Preparing the trackbed

Since the last BR weed-killing train ran in 1993 the line has tried to slowly blend back in to nature.  The growth of vegetation happens at an alarming rate and it is only by the efforts of a few volunteers that we can still see the way to Weston.

Initial work was done by Alun Evans (Alun The Spray) and he almost single handed kept much of the route from going back to nature.  Alun is no longer with us but his dedication has been recognised by having a loco named after him.

To recap.  This is what we start with.  And this is one of the clearer sections!

The ballast has a high percentage of soil and foreign matter and the drainage has to be checked.  Rather than pull up everything between Oswestry and Weston all at one go the work has been broken down in to sections.  The plan is to take up about 20 lengths at a time and deal with those.

First step is to undo the fishplates and lever out the rails.  Now, having not had the benefit of being oiled or greased for the last 20 or so years you can guess how easy that job is! Mechanisation helps here as if you have ever tried this operation with a hand spanner you will have learnt two things.  First is that walking long distances carrying the spanner is no joke and second that the force exerted by one person is not enough to undo rusted fishplate bolts.  You can also guarantee that the nut has stopped at a point where maximum leverage can not be achieved. 

Happily the nut runner pings off most of the nuts in a flash.  The fishplates and bolts are all kept for reuse. The next step is to bar out the rail and move it to one side. 60feet rail lengths weigh a bit so it needs a good crowd (and lots of tea...) to lift these over to the side.

Next comes the removal of the sleepers and these can vary from being good and solid to falling apart in your hands.  Until you actually take them up you can not be sure of their state as some that look in good condition from above are rotten underneath and vice versa. 

The joys of sleeper inspection and recovery will be covered in a future post.

Luckily for this next section we have had the use of some serious pieces of equipment and the trackbed has been scraped clean.

Now the secret weapon moves in to play.  The ballast screener.  This was a joint purchase by a number of members and first results look good.  The mixture of soil and ballast is put through the machine, clean ballast can be reused to put the track back, the spoil can be used for other earthworks around the railway.

The next chapter will deal with sleepers.

The photos are from the CHR Facebook page, link on the upper right hand side of the page.  Also in the links is the donations page which will allow us to keep going to Weston.  If you fancy joining in just get in touch, the ability to drink tea in large quantities seems to be the key, no previous experience in P.Way work required.