Dust.  Dust.  Dust !

What a windy and dusty day today. I just got out of the shower, and there was dirt in my ears! How did it get in there?

A much more encouraging 8 volunteers turned up today, allowing 3 to work the mini digger and dumpers, and a generous 5 to spread the infill. Above is the gap that met us first thing in the morning.

Anyone for lots of dust?

A generous load of demolition rubble soon arrived, and we were off.

Initially, the sole 'muck spreader' was the unfortunate John S, who in this picture is standing well clear of the load that is about to descend upon him.

Luckily he was soon joined by Pete, Brian, John O and Bob, and between the five of them the job was not too harsh, and there seemed to be a lot of jollity around. A spare shovel was carried, just in case !

Then they were three. Stick it right there, mate!

The day was particularly windy, and the rubble delivered today, particularly dusty.

This combination resulted in choking brown clouds, and the mini digger and dumper had to be repositioned from time to time to achieve the optimum upwind environment for the machinery operators. Nonetheless, that darned dust got everywhere.

Not a good day for spraying you might think, but luckily these guys had a nozzle that delivered fairly large droplets. After fiddling quite a bit to get their 'golf cart' on the rails (was it narrow gauge, perhaps?) they vanished up the rather green headshunt to do a useful day's work.

Now they are five!

It's a strange thing with the 'muck spreaders', but when the loaded dumper turns the corner to start the journey down the platform, they are all standing in a group and gassing.
Approach a little closer and get your camera out, and this happens. Aren't they busy !

They also complain if there is any interruption in the flow of dumpers. This may not necessarily be the fault of the dumper drivers - here they are queueing up, while Robert from the Pway gang interrogates JC about the finer points of mini digger driving. There are lots of finer points....

During a pause in the delivery of hardcore, JC takes Big Bertha out for a spin, to roll the bit we've already done. Got to climb up on top of it first though, the bit we infilled today was quite deep, and progress therefore proportionately slower. We made a little ramp for him at the end. Do these things have traction control?

Unable to work while JC rumbles along, the 'muck spreaders' head for the cabin for a sneaky cup of tea.

Then, more dust. Tony has long worked out which way the wind blows, and stands well behind at the back.

It was Tony who brought the last load today, the final one of 80 dumps made. Due to the greater depth to be infilled, we didn't after all make it quite to the end, and another load and a bit will be needed next Monday.

Here is the view from the platform 2 starter. The 3/4 mile post is as far as we got today.

If you look at the lads closely, you will see that we work with military precision - shovels presented !

After work, a final wander down to the southern end, to show you the fourth step that was cast today.

Now a little look forward.

After completing the infill, the next jobs will be :

- planting another 4 lamp posts (we really need 5 though...)
- laying the ducting and connecting them up.
- removing the overburden to complete the full width of the northern half of the platform.
- Digging out the approach to the level crossing from the northern end of the platform