Sleepers

Another successful one today, with the 1 in 2 pattern completed to the end of Curve 18 (just behind the digger in this pic).

The ballast in this section is very organic, nice and rich garden gravel really these days! As anyone with a healthy garden knows, organic life leads to very rapid timber decay and that is exactly what we experienced through this cutting, well over 50% of the sleepers, although looking ok on top, we’re essentially none existent underneath. Now we’ve removed the organic matter (wooden sleepers) this issue should quite rapidly disappear. Once we’ve finished tidying up and cleaning the drains, it’s unlikely to give us much trouble. The beauty of this method, lifting the rails 6″ is that even installing sleepers in the steep cuttings, we’re not having to dig into the roadbed at all, so even if the ballast is substandard, it’s the same substandard it’s been for many years without any clay mixed in.

It’s looking pretty snazzy now, with such a long section completed. We’re still not finished clipping up this section yet, however that’ll only take a few hours tomorrow and it’s possible we’ll decide to do a bit more.

Meeting Maldon 8am or on site from 8.15am.