Work in Progress: 9th June

Sunny and busy too!

With Nigel Thompson on holiday this week, Roger Bye once again kindly provides us with photos and text about this Thursday's activities.

On a glorious sunny day at Woody Bay, Dave and Mike were tasked with putting in surveying marker pegs at one chain intervals along the trackside in preparation for a check of the track alignment. To jog the memory of our senior readers, a chain is 22 yards, there are 10 chains in a furlong and 8 furlongs in a mile. For the younger of our readers, a chain is around 20 metres.

1. After an early start, Dave and Mike return to Woody Bay for another load of pegs...

2. take a break at Killington Lane to discuss the railway extension

3. ..before resuming the work of driving in the pegs at the site of Bridge 66.

When they thought they had completed the task, General Manager Martyn Budd decided that additional pegs were needed at 1/2 chain (10 metre) intervals!!!

4. At Killington Lane, ISAAC was used to shunt the ballast wagon out of the way ...

5... so that redundant sleepers could be loaded into the Luggage Compartment.

6. These were then unloaded at Woody Bay for use in transporting ...

7...the magnificently restored lever frame to Rowley Moor Farm.

8. Two early coach tours were met this morning by Ilfracombe Town Crier Roy Goodwin.

9. The 80 or so passengers travelling behind ISAAC in the care of Driver Pete Williams...

10. With the cab backsheet removed, Fireman Graham Bridge can be seen explaining the working of ISAAC to an interested visitor.

11. The sunshine meant the outside Tea Room tables were popular, keeping catering staff Marj and Judy busy.

12. Nigel Spencer was busy painting the platform entrance railings today.....

13.... whilst Dave Evans continued with his refurbishment of the toilet/mess room block guttering.

14. Jim Price was putting the finishing touches to the wooden base of a tablet machine. Made from mahogany recovered by Driver Pete from an old pub, Jim suggested that the mahogany had come from British Honduras (now Belize). However, Pete assured him that it had come from Wigan!

15. & 16. After a few weeks absence; Graham Bendell is not hiding behind the shelter at Killington Lane, but is applying preservative to the back and sides of the shelter at Killington Lane.

17. & 18. Ali Burgess, Dave, Graham and Roger Bye, with assistance from sledge hammer wielding Dave and rail lifting Don, continued the replacement of some of the 10 year old softwood sleepers that have succumbed to the North Devon climate...

19...take a welcomed rest from the hard work in the hot sun to view the passing train.

20. And finally a reminder at Killington Lane that it is the next generation of railway enthusiasts that will carry on the work in the future.

Words and photos by Roger Bye