Track Pack - May 2011
Hello all, and welcome to the May instalment of Trackpack the No1 must read monthly, barring 1,478 other better publications. The time is passing by and we are now heading for our 40th anniversary Spring Gala event at the end of this month, with trains flying about in all directions over the bank holiday weekend. Very soon after this heralds the start of the peak-operating season with trains running everyday and thus limiting the amount of track time we get for our maintenance regime. We have a backlog of track fault repairs to carry out due to the non-availability of the BLH tamping machine during most of the winter period but we are progressing and will switch to early morning or evening work to continue the lifting and packing jobs. The holiday season for paid staff is upon us too, most of us having some breaks over the next few weeks, in fact early June is favoured by both Ian and Phil so staffing levels will be low for most of the month. We will start our Wednesday working evenings in June with a variety of work this year, as sleeper changing has been cancelled. We spent our sleeper budget on track materials from Eastleigh S&C before they closed recently, so the purchase of new sleepers will need to wait till next years budget. As we have many other things to be getting on with, our Wednesday evenings will not be wasted and once again all are welcome to join in the fun. Read on for more fun and frolics.
June Working Weekend – 4th & 5th June 2011
As stated in the earlier piece we are going to be a little short handed in early June, and the working weekend will be no exception to the rule. We hope to have some staff to help out but we are looking a little thin on the ground. What I hope to do is carry on with the work at Deacons Lane Bridge, which we didn’t manage to get round to on the last bash. We also have various painting jobs on signals and fittings around Havenstreet that could be fitted into the programme. By way of a change we could also be looking at painting some crossing gates and both Guildford farm and Ashey are really urgent should the weather be favourable. If anyone is interested we have a nice little job in painting bridge hand-rails at several spots too, so much slapping on of weatherproofing coloured liquids on the cards.
What’s been going on?
Fine Folks Find Fun in Fencing, Fires, Fishplates and Frothy Fingers
A three-day working weekend over the early bank holiday saw us tackle a fencing job at Havenstreet, a burn up of cut undergrowth and small branches in Griffins and a finish off of the fishplate greasing at Smallbrook and Wootton. First job of the weekend was to renew a section of fence running from the road bridge along the top of the bank adjacent to the road to form a boundary with Mr & Mrs Bowmans property. This is not alongside the railway but one of the quarters of the bridge for which we have responsibility. The old railway fence had long since fallen apart and some temporary wiring had given a few more years life, but even that had expired long ago, so we had to sort it out with new wooden posts, wires and droppers. Lots of cutting back was needed to gain access to the fence line before work on the fence proper could commence. The cut material had to be loaded onto the van & trailer to be transported to Griffins. During the afternoon we made a start on fencing and by the end of the day all the wires had been run. Sunday saw us finish the fencing, and cut down a lot of overhanging trees on the bank alongside the line towards the Up Advance Starter for visibility reasons. Meanwhile a small gang started the burning in Griffins of a large amount of woody debris, luckily the wind was in the right direction so any smoke headed off towards fields not the station and village. My day started on fencing but a call of help from the café to fix a broken dishwasher finished that and ended up with me washing up dishes by hand all day (hence the frothy fingers) to help out as the dishwasher was a goner for the day. Monday was fishplate-greasing day, as I had lily-white hands it was only fair to make them filthy again as soon as possible. The main team proceed to Smallbrook early with myself arriving later after doing some rubbish clearance jobs at Havenstreet first thing. The station area was swiftly dealt with and we all piled back to Havenstreet aboard the lunchtime train. The afternoon stint was done at Wootton where a full sweep of the loop and platform lines got the job sorted for another year. Once again this working weekend coincided with the real ale festival so on return to the Street some of our team enjoyed a pint of beer in the show field after booking off and very nice it was too. Thank you to all those who took part in the weekends work, we achieved a great deal over the three days and I hope everyone enjoyed their efforts. The beer was good as well!
What else has been going on?
Spring grass cutting has been a major part of our work recently, even with the extremely dry weather it has been growing fast as usual this time of year. The site around Havenstreet has been cut regularly along with Ashey and Wootton stations. Lineside cuts at Whitefield and Wootton have also been done recently. The visit of the Duke of Kent on the 10th May also gave us a lot of work to do before the visit to make sure our site was neat and tidy. Our efforts included painting of railings, fences and buildings, clear up’s of unwanted items around the intended royal route and cleaning. Not least of the jobs was raking up all the loose grass cuttings in the showfield to allow the royal helicopter to land safely. Pete spent many happy hours doing this and then promptly took the day off when the royal visit took place. The Friday gang have been renewing a fence on Ashey summit for several weeks now, and have almost finished. We still await a few concrete posts from Bob and Ollie to finally get it completed but this will not be too long. The bank side cutting will then start in earnest with the buzz of machines making Fridays very noisy in some parts along the line. The BLH packing machine has been working well after it received its new hydraulic pump and has been working very hard recently on various bad areas, the usual places being Swanpond and Forest crossing. Much more work is required in many areas but Wednesday evening will certainly help with the workload. Weed killing will be started soon, with the whole line and various loops, sidings and yards all having to be covered. Some early morning trips will be carried out with spraying equipment and La-La shortly.
Summer Working Evenings
Once again it is that time of year so I would like to invite willing volunteers to participate in a summer of working evenings starting on Wednesday 8th June at 18.00 hours. We would appreciate a bit of company if you can make it. Sadly two of our number will be on holiday that week and the next but Pete and I will be in attendance to welcome you and give any guidance required should you need it. Meet at the PW hut, Havenstreet about 6pm or if you’re a bit later look on the chalkboard for details of where we are. We do have a few sleepers to put in the first week so that should ease us in gently. In return for your time, a pint of beer or soft drink is offered to our volunteers at a local hostelry at the end of the evening as a thank you.
That’s all for now folks,
Dave, Pete, Phil and Ian