Work in Progress: 6th June

At last! Summer weather is here, even at Woody Bay!

It has been dry and sunny all week and we are all making the most of it because we know what happened the previous couple of years! So its outdoor jobs for all, aside from the engineering staff who are busy completing the work necessary  to put our main steam loco AXE back into service.

1. Today the Thursday gang welcomed its newest member. Jim Pounds has been involved with the railway for over 20 years, volunteering at all levels but mainly at weekends. Recently retired, he is now able to join the mid-week working parties and this morning arrived at Woody Bay today in time for the morning tea break! His first task today was to replace the shunt signal disc at Killington Lane with an SR pattern version.

2. An ongoing job is the repainting of the station poster boards, and also the roof canopy above. Dave Evans "found" the paint brush to progress this project today!

3. Several old pallets needed cutting up for the firewood used to light the fire of the steam locos. John Villers, Mike Corner & Dave Bloomfield prepare to attack the pile of old pallets.

4. The railings and gates between the stable and 'Gents' desperately need a repaint so Nigel Thompson and Andy Foster were tasked with wire brushing off the rust and the old paint on these short fence sections. First Andy cleans off the section by the stable ............

5..........before New Thursday Group Member Jim Pounds applies a coat of red oxide primer to the cleaned section.

6. After lunch it was time to start on the gates. Andy wire brushes the iron railings near the gate. This area at Woody Bay is the entry to the station and the repainted railings will make this area look cleaner and tidier and also continue the SR image of everything around the station site.

Words and pictures by Nigel Thompson