Sadly no plan survives contact with us, and we neglected to notice that the rails were a *smidgen* too short. This was however a mixed blessing as the rails we brough up were 95lb rails, and the running line at this point if still on 85lb rail. Conversion fishplates are a bit thin on the ground here...
Never fear, we removed a length of 85lb rail that was precisely 45ft long from above Whitecroft crossing and manhandled to where it was needed. Oddly enough despite its auspicious start, this job went like clockwork. This left plenty of time for our NR trained volunteer Courtney to show us the intricacies of the rail saw!
Courtney showing Keith how to cut up the old rail.
The new rail in situ and the old rail being prepared for cutting. (Pic by Rob Alpin.)
Notice the level of wear between the rails.This will be rectified with a rail grinder. (Pic by Rob Alpin.)
Once again, the shunting gang came to the rescue to help us test it by running the 08 over at line speed for this section and safe to say, abslutely nothing shifted. Always a good sign!
Apologies for the lack of photos on this job but everyone forgot to take them! Myself included. They will be added should any more materialise.
Large TP delvivery in the background?
ReplyDeleteCertainly is. Its roughly 80 ton of new ballast donated by NR. They had it left over from the rail vac tests and said its ours if we wanted it. Needless to say we bit their hand off!
DeleteThat's where that came from :-) thought Rob had dug deep into his pockets for once ;-)
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