Saturday 10th October

Chilly and misty conditions greeted nine members of the gang as they assembled at M&FM for the day's activities, but the forecast was good with expectations of a very productive day on a number of varied tasks.

Eddie and Ian R departed on the line inspection to Alresford, with Pete and Keith H Alton bound. Corina and Neil went down to The Grosvenor hut site to make an early start on bricklaying, and John and Martin W headed up the line to Chawton bridge, where they commenced work on some fence repairs on the up side of the line. This left Adrian C, who took the company transport firstly to Ropley to inspect the ground works for the Great Missenden Signal Box project, before going to Alton to drop off oil supplies for oiling the pointwork; and to give Pete and Keith a lift back up the hill (the one train service would otherwise have meant a long wait for them at Alton, the first departure being at 12pm).

Following the return to M&FM, Adrian and Keith set off to join Neil and Corina (later joined by Martin R), and Eddie and Ian joined John and Martin (Pete left for home, as he was rostered as a bar person on the Real Ale Train in the evening).

By the end of the day the hut chimney stack was nearly complete, with just the four corbelled top courses and the chimney pot to lay, and Keith had further progressed bank clearance work on the down side of the line towards Ropley. The fencing team had completed their task, re-wiring around 100m of fence up from the bridge towards M&FM.