Work in Progress - 17th December

posted by keith vingoe on Thu, 17/12/2009 - 23:33

With General Manager Martyn Budd away attending a funeral, the last Thursday work party before Christmas saw the gang enjoying a more relaxed day than usual. However, Martyn had left instructions to tidy up the ballast, so despite the very cold easterly wind a majority of the gang wandered down the line to carry out this task.

Photos and Text Nigel Thompson

1. Robin, Richard & Nigel begin scraping and levelling off the shoulder ballast near Bridge 67.

2. Richard & Robin tidy the shoulder -looking back towards Woody Bay.

3. Enjoying a longer than usual lunch break, the conversation covered various topics from the L&B to London Bendy Buses and almost every subject in between!

4. Richard advances further down his side whilst Robin finishes off.

5. With the camera set on self timer perched on a sleeper, Nigel poses as he pauses from scraping off the side ballast.

6. Looking down the line showng the tidied lineside ballast. The recent ballast drop along the line is to help to keep the formation in place over and also provided further ballast in places where it has disappeared under the sleepers due to enthusiastic tamping using significant quantities of ballast.

7. Robin, Dave T and Dave B in a line pulling back the recently dropped ballast.

8. Richard advances alone towards the beech trees as teh afternoon shadows lengthen.