Track gone!

Following last weeks day at the Rocks By Rail Museum where track maintenance work was being started, I was expecting some more work but was a little staggered by how far things have moved on with a lot of track gone!

The point has been lifted!

The sleepers are stored on the bank!

And, by the end of the day the rails into the platform had gone to!

There is more to do as a trench needs to be dug by the platform to install a drain and then everything need to go back. Easy to say but not so easy to do especially when the CAT has decided to break!

This is where it inconveniently decided to break down.

The cause is nothing terminal but it appears that the fuel system is slightly clogged as John, one of our mechanical geniuses, demonstrates with this part of a filter housing which ahs a nasty sludge inside.

This is the sludge he dug out - nice!

Not being a mechanical genius, I was back to using the crude tool of a spade - or as you could say, I was putting a spade in the ground, just as the UK Government is presently talking about!

That trench was soon widened with the ultimate aim of clearing a path, level with the existing, to the new viewing platform that has been subject to previous posts, 

In the meantime, David was digging, but in a different way, through the overgrowth, to extract a panel of Heras fencing. Might seem a strange thing to do but there was a logic behind this. 

Once free, we managed to maneuver the panel down the bank and rest it against the gabions. About a metre was above the gabion which is ideal as a barrier to prevent visitors falling off the top of the platform.  

 

Amazingly, using my phone spirit level app, the thing was also spot on level! Amazing! We then wired it to the gabions and in theory, the backfill behind the gabions should firmly secure the panel in place.

Going even further in the pursuit of excellence, Alex is unwrapping a roll of Terram sheeting.

Suitable lengths were cut off and back at the viewing platform we covered the Heras fencing and looped the remaining 7 metres of the stuff over the top. Once the backfilling is done we will roll the Terram back over it and cover it with stone. Hopefully the Terram will stop weed growth!

Looking back from the Heras fencing, David and Alex admire a good days work!

I wonder if we will finish this platform before the track goes back to the other platform?