Plenty going on at Apedale at the moment; the closed season is when the rate of working needs to increase - if nothing else, it stops us freezing solid. The steam locos all had a ride around the yard today in order to get the Joffre ready for its boiler exam. It also took the opportunity to test a modification to a set of points which had caused that loco some issues in the past - all seems to be well now. Road 3 of the Red Shed is being re-configured to form a dedicated charging bay for the battery locos. In the past, we have had the chargers on a rail wagon. However, due to the linear nature of railways, getting the right loco near the charger wagon has proven to be nearly impossible. Battery locos are easy to drive and economical, and hence it makes sense to use them whenever possible for yard shunting. The Red Shed has been re-roofed recently (indeed, it now has a souble skinned roof), and hence is pretty dry, but a "tertiary roof" has been added over the site cleared for the chargers just to make sure that water and electricity don't meet. There's still more to be done - like actually installing most of the chargers - but it's looking good so far.
