Carriage Shed Roads 2 & 3 upgrade continued.

The five days from April 25th were allocated to remove the existing track, dig out the old ballast and install the new track work. It didn't start to well when the original hire digger became unavailable. On Wednesday we built up the new track set for road two in quick time and gathered sundry materials that would be needed over the following days.

Towards the end of Thursday and all the rails had been removed. 26/4/07.

Midday on Friday and the good ballast was being loaded into wagons for re-use over the weekend. 27/4/07.

Early afternoon and the excess clay was being stock piled ready to be loaded into a small truck nd dumped behind the workshop. 27/4/07.

The drizzle had returned by late afternoon on the Friday. The track bed was almost ready for the new track sets. 27/4/07.

With steady drizzle over night and Saturday morning, the under foot conditions were not very pleasant to work in at times! The new turnout having safely been lowered into position and bolted up. That's Kevin on the left and James on the right. 27/4/07.

The new road three beginning to take shape. 27/4/07.

Rachel using the digger to move the last track set into position. It fitted very nicely into the gap as well, if you were wondering! 27/4/07.

Road three all laid down and bolted up and its only 2pm! 27/4/07.

Late Saturday afternoon and Glens directing the first pour of ballast over the new track. Rachel is preparing the base for the road two. 27/4/07.

Another sunny Sunday! The new track set for the road two is now in place. 28/4/07.

On Sunday we were now able to put the Hamilton crane to good use. Lifting track the easy way. 28/4/07.

By the end of Sunday the turnout had been lifted, levelled and tamped. The sleepers for road two had been laid out. 4 ½ days of very demanding work, by a very dedicated team. Back to work for a break. 28/4/07.

By the end of the following weekend the track for road two had been completed and the remaining used ballast had been dropped. 6/5/07.

The last of the good ballast was used to lift and pack road two. The points rodding had been installed and ballast cleaned of the top of the sleepers. 13/5/07.

By the beginning of June, road two had been fully ballasted, lifted and tamped. Extra ballast spread out to level the site off and the boxing over the points rodding partly completed. 4/6/07.

The new track layout used up 103 7ft sleepers, 9 8ft sleepers, 7 9ft sleepers, 3 10ft sleepers, 3 11ft sleepers, 6 12ft sleepers, 252 70lb bed plates and 642 screws.
For this project I have to thank Glen Sutherland, Rachel Tucker, Micheal Hobbs, Kevin Prince, Carl Pumpa, Micheal Whyman, James Gobbe and Josh Nelson for the work they put in over the 3 months.

Article by Peter Jenkinson, Photographs by Peter Jenkinson & Kevin Prince.