Given the current state of the loco, the cosmetic surgeons are going to have their skills well and truly tested!

Things are getting back to normal, if indeed there is a normal, after the Christmas and New Year break at the Rocks By rail Museum.

This pallet load of loco parts has appeared in the Exhibition Hall which apparently are part of steam loco Uppingham.

Uppingham will be subject of a cosmetic restoration this year.

Given the current state of the loco, the cosmetic surgeons are going to have their skills well and truly tested!

Meanwhile, in the restoration shed, things are moving on with steam loco 1931with more cosmetic work being done whilst the return of the retubed and ready to go boiler are awaited.

Andy, shares the secret of his cosmetic skills or he is trying to live up to the Gunk name with its ultimate performance!

Cosmetically challenged I went onto continue my clearance of the Bone Yard with Sammy Strimmer and also assisted by Alex. The finds were less than in previous sessions but we have just about freed this length of water pipe.

We also found this metal racking support which may come in useful if we find the rest of the racking or it may become something completely different like a fence post or it may just go in the scrap bin!

We did however make a major breakthrough - literally! We have got through to the far side of the undergrowth and can now see the rear of the cafe!

It was raining by this time and I think that Alex was trying to tell me that having achieved this monumental moment it was time to pack up and get in the dry!

As we sought some dry undercover shelter I di look back and think that it may still look a mess but over the past few weeks there has been  a lot of vegetational butchery and a lot of junk treasure uncovered!

Treasure Hunt or should that Junk Hunt?

In anticipation of the bad weather to come I returned to the Rocks By Rail Museum on Wednesday of this week which was a decision which actually worked out for the best which is unusual for Woody! Just like the end of last year, the start of the this year saw Sammy strimmer coming out for another session of Junk Treasure Hunt in the Boneyard!

I and in fact even most of the longer serving volunteers,  just don't know what is under the undergrowth but first off was the discovery of these ten slabs in good condition.

Next up were these two curiously shaped steel plates. Similar to what you might find on a steam loco but not boiler parts that anyone can recognise at the moment. No doubt they will have a use at some point even if only as some form of playground slide!

Then there were various metal parts including point rodding A three link coupling, a boiler strap, several hooks for a crane and amazingly for a railway museum, two lengths of motorway crash barrier! It is now all corralled together with the thirty or so sheets of corrugated iron that no one can recall having! 

John kindly gave me a hand moving those crash barriers which are not exactly lightweight in nature!

Though the crash barrier was unusual, the prize for the most unusual item has to go to this roll of digger track links which I am guessing has something to do with the drag line or face shovel that the Museum has. However, another item no one can recall having seen!

I am about a third of the way through this clearance project so there could be more to find on my next Junk Hunt!

Meanwhile, back at the trackside, Steve and Derek are investigating the catch point and talking about relays and switches for colour light signals. All very interesting so I will await to see what comes about. Just hope theu are not expecting me to find a colour light signal in the Boneyard!

Probably the last day of this year that I will be at the Rocks By Rail Museum!

Probably the last day of this year that I will be at the Rocks By Rail Museum and I finished the year as I will no doubt be starting it in 2026 with more vegetational butchery in the bone yard! It may not be the most glamorous job but you never know what you may find and it is also starting to interest other volunteers who now come by to see what I have unearthed!

Todays junk treasure included this table frame....

,,,,thus ladder....

.....these point rodding parts.....

...and an assortment of metal parts that may well end up in the scrap bin!

Hopefully be March of next year just about all the bone yard will be cleared but there is much to do so the start of 2026 will be a busy one if the weather is kind!

At the end of the destruction session I looked back upon the scene of devastation with a warm glow of achievement!

More junk treasures discovered in my continuing vegetational destruction in the bone yard at the Rocks By Rail Museum! Actually there was one treasure, a gradient post which must be a few years old. It was hiding deep under the vegetation and Andy seemed interested in getting it out.

Once dragged out its in reasonable condition for something probably about 100 years old and it will find a place trackside once restored.

Other finds included this which initially looked like a mudguard from a motorcycle to me!

But once dragged out along with several other similar items it was clear they were all street light units!

This metal box had something looking like a coin slot mechanism in the bottom but what it is is anyone's guess but it must have had some use in the past.

