Thursday 2 January 2014

Cheltenham Platform 2 - A Bonus Day!

A Report From Jo - bloated on Swiss Mini Rolls:-

Hi Bill

A great day today – steady sunshine from the word go. We picked this as an extra day because of the good weather forecast. There were 4 of us on site, two laying bricks and two in support.

On the brick laying side, we finished off the final layer of corbelling on section 4, and also backed up 1 ½ of the last two rows of reds (we ran out of light, or else would have finished off the job.) This means that section 4 is now all but completed, and the achieved platform length now extends to 30 meters, with another 30 in progress. On this latter stretch, we managed two courses of blues, making section 6 ready for further reds, which we think could be laid by the Gloucester lads when the return from their break. Total bricks laid today we reckon came to 465.

Next to this, some moving around of the duck boards (there is a lot of water on site) and removing excess reds from the stretch now completed.

We madde up 8-9 barrow loads of muck, and heaved them down to the brick laying area 200 yds away. As the mixer takes 90Kg, we reckon we shifted three quarters of a ton of muck today, and the brickies promptly laid it too. Where is that desk job now….

Neil Carr dropped by in the Class 73, leaving a waggon on platform 1 for the Cheltenham gang. This was the final rail movement along this stretch of the line until we open for business again in 3 months time.

Fresh milk to day, and no fewer than 15 mini swiss rolls – for 4 people, one short for a fair sharing out. What to do? First come, first served was the answer !


Best regards,
Jo


2 comments:

mack said...

Hi guys that last shot really shows the progress very well. Amazing dedication.:) I noticed the platform stops at the row of large trees, a way short of the bridge. Is that as far as It will go? I presume the trees are in the way as there could be root damage if u cut away the embankment that close to the trunks.. Hopefully they won't be felled tho ?

Jo said...

We are just replacing the platform that was there, so it won't affect the trees.
Dedication yes, but mostly we are doing it for the fun and the cameraderie. We could use more good brick layers though. We are having to use the smaller metric bricks and there are thousands of them, making for slow progress.
Thanks for your support!