Rapid visible progress on Running Shed - 12th May 2023

Following on from previous at Aviemore Running Shed - the East Pit floor

 

Shuttered and reinforcing mesh ready for concrete, taken by Mike Thursday.

Alex Walker the Builder in paradise.

Ian took Alex at speed (time is money!) as well as the 12.5 cubic metres of concrete

Job done for East Pit. 

Thanks to Alex and Ritchies Aviemore and all that attended and watered afterwards to prevent cracking during curing process.

 

Kinchurdy Foot Crossing and Aviemore Running Shed - 6/8th May 2023

Coronation day saw a small squad head to Kinchurdy foot crossing

which had been temporarily removed to allow re-ballasting. 

after the excess ballast removed from the sleepers, just a case of renewing the packing and screwing down the crossing timbers into the old holes, or so we thought! Alas somehow they didn't line up at all, so new notches cutout and drilling new holes ensued, just after photo taken - Fergus' drill battery expired with it jammed in and a train coming......

mole grips saved the day. Eventually discovered that the foot crossing now has more of a skew to align better with the gate on the up side - hence the holes not aligning earlier. At the end Georgie had us trying to match her neatness on tidying the track shoulders, to be continued. Not sure if visible but the telegraph wires are apparently being shorted by the encroaching branches - Fergus planning to do a bit of pruning. 

Thanks to Mike, Fergus, Ian, Andrew and Georgie.

Bank Holiday Monday at Aviemore new Running Shed site saw the commencement of digging the East pit at long last but as luck would have it nothing but rusted car bits were dug up at the North end, hindering site clearance.

Thanks to Mike, Georgie and Alex (the stonemason).

Mike provided portrait photos.

P.S. Further progress below 09/05 

And today 10/05, I think both taken by Colin Sterling.

Boat of Garten Works - April 2023

In April a lot of work has gone into the platform works at Boat of Garten

 and John above in all over orange did much of it! Assisted by David and Bruce (who took the photo) Bruce said the pea shingle was about the right size of ballast for him, as it was his Birthday and he bought us cake we let him off. Mike and Angus laid slabs for the wheelie bins below the footbridge. Fergus and I did the never ending job of oiling point slide chairs in the morning.

Georgie used the Road Rail machine to gently place old concrete sleepers to create a cheap retaining wall to stop debris

falling onto last years new Signalling bench, the rest of the squad had to use shovels, grapes and bars to good effect. 

Thanks to all that attended. 

This was passing traffic on 25th April - day two of a Photographers' Charter, please note that our PWay Messvan was painted specially for the occasion, it does look better than the undercoat green on one side gray on the other, painted by Andy McClintock many years ago as a temporary measure! 

I finished spreading the ballast on the headshunt but suspect not up to Geogie's standard!  

Aviemore Leylandii - 25th March 2023

Some years ago now I think we were getting complaints from neighbouring dwellings about the height of the dreaded leylandii, which in the most part we dealt at the time.

However some stragglers had a reprieve until yesterday. 

 As reported by John "All fell the right way, nobody got hurt, nothing got broken"  Above our coal loader has many uses - transporting the brash to the coal bench where it was to be burnt, alas the smoke was starting to kipper the Police Station, so maybe the our Shed staff can look forward to a smoking when the usual prevailing winds return!  

Squad of  Andrew, Martin, Ian, taking a break (listening to Plumber Jim's anecdotes) Mike, Angus and Fergus possibly still working at coal bench under tons of brash! 

John took the photos and most of the info. Thanks to all that attended.

Boat of Garten Platform re-surfaced - Friday 17th March

Another Strathspey Railway Association funded project comes to fruition. 

  Above shows the scene before our contractor C D McNeill of Dingwall tarred

and looks like they did a good job too! 

Of course there was a flurry of frenzied activity in between above shots! Thanks to Jim Clark, Jim Smith (above) saved the day! 

Thanks to Ian for photos, A full account will no doubt appear in the next edition of the Express members magazine in due course..  

Cess clearance and platform works - 11th March 2023

"Mid" Week squad met at Boat of Garten Station on Friday! Plan A was to do more platform ground preparation work, but as the tarmac contractor hadn't been to advise us what else was required, Georgie as always had a plan B. 

Recently serviced and cleaned North British (diesel) Locomotive fired up, train prepared, stove expertly lit by Angus in London Midland & Scottish Brake Van and off we set towards Aviemore, above view from rapidly increasing warmth of van. 

 

Over the closed season a good amount of flailing the lineside vegetation has taken place, unfortunately the loose debris gets blown into the cess in the cuttings and becomes a bit of a fire risk, so Georgie got us to load it into wagons, above Simon & Les passing debris up to Georgie, Martin and Angus were armed with loppers and cut round telegraph poles and more! 

  

Enough coal to last the stove for years was also retrieved, Georgie blaming the Steam Engine crews for not trimming it on the tender - no doubt they will blame rough track!

Anyway by the end of the day most of us had sore backs with all the bending but about 2.5 miles were done seemingly to Georgie's satisfaction.

Thanks to those mentioned above and Mike (not sure if he found any golf balls) 

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Ian reports - yesterday David (below), Georgie, Davie Dow and himself got all the edge boards in ready to be pinned and attended to some drains. 

Looking towards Aviemore

Looking towards Broomhill, showing Southern extent of proposed tarmac,

Thanks to all & Ian for photos.

Boat platform preparation work - week ending - 4th March 2023

Wednesday 1st March saw a larger than anticipated squad meet at Boat of Garten Station the task was to commence preparation work for tarring the main platform. 

I didn't expect the trench! - transpires it is for electrical ducting for S&T purposes, which Big Davy and his wee digger neatly dug.

He assisted Georgie in breaking up the existing old uneven tarmac before she loaded into spoil wagons. 

Once levels worked out, we proceeded removing benches, barrels and other platform furniture before starting to remove the concrete slabs.

Thanks to Mike, Martin (above) Michael, Roddy, Andrew and Davy (for also providing afternoon entertainment)

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Ian reports - On Saturday 4th more visible progress

 

ducting neatly buried below

With Georgies help and the judicious use of the whacker plate, fixed by John Sinclair, the area to be tarmacced has been whackered and set to there or thereabouts.

Many thanks to Martin, Les and David for their hard work and Ian (for report & photos)