Away for a few days and missed the Monday Special post. John Crawford and Jo Roesen came in to make best use of the excavator and finish levelling the temporary car park area.Here John takes the ridge away by the gate and thereby give a better turn into the allotted area.
Here a final rake before running the excavator to and fro to compact the ash surface.
It was great days work by Jo and John, and the brevity of this post, shouldn't detract from a job well done.
Can anyone tell me more about
this chair? It looks very old, and is curiously triangular. It is stamped GWR,
A, and has a foundry mark, but no date. We have now found two on site, plus a
complete signal/ point lever, very rusty, straight, and without a locking
handle. I shall provide a photograph when I have cleaned it.
5 comments:
Reference the rail chair the website blow might help http://basilicafields.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/quirky-query-2-great-western-permanent-way-in-victorian-times/
I believe the chair was used at switches (points), near the frog, between the diverging rails. It needed to be narrower on the "inside" to enable adjoining chairs to fit together.
Hope you all understand this! It's difficult to explain.....
Jim Boyles
Sorry, I need to correct part of that last comment. The narrow end of the wedge, would be on the "outside" of the rail.
Thanks, Richard.
That was an interesting site. Certainly the lip around the end with the letters corresponds, and the letter A on mine, with the A-D on the one in the article. Early chairs do not seem to be dated. We have found two of these, so I think they are worth keeping for their rarity. The embankment opposite the goods shed has thrown up several such items. Either this is because the siding there was laid with pre 1904 redundant track, or because scrap steel was dumped there, accompanied by a lot of ash and foundry waste that we have found. I am now cleaning up the very rusty signal / point lever that I found, and will post a picture when more recognisable.
Remember seeing similar chairs on old sidings at Radstock GWR in early 1980's
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