Five of us made it to CRC2 today, enough people to lift lamp posts! JC pounced, and before we knew it, a number of bemused volunteers found themselves lifting solid cast iron.

But first things first: Fairview came with 4 tons of aggregate, and a suitable number of bags of cement with which to make concrete.

These were soon unloaded, and the question arose: What other fun could we have? It was decided to get Richard to take back 2 of the 3 pallets of spare blues that we had on site.

These were taken to Broadway, for further use  - out of sight, as they are modern metrics.

A big loss on site today was John O, who is recovering from a small operation, and after which he cannot lift anything for three weeks. Who would make our concrete up then? John S bravely stepped into the breach, but at tremendous risk: would the mixture equal John O's quality, and would it pass muster, after being wheeled along for 200 yards in a barrow? There was a frisson of nervousness by the mixer today, as the first load was made up. Is this dry enough? Or too wet? John O would add water in increments of half a cupful.... where was his cup?

Expert advice was soon given. You need a tiny bit more cement, just about so much.
Ahhhhh..... and that magic cupful, which John S has now found. Of course. Just a half, mind.

In response to Brian's request for more men on barrows last week, we were honoured by the presence of the very co-chairman of the Cheltenham Area Group, who personally brought us a barrow. An empty one as it turned out; up to us to return it full. So this is management then.





Next: bring down those posts from the booking office. This is the heavy lifting stuff. Three more posts to go.

We're getting quite good at this now, more familiar with the weight distribution, and the post's antics when manoeuvered about. Two guys with a bar across the front, one on the much lighter back, and a guy helping in the middle. We loaded two on the truck, then came back for the third and last one.

Tony hasn't seen this before, so JC explained it carefully, in words of one syllable. A bed of wooden batons has already been prepared at the top, on to which the post will now be tipped.

Up and over she goes. A quick shot of the scene from above, then your photographer will catch it at the top when it comes down on the bed of batons.

Before the post goes into its designated hole, a bed of weak mix is prepared at the correct level. A tape measure, a long pole and a level are the tools for this job.

Here JC is being fitted for a new pair of concrete boots. 'By popular demand', we were assured.

Bringing down, and fitting the final three posts took all morning. Here they are putting the last one in, and getting it perfectly vertical. It's a shot from the platform 2 starter signal, and it shows the whole row now - there are 11 posts in all.

It struck us that those posts gave the platform a more definite shape, and some sort of finality. The edge slabs fitted so far contributed to this impression, it looks really good now.

Of course the posts still have to be wired up, but the conduiting and draw strings are all there.

We also have to add a layer of fine stone to within 50mm of the top, and, even after rolling, allow the infill more time to settle before it can be tarmaced. It's surprising how this stuff can carry on settling in; we've seen that at Broadway.

In the above picture you can see that the ground looks wet. In fact it started to rain more heavily around lunch time, so we decided to call it a day with this job and have our break. We would see what the weather held after lunch.

While we ate, it rained more and more, but as we drank the last of the tea it suddenly stopped, so we thought we'd give the edging slabs another go, after last week's excellent start. In this picture you can see the 'return' we laid at the southern end. There's another bit to go, across the top of the steps, and we need to set up a bit of shuttering and concrete for this, to make one final step on to the ultimate platform surface level.

Including the two at the end, we actually managed to lay a total of 20 slabs today, with which we felt really pleased, especially after manhandling three cast iron lamp posts.

More interesting statistics: We got through two dumpy bags of ballast today, or 2000Kg, and laid 20 slabs. That's 100Kg of concrete (not counting cement and water), or just over a barrow each.

The barrows had to be pumped up twice, as the tyres kept getting soft, and then they are hell to push.

This was really hard work, with the same two people pushing the barrows up and down. We could really do with another to help on the barrows next time; don't all turn up at once....

Next time appears to be a bank holiday Monday, so you will get the added benefit of trains passing by.

Our final look of the day: a view of the slab laying in the distance (we are only a quarter of the way along so far) and a magnificent new drain in the foreground, built by Pete D from B & S, we heard. Well done, that Pete ! It looks the stuff, nice and solid.