An unusual find, as they usually disintegrate after time, was this plastic bag that contained steam coal many years ago. You cannot actually get this anymore since the UK coal mines have all closed.

The large stone blocks are from an old platform edge and will be needed when the Museum constructs its platform at the end of the line so they may still be in the bone yard for some time!

One thing that there is an abundance of in the bone yard are concrete sleepers which will come in useful in the future. Martyn is already using the CAT to haul out the revealed ones and there are a lot more to go!

At the end of the destruction session I looked back upon the scene of devastation with a warm glow of achievement!

Lots more to do and lots more to discover!

 

Wet, wet, wet!

Wet, wet wet! Not the boy band from the 90s but the prevalent climatic conditions at the Rocks By Rail Museum. 

Given such weather, I could have been sensible and found a job in the dry of restoration shed giving Andy a hand cleaning the running gear of loco 1931....

.....or doing something with loco Barrington....

...or even helping John out with fettling the brakes on loco Mr. D!

I could even have done some of the jobs on this rake of brake vans and wagons where I could have been in the dry of one of the brake vans....

I might even have considered doing something on the cab or water tank of loco 1931 which are temporarily stored on wagons awaiting repatriation with the rest of the loco once the boiler returns from being retubed.

However, being pessimistic and not having faith in the weather forecast I decided to try out Benny Brush Cutter! Similar to Sammy Strimmer, but Benny has a metal cutting disk instead of strimming cord. I thought that this would be a major step forward in the arty of vegetational butchery down in the bone yard. Having managed to awake it from several years of slumber since it last saw action off we went. The rain appeared to be getting less heavy so I thought that I was on a winner. I had to tackle a different area of the bone yard as there were dog training activities going on where I was intending to be but that was not a problem. I did uncover some interesting 'lost items' such as this engine!

There was also a door, some wheels, pipes and an assortment of yet to be identified metal parts!

I also began to uncover part of some remote point control mechanism.

But by this time I was extremely wet and lunch beckoned in the dry of the Snap Cabin! I was that wet that I abandoned going back down to the bone yard and instead sorted a couple of small inside jobs out and them it was home time with the car heater on full blast to try to dry me off! I still had a great day though!

Smallest manhole?

Arriving at the Rocks by rail Museum today I found that last weeks hole digging had now been partly filled with what is commonly termed as a 'manhole'. Now, quite what sort of person could access this manhole is open to debate.

Those responsible for its construction seemed happy with it though!

After some backfilling the original excavation was almost invisible - in the dark when looking from the other side of the car park!

Meanwhile I set to with Sammy Strimmer back in the Bone Yard!

This is what I started with and after a days strimming, hacking and cutting there was a bigger clear area!

Slowly but surely the area is being cleared but there is a lot more to do which should keep me busy for some weeks yet!

I looked back on my work and had a pleasant feeling of achieving something!

Like my Man Cave, the rocks By Rail Museum was cold! In fact even the heater in the lunch cabin had stopped working so I joked that we should open the fridge door to warm the place up! I think it would have worked too! However with some outside jobs to be done most people were being warmed by the work they were involved in including the continued work on finishing the land drainage schemme started last year.

Obviously the work is going well if the smiles on faces are to be believed!

Sammy Strimmer was back with me for the day as the seemingly never ending task of clearing the bone yard continues! Now David believes there are some weighbridge parts in the undergrowth and stated a mission to find them - brave man is all I can say!

If he goes much further he could be lost!

He never did find them but I, on the other hand discovered these two RSJs just lurking in the undergrowth as such things do!

I showed Richard them and he recalls about 20 years ago using them as cross members under a loco to jack it up and move a wagon under so that the loco could be moved! Well, if we need to do that again at least we now know where the RSJs are!

This collection of various shaped metal parts are from a long ago dismantled ore wagon David informed me! May come in useful if we ever find the rest of the wagon and it could be out there in the undergrowth!

I didn't think much of this as it became visible with the work of Sammy Strimmer.

However, lifting it up revealed that this and the one under it were the side panels to the engine on a Janus locomotive of which the Museum has one.  To be blunt, they should be rusted out but despite them being in the bone yard for at least over 20 years they have survived reasonably well unlike me!

As the sun set I looked back on my work and had a pleasant feeling of achieving something! Not sure what but it was a pleasing feeling!