I fought the fence ... and the fence won!
Our second post season working day is complete and the aches have yet to appear, but a black eye is well on the way. While trying to disentangle two pieces of the fence one of the hard plastic pipes caught me under the eye with a real whack - should look pretty good in the morning!
A beautiful, if rather chilly day contrasted with last week's leaden skies and blustery showers.
This time there was only four of us to take down the air fences on turns three and four. Because the track at Blunsdon is on a slope, turns 3 and 4 are always drier than 1 and 2.
On hand today is Brian "no problem" Cox. Brian was awarded a special prize at this year's End of Season Bash. If a job needs doing, Brian is always there. He is certainly one of the "unsung heroes" at Blunsdon. During the season we put up the centre green banners first thing on a race day.
Later Brian reappears to act as host to the special guests and patrons. Speedway needs more people like Brian Cox. Each track will have its own "Brian" working away in the background making sure that everything works smoothly.
Track Curator, Gerald Richter is away on a well earned holiday so his number two Rod "Punch" Ford is the man in charge this week. Punch, to his friends, has been working at the Blunsdon track for 36 years and for much of that time has been one of the curators of the track.
When I first started helping out on a regular basis at the track I was warned not to try to match Punch in work load. I'm sure he wont mind, but he is in his 60's yet works with the effort of a 40 year old. A wealth of experiences built up over the years ensures that his opinion is one that you dismiss at your peril. A great bloke whose contribution to Swindon Speedway is more than significant!
Shirley is an invaluable member of the track crew at Blunsdon. During the season she can be found brushing out the pits and making sure that the changing rooms and showers are in tip top condition for the riders. In addition Shirley looks after the track staff, making sure that we are provided with tea and coffee.
At times, she must pull out her hair in frustration - whenever the kettle has boiled and the tea made, we are always to be found at the other end of the stadium. Too often we appear when the tea is cold. Despite this, Shirley always maintains a happy and bright countenance.
The first task is to detach the air fence from the safety fence. This is done relatively easily - at least the catches aren't buried under inches of slime as they were on turns 1 and 2.
Sadly, our euphoria is soon rocked - the kick boards themselves are deep in slime.
Once we've located the kick board (made of thick rubber) we have to find the rivet and then use a drill to drill it out. Trying to move the air fence with the kick board attached is simply too much and there is a danger that the weight of slime on the kick board will be sufficient to tear the bottom of the air bag.
The air fences for turns 3 and 4 have yet to be cleaned so they are "stored" at the back of the pits prior to being washed down.
It takes two, sometimes three of us to manhandle the sections into the bucket of a JCB so that they can be carried off the track.
Lunch is taken early - the job is taking longer than we anticipated.
The rivets on the kick boards have rusted and fused and the drills are making hard work of removing them. Every so often we come across a hasty repair job, nearly always using a strong cable tie. These are a joy to remove - so much easier and quicker.
As we leave our staff room we march through the pits, past the piles of washed fence sections from the week before. Even though they were carefully jet washed down they will still need to be cleaned again