Saturday 7th December

From the pen of our western correspondent, Jes Mania.

With 10 Pway members turning out today, we were able to tackle a number of jobs. Ian J and Graham walked to Alresford, and a number of bolts were changed on fishplates enroute. Adrian stayed at M&FM to cast the concrete fireplace lintel for the new PWay hut, before going with Neil and Paul C to the site of the hut to start further bricklaying. The remainder of the gang went to Alresford to dig out ballast beds between sleepers in the Dock siding, which have been identified as needing to be replaced under the Winter maintenance programme.

Ballast beds are dug out at Alresford in the Dock siding

Very short work was made of this latter task, which meant that around lunchtime the gang transferred to the hut site to sift through a pile of dumped sleepers, and identify which ones were suitable for use in the construction of the hut. Sixty sleepers later, the chosen ones were stacked above ground and ready to use.

Sleeper are sorted for use in the construction of the new hut

The freshly cast reinforced concrete fireplace lintel

The brickwork of the hut fireplace reaches the height of
the lintel over the internal opening

A good day was had by all.