Track Alignment

Over the last few days the team has been working on the alignment of the track through the bridge and onwards towards Weston.  This has allowed us to further develop skills with more sophisticated machinery.

Thanks to CHR for the following pictures which have also been shared on Facebook. The link to the Facebook pages is in the top right hand corner in the web version of this page.

We start the pictures with a view of the prime material for finishing the track, ballast.  Here the Dogfish hopper wagon is being loaded with fresh ballast prior to being moved in to position and dropped on the track. The mini digger is a great help with this.

Once the ballast has been dropped it's time to pack to the final alignment. The new jacker  packer will help with this. Here the recently arrived machine is starting to be put through its paces.  There is still much to sort out on the machine but this will become a key piece of equipment in our quest to restore and maintain our railway.

Under the bridge on the slabbed section the rails have been shimmed to give the correct vertical alignment, making sure that each support distributes the weight of the trains uniformly throughout the slab.

With the ballast in place the track takes on it's final form.  Here we can see also the low profile metal sleepers used where the line passes over the main sewer. These were used as they require less depth of ballast in this area.

Many thanks to CHR for the pictures and keep watching as we move forward.

Until next time.