The third Saturday of the winter occupation saw a stellar cast assemble at Medstead early.
We were therefore able to split the gang and carry on with the primary task in hand, namely changing the final batch of broken chairs, and some stubborn nuts that were frozen on to their bolts. Eddie, Martin B and Martin W (returning from foreign parts), John, Ian R, and Keith H took the Wickham Trolley out to attend to this.
Meanwhile the gang had been asked to carry on their wonderful efforts of the previous week, digging out ballast beds in the 15B point in Ropley due for the same treatment as 15A. The mid-week boys had been very busy during the week undertaking the replacement of all the timbers under 15A (access to Ropley Yard) with hardwood ones. The longest timber is about 15'8" in old money, and there were 20 plus to change! As an aside, we were reliably informed last week by a member of the Urie Group (who used to do Pway work on the Railway) that the points were installed 40 years ago, having come second hand from Silvertown Docks in London (ex LNER trackwork).
Keith B (down from foreign parts!!!), Adrian N, Adrian C, Ian J, and Pete tackled the remaining beds to be dug out. In between, they transferred the whistle boards from the company transport into the Carriage Works for Corina to finish applying undercoat, and start to apply a top coat of paint, so they can go back out to their respective sites next week. We are on a tight schedule at this time of year!
Returning to base for lunch, the afternoon saw Martin B and Ian J leave for other duties and the chair gang head back out to continue the chair replacement job. A total of nine chair replacements and one bolt change were undertaken during the course of the day.
On their return to M&FM at around 3pm, John, Corina, Adrians N and C, Keiths B and H, and Pete set off in the Wickham down the line to Wanders and Northside Crossings, where they 'creocoted the whistle board mounting posts.
After 20 years volunteering this is my first experience changing chairs and think there is nothing more satisfying than the “clang” sound of a rail being dropped into a replaced chair. A lot of prep work made this a relatively smooth operation. Even so, we still ended up tipping a sleeper to replace a bolt! Speaking of which, add replacing all the sheared chair bolts to the “to do” list.
ReplyDeleteThis will certainly be on the list for our evening work parties, starting in May-Ed.
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