Aln Valley Railway

Longhoughton Goods Yard - BS, DMS, KSW, DT, TS, KM, NB (and some more NwR lads!), Continuation of work on road 2. Movement of materials. General tidy up. Sort tools., Another possession on the ECML this weekend so there were no trains passing. A few track workers around finishing off from last weekend (track stressing) and tidying their tools and equipment ready for collection. (working at Cramlington next weekend). Baz and Dave arrived, informed the NwR SAC that we would be on site, then continued with check over of the fuel system on the Atlas. The new fuel feed pipe was fitted and the filter bowl refitted after being cleaned. The machine was then started and a tea break was taken while the air & hydraulic pressures built up. It was then used to undertake some more work on road 2. The 2 30ft panels that were laid have now been properly assembled with pads, insulators and Pandrol clips. Fishplates have been installed to aid with amending the curvature of this line. Some further infilling has been performed, but spaces have been left to we can access plates and clips at present. Just as we were about to on-track the machine it developed hiccups again (caused by the pump pulling gunk from the diesel tank) and lost power. The decision was taken to proceed with the planned removal of the fuel tank, so the Atlas was parked up, the tool box removed to ease access and the fuel tank removed ready to be flushed out with Frosts tank cleaner. A quick tidy up of the site was undertaken: picking up some rubbish left by those involved in the renewals work last weekend. Tom continued with the painting of the clean half of the Staff Coach. Kay, Dave T and Neil continued with the Mark 2s. Kenny undertook some more work on the grounded van body.