Work in Progress: 3rd November

posted by Martyn de Young on Thu, 10/11/2011 - 23:46

With the railway now closed to the public this week, there were just a few maintenance jobs to be carried out this morning before most of the Thursday gang enjoyed an afternoon site visit to the L&BR trackbed at Bratton Fleming.

1. A crossing timber (sleeper) at the turnout by the coal stage had deteriorated so that the facing point lock mechanism was becoming insecure. The task was to dig out the old sleeper and replace with a new one collected from the store at Killington Lane. Richard, Steve and Don begin digging and barring out the old sleeper.

2. Don, Richard, Steve, and Sam the dog pause for a break whilst digging out the rotten sleeper.

(Regular Thursday Group volunteer Richard Willey was enjoying his last day here for a while prior to his family move away from the West Country. Richard has been a valued member of the group for a number of years now and has assisted in much of the recent maintenance and enhancements at Woody Bay. He has also been a diesel driver of both passenger and works trains over the years. The group will undoubtedly miss him and the L & B R Trust would like to thank him for all his support and volunteering at Woody Bay and wish him the very best for the future)

3. Hunslet diesel HEDDON HALL with a works train at Killington Lane to collect the new crossing timber and a couple of hardwood sleepers for another project. The recently refurbished brake van No.56042 is now in service for these works train movements.

4. Back at Woody Bay, Martyn Budd and Steve Ball hindered by Sam, finish digging out the void for the new sleeper.

5. With the new sleeper installed, Don Brereton uses the T-bar to fix the screws in place.

6. Another job today was to repair and strengthen the wooden gates which had been damaged by a recent storm. Martin Andrews, Dave Drayson and John O'Dell fix some corner brackets onto the gate door.