With the foundations for platform 1C being started tomorrow, the need to increase our brick stocks has come to the fore. A team of BAG Volunteers offered to go down to the Bristol Port Company site at Avonmouth to continue with the brick gathering from the old turntable pit. A team of 10 or more went down and here is Jo's report and photos.
Hi Bill,
We had a
successful day at Avonmouth today. It was cold and misty, only 4 degrees to
start with. At the end of the day, we were working without our jackets on, it
was so warm.
We had
teams demolishing a wall, another clearing and lifting the floor, more bringing
the bricks to the dumpy bags, and finally a team putting the bricks into the
dumpy bags. Yours truly spent the day on the SDS drill, chiselling off the
edging bricks, which were set in hard mortar.
There was a
slight dropping of jaws when we got to the site – the fencing contractor had,
as we knew, continued to erect a fence, but instead of leaving the promised
gap, he had built his fence right across the site and way beyond! Undeterred,
we wriggled underneath the fence, and 8 of us manhandled the generator up over
the top. We are promised a set of gates the next time we come, said our
friendly man from the BPC.
At the end
of the day, we had recovered and stacked 1700 blues, and bagged the existing
500 recovered on the first day, making 2200 in 18 dumpy bags. We think we are
between one third and half way to the end of extraction, meaning two more
extraction visits required. We also need another 25 dumpy bags – can you order
these for Friday or Saturday? Taking all the blues looks like about 50 dumpy
bags in total. We are not taking the reds, being slightly larger, although they
look of reasonable quality as set in very weak mortar.
We plan to
return next Wednesday, I’ll send you an email to call for volunteers. As
before, not everyone can come the next time, with holidays, doctor’s
appointments ect.
Best
regards,
Jo
What a tremendous effort! Thank you very much to all who went - its very much appreciated.
Bill
3 comments:
What happened with the fence?
Great job lads, well done. I wish I could have been with you. It's a bit warmer here in Oz, it's going to be 41 degrees today!
Terry
We knew the fence was coming - it separates the former siding space, to be cleared, from a green strip to be maintained between the former sidings and the branch line. The turntable pit is located in this green strip.
We were told the fencing contractor would leave a gap where we were working, but when we came back - no gap ! So we had to wriggle under it, and pass all the bricks through the same gap. Not a big problem really. We have been promised a double gate for next time.
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