Ballasting

One ongoing item has been the ballasting of the already revived sections of track between the cattle creep and Weston station.

Thanks to CHR Facebook here are a few photos of this work in progress.

The ballasting is being done using the Dogfish ballast hopper wagon. This is loaded using the excavator and then operated as a works train. The follow pictures show the process.

First the loaded wagon is brought to the required drop site. Then by carefull regulation of the handwheels the hopper doors are opened as the train moves slowly forwards.

The ballast flows from the hopper doors to either side of the rails.

The result is a covering of ballast which holds the track in place. The next step is fettling of the track to the correct alignment. This is done by jacking and packing so that the track is locked in the correct position and can then be used as the running line. Here we see a ballasted section awaiting the finishing operations.

Thanks to CHR for the pictures.

Until next time.