Part of the SRPS's Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway
Work recommenced on the platform embankment, although many of the leaves from embankment had been removed (several times) the lower level of the embankment is requiring attention again. Working from both ends of the platform, focus was the planting area and in particularly the retaining wall. It is hope to have this element of work done by the end of the weekend shift.
The Monday crew along with the works train was up at Birkhill again to remove the shutters to recently poured north ramp, all remaining shutters have now been recovered leaving just the South facing ramp to complete. Work continues on the preparation of the footbridge foundations on both sides of the ramp which will be the main focus for the next few weeks.
The final job of sprucing up the waiting room has now completed, after the pictures had been hung on the walls the final task was to repaint the floor, the knees are a little tender but hopefully it was all worth it. Whilst the paint is left to dry work recommenced on the embankment garden which will be the focus for the next couple of sessions before we commence to cleaning up the exhibition room and exterior paint.
One of the many great points of working as a volunteer at Birkhill is the chance to see track movements and this weekend was no exception providing a glimpse of the ten Royal Scotsman coaches being transported down to Bo’ness from Manuel top and tailed by two of the BK&R diesels
To complement the weekly posts we are introducing a regular newsletter, which hopefully you will find interesting. It is the intent to provide information about work being performed by other volunteer teams such as civils and S&T at Birkhill. Within the newsletter there will also be articles relating to the history of Birkhill and the development of the line through the station. Click on the link below to view our first ever newsletter. The newsletter will also be selectable under its own link towards the bottom of the web pages too. We hope you will enjoy.
Work continued on the sprucing up of the waiting room, all walls and ceiling have been repainted along with the cornice and skirting boards. The benches are the only thing left to touch up, before washing down and repainting the floor. The work has progressed well and is now ahead of our schedule due to putting a couple of mid week shifts in.
The big clean up moved in side on Saturday 20th – work started on giving the side waiting room a well deserved bit of attention, the main focus was the touching up of the wall’s and ceilings which got scuffed during the 2017 running season, a couple more weekend sessions and it should be ready to welcome visitors at the end of March.
Meanwhile on Monday 22nd the Platform 2 squad braved the wintery weather to continue with finial bit of work for the platform foundation wall by delivering and fitting of the ramp shutter sections to the north end of the new platform and the removal of the shutters from around last concrete poor. Weather permitting work will be ongoing during the course of February & March. More updates to follow.
With only 9 weekends to go before the 2018 running season starts on 24th March, we have a lot of cleaning and tidying up to do before the first train pulls into the station. This weekend we started on the outside of the station building, clearing the leaves off the top of the canopy using a brush head and rope mechanism we put together and used successfully last winter. Work also started on the cleaning up of the garden area next to the waiting room, which, just like the rest of the platform received its fair share of leaf’s this year!
Work on the 2nd platform is due to commence again, a couple of the shutters used for the main foundation wall are being modified to enable the North & South Ramp down to be poured in a couple of weeks time weather permitting. It is hoped to get the platform wall completed as quickly as possible so that work can start on the footbridge foundations. Further updates to follow over the next few weeks.
The retaining wall for the 2nd platform is almost complete now just the two ramps at either end to be constructed and it will be on to the next stage of the platform build. As the year comes to an end the Christmas decorations have now been taken down in readiness for the spring cleanup of the station building – inside and out! over the coming weeks.
Most of the day was spent de-icing the platform again! During the course of the week it had snowed and rained creating an ice rink of a platform. Thankfully the Santa Specials were not impacted to much and with a bit of careful marshalling all went off okay.
The platform retaining wall is now close to completion. A huge 60m plus section is now visible since the shutters had been remove from the previous concrete pour the previous week. There are two sections towards the south end of the station still to be poured along with the ramps down to either end of the platform. The next phase will be to reshape the embankment and fill in to the rear of the wall in preparation for laying the copes.
