Oh dear, I cannot believe it has been just over a year since I last put a post up on this thread?
Regrettably, there has not been much progress to report, but courtesy of my voluntary confinement, now is probably a good time for a catch-up!
Love Lane workshops have been suspended for the time being, so the ongoing bridge paint and installation is also on hold. On the last occasion that we all met, (unaware then that it would be) someone decided that we needed a short length of post and wire boundary fencing. Precisely what type would be appropriate though..?
It is funny how something so common and mundane raises so many questions when details are required?
Apart from the familiar concrete post variety favoured by the LNER and BR, the old Great Eastern appear to have preferred upended sleepers, cut to a weathered point at the tops, and with at least six wires stretched between. I also recall that there was a type that used steel H channel section, drilled for the wires, and hammered into the ground, with some braced sleeper posts only at intervals for tensioning. I assured those interested that I knew where there was a short length of that latter type that was remarkably still in situ, and that I could easily nip out and measure it for reference before the next meeting!
Being told that we are still allowed to take a dog for a walk, but not having such an animal available, I escorted a tape measure and camera into the spring sunshine for a little exercise!
Time (and nature) waits for no man, and you might correctly guess that after crashing around in the shrubbery, only a lonely couple of bits could be found at all. Both were corroded right through at the base, but still had some very fragile remains of tangled wire threaded through some of the holes. Those sad remnants would clearly not last much longer in the wild, so I decided that in the interests of historical research, that it was necessary to return home with a couple of rather weighty walking sticks!
The big surprise was what they were made of however.
It also just happens that they fit very neatly underneath the "Little Engine" as well!
World War One, portable trench rail methinks...?
There must of been many hundreds, nay, possibly even thousands of miles of the stuff as Government surplus after 1918, and so absolutely ideal for exhausted railway companies to keep their fences in repair...?!
Pete.
Many happy memories of watching both Dumpy trundle round slowly with wagons and Winjoy puff around in circles!!
