather Georgie had already organised a short P'Way train - 

comprising class 27 diesel locomotive 

a "Flatrol" wagon with a vast array of power tools courtesy of John & Ian and the recently refurbished LMS Brake Van, which by all accounts now has a super almost self lighting coal stove that blasts heat!

 Mike  reports and photos - "we did a bit of trimming at Boat of Garten near the water crane then off to Dalfaber, across the crossing up to Spey Lodge and cleared below the telegraph wires except for some overhanging branches from neighbours trees at Dalnaby which were left to maybe get their consent.

Then after a late lunch we set off to mp 85 & did more as far as the estate crossing ..the chainsaws of all types were great   ..branches were left to be taken up by the Road Rail Vehicle grab & chipped ..weather fine, still light until 1615 so a longer day than of late."

Thanks to Mike, Martin, Ian, John, David, Kevin and Georgie who all worked very hard. 

Maintenance at Boat of Garten - 29th December 2021

Yesterday saw an extra midweek day squeezed in, enroute by car it was a balmy 3 degrees Celsius at Slochd Summit but on arrival at Boat of Garten it was a chilly minus 5!

Ground too frozen to complete the planned re-sleepering, so Georgie got us to re-ferrule and renew the screws, where the old wooden ferrules had disintegrated. Above Peter tries the proper tool - waste of time!

The forecasted rain came suddenly through the bright sunlight

and instantly froze, coating rails, chairs and sleepers with a treacherous coating of ice.

 

The North end of the Up Loop was completed, flattening in the process all the re-chargeable batteries of the wrench, so Georgie and Mike got the petrol Bance into action, to screw down. Bob showing Peter the preferred ferrule removal tool - the handle of the sleeper nips, although both promise a more modern power tool solution would be better....

 Ian and his daughter were on lineside clearance duties - reclaiming from the undergrowth the buffer stop of the headshunt and Plumber Jim was checking for frozen pipes and burying the exposed pipe at end of Dock (photo in earlier blog)

Thanks to all that attended.

 And to finish off 2021 a short clip from Peter - a pity a few of the orange Army got in the way but without our monumental efforts over the year, scenes like this would eventually become a thing of the past.

Wish you all the Best for 2022