The race against time

Just a quick couple of photos this week which illustrates the huge variety of work which takes place down at Apedale. In the Yellow corner (actually, it's grey) we have the Pechot wagon. This is a rather huge French military vehicle dating back to WW1. It was reassembled in time for the 2014 Tracks to the Trenches event, but need a fair bit more work. Needless to say, it hasn't quite made it to the front of the queue - until we remembered (as you do) that Tracks to the Trenches 2016 is less than three months away. The wagon carried a tank (liquid, not panzer) after the War, and had a fair few modifications to accommodate this. Not least is the absence of a floor in the well of the wagon. So, the race is on to get the wagon looking something like for the big weekend in May - 13, 14 & 15th.

In the Red corner - actually Magnolia - is the team painting themselves and, in between times, the station canopy. There is an awfully large surface area in a station canopy, and it's needing three coats of paint. That's a lot of paint; most of the work is overhead, and some of the paint does insist on obeying the laws of gravity. This can only be done when we are closed to the public - and Easter is now close. So it's another race against time.

Fishy stuff

A few weeks ago, we took delivery of a newly rebuilt ballast wagon. It is known as a Sprat (the FSHKND for those who have been involved in Big Railway ballast wagons). After a delivery of new ballast, the weekend was the opportunity to take the nice, neat pile of ballast and spread it all over the railway - as one does. There were a few ballast shoulders becoming a bit deficient, and we wanted to ballast the Silverdale Station siding. This had never been done, which meant that there was a reluctance to run the bigger locos on the siding, and also it didn't look particularly nice. Since this siding is opposite the station platform, it is rather the Shop Window, and appearances do count. So, the Sprat was duly loaded using the faithful Fordson tractor, and a-spreading it duly went. The wagon was ex-Ffestiniog Railway, and seems to have begun life as a Hudson wagon of some sort. This most recent work has been to modify the doors to allow them to be controlled against the flow of ballast. Dropping ballast looks easy, but isn't. The flow of stone must be carefully regulated, and this requires concentration and coordination by both the wagon operator and the loco driver. Failure to do this generally results in the wagon operator being given a shovel and told to sort out the mess. A couple of minor adjustments were needed, but overall the debut of the Sprat was a triumph for the project engineers. All we need now is the Mackerel. As ever, get in touch here.

(T)Raining

It was two things at Apedale this weekend. Firstly, it was more than a tad on the wet side. We are led to believe that the Shipping Forecast will, in future, be changed to "Dogger, Fisher, Apedale, German Bight.....". Secondly, it was a Training Day; we have been training a new cohort of steam drivers and Guards, and they are coming along nicely - hopefully our passengers will have some new faces to look at from the start of the season at Easter. The weather wasn't exactly conducive to outdoor working, so riding up and down the railway in the Brake Van wasn't a bad way to spend the day. As ever, get in touch here.