Work in Progress - 23 June

posted by Nigel Thompson on Tue, 28/06/2011 - 00:02

With lots of holidaymakers, 3 coach parties and many children from local schools visiting Woody Bay today it was quite a busy day for the railway. For the Thursday gang volunteers a variety of tasks and jobs were on offer. The following pictures show just a few of todays activites:

1. Len Howse and new volunteer, Ian Milloy "creocote" the wooden fence and gate by the loading dock.

2. Jim McFarlane continues derusting the up platform fence panels prior to repainting later in the day.

3. At Killington Lane, Nigel, Andy Foster and Graham Bendell cut down the undergrowth to reveal the stored second arrester block on top of an ex MoD 2'6" gauge turnout.

4. Another stored turnout at Killington Lane was also revealed from the undergrowth. This turnout received some initial work today to prepare it for regauging. As track maintenance on the railway is now up to date, the opportunity to spend time on regauging these turnouts for the future extension was very welcome. Although it may be some time before these turnouts are able to be used at Parracombe and beyond, the programme to sort and prepare the stored track remains a very worthwhile exercise for this year.

5. The recent sunshine and showery weather has resulted in phenomenal grass growth at Woody Bay. After cutting the grass yet again on the public picnic area by the overflow car park, the mowing is paused briefly whilst AXE passes at 1600 with the last train of the day.

Words and pictures by Nigel Thompson