Six brick layers today ! That must be some kind of a record. It's the warm weather that brings them out in spring, after hibernation. What an improvement over Wednesday's two, and ice cold. Today we saw 9 degrees, ideal weather for getting on with the job.

Here is an overview of the site at the start of the day:

As you can just about make out, there is a whole row of brick layers, and they are working on 4 sections at once. This put a lot of strain on John O, who alone on the mixer, could barely keep up. The supply situation was not helped by one barrow being sent back as 'too sloppy'.

It's jolly hard second guessing the brick layers, as sometimes they do want a sloppy mix, e.g. for filling in the final layer, as Pete D is doing here. Here Pete is working on the 140m section, on which JC has just put the last row of corbelling bricks, so this new bit is nearly ready! Got to tick it off the sheet on the board...

After you finish a section, what happens next? Well, here is Bob on the end of the new 170m section, answering a question that has been on many a reader's mind: How do you ensure the brickwork is of the right height? Well, you take a level off the profile planted earlier (and carefully given a section distance by John O and his big felt tip pen) and then measure down with a tape measure. This then enables Bob to build a little tower on the end, off which the next three rows are laid. Got that?

 Normally at this point we would set out the next profile (180m) but somehow this wasn't quite possible. We took down the 140m one, and then discovered it was set in a weak mix that wasn't so weak. Bob attacked the reluctant clump with hammer and bolster, while Brian checked to make sure his trousers aren't torn. We think.

Up on the cutting side, yours truly and Derek set about retrieving more bricks from the remaining stacks up there. You need to position a stock, if you want to lay them. We got through just about 2 pallets of blues, before the backs started protesting (too much).
We moved about 800 bricks down to rail level.

A count of the remaining stacks at the top came to 15 - at 400 bricks per stack, that's about 6000 blues left.

We think that should be enough to finish the job.

This shot, taken in the middle of the day, shows three of the 4 'backer uppers' that were busy today. Tony, John S, Petes D and Q did very well indeed today. All in all, one (final) row of corbelling bricks was laid by JC on the 140m section (see the row of counterweight bricks in the picture above), two rows of bricks on the 150m section, three on the 160m section and two rows of blues on the new 170m section. We think that is above average progress.

Always a bit of friendly rivalry at the back there. Gimme that brick!

Meanwhile, on platform 1 the new car parking arrangements were being given a trial run, given that this was a non-operating day. Although the flow is now circulatory and thus more logical, it seems that drivers were still in need of some help at this early stage. It'll settle down...

On the 170m section, Bob put down two rows of bricks along the newly laid concrete base, so that as a next stage we can lay the blocks already lined up here in readiness. Fairview brought a fresh supply of sand and cement in readiness for this job next week.

Here is a the huge pile of sand that was dropped, right outside the container door. Only one way to shift that - shovel it into the mixer, John!

Rarely reported on, but an unavoidable duty every working day is cleaning the tools of leftover mortar. If you don't stay on top of this, your barrows and shovels quickly build up a thick coat of old and hardened mortar that is near impossible to clear.

Standing there with a hosepipe looks simple enough, but what you can't see is the surplus water and mortar running off and over your feet, so that at the end you are standing in a pool of mud and with boots soaked through.

And then comes the 'piece de la resistance': It's official, the 140m section is done, Bob can tick off another box on the list! Yes!
And the job is actually a bit shorter than we thought: The list goes up to 220m, but in actual fact we are only required to build 200m of platform, including the northern slope at the end. This will bring platform 2 exactly in line with platform 1. So that's another question answered.

To finish with, a little question to our readers:
We are quite successful at catching mice in the classic 'Little Nipper' traps, but we only ever find half a mouse. Do mice eat other mice if they can, or have we got something bigger on the loose?