It’s been a busy couple of weeks here, where on top of my now usual routine of tamping and surveying (including some S&C works around Bicester) I’ve had the chance to get reacquainted with stressing.
I’ve done a fair bit of stressing across all my track roles, but not quite to the same scale – a lot of the pulls coming up in the EWR site are 1000m long (and higher in some cases, there’s rules that dictate the maximums) – so getting a couple days of it in has been great for me to get used to working the technical aspects of a larger stressing site before it becomes a regular occurrence.
Some of my more routine work for the week has seen me out checking temporary joint gaps, which admittedly sounds pretty dull but it’s necessary to keep tabs on any we have on to ensure that gaps don’t get too wide prior to stressing works over the next months. It’s unavoidable that there will be some contraction – rails expand and contract in the heat/cold, and a lot of rail has gone in through the summer in warmer temperatures – but if gaps get too wide then remedial actions need to be taken, such as installing closure rails prior to stressing.
Obligatory tamper footage