One of the benefits of working with a team of geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists is having immediate and nearly daily access to a group of adorable nerds. So when I held a housewarming party for office folk at the weekend AND it was a sunny day, the adults and children came out to play in force. The little loco was zooming around the track after some devegetation works by two small children and their railway-professional parents. Turns out if you don't have any reservations about overwinding your clockwork locomotive, because - for example - you're four, you can really get it going.
Track deveg works
The same family also bought me a new wagon (confusing the three year old, who called me George for the rest of the day):
Coal Wagon! Rubber band coupling is temporary, subject to sourcing some paperclips
Advantage number two of having access to engineering professionals with subtly different skill sets is that when I receive the point cloud and topographical drawings from the 3D Laser Survey I commissioned (for money, from some friendly local surveyors - thanks Malcolm Hughes Land Surveys!) I can get SOMEONE ELSE to manipulate all the data in AutoCAD. I honestly gave up on engineering drawings after we stopped doing them on graph paper. We still do sometimes, and those are the good days - with the pens and the little blue squares and the restful process of it all.
Here's the surveyor with their 3D laser equipment:
Laser surveying (Malcolm Hughes Land Surveys)
You can check out the process here: https://www.malcolmhughes.co.uk/services/laser-scanning/
When I get the resulting point cloud and 3D drawings, I'll get cracking on my desk top study for the railway. This will be a good first step in drawing up a maintenance schedule for the Little Henbury Railway and you'll no doubt hear all about it here first.
Happy Spring, train peeps!