Our Roving Reporter was out enjoying the warmer weather recently and he has submitted these pictures to the News Desk……
Mark had the mini digger out on the South side of the cutting C2 to reduce the slope angle to prevent any future difficulties with land slips. Now this has been completed the trackbed can be finished and the 7¼” Circuit ‘C’ Comrie track relaid to the correct height. This will then leave the short section under the bridge for edge boards and final ballasting.
The ballast store and loading facilities were reviewed in the light of utilising the railway and the hopper wagons and it was decided that improvements could be usefully made.
Mark again at the controls of the mini digger.
Work has continued with the placing of the edge boards and the Blaes on the A & B circuits. The view here is looking towards the containers from A2 & B10.
Other work has seen the point levers on Circuit ‘C’ at the East & West ends refurbished and painted. These were done off site when the weather was so bad that working out doors was impractical (well, that’s the polite way of putting it!)
When the weather improved, they were returned to site and fitted. Not all jobs require attendance at Almondell!
Another job that is vitally important to keeping the momentum of progress is maintenance on the plant and machinery. Often a dirty job, Peter & George have been working on the dumper truck and the diesel roller. Both were getting to be reluctant starters, needing the ‘happy juice’ to help them cough into life. However, Peter set to and stripped both down giving George a list of parts which he then sourced.
Users of the roller have given the work the thumbs up and expectations for the dumper are equally high.
I couldn’t resist including this picture as the words of the song ‘Three wheels on my wagon and I keep rolling along‘ and it seemed such a pity to miss the opportunity to use it.
After the ‘Beast (and it’s junior) from the East’ came the thaw and lots of rain. We were surprised to see that we now had the makings of a boating pond at the lower end of the site……
Out with the mini digger and the provision of a few more drainage ditches in appropriate places.
Unfortunately we don’t think this will solve the problem totally. It looks like we will need the assistance of the farmer who has the field next to us too.
