Rocks By Rail or should that be Rocks By JCB?

Back to Rocks by Rail today - my first day of volunteering this year. Lots has happened since I last visited as a volunteer last year.

The Midland brake van that is desperately needed for this years season of brake van rides has now been stripped of much of its interior paint. The outside is done but the inside is now subject to attention.

Stripping the pant off is like dealing with an old battleship - there are just layers upon layers of paint that literally have had to be taken off with an angle grinder! Unfortunately you get to a point where there are so many layers of paint that the only sensible thing to do to get a decent finish is to strip back to the wood. It is a messy job and John is dressed up more like he is working in a nuclear plant!

Although the weather has been cold doing this sort of work in a confined area soon generates some heat and a fan is a good idea!

There are three other brake vans that need to be refurbished and they need to come into the workshop. To make room for them Harriot the JCB and the CAT need to come out. However being old machines they do need some protection from the weather so in a true budget limited way the solution is to put a roof between two containers.

Believe it or not only a few days ago there was a third 40 foot container between these two and that had to be dragged out after the JCB with a seized engine that was in front of it had also been dragged out of the way. It was a bit like the old fashioned chain gang today breaking up rocks and old hard bags of cement that were also in the way to make a hard standing for the machines.

Harriot the JCB was in use to move the broken rocks and cement - a case of rocks by JCB!

You may note that Harriot is looking a little different. Slowly she is being derusted and the red oxide paint is in preparation for a fresh new coat of yellow paint. Apparently the paint on Harriot is nothing like the Midland brake van - there is just the one coat of original paint! 

 

Meanwhile I also had an hour to do some leaf and vegetation clearing. Two large one ton builders bags filled with leaves, weeds and twigs came out from this small area. I also moved 60 bricks - I seem to have had the experience of that back at WMD HQ moving the bricks from the recent building work - to a more suitable location. Just need to move that rubble now! Unfortunately in accessible to Harriot so it will be a wheel barrow job! Rocks By Wheelbarrow then!