A very windy day greeted the gang on their arrival at M&FM, where they split up in to two groups.
Neil, Brian, and Corina took the company vehicle down to Travis Perkins to pick up sharp sand and cement. This is for the next few weeks work, where Neil will be making some Southern Railway style concrete chipping bins to supplement the lineside furniture. After unloading the sand and cement in the bottom yard it was decided to go down to the West Country Buffet for the obligatory breakfast baps.
Adrian C, Graham, Eddie, Ian J, Keith H, Pete, Martin W, and Tony meanwhile took the Wickham Trolley down to Ropley, where they checked the tightness of the chair screws in the recently replaced timbers in the 15A and 15B pointwork. They also oiled all of the point slide chairs at the Station before loading the newly painted Northside Crossing whistle boards and travelling down to site to erect them.
They then went down to the Alresford to oil the points there, also frequenting the West Country Buffet ,where they met up with Neil, Brian, and Corina. After all stomachs were filled, the Wickham gang went back up to Ropley to collect the Wanders Crossing whistle boards, then took them up the line to erect them.
Neil C was dropped off by Brian and Corina at Medstead to start cutting the steel reinforcement for the concrete chipping bins. They then travelled on to Alton where Brian oiled the station points, and Corina started walking down the line preparing the mile posts, bridge numbers, and gradient posts for repainting over the forthcoming weeks.
Just before lunch the Wickham gang came back to M&FM to collect tools, Neil, and the freshly painted 50 3/4 mile post. After dropping off the rest of the gang down at Grosvenor bank, Adrian C , Neil and Keith H travelled up the line and planted the mile post between Mounters Lane and Chalk Dell bridges on the Alton section.
In the afternoon, Corina did some more preparation work on the concrete lineside furniture, this time working up the line towards Alton from M&FM. The gang down at Grosvenor bank started work to replace broken chair bolts, but found that the old bolts in one sleeper were too difficult to remove. Thus a trip up the line to the site of Butts Junction was required to pick up a replacement sleeper, which was then duly installed.
I did wonder (from the warm comfort of my living room) who’d be mad enough to venture out in that weather – and now we know! Well done all. That troublesome chair bolt fills me with a sense of foreboding. I hope we don’t end up replacing loads of sleepers.
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