The cold weather prevented any brick laying today, so the 12 volunteers did their best to keep warm on a variety of tasks. The first order of the day was to get a couple of bonfires going!
A surprising amount of rubbish accumulates in a short space of time, so there was plenty to go at in terms of fuel. In the car park clearance work generated a fair amount for burning. Here the troops start to clear the embankment at the northern end of the planned car park.
The sad(bad) news of the day was that the other stub axle sheared on the dumper. This is a real set back for us, both in terms of working and, of course, financially. It cost nearly £700 to have the lasts one replaced and we will be facing a similar bill for this one. Here we prop up the rear end - my Christmas eating excesses coming in useful to counter lever the rear end up! Seriously though, it does put us in some financial difficulty and if anyone has been contemplating a new year donation, then there won't be a better time. I hope you realise I wouldn't ask if it wasn't needed.
On to other things. We are putting in the power supply to platform 1A and the lads installed a line-side cabinet midway, where the lamppost cable ducts are gathered.
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In remarkable quick time the job was done. All we lack now is an original door. These are like hens teeth, being normally cast aside when they are decommissioned. If any one can help please get in touch.
Finally the shelter for the dumper and roller was finished off - a bit of an omen with the dumper shedding a wheel!
Thanks to the troops today - it was a slightly disjointed day, what with the cold weather stopping bricklaying, and the dumper going on strike. I'm afraid some days are just like that!
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5 comments:
unreal about the dumper. its obviously the railways and not a hire item? id be taking it back to where it was hired from as not fit for purpose.
The embankment, carparkside, looks to have been partially dug out? is it going to need some earthworks before being fit for locos ?
gosh, i realise i might get some flak for this... but that huge electric box on the platform looks, well, a bit of an eyesore ?!
not wanting to cast aspertions, but the dumper looked very overloaded in one of the pictures from sunday. a costlt lesson maybe
was looking around on net and found this..
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dumper-Thwaites-4-Tonne-with-CAB-/160954017585?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Tools_Construction_Tools_ET&hash=item25799b6731#viTabs_0
its 500 quid at the mo, and has a cab!
Note to the above:
Re The Embankment - we are clearing it so that we can assess what is required to get it back into shape. There is more than sufficient width to run two lines into the station in any case.
Re Dumper It is metal fatigue that has final caused the stub axles to sheer. This is through age rather overloading. - we never knowingly overload the dumper. The dumper on ebay is larger than we would typically need. The one we have can be driven behind platforms etc.
A big thank you to people who have made donations to help us out. Bill
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