4 Nov – I want one of those!

The short close season is upon us and there will be few pictures of trains until Christmas steams into view ( 30 Nov – see Santa Special.) In the meantime…….

It was quite an unusual Monday in some ways – not because the workers were engaged in sweeping up pine needles (they were, we do that every week) – but because we had a couple of very impressive contractors on hand to do some of our larger/more specialised tasks.

First, Dave T and I arrived early (0930) for the contractor engaged to empty the lost Klargester. The pumping lorry parked in the A435 ‘lay by’ and the pipework stretched down the side of the Ticket Office under the arches and emerged, through careful planning, opposite the tank lid.  Here’s DT assisting with the big hose – you can make your own caption up!I will spare readers the details but suffice to say that extracting the content proved a little tricky since, after 16+ years there was rather more solid material than normal.

We’ll leave it at that I think!

Second and close by the GWSR has contractors clearing the lineside embankments between the Evesham Road Bridge and the Hunting Butts Tunnel.   Queue one man with the appropriate machine and here’s the behemoth concerned in action:

I want one of those!

To my mind the particularly impressive thing is the amount of debris left behind – there wasn’t much!  And no messing about with fires or compost heaps – just chewed it all up and moved on!  Do they make a steam powered one I wonder?

The still photos provide an idea of the end product – looking back from the tunnel towards the bridge.

All that said one shouldn’t underestimate mother nature and, left untended, no doubt it will look pretty much the same again in 5 years or so.

Meanwhile, the Monday gang engaged in pine needle removed from the tack bed – photos next time, bet you can’t wait.

Regards,

Tim