Work in Progress: 8th September

posted by Roger Bye on Fri, 09/09/2016 - 01:04

Another day of variety!

Our thanks to Roger Bye for this week's report.

Due to a variety of domestic, health and leisure commitments, the Thursday Gang today was small but perfectly formed!

1. The weather this morning was a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers, as shown by the rain drops on the carriage side and the sun over the hills in this picture taken from a mid-morning train in which your reporter travelled to find today’s track gang.

2. Walking up (down?) the track from Killington Lane there was evidence of the gang’s activity as the ballast had been cleared from some condemned sleepers...

3. ...and round the bend towards Woody Bay Malcolm, Dave, Tris and Ali could be seen hard at work.

4. Later in the afternoon your scribe joined the gang in place of Dave. Here Malcolm drills the holes for the track screws while Roger and Tris pack the ballast under the new sleeper. Another 6 sleepers were replaced today. (Thanks to Ali for taking the picture).

5. Back at Woody Bay, John Uphill and Nick Slade completed the fitting of the vacuum braking system to the new ballast wagon. Vacuum cylinders are usually installed out of sight underneath wagons and carriages, however as this is a ballast wagon, the vacuum cylinder (freshly painted grey) has to be located out of the way of the ballast spreading mechanism. Here is the vacuum cylinder, the vacuum reservoir installed. The pipes passing through the wagon chassis connect to the brake actuating levers .

6. & 7. John and Nick then turned their attention to the vacuum braking system for the drop sided wagon. With the wagon positioned over the pit in the shed, Nick went underneath the wagon (6.) to connect up the linkages while John fitted a temporary support bracket (7.) for the brake shaft pending delivery of the required part from South Africa.