Boat of Garten Headshunt - 18th &19th April 2015

 

 With beautiful sunny weather, the very old track forming the headshunt at Boat of Garten, was dismantled and lifted in 20-30 foot panels. Believed to be Great North of Scotland Railway circa 1890, with rails 60-75lbs per yard and chairs are spiked into the sleepers and have wooden keys. I think Strathspey Railway got it donated from Longmorn Distillery in the 1970's, below is a photo at the start of this protracted project February 2013! 

 

and a close up of a rather worn fishplate, which were a sod to unbolt.

 

 

The trackbed was broken up and levelled

 

 

and between trains, under the control of the Signalman, the 360 machine was used to sling the new concrete sleepers roughly into place

 

 

and then lining up using a bar, muscles and what turned into be a very tangled rope! 

 

 

Rather fortuitously the old track now stored below, is likely to continue its incredibly long Railway Service, on its old GNSR stomping ground at Grantown East Station, to support two Camping Coaches as part of a planned Tourist development by Revack Estates.

 

 

Both projects to continued........

 

 

 

 

  

Re-Sleepering/Timbers Aviemore 4th April 2015

Good sized squad on Easter Saturday meant that three timbers could be changed at the South end of Aviemore Station,

 

 

 

You would think that the Easter Bunny would have put on High-Viz and dug some holes for us!

 

 

and then onto Road One (closest to River Spey) at the Engine Shed where three sleepers were changed and re-gauging took place on Road Two.

Thanks to John for the info and Mike for the photos.



Carriage Shed Concrete - 25th March 2015

 

After Keith, Stuart and Georgie did a bit of a shunt removing all the carriages from the shed,  at 1000hrs the concrete was meant to turn up.  1002hrs Ritchie's of Aviemore did and who ever said the Strathspey Railway don't get things through the back door!

 

 

By using the 360 degree machine the job was relatively simple, load up the bucket

 

 

and convey to the required position, as instructed by the Infrastructure Director!

 

 

Then a bit of levelling and shimmying

 

 

and from another angle, notice the Association Chairman still sitting down on the job! 

 

 

 

Finally, once Jim found the appropriate tools (even we, didn't expect the ladder!)

 

 

 job done, bar a few days curing, needless to say the weather was gorgeous again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Ballasting by hand Aviemore - 21st March 2015

Good sized squad, good weather and we were working inside!

Starting with spreading Ballast beyond the buffer end of Number 8 Road  progressing to the cess between the dividing wall and Number 7 Road. (notice the recent addition of wooden expansion joints for the proposed concreting)

 

A word of thanks to Colin Frost and Friends who loaded the two Flatrol wagons by hand, taking the excess ballast away from around the Groundframe at the South end of Aviemore Station on a previous Sunday, I am sure they would have been seeking divine intervention during that light exercise! The Ballast too rapidly disappeared into the deep ravine and then it was dining alfresco in the comparatively over bright sunlight.

 

 

After Lunch we slowly headed back to retrieve more Ballast, stopping off near the Coal Bench to admire the view..... of the new fence and lockable gate of course!

 

 

and then a photo of our Mess Van parked out the way on the Turntable, eventually we made it up to finish us off by loading a few more tons of Ballast onto the Flatrols, no photos as I was too knackered. Roll on the re-sleepering which you will be glad to hear is back on, as sleepers have been released from 46512's grip...........

 

 

Which if you look hard enough can be seen steaming.

 

 

 

 

  

 

Missing Sleepers Aviemore Yard -7th March 2015

The plan was to be re-sleepering in Aviemore Yard, however the new replacement sleepers were found to be missing! It didn't take long to find them borrowed by the Engine Shed, supporting the boiler of 46512 which I believe, has to have been found to have cracks in the firebox? now requiring urgent repair.

 



After a productive "Pre-Season Volunteers meeting"  in the Cairngorm Hotel, Aviemore, followed by a hearty soup and sandwiches lunch, it was time to progress to plan B - Measured Shovel Packing (MSP) in the platform at Aviemore Station.

 

 

A good couple of lengths were completed with Bill Johnson (centre)  keeping his hand in, before his drive back North to near Thurso. Lets hope its not too long before we can use the sleepers for which they were purchased.



Aviemore Carriage Storage Shed - 21st Febuary 2015

 

The culmination of three days hard work, unloading wagon loads of sandy material by hand, presumably obtained from the Sand Pit at the back of Boat of Garten Yard, certainly put a strain on Fergus' back

 

 

But as can be seen from above - lightening Jim Clark was on hand with the shovel today ! and John Wood wondering who is daft enough to try and take a photo, in the distant background is Stuart with a petrol whacker plate consolidating the base layer and Georgie as ever correcting our mistakes.

 

 

 

The location of this noisy frenzied activity is between 6&7 "Roads" in the Carriage Storage Shed, for approximately 4 carriage lengths, hopefully now ready to pour the concrete between the wooden shutters, providing a safe level trip free walkway.

 

 

to be completed midweek hope fully............

 

 

 

 

 

 



Boat of Garten Head Shunt - 7th 8th Febuary 2015

 

On the Saturday after the obligatory clearing of snow off the platform at Boat of Garten for the Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) service train. A small gang, finally got onto sorting out some bullhead rail concrete sleepers, 93 of them had varying defects and deemed suitable for use on the Head Shunt were stacked onto wagons below.

 

 

leaving approx. 200 now neatly stacked for mainline use again (think they came from Highland Main Line Dalnaspidal area?)

 

 

Thanks to John for info.

 

 

On the Sunday a larger squad loosened off the bolts of the fishplates, with much huffing and puffing as reckoned not to have been oiled since installation some 40 years previously!

 

 

Next task was to clear out level one foot from the sleeper ends

 

 

so that the rails loaded onto the bolster wagon by the paid staff in the morning, could be dropped into postion............ to be continued