Work in Progress: 24th July

The heat is on!

The 2014 summer heatwave has reached North Devon. Daily temperatures are well over 25° Celsius. Tourists and visitors are about; and hopefully now fed up with every day on the beach so they come inland to quality attractions such as the L&BR at Woody Bay. Every day, the train operations are running well thanks to the regular staff and volunteers.

1. Loco AXE was on passenger service, arriving at Woody Bay, as seen from the headshunt

2. The train arriving at Woody Bay

3. Locos Galore! - AXE runs round its train, with ISAAC and PILTON in the loading dock

4. Today's guard is Bob Ayres - here enjoying his ride in Coach 17.

5. Bob, of course, also has to look after the signal cabin - pulling the levers during each run-round manoeuvre.

6. Don Newnham and Dave Bloomfield worked on Baguley Diesel D2393 PILTON today - fitting wiring to the external head- and tail-lights

7. Don (now with his S&T hat on) also checked the correct movement of the point rodding and locking at the crossover during the hot weather

8. Nigel Spencer paints a top coat onto another bench seat.

9. Jim Price paints the mess room window frames in the green and white Southern Railway livery

10. One remaining essential track maintenance task at Killington Lane this year is to grease the fishplate joints along the running lines. Regular volunteer Graham Bendell (who somehow missed the spring greasing programme) took on this task today.

11. John Villers assisted Graham loosen the joints prior to greasing.

Meanwhile, at Rowley Moor Farm...

12. Nigel, Dave, Jim and new volunteer Trevor enjoy a morning tea break on the decking.

13. Today's task was to repair the support fence around the decking ready for the first 'guests - expected to arrive this weekend.

14. Martin, Jim, Martyn and Les also turned up to assist, but they too enjoyed their tea break first.

15. A variety of odd jobs have been undertaken recently. Here Les and Martin install a manhole cover for access to a sub-surface drain.

Words and pictures by Nigel Thompson and Graham Bendell (photos 4, 10, 11)