Saturday 12th September

A relatively small team of seven turned up for duty at M&FM, and we welcomed Corina on her first day with the gang (in fact she was most welcome as she had brought along a Lemon Drizzle cake- Ed.) The forecast overnight rain was supposed to disappear before 7am, but it was still coming down as a fine drizzle at 8am, as Pete, Keith H, and Brian headed off on the line walk to Alton, with Corina, Adrian N, and Adrian C Alresford bound. John being the sensible one, stayed behind to undertake maintenance and repairs to the three LAFFs in the dry!

Fortunately the rain stopped just a short distance into the walks, and gave way to blue skies and sunshine. The Alton team were joined at the Station by Neil and Paul, who had come for their fix of bricklaying, and were dropped off by the train at The Grosvenor hut site. Back at base and joined by Martin R, the others split into two gangs, with John, Brian, Keith H, and Pete departing for Ropley to progress the last stretch of fishplate oiling into the Station, and Corina, Adrian N, Martin, and Adrian C going down to the hut, where further digging work was undertaken alongside the bricklaying.

By the close of play, the hut chimney had risen by six courses with the lintel in place and the corbelling started. The ground levelling exercise was also complete. The oiling gang had managed to reach the pointwork at the London end of the loop, so the task should easily be completed next week.

During the course of the afternoon, the hut gang were treated to a fly past by the Vulcan bomber again, passing directly overhead enroute to displaying at the Goodwood Revival. A magnificent sight.