Pulling levers and turning wheels!

Another day at the Rocks by Rail Museum. Although there were only four of us there we got a bit more ballasting and track leveling done. With a minimal crew on hand I was allowed to pull a point lever which was a first for me and operate the chutes on the ballast wagon by turning the operating wheels which again was a first. I think I didn't make too much of a mess of it as the loco traversed the point OK and the ballast came out of the wagon in the right places!

These are the wheels on the ballast wagon. There are three. The outer two open the side chutes whilst the middle one opens the one in the center of the hopper.

The ballast in the hopper discharges through the chutes....

and out of the side of the hopper.

There is always some ballast that refuses to come out so in this case Richard went in to poke it out.

Looking at where we are now with the ongoing track ballsting and leveling shows just how far we have progressed. We started near to the engine shed in the far distance of this photo back in October.

We need to get down to that wagon in the distance on this photograph near that red board so probably over half way now. We need to be ready for the opening of the Museum at Easter so there is still a lot of work to do!

Walking down the track today I noticed that some of the concrete sleepers have the old WD or War Department mark on them.

These apparently date from the First World War. Not bad for being over 100 years old! 

On the Scania 141LB build my fears about dealing with warped and twisted parts and these causing problems have proved correct! No amount of pulling levers or turning wheels or even pushing and coercing the parts makes this problem go away!

I can see I will need to take some drastic action and get another larger swear jar!