Well, after the great success of Thursday’s decking efforts, Friday proved to be a damp affair, however we still managed to achieve our aims, albeit in the rain.
We managed to get everything fixed up, ballasted and roughly tamped (only roughly as we’ll need to re-pack this in a few weeks once the ballast has vibrated into all the voids below the sleepers.
We then proceeded to undertake a significant number of load tests of the new decking, with the only real outcome being it is at least as stable, if not more so than the timber decking adjacent to it!
We even sat a Y class on the deck for half an hour or so while we had a cuppa, with no notable movement present, which is pretty ideal! We will be monitoring the sag of decking between the beams, it’s only the weight of the ballast that causes that sag, but we may find in warmer weather that could exaggerate, however a very lightweight beam in the deck centre would remedy that issue entirely if it turns out to be so.
A keen eye might also notice the graffiti on the Y class… it was coincidently Will’s birthday on Friday, and the workshop boys decided that needed a level of public announcement.
This week will actually be a week of no civil activity, as both staff are taking leave and given how active the gangs have been in recent times, it seems like a good time to give everyone a week off to recover from the freezing cold. From Tuesday next week, things will return to usual however. A blog post will be made with details on Monday next week.
VGR Civil Blog 