A great day at the Rocks By Rail Museum today. The day started foggy and cold but the sun came out to warm things up and it felt as though Spring is just around the corner. Today was a day to venture into a place unseen for many years - a journey of discovery! The gap between one of the storage containers and the boundary fence had been used as a dumping area for many things but it was impossible to tell what as it was all covered in vegetation with saplings growing through various items and so dense it was impossible to get through. Three of us battled through the vegetation on our journey of discovery.
Clearing out the various items engulfed by vegetation.
The roofing felt from the container top had long ago degraded and was hanging off and falling onto the ground. Why a container need sroofing felt is beyond me as it looks sound enough.
Under about 3 inches of soil was a concrete slab.
After three hours we cleared as much as we needed and replaced the various items discovered but this time in an orderly manner so that what was there is now clearly visible and most importantly accessible.
So what did we find? An interesting metal sign face and post that could well be useful in the Museum.
A host of fire irons for use in the fire box of a steam engine, a steel locker in parts.
Some wooden posts with steel feet which look as though they should be used for something other then a bed for vegetation to fester on.
Apart from copious amounts of scrap metal the strangest thing that we found was this 20 foot long firebox rake. That is some big steam engine that this was made for! No one has any idea where it came from or what steam engine would have had it. No doubt we will find out one day. In the meantime it is now visible for research for someone to do their own journey of discovery on it!
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