A Post of Two Halves

After the excitement of the AGM, this weekend turned back to the ongoing job of inspection and upgrading of the line.  Work centred on two main areas

On the Weston section work continued with clearance around the cattle creep, recovering useful material and sorting out the rubbish to be disposed of.  The track bed has been further scraped and the  mix of ballast and soil is lined up ready for screening.  Mechanisation takes some of the hard work out of the job but it’s not all leaning on shovels and drinking tea. Sometimes we have to lean on other things as well.  If you have ever shovelled ballast or mixed concrete by hand you will know why people take a breather now and again, it’s flippin’ hard work!

The bricks recovered from the cattle creep will be used to rebuild other details along the line so nothing is ever wasted.

The first view is looking back to Oswestry on the section now being worked on and you can see the old beams on the left, these are life expired and need to be replaced.  The sleepers and rails here have been removed and you can see the excavator working her way along scraping out the ballast / earth mix ready for screening.

Looking South you can see next section along after the cattle creep, this will be tackled next but we need the funds to replace the girders, donations are arriving and the quicker we get the beams in place the quicker we move forward.

The working weekend was kept busy with work on the trackbed and watching the excavator do her thing helping with the clean up.

The second half of the weekend was dedicated to a line inspection and the opportunity to take a run along the formation, almost up to the point where some time ago some mischievous souls have liberated a few lengths of rail.  These will be put back to allow the intrepid explorers to venture further in to the undergrowth, no timescale as yet as all hands are on the Weston Front

Colin made a video of the trip and you can experience the thrill of a ride on the go-kart, but to get the real flavour of it you need to sit on a hard seat and turn the volume full up.  But the view is magic.

From the A483 to Llynclys Pool

Many thanks for posting the video.

Here are a few pictures from the trip which picked up a few areas to be worked on.

One day this view will be across open fields like the photo below, now can't you just imagine a train running along here?

Thanks to Tony Jones for the photos and compliments to all who contributed during the weekend.

Not forgetting the most important part of the trip was a stop for a brew up, here we see the true meaning of Tea(m) Work.  It takes dedication and true Cambrian improvisation to be able to have a cuppa anywhere, with a team as determined as that success is assured!

Thanks to Colin for the picture

Now time for a bit of fun.  

Caption Competition

The winner will get an honourable mention on the next blog post. You can post captions in the comments below.  So fire away and let's see what you can come up with.

Until next time