the weekend and friday

well well people its been a mentally busy time
4 days worth to update so here comes a biggie
im going to work backwards so i can try to remember the other stuff lol
sunday
was gigabash weekend
we (myself butler dad diljoe marhall david ((megans dad)) and john towers and a coupe of others)
were continuing with work on the building started on kids week 2008 (by yours truely diljoe matty b and marshall with howard)
and heck we laid a few blocks around a pallet full the others had progressed so much without me on saturday that come sunday morning the amount of scaffolding on site quadrupled it was crazy how much o the stuff we put up there
this took up around half the morning for about 3 of us while butler dilj marshall and david continued the block laying and ran up 2 courses inside and out on the rear and right hand wall
then after lunch the dream team of butler with theo supplying blocks mortar spirit levels lump hammers (and also doing the pointing) ragggged up another 2 courses on the back wall one inside one outside well after john and whizz had cracked butler in the nuts with a scaffold pole accidently of course
we also had a nice malteaser break when rachhey and megan turned up with malteasers and started playing catch with us
so yeh a fantastic day

saturday was gravvy train day
gravity train for those who arent in the know (wink)
awoke on saturday morning after a nice lie in of 30 mins woop
saw it was sunny so went outside and fudge it was cold
like someone said minus 4 or something crazy
so yeh ended up at the lodge in full batting gear (bib n brace shirt tie donkey jacket and the must have accessory a wolly hat ) and then was told get on that wagon your being propelled out of the yard and then up to dduallt
ok so this isnt going to be too bad i thaught but heck no it was freeeezing the palmerston sounded good despite the slipping but it did chuck out mahooosive amounts of smuts everywere
one poor guy in the first wagon had (had is definatly in the past tense) a white shirt before he started
guesses on the colour afterwards on a postcard please lol
so got to dduallt then we were informed by bonks that the loco and trainwouldnt fit into the loop so that the loco would uncouple and we would hand shunt 3o + slate wagons uphill
much sweating and cursing the p-way later palmerston ran round
just in time to couple onto the cric on the down train
which macey had kindly organised to provide us with 20 + hotchocolates so thankyou buffet stewards :)
we then waited for the earl to go up before we ran down
it was lovel and sunny at ddualt though so none of us really wanted to roll down at 15 mph through the shady woods but we did
and it was freezing
later in the day we repeated but it was a little warmer
it was great fun despite the cold and the unrestricted views and banter were just great so i would deffinatly do one again although im glad i dont have doc lubes job

friday
friday dad was here so i had sorted out a turn on the ricket for him
he nearly made me late for work but i chivied him along so just got there in time then i introduced him to the ladsand showed him were his loco was and then he was as happy as a pig in muck well actually happier i think he ended up having a great day so that made me feel great for giving him that experience
brb going for a pee a mo
so yeh friday was a good day
we had put the merddin back on its wheels on thursday but hadnt had time to put the smokebox components back in or the main steam pipe or adjust the brakes
so all of those were done
the steam pipe went on a piece of piss in comparison to taking it off although having to stretch up your arm with the air gun while your face/head is being smushed into the oily greasy valve gear definitly isnt fun but it went on and was tightend up so thats all good
when taking the smokebox apart the blower ring was an absolute bi atch as many of the bolts threads were all rusted up and knackerd so i had decied to use new ones but couldnt find enough new nuts so old ones were used after cleaning them up
after this we started taking the top end bogie apart
dropped off the flexible steam pipe and got covered in nice rusty water good times
and took off the lubricator as well as taking the blower ring and inca temple out of the smokebox
other jobs jobbed on friday was the moelwyn was put back on its wheels so it can now be shunted around
this was an easy job as bob had already attatched the axleboxes to the wheelsets so all we had to do was get the cranes over the loco hoist it up roll the weels into place and drop the loco on
after that was done we rolled it over the pit and i put the keeps back on underneath and that was it job done clear up tools and then afterworker weekend started

thursday
thursday was a cucial day for pete and me
we had get the merddin back onto its bogie by the end of the day as we had been told that it had to be back on before friday
we started off the day with a load of shunting and generally shifting and sorting things in the erecting shop so that we had enough room to actually roll the bogie in under the loco and lower the loco onto it
then it was a case of getting chris and tom to help lower the loco on its 'wings' (strong points used for jacking it up or down )
we packed the jacks using old sleepers
then lifted the loco
rolled the bogie under then when we were roughly in the right place and after pete had shifted the bridle rod several times we put the thick rubber pad on and lowered the loco onto the bogie
the springs gave some alarming sounds when the weight of the loco was on them though
we then spent the rest of the day putting / checking that all the bits were in the right place and the loco would actually move

right i think thats it i may backdate and add stuff if i remember
right me and dad are going for a pint adios amigos
x