When the public running season has finished we don't just hang around drinking tea and eating cake, there's the new spectator sport of Welder watching.

Joking apart there is a lot of maintenance needed. Thre track needs and deserves close attention.

We have a programme of track replacement that is now underway where 3 sections will be replaced before the Santa Run on December 10th. The rails themselves are in good condition but the steel support for these have an ongoing programme of replacement. This coupled with replacement of the track supports that are secured to the concrete "A " frames and an inspection of the wood sleepers. These new rail supports have to be bent to exactly match that what is being replaced then all the support parts have to be  welded together followed by rust prevention and painting. Weather permitting!

As welding is so interesting and the 3 members of the engineering department are busy doing it,

with no rain or cold wind the other members come out to watch, chat about technical things, drink tea and eat cake.

With the track removed it's a good time to clear out the cutting after the tunnel. Years of leaf mould plus rain and soil migration has resulted in the cutting's floor being raised by 2 to 3 inches in general (50 to 75mm in new measurements ) and up to 6 inches in places. Also the sides have narrowed for the same reasons above plus the growth of tree roots.

So here we have 2 of our members re-cutting the cutting with our resident painter about to vanish into the tunnel to treat the track in there to a fresh coat of green. I will also point out that the erstwhile webmaster is also involved in driving the wheelbarrow to lose the spoil of the mornings work.