Birkhill Update

Its been a while since the Santa runs, but that doesn’t mean we have been doing nothing and taking it easy over the last few months, the usual winter garden maintenance certainly to that!!  After sorting out the West Platform embankment gardens work has been focused on tidying up the East Platform embankment which is proving to be a challenge to say the least , however progress is progress even in small hits and the hard work is now showing dividends, the fence line with the farm field is now clear which is a great improvement visually.

I thought taking work home was only a thing you do during your working life but  I guess not! the second of the two lanterns recovered from a potential scrap man has now been installed. This particular one was in pretty bad shape but has come through and doesn’t look to bad! Next steps are to repaint the lamp posts and then run in electrical feeds so they can shine again!

 

Birkhill Update

With normal services being resumed on the railway and the 2022 running season has commenced it is time to provide a little update on what the Birkhill team has being doing over the last month or so. Cabling for the platform lights has been installed as part of the first fix activities, however there is a little bit more work to be done to the freshening up of the lanterns and the lamp posts before the trunking can be fitted prior to the final connections can be made.  The Copes along the West platform are having there joints re grouted but, a bit like painting the white platform edge line, its a long thankless last, however at the time of writing this post approximately a third of the platform has now been done.

Since the last post we have had a few WCR class 37s pass along the track between Bo’ness and Manuel in support of a few rail tours a couple of video clips will be uploaded onto a separate post soon.

Back to the work at hand at the station, the embankment has had a clean up and thinned out so that the daffodils and bluebells are visible from the coaches.

Birkhill Just Got a Bit Greener

Thank you to the very kind generosity of everyone at Kinross Wooden Products Company, we took delivery of  two sets of waste recycling bins that we hope ill help improve the stations waste recycling.

The bins were originally used around the campus’s of the University of St Andrews, in the picture are Gavin and Samuel from KWP who kindly delivered to Birkhill on Tuesday 22 February 2022

Its Been a While!

Its been a while since the last post, but that doesn’t mean the group have not been busy! November / December time was reserved for the Santa specials preparing the station for the big man’s arrival the decorating was the biggest we had undertaken with plans for future years to make it even more of a great place to alight. Of course what goes up must come down which meant the first few shifts in January was the great tidy up.

Maintenance work on the outside of the building was the first big push and we didnt have much time before the first ‘half term’ runs so pretty busy indeed. This included gutter cleaning, exterior was down, picket fence wash down and general platform sweep down.

On the 28/01/2022 we saw the departure of the stored DRS engines that Direct Rail services had put up for sale – a shame to see them go.

Headed by Class 47 47643 on the 5Z17 from Boness to Manuel consisted of 4 SRPS MK1 coaches, class 20’s 20305 & 20302 plus class 37 37703. The engines later head down to Crewe,

The two Saturday’s between the half term schedule saw  27001 On line proving duties

Caly 419 was also given a run prior to its imminent departure down south, here it is on the 14:15 2M05 arriving at Birkhill on Saturday 19 Feb 2022

Station Update

After making use of what is probably the best tool for a country station – a Leaf Blower, well in our case two, the whole platform was quickly cleared of our Autumn favorites, one of us started on the removal of the annuals from the platform wall garden the other  painted the uprights and south facing side of the Lamp Hut with a first coat which hopefully will see us through to the spring before when the final coat will be applied.

With most of the external work now complete the focus on reducing the size of the temporary door and tucking in the damp course hopefully before the weather finally sets in for winter.

Weekend Update

All the rotten timbers have now been replaced and the minor gaps around the corner post joints have been filled, due to the inclement weather work this weekend focused on the inside fitting battens to the internal uprights to provide extra support to the cladding and painting the timbers in a sympathetic colour.

Work to be done over the next few shifts will be to complete the internal work, install a new upright for the door, complete the corner post filling in and weather permitting applying one coat of paint to the remaining sides of the hut and new post sections.

As the leaves Begin to Fall

Work has continued at pace on the lamp Hut renovation project whilst we still have dry and still warm conditions at Birkhill. The tin roof has been scrubbed clean and coating with black bitumen paint. The front and one side has also now had a first coat of the ‘Caley’ livery used on the station building. It will require a minimum of two coats, possibly three especially of the ‘Cinnamon’ (RAL8001) used on the cladding, might get away with two coats of the ‘Burnt Umber’ (RAL8016) on the posts and top and bottom cladding sections.

Work also commenced today on the removal of the rotten corner posts whilst the new timber sections were marked ready for routing at the weekend (weather permitting). If all goes to plan we hope to have the posts completed in the next couple of weeks but the job will not be rushed as they say!!

Lamp Hut Update

As the heavens opened and quickly filled the water buts, work focused on the inside of the hut where a start was made on the painting of the interior, fingers crossed for better conditions for the next shift.

On a separate note the Civils ‘Monday Squad’ have made a start on preparing the land along the second platform and the access to it. The prep work is required before the spoil can be removed to enable the levelling out of the land in readiness to re start the platform build work.

Tornado Saturday

As the ‘A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s’ A1 Peppercorn Pacific No.60163 Tornado provided the motive power for the day on the branch line work continued on the Lamp Hut. Having the fine engine provided great entertainment whilst sawing, painting and securing!

All the rotten frame uprights have now been cut out and replaced and the remaining outer parts of the Hut has now been cladded with temporary cladding which was leftovers from the Grounded Coach project of a couple of years ago. There is a little bit of sanding down to be done at the front and rear before finishing the priming and undercoating which will be complete by the end of the next shift. It is also hoped to have cleaned the corrugated  roof and if time allows repainted too, before we start on the most difficult part of the restoration and that is the replacement of the corner posts.