TheSlash
Established Member
Hi all
Here's a more detailed version of a working weekend at the Coventry railway centre, attended by quite a few members of this forum on the 4th and 5th of February
Well my day started.... 07:00? I got in the car which drove itself to Southampton airport parkway, arriving a few minutes before Feltham2104 was due to arrive from the middle of know where.
After picking him up, it was on towards Basingstoke for the next pick up, stopping to fill up in Eastleigh.
Arriving at Basingstoke for 08:15, we picked up Coxster who informed us that Seth had told him he wasn't coming.
Moaning and grumbling, i tore across the A339 towards the A34 and made good time. Joining the M40, i decided to stop at a services, hoping to pick up a Burger King, to my disgust, it was closed, it could of been enough to convince me to turn the car round there and then
On we steamed, co pilot Feltham2104 and Stewardess Coxster managed mobile phone traffic very well, relaying messages between me and other people enroute to site.
We arrived at site about 10:30 and found a rather large ballast lorry waiting for access to the site.
Arrangements were made and Feltham2104 and Coxster waited at the site for a key holder, while i went off to Coventry station to pick up FGW Fan, Heart of Wessex and Met Cam.
By the time i got back to site with these guys, Rob had opened up and supervised the ballast delivery
While we wanted for an engineers store key holder, we managed to bump start the dumper and began loading it by hand and with 1 shovel.
We had abit of a disaster with the machines, the JCB, 2nd dumper, roller and tractor were all unavailable for duty
Thanks to the hard work of the gang on the ballast heap, we managed several loads of ballast. We managed to adjust the line of the track using the dumper and generally made the best of a bad situation. As promised, lots of laughs were frequently provided, including 6 on a dumper {CovRC's up and coming circus act }
On the homeward leg of the trip, i decided to change a tyre on the car due to it giving poor performance when cornering. This exercised turned out to be a waste of time as the spare had been changed out previous {Don't remember doing it} and gave a very poor ride going home, judging by the noise, it has a severe flat that has failed to improve after 450 miles.
Day 2
Day 2 started on a better note, i had a good sleep and didn't drink the night before, so got up in time for a shower.
I met Feltham2104 at Airport parkway again, this time he told me Damon had cancelled aswell.
So a non stop run to Coventry missing out the Basingstoke diversion meant that we arrived at 10:00, just in time for the opening of Burger King. A nice big cheese burger later, we were on the road again, this time from Coventry station to the railway centre.
A key holder arrived note long after and preperation work began. After much work, the JCB came to life whilst i was fetching Graeme from the station. When i got back to site, we had 2 dumpers and a JCB ready to go
From then on it was pretty mad, we had a much improved supply of ballast to the worksite {for obvious reasons}, we also had more grunt to shift the track into place.
My right hand man Mr Feltham2104 floated around the site always involved with something and generally assisted in the smooth running of the work.
During the afternoon, i got hold of the JCB a few times and demonstrated that i can be just as handy with ballast using a JCB, as i can using a shovel
I also demonstrated the top speed of the JCB
As the afternoon came to an end, we positioned the correct sleepers into they're 'beds' and made sure they were squared up.
When all this was done, we put 1 of the outer running rails into it's chairs and connected it to the rest of the track, a massive amount of progress, especially with all the ballast that was moved and dumped into position.
Roll of honour {Day 1 attendes}
Slash
Feltham2104
Coxster
Blackfour
Met Cam
FGW Fan
Heart of Wessex
SERA01UK
Noteably absent
Seth? {Made the GCR the week previous on a Saturday?}
Joy54? {Still heading to Euston?}
Roll of Honour {Day 2 attendes}
Slash {top man again}
Feltham2104
Met Cam
SERA01UK
Noteably absent
Coxster {didnt seem to negotiate pick up times?}
Seth {alcohol poisoning? ASBO'ed?}
FGW Fan {MIA?}
Heart of Wessex {Still riding home from Saturday?}
Cheers for everybodies efforts over the 2 days, we didn't plan to shovel all that ballast by hand Saturday, but at least it was an insight into what i do at work {apart from **** around}
The next working party will be 2 weeks time
I've got 1 or 2 photos and a few videos, but they were all taken on my phone
Here's a more detailed version of a working weekend at the Coventry railway centre, attended by quite a few members of this forum on the 4th and 5th of February
Well my day started.... 07:00? I got in the car which drove itself to Southampton airport parkway, arriving a few minutes before Feltham2104 was due to arrive from the middle of know where.
After picking him up, it was on towards Basingstoke for the next pick up, stopping to fill up in Eastleigh.
Arriving at Basingstoke for 08:15, we picked up Coxster who informed us that Seth had told him he wasn't coming.
Moaning and grumbling, i tore across the A339 towards the A34 and made good time. Joining the M40, i decided to stop at a services, hoping to pick up a Burger King, to my disgust, it was closed, it could of been enough to convince me to turn the car round there and then
On we steamed, co pilot Feltham2104 and Stewardess Coxster managed mobile phone traffic very well, relaying messages between me and other people enroute to site.
We arrived at site about 10:30 and found a rather large ballast lorry waiting for access to the site.
Arrangements were made and Feltham2104 and Coxster waited at the site for a key holder, while i went off to Coventry station to pick up FGW Fan, Heart of Wessex and Met Cam.
By the time i got back to site with these guys, Rob had opened up and supervised the ballast delivery
While we wanted for an engineers store key holder, we managed to bump start the dumper and began loading it by hand and with 1 shovel.
We had abit of a disaster with the machines, the JCB, 2nd dumper, roller and tractor were all unavailable for duty
Thanks to the hard work of the gang on the ballast heap, we managed several loads of ballast. We managed to adjust the line of the track using the dumper and generally made the best of a bad situation. As promised, lots of laughs were frequently provided, including 6 on a dumper {CovRC's up and coming circus act }
On the homeward leg of the trip, i decided to change a tyre on the car due to it giving poor performance when cornering. This exercised turned out to be a waste of time as the spare had been changed out previous {Don't remember doing it} and gave a very poor ride going home, judging by the noise, it has a severe flat that has failed to improve after 450 miles.
Day 2
Day 2 started on a better note, i had a good sleep and didn't drink the night before, so got up in time for a shower.
I met Feltham2104 at Airport parkway again, this time he told me Damon had cancelled aswell.
So a non stop run to Coventry missing out the Basingstoke diversion meant that we arrived at 10:00, just in time for the opening of Burger King. A nice big cheese burger later, we were on the road again, this time from Coventry station to the railway centre.
A key holder arrived note long after and preperation work began. After much work, the JCB came to life whilst i was fetching Graeme from the station. When i got back to site, we had 2 dumpers and a JCB ready to go
From then on it was pretty mad, we had a much improved supply of ballast to the worksite {for obvious reasons}, we also had more grunt to shift the track into place.
My right hand man Mr Feltham2104 floated around the site always involved with something and generally assisted in the smooth running of the work.
During the afternoon, i got hold of the JCB a few times and demonstrated that i can be just as handy with ballast using a JCB, as i can using a shovel
I also demonstrated the top speed of the JCB
As the afternoon came to an end, we positioned the correct sleepers into they're 'beds' and made sure they were squared up.
When all this was done, we put 1 of the outer running rails into it's chairs and connected it to the rest of the track, a massive amount of progress, especially with all the ballast that was moved and dumped into position.
Roll of honour {Day 1 attendes}
Slash
Feltham2104
Coxster
Blackfour
Met Cam
FGW Fan
Heart of Wessex
SERA01UK
Noteably absent
Seth? {Made the GCR the week previous on a Saturday?}
Joy54? {Still heading to Euston?}
Roll of Honour {Day 2 attendes}
Slash {top man again}
Feltham2104
Met Cam
SERA01UK
Noteably absent
Coxster {didnt seem to negotiate pick up times?}
Seth {alcohol poisoning? ASBO'ed?}
FGW Fan {MIA?}
Heart of Wessex {Still riding home from Saturday?}
Cheers for everybodies efforts over the 2 days, we didn't plan to shovel all that ballast by hand Saturday, but at least it was an insight into what i do at work {apart from **** around}
The next working party will be 2 weeks time
I've got 1 or 2 photos and a few videos, but they were all taken on my phone