Work in Progress: 10th September

An 'Indian Summer'? Bright and sunny this week for all visitors.

Quite a busy day for September, with three coach parties in the morning helping to swell the numbers for the day.

1. With the school holidays now over, lower passenger numbers are expected, so today was a 'rest day' for heritage carriage No.16, looking splendid while stabled on the headshunt siding.

2. "Volunteer of the Year" Dave Evans took a break from the Thursday Gang to undertake Guard duties - the fourth time this week!

3. The signalling team of Dick Gunn and Don Newnham has recently been busy upgrading and improving electrical systems on the down home signal post.

4. Today's locomotive AXE stands at Killington Lane.

5. Visitors enjoy the sunshine, and a chance to photograph AXE with the train at Killington Lane.

6. Perfect weather for track work. With the train safely out of section, the gang use the permanent way trolley (on loan from the Exeter & Teign Valley Railway, Christow) to move the generator, jacks and tools to a site uphill from Killington Lane...

7. ...where some sleepers required replacing. The rotten ones are unscrewed and dug out. Replacements are slid in and screwed down. Then some packing and tamping and the ballast is tidied up around the 'new' sleeper.

8. We were able to change a sleeper or two in between each train, clearing tools and ourselves away from the line as AXE passes.

9. Ballast had to be scraped away by hand - the gang lie down for this task! A total of seven sleepers were replaced today by Daves Bloomfield, Robinson, and Drayson, Martin Williams, and Nigel Thompson.

10. At Woody Bay, the foldable wheelchair ramp was used this afternoon to enable a visiting wheelchair user to access the train.

Words and photos by Nigel Thompson