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!

More rocks at the Rocks By Rail Museum!

Arriving at the Museum I popped my head into the cafe where I found several volunteers trying to put together the recently purchased flat pack flat pack display case for the various fossils recently donated to the Museum. They were having problems as not only were the instructions in Italian, they were for a completely different display case! Add to that that there were too many fastenings and the whole episode was becoming fraught!

However, at last the case was together and the fossils are now on full display ready for next year opening.

What should also be ready for next year is the additional drainage system being installed to link up to that installed earlier this year. Hopefully that will go a lot more quickly and should make the site around the toilet block somewhat less like a paddy field after a few days of rain.

Having actually got to the signing in room I found John being studious for a change. Apparently we have a manual for loco Mr. D which is very helpful as John needs to order some parts for the braking system. Not sure where he will get them from as the loco is over 50 years old!

For me, it was a day of being reunited with Sammy Strimmer as I continued my task of clearing the boneyard of overgrowth so that we can actually see what has been stored away for years and may actually be of use and save buying in new things! This was the start of the day.

Todays main find was not more rocks or fossils but bricks! Hundreds of them! Now nicely stacked, apart from the broken ones which can be used as hardcore, and that was a back breaking job, at least we know how many and where they are although I suspect there are still more to find  in the rest of the yard! It does look a lot more accessible now!

Richard gave me a hand in clearing out the strimmed vegetation and built this rather fine looking bonfire pile!

 There will no doubt be several more piles to go yet as there is a lot more bone yard to clear!

Some jobs at the Rocks By Rail Museum are constructive and produce superb results!

Some jobs at the Rocks By Rail Museum are constructive and produce superb results such as the repainting of Elizabeth which Mick has been doing over the last few weeks.

Mick still has one side to paint but Elizabeth looks fantastic!

Other jobs, which usually involve me, are less constructive, even destructive in nature! Take for example my latest escapades in clearing the undergrowth in the. as I have termed it. 'Boneyard'.I did make a failed attempt at clearing out his jungle last Winter but hopefully this year will see more progress but it is all very destructive. Sammy Strimmer is my weapon of choice along with cutters.

In that lot there are some interesting artefacts to be discovered!

It is all very destructive at the moment but hopefully as the vegetation gets cleared I can begin to sort out just what lurks under it all and put it into some order. Well that is the plan!

A sign of the times?

Catching up om things at the Rocks By Rail Museum showed that signs are proliferating! No idea why but obviously a sign of the times!

There was this old tea triolley.....

...now repurposed as a, as the sign says, work bench!

Paintiing on steam loco Barrington continues and the wet paint sign was, well painted in wet paint!

There is an awful lot of scrap at the museum but we now have a sign to tell us it is scrap!

Eric has done a great job on painting the narrow gauge skip wagon....

...and really brough the detail out with the sign on it.

Meanwhile, Back in tyhe restoration shed, John seems to be stopped!

The purpose of this sign was not as a signal to me to stop, but it was a sign to attach to the track to indicate that all traffic on the track should dtop whilst Richard and Hazel were doing some maintenance work.

Despite all these signs, work on other projects continues. Alex was back to chipping cement and crud off Ketton No1. Why he is smiling is anyones guess as this seems to be a never ending job!

Back outside, progress is slowly being made on refurbishing this van. New floor and roof are needed and that is a winter project but which winter?

And for me? Well I took it that as the weather is chanmging it is a sign of the timeds that I need to get some final grass cutting done this year!