Slabbing at CRC2, Part 2.

The third day of slabbing at CRC, Wednesday 11th June, started with just 22 slabs to go.

This fish eye view from Mike Best illustrates the work perfectly. Most of the slabs have already been laid, and the platform extends way away into the distance, almost to infinity!

Just a few more yards to go on the right, then we go down the slope.

Having reached the end of the level section, a new start is made at the bottom, building up to the break point, where the last slab is cut to size. Clive, Bob, Brian and JC are on the job, while Gary waits with the next slab.

We then move on back to the break point, where the last section of slab is cut to size to fit.

Paul is applying a nice layer of mortar, while Brian is looking pretty pleased with himself, having been given one level for the straight bit, and one for the slope....

Also on the Wednesday was the last bit of pea gravelling.

You can see that when this is finished, there is still quite a bit of infilling left to do.

Up to now, we had always filed in the pea gravel using two barrows on the trolley, and a big yellow bucket to scoop it over the platform wall.

Now, with the road-railer available, and all the pea gravel shovelled into dumpy bags a few weeks ago, a new method was devised. It involves the use of a Stanley knife...

Very clever, guys, but I call that cheating a bit!

Testing the clearance - part II. Take one 100t diesel locomotive, run it the full length of the platform... the driver is checking the clearance carefully, but there was nothing to report. We passed with flying colours.

Just for comparison, here is the 'before' picture, taken in 1995 when I was on holiday in the UK as an expat. The RH wall had a pretty obvious lean on it, and I wondered how they were going to cure that. Little did I know...

After the slabbing, the availability of the road-railer was used to pick up all the original York stone slabs that were piled up on site some years ago.
Here the pile by the former CRC2 waiting room is moved on to the trolley.
A standard slab of 3ft or 4ft length is very heavy indeed, but these are of varying lengths and some are as much as 6ft long, so the road-railer was crucial in getting them shifted and the site made tidy.

 Along came another service train, this time hauled by 2807. The road-railer scurried into the head shunt, and GWR's 75 ton heavy freight loco tried the new coping slabs for size.

They were fine as well.

On the final day, June 11th, the road-railer was back in action and collecting more York stone slabs from the old platform, this time from a large stack on the other side of the signal box.

Here you can see where they went. On the right you can see the fully slabbed platform, with the exception of a short piece at the bottom of the northern end.

In order to mimic the appearance of CRC1, a short flat stretch was laid at the bottom, on a new concrete base.

Once the concrete base had gone off, the final two slabs were laid here.

Brian and Tony look on.

Tony then got on with the laborious job of filling in all those little diamond shaped holes that are left when you join two new slabs together.

The special sealant will be used on the gaps between the slabs.

From the depth in which Tony is standing, you can see how much more infill is required. More of that tomorrow.

The last job on the 11th was for the road-railer to park itself and the trolley outside. This is how they did it.

On Monday 15th June, a mini digger, two dumpers and a roller stood outside this gate. What we did with them will be posted tomorrow, then we're back up to date.