Thursday 8 May 2014

Wednesday at Wishaw

Jim Hitchen continues the hard work of planning and implementing the renovation of the  Broadway footbridge at Wishaw. Here is Jim's report:-

Bill

Rather a steady sort of a day at Wishaw with only Roger, Keith and myself in attendance and no exciting fires to interfere with progress.
 
The burnt out lorry...
However having negotiated the diversions along the country lanes because the main approach road was still closed following the fire last week, we discovered the burnt out lorry in the outer yard.  Apparently the fire had been caused by a fault in the lorry's refrigeration unit as it was returning to it's base at Wishaw.
 
Keith on his knees....
We were fortunate that we had managed to retrieve the two staircase trestle supports prior to the lorry being towed into the yard as it would have prevented us from gaining access to these trestles.
 
Roger  with the  technology....
The day was spent in chipping away the rust and paint from the first tower section.  An amazing amount of rust has been removed revealing some steelwork to be in surprisingly good condition, as well as quite a lot that will have to be replaced.  Shortly after lunch the expected rains arrived and we had to sheet up where we were working, in order to continue.

Chipping in the rain....
  There is probably another days work before we have to rotate this tower in order to get at the bottom surfaces.  How to do that will be quite a challenge as it is somewhat hemmed in by broken down vehicles.



Regards


Jim H.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I got myself a copy of RAIL (Issue 747)today, in the Regional news section on page 24 it says that the bridge has been donated to the Wensleydale Railway. I hink that this is the third time they have tried to get the story right