A report from our guest correspondent, the OS Mapman................
After the strong winds and heavy rain on Friday a dull damp
start greeted the magnificent 7 (Pete,
Brian Hi, Tony, Eddie, Martin W, Keith H and me) who turned up to work. We
welcomed back Martin W, safely returned from his holiday in the Gambia. He
assured us all the mayhem there had nothing to do with him!
After a warming cuppa Eddie fired up the Wickham, Keith H
set the road and we trundled off towards Wanders to carry on prep’ing chairs
ready for re-padding. On that particular section (approaching the whistle
board) there are several instances where the entire sleeper needs replacing because
the chair bolts have fused into the concrete. Experience has taught us you
usually end up destroying the sleeper trying to remove the bolt. We dug out 3
beds to flip sleepers and cut a couple of nuts but it was straight forward and
progress was good until we ran out of clean bolts. We then headed back to
Medstead for a mid-morning cuppa and mini rolls, courtesy of Tony.
By now the sun had broken through and it was actually warm!
So, onto the next item on the agenda, down to the Butts to mark up sleepers we
could use to replace broken ones. This involved barring the rails out, cleaning
the chairs and freeing the nuts. Bizarrely, we also ended up refitting chairs
we ‘d removed a few weeks ago to make good. We have sixty we can use. They’ll
need lifting and positioning on site before we can reclaim more. We also
hatched a cunning plan. If we retrieve all the broken ones and ditch them at
the Butts, perhaps the contractor will dispose of them when they rebuild the
bridge! We’re so much more than pretty faces!
No comments:
Post a Comment