Relaying the back straight - November 2005 The back straight had been laid a long time ago. It had sleepers at the end of their life, ballast that was contaminated with soil and some humps and hollows that made for very interesting driving. The 'Track and Ground' committee resloved to sort this out. A weekend working party was organised.	We hired a mini-digger to get things moving....
Spoil was dug out and taken away to another part of the site using the BSME dumper truck	Digging out progresses along the straight
Fresh ballast is laid and squeezed down by driving the digger over it.	Signalling cables are protected by steel sheets
A nice 6" deep layer of fresh ballast has been compacted in. All that needs to be done now is to lay the new track sections. As I write, this has been completed and the track is now ready for the New Year Steam up 2006.	New track sections lie in readiness