Pull a lever!

Having missed going to the Rocks by Rail Museum last week, more about why another day, I arrived to find that the Museum is planning t go hi-tech! Now Hi-tech for the Museum is not some form of digital display or inductive cooker, it is in fact to control the points on site from a central lever frame saving a lot of walking! What is a lever frame you ask. Well it is this only it is its side in the photo from where it was delivered.

Not sure on the history of these levers but there is this clue casted into the frame which indicates that they are from London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. Must check that out when I have time..

Whilst there may be some rust on the lever frame, it has nothing compared to the current Southern brake van being restored.

The amount of rust is so bad that Martyn is having to use a pneumatic needle gun to remove the layers of rust from the steel frame. Hopefully there will be ome sound metal left!

Talking of metal, metal music fan Rob had spent the morning greasing the drag line and looked as though he had been greasing himself too!

He then went off to do some final jobs on the Plant Shed including riveting the final fascia pieces into place. The Plant Shed project has now been three years in the making so by the Museum standards its been a quick job!

Meanwhile, no surprises that after two weeks and a fair amount of rain, the grass needed cutting and that is my job!

 I was surprised by just how much it had grown as was the lawn mower which struggled to get through this stuff!

The nice thing about grass cutting is that unlike restoring a brake van or building a plant shed, you see almost instantons results! Very gratifying!

Just wish I could pull a lever to control the lawn mower from a central point!

 

Sammy Strimmer meets the Sidings! More adventures in vegetational butchery!

 Another day at the Rocks by Rail Museum with progress being made on steam loco 1931. Things are being put back together which is always a good mark of progress! At the moment the boiler is getting a coat of heat resistant paint which will be covered with insulation, cladding and the water tank so despite the care that Steve and Hazel are taking in the finish it will all be hidden unfortunately!

I think Steve is enjoying the work or maybe it is becayse its nearly lunch time he is smiling!

Meanwhile, Harriot the JCB is undertaking some work on the oversized washing machine where Rob is digging out a base for a a new shoot for the ballast to run down. Although great at the drag line Rob has still to master the complexities of the controls for the back actor. He will get there - eventually!

I took Sammy Strimmer to meet the Sidings! Mainly to meet the siding overgrowth! This is going to be a long job but I seem to have perfected the art of vegetational butchery!

Sore, but a great day with great people in a great place!

A bit sore today from yesterdays action at the Rocks By Rail Museum where the Sunday saw the Museum open with brake van rides and Monday was the same but with the quarry operating so I was shunter. That might conjure up images of driving a shunting loco but that was in the capable hands of John and Margaret who were at the controls of Mr. D between bouts of sunning themselves on the footplate! I hadn't noticed how shiny Mr. D is until I looked at this photo and saw the reflection of John and Margaret in the paintwork.

Being a shunter actually involves being on the ground directing the shunting loco, changing points. applying and taking off wagon brakes and coupling and uncoupling wagons. Lots of walking, bending and stretching especially operating this point which doesn't suit my aging body well! 

Luckily I was ably assisted by Dan who, with his younger legs, was able to do much of the leg work.

Mr. D pulls out of the loading siding after Margaret and John have topped up their tans!

One of the Sentinel locos brings up a rake of hoppers to swap with the rake of tipplers. Never easy getting the brake van on the right end for the return trip!

Meanwhile the cafe was busy. In fact it was so busy it sold out of cold drinks and icecream!

Meanwhile, sunning himself on the platform between duties, 

Graham was wearing this rather interesting T shirt under his hi vis vest.....

Even I can't add to that!

Anyway, sore, but a great day with great people in a great place!

What a difference a strimmer makes!

 What a difference a strimmer makes!

It was a quiet day at the Rocks By Rail Museum today and with the dry weather the grass has not grown much so I could leave the mower to rest and take Sammy Strimmer into parts of the grounds that rarely see his presence! It will grow back again but for the next few weeks the track bed shouldn't look as though it is being taken over by weeds! I just feel shattered now!

The Last Post.

Following on from yesterday and VJ80 Day at the Rocks By Rail Museum, there is a short video of The Last Post being played which I always find emotional for many reasons. I think the recorded scene speaks for itself so I will leave it at that!

VJ80 at the Rocks By Rail Museum.

Having an Uncle who was a prisoner of war in Changi Jail during World War 2 and survived makes today a special day for reflection as I visited The Rocks By Rail Museum with Mrs. Woody. Being VJ80 day or Victory over Japan 80 years ago many people around the World will, wherever they are, be remembering loved ones, some of whom survived that conflict and others who did not. 

What has this to do with the Museum? Well the Museum is custodian to locomotive Singapore which was also captured by the Japanese. It returned to the UK after the war and worked in the naval docks at Chatham before becoming part of the Museum in the late 70's/early80's. It is now registered as a National War Memorial and is visited by many whose relatives were part of the Far East conflict. 

Being VJ80 da , the Museum made a big effort to ensure that both loco Singapore and the Museum itself were able to properly and appropriately host guests who had come to remember and reflect during the day and those involved in the events of World War 2 in the Far East.

There were a number of dignitaries including the Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire representing the King and looking at all the medals being proudly worn by many of those attending it was clear that many of those attending had seen military service during their lifetimes.

Even clearer when colours are presented.

Various wreaths, poppies and white orchids were laid on Singapore following a various readings.

When everyone had finished, there were refreshments available in the cafe.

And Yvette baked and decorated this stunning cake. It tasted as good as it looked!

A day certainly of mixed emotions but a day for me to have pride in my Uncle, the Museum and its volunteers and those who attended to remember and never forget.

Jet powered rail mounted snow cleraer!

I got to the Rocks By Rail Museum yesterday and Ray, Who I have posted about before in this blog, said he had something to show me. Now at 94 years of youngness, Ray has over the years accumulated many interesting things including this picture that he showed me.

You may, like I did to Ray, ask what it is. The back of the photo explains!

Sometimes you just have to imagine what something was like and other times there is a photo to show exactly what it was like! Being 1947, which was a harsh Winter in the UK, and just two years after World War 2 came to an end and just a few years after the introduction of the jet engine we have this, a rail mounted snow blowing jet engine! The photo does show the thing in operation with ballast flying through the air as well as snow which looks somewhat dangerous. Of course. the operator in his Trilby hat will be well protected from any ballast coming his way!

Being intrigued by this contraption I did find a Pathe News silent clip about it on YouTube which makes it all look even more dangerous! Click here to see that clip.

On a much more safer level and building up to the VJ80 event the Museum has next week, Ben was giving loco Singapore a good clean. The loco is s registered War Memorial and the Museum will be playing host to families of those whose relatives were involved in the Far East conflict during WW2 and there will be a number of guests representing various organisations and bodies who have a connection with events.

Meanwhile Thomas and John were painting Mr D's buffers in readiness for Sunday's Driver 4 a Fiver event. Thomas was most keen to point out the cloth to catch any drips of red paint and not stain the floor. I made the point that a good painter shouldn't have any drips of paint!

For me, it was a day of further vegetational butchery including cut back the self seeded trees in this clam bucket.

Amazing how nature can take over!

During August the Rocks By Rail Museum opens every Sunday and on non-event days visitors can walk around the museum and just enjoy the delights of the exhibits. These days are usually fairly simple to run as the cafe is not open so there only needs to be two volunteers on site. Somehow I managed to be asked to be one of those two for today! So, I arrived, having also picked Geoff up and whilst John was happy enough to speak with visitors as they arrived, Geoff and myself took the opportunity for some site maintenance. Geoff got a lot of weeding done whilst I tool out Sammy Strimmer and butchered vast areas of overgrown vegetation!

It has been a long time since that was cut and all this rubbish came out of the cut area!

Before...

After....

All in all a great day with a fair number of visitors despite Google wrongly telling everyone we were closed! Must get that fixed!

On the Airfix Stolly things move on with decals applied. Not many but they add some colour.

A load of old fossils!

 A load of old fossils! Well that is one way to describe the Rocks By Rail Museum volunteers but it actually relates to a unique collection of fossils from the Barrington Cement Quarry that the Museum has been lucky enough to obtain.

John Drayton MBE who worked at the quarry for 45 years starting as a joiner and ending up as General Manager had collected the fossils as he walked around the site. Having used them as part of his talks to groups to raise money for charities he has now decided they need a new home at the Museum and given the connection between the Barrington Quarry and the Museum that makes perfect sense. Thanks John! That is him on the left talking to the Curator, David.

The handing over was done this past Sunday as the Museum had an open day and as part of that there were variou items on display including this diorama that had been presented John by David some years ago.

Also, a wonderful set of information boards about the history of the Barrington Quarry.

Which included this fantastic picture of the Museum's loco Mr. D, named after John Drayton, being loaded onto a low loader at the Barrington Quarry ready to be transported to the Museum.

Talking of Mr. D, he was in operation with three of the wagons from the Barrington Quarry and John and several of his former colleagues reacquainted themselves by having a drive.

Continuing with the Barrington theme, things are moving on with the steam loco named Barrington who was replaced by Mr. D! Owner Paul, is giving a cosmetic restoration to it and having taken the non-original coal bunker off it and replacing it with new metal to the original configuration, is now in the midst of painting it. 

That yellow smoke box door will stay yellow as that was its original colour!

Meanwhile, visitors were also enjoying brake van rides.

The volunteers were enjoying some refreshments and a catch up!

For me, it was mainly a day of shunting but working with some great colleagues, it is always a pleasure to do even if they call me an old fossil!