Three-month project
Over the Spring of 2017 the volunteers spent much of their time building the Ways and Works wagon — a workshop on wheels. It will be used for track work, like replacing old wooden sleepers with modern concrete ones. When The Shed visits, the IngersollRand compressor has already been bolted to the floor and John Paul (JP) is using a lathe to turn out a plug to go in the bottom of a gantry to take the weight when the men lift anything into the wagon. By way of conversation, JP says he served his apprenticeship as a fitter and turner and has his own machine shop at home. Another two men are linking an air compressor to the reservoir tank underneath the wagon so they can use pneumatic gear. Restoring the Ways and Works wagon is a three-month project, two days a week, for about five men. “There’s a lot of welding to be done,” says retired motor mechanic Kevin Conlan. “We’ve made new doors for it, put in a bench, a new metal-plate floor, a vice, and we are about to paint it. There are also the pipes to carry air the full 20m length of the wagon. We have yet to install a 12-tonne digger on the front end. “Some of the other jobs we’ve done include replacing and painting the barge boards on the shed [and] reconditioning the red loco — the Husky — so we can take the old blue loco out of service and do repairs on that. And we’ve done quite a bit of track work, like replacing the wooden sleepers with concrete sleepers, which are a four-man lift. That’s why we want the digger on the front of the wagon. They’re a great bunch of fellas and this really gives us something to keep us occupied two days a week.”