Parking the rail

The Wailing Wall Construction Company has tackled many jobs in its time, big and small. One of the more strenuous tasks is digging holes, and this was needed last month in preparation for the new ANPR parking control system that goes live after tomorrow.

The signs have to be mounted at very precise points and heights – all laid down in the planning consent (needed because of us being in the conservation area). Reusing rail lengths makes for very sturdy and appropriate posts. In this case they were cut by the PWay team to 3 yards apiece, and we needed five of them, weighing in at about 270lbs each.

To meet the specification, holes had to be dug 2ft6in deep, to support the height of the signs, and in the positions where there was no existing structure to fix to.

nice deep holes – 2ft6in into the ground

post in hole, concrete ready

next post on rollers

once more with feeling…

final post concreted in place

Availability of the rail meant we had no time to paint it before installing, which would have been much easier. Fortunately the weather was kind and the black gloss was quickly applied.

Andy painting the sign 3 post

sign 5 on a painted post

sign 1 with payment machine against cleaning cupboard

signage and lower payment machine

sign 4 against the signal box

double-sided signage at main entrance

welcome back

The long closure for engineering works gives us space to get projects done that need an absence of passengers.

The Tuesday and Saturday Wailing Wall sessions have been busy and productive, welcoming new recruits and enjoying the home-baked rock cakes.

First job, taking down xmas decorations

and carriage numbers

and their gantries

Miles of fairy lights carefully unfastened, wound up, boxed and stacked in the events store. 8 carriage number signs and the gantries holding them, dismantled. Extension leads and fittings packed up. Hundreds of cable ties binned. All done very carefully and ‘working at height’ compliant.

With the completion of the seasonal service, the Bar marquee was taken off hire, so the heaters and lights had to be removed for safe storage. The benches were moved out of the way and are now in a programme of refurbishment.

Lamp posts

Our locally-commissioned lamp posts to an historically-authentic pattern. We prime and undercoat, and topcoat in county cream and purple brown, before installation

The lamp post project has been ongoing for many years. Grants from the SVRCT and SVRG to support our own funds enabled a further batch to be ordered, and the main driveway was illuminated just in time for the seasonal evening trains – a godsend for the wellbeing and safety of our passengers.

Digging holes in the east facing soil embankment was quick and easy for the five posts involved. Not so for these two destined for the boiler shop crossing area.

hole for lamp post

and concrete base

another hole

still digging

hard stuff, Chalkie’s concrete

They got there eventually!

a week later – look what we did! 🙂

new post in place

new post bedded in

A great job by all involved!