It was decided to change the regular Monday working to Tuesday this week because of the dreadful weather on Monday.  This turned out to be the right decision as the weather today was great, and it was also a running day, so the guys on site were somewhat distracted by the 8F steam loco and the DMU.  There were five volunteers on site: John C, Bob, Tony and John S on bricklaying, with John O doing all the mixing and mortar movement.  

John C reaches the end of the 70m section with the final row of corbelling. Another one ticked off ! Tony follows on behind with backing up in red.

Great progress was made with the 70m section completed and the first half course of corbelling laid on the 80m section by JC and Tony, John S and Bob put two courses of blues and reds on the 90m section and then Bob laid a further two courses of blues on the 100m section.  All in all some 850 bricks were laid today. And the finished section now totals 70 meters, exactly one third of the way there, with 3 more sections on the way.

 

John S almost on his hands and knees at 90m. The pile of slabs to the rear marks the half way point.

Particular mention should be made of John O who manfully kept them all going with mortar.  This involved some twenty mixes (!) and transporting the mortar around 120m each time.  He certainly earned some brownie points today. 

A rather manic John O !

Finally, a mystery bottle from Broadway, found only last week along the station approach. Clearly for ginger beer; but can anyone say anything about the company, and a possible period for it?  Would this post-date the station opening in 1904?