The Moles of Kirkby Stephen

Another concrete bench recovery session: not to be confused with the quest to find my marbles. Or Will's dropped loose change. Honest! 

Will's Feet

Recently a lot of time has gone in to the lattice bracket signal in one way or another, but we were back digging (mining?) for gold concrete: trying to recover further concrete bench legs for reuse. The usual digging out happened fairly rapidly, but cutting the rusted remains of the securing bolts was tougher, and even when these were cut through we had problems. The bolts had blown with the rust build up and were wedged in the concrete. This required much more brute force (coupled with plenty of ignorance) to separate.

Will cutting the bolts holding the concrete sections together.

Whilst Steve was extracting his foot from the rabbit holes, I dropped down the embankment and discovered another couple of relics: an NER drive rod which would have pushed the signal arm to show an 'Off' as well as a back blind from the same signal. A return visit with a metal detector to this spot might lead to further discoveries! 

Steve trying to separate the concrete sections

Wooden bench tops are now on order, so we can demonstrate some more progress shortly, as well as add some variety to our tasks! We will also be buying further bench legs, digging more holes and filling them in: such fun!

Joint effort digging out the other side

The Finds

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