.....runs the Lincoln-Sleaford-Peterborough line. Here are some of the trains seen passing. Most of the day time trains are single unit class 153.
These run right past your new house Alan? How far did you move from where you lived? Looks like you areout in a rural area? Charlie
To illustrate how close the trains are to our garden, here is Irene glancing at a class 66 on a sunday ballast train returning to lincoln ...and returning to reading her magazine...! Photos taken from our bedroom window. What a view
Charlie, we moved about 25-30 miles west. We are still in Lincolnshire (just). We are on the eastern edge of the village, and have views over open fields behind the house. It is sooooo peaceful! We love it. Although it is a village, it has a very good range of shops, and a lovely slow pace of life, and everyone is extremely friendly. We made a good move
Nice, I haven't shot any of the green class 153 repaints yet, and nice catch with the 'Shark' ballast plough brake van, they are getting rarer these days. Good to hear that you are settling into the new place.
That is close. That reminds me of how close the Frisco tracks were to my grandparents' house back in the 1960's. Are those tomato plants? 25 to 30 miles and still in the same town? That must be a pretty big place. Anyway, congratulations on the move. Looks like a great spot. Charlie
Nope, not the same town, I will now go to my profile and update my location Tomato plants? All plants seen are railway lineside weeds! The garden has changed a bit since the pics. We do now have flowers and shrubs The built-in barbecue has not yet been used, but will be soon
Definitely an interesting vantage point! BTW- What is that gray car in the second photo with your wife? Looks like some sort of controls visible inside? For operating the ballast car dumping mechanisms? Boxcab E50
Spot on! They travel slowly along the track and use those wheels to open the various schutes to drop ballast at the places where needed. In this case they were just top[ping up bad spots. The train was actually travelling 50-60 mph on it's way back to Lincoln, but when it came down it was just crawling along. They are only ballasting the Up (southbound) track at the moment, the Down track is still jointed and is looking very worn in places so I assume they will soon be replacing it. Continuous welded rail is definitely much quieter! We can tell the direction of trains due to rail joints one way and cwr the other
Alan, You are not wrong when you said you were close to the line. what is the shed at the back for is it the workshop???
Just to add to Alan's answer, the ballast cars have three wheels, they have three sets of doors so can drop between or either side of the rails. The boxy vehicle behind is known as a 'Shark' and is a ballast plough van, there are big 'ships wheels' on the verandah's that raise and lower the plough's underneath to profile the ballast.
Paul, that is a garden shed we inherited. It is destined to be scrapped very soon Here I am nailing down the roofing felt on the new workshop. And the finished product. The fence has been cut down to allow better views of the countryside (and trains!) and all fences have been painted. Things are beginning to look better
So the gray car is probably similar to what we call a "ballast regulator," or a Jordan Spreader" over here. Guess it depends on what they're doing. The regulator is for doing finer finishing work. I like the comment about having cut down that fence for a better view....... Boxcab E50
