SRPS Birkhill Group

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.

Whilst the weather has been good, work has progressed at a good pace, temporary cladding has been fitted to to the south side of the hut, north side and front has been cut back to clean timber, preservatives painted on it and then finished with a primer undercoat.

The new foundation timbers have been installed around all four side secured to the brick & concrete base using plugs and coach screws. a DPC membrane was also installed between the brick and timber. The internal framework uprights, had like the base itself, had rotted away and so cut to height where there was good timber, new sections are to be fitted and secured to the new base.

The next job is to fit temporary cladding around the bottom of the hut until such times replica 6″ x 1″ cladding can be sourced at a reasonable pre pandemic price. This will at least make it water tight. Following the cladding and priming, the 6″ x 6″ post sections are to be spliced into the remaining good sections of the original hut.

Strip down work on the Lamp Hut has been progressing well, all the base timbers and up to 1200mm of the corner columns have been found to be completely rotten along with many of the cladding sections. Some of the cladding sections removed from the south side of the Hut have provided sufficient good pieces that have been reused to replace rotten sections to the front. Sourcing new timbers though is starting to be a challenge for example to cladding is 7″ x 1″ corner pillars 6″ x 6″  so some creative thinking will be needed over the come weeks.  Sanding down of the good timbers is the next task to be undertaken before applying preservatives / sealant.

On the 7th August we had our very first steam engine visitor since 2019. A1 Peppercorn Pacific No.60163 Tornado, double heading the 12:45 Bo’ness to Manuel where it was uncoupled from No.19 to go to the main line and onto Joppa Junction before travelling onwards for a rail tour run on Sunday 8th August.

 

 

In the background of the returning, limited running season, work has continued in keeping the platform and its gardens tidy including the clean up of the signalbox foundations and the planting up of hanging baskets, troughs and containers to help provide a pleasant back drop for passengers to view as they pass by on the trains from Boness to Manuel and return.

 

An unexpected task had to be quickly done to the side of the station building to redirect what appears to be a ‘spring’ of water flow to the main drains.

We have now commenced one of the three 2021 projects we highlighted back in 2020 to be done asap – The Lamp Hut Renovation this is expected to take up most of the summer to complete and hopefully will be good for several years to come!

During the course of April, the focus of work was on essential maintenance and preparation for what the post lockdown would allow the railway to do. Test trains have been passing through the station mainly for refresher training but did provide an optimistic feeling at Birkhill while carrying out the tasks at hand of painting the white safety lines along the platforms of Birkhill and Manuel, repainting and sorting out the platform signs. The original ‘Alight Here For the Clay Mine’ sign had new letters cut from templates that can now be used for future signs at the station.

Now that the group is back to the full strength (only the two of us……..smiles) work has commenced on making the embankment of the second platform a bit more presentable for, hopefully, the soon to be new running season, it is intended to clear all the overgrown growth, and level off the areas that collect water so that it is a little more pleasing to the eye while we wait for the next stage of the platform build. As you will see from the picture below, two pairs of hands and backs does help to speed things up! After two shifts all the overgrowth has been removed and leveling off has commenced.

Over the last couple of weeks, safety critical work has commenced at Birkhill, including rerunning and reviewing social distancing  risk assessments and general clearing and tidying up of the platform and buildings. Monday 15th Saw the  works train moving down the line to  the Avon Viaduct and then onwards to Manuel for the delivery of track repair materials

After all the leaf’s had been removed the next safety task was to start work on painting the cope edge along the platform (110 in total plus the ramp downs), this job is not quite like painting the Forth Rail Bridge but you do get a feel for what it must be like and will take a few sessions before the job is complete.

 

 

Due to the pandemic restrictions, the group has been out of action at Birkhill for some while now, however as part of the essential safety critical work requirements the Civils team have been out and about and have shared some photo’s of Birkhill;

Monday 22nd cope remedial work by the civils team brought them face to face with a fallen tree, which thankfully had just missed the new Clay Mine Hutch display!  The display had only just been completed before the latest covid restrictions were put in place so the group is thankful for the Civils team taking care of the trunk and branches. Picture courtesy of Andrew Anderson;

Wednesday saw Caledonian Tank ‘419’ running up the line on a test run pulling coach MK1 BSK 35185. The 419 had been examined by the Boiler Inspector earlier in the week. The Caley engine carried a wreath in memory of Stefan Kay who sadly passed away recently, our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time. Pictures courtesy of Iain Gent;

 

Happy 2021 from everyone in the Birkhill Group, we hope a new year and a new decade will bring a close to normal way of life again to us all

Look forward to seeing everyone again when the new running season starts

Best Wishes

Birkhill Group

As this dreadful year comes to a close, it is hard to think what has been achieved at Birkhill, the stop – start of the lockdown restrictions limited the plans to improve the look of the platform embankment gardens, but we did manage to get  one of our main projects for the year done – which was the Fire Clay Mine Hutch renovation and display and the completion of the redecorating of the station side room and rejigging the exhibition area to make it a more social distancing friendly area just in case things did improve from a pandemic point of view, but a lass they didn’t.

So what’s the plans for 2021 once we are safe to return! -We have the restart of the Lamphut renovation project, we need to get back on top of the gardens (expecting to see them like they where when the group was formed in 2014), repaint the platform lighting posts and stands, complete the painting of the benches and look at the restoration of a couple of luggage trolleys that are in disrepair in a compound down at Bo’ness.

Now that the station’s exhibition area has been re-arranged to allow for social distancing viewing and the Lamp Hut project is on hold until a fully costing survey is pulled together to gain  a materials purchasing approval, work has moved back outside again with focus on the most southernly end of the platform which was looking neglected and a sight for sore eyes.

The first task was to replace the boundary fence which has been on the list for a long time.

While the fence was being replaced work commenced on clearing the many years of overgrowth on the embankment a lot of which appears to be coming from the top of the bank. The intent is remove as much as possible of the vegetation that has slowly pushed out the safety netting to allow the netting to be pushed back and re-secured into the embankment. This will hopefully open up this end of the platform to more light and allow for planting up with the stations ever increasing collection of geraniums that have appeared after other parts of the station had been cleaned up of weeds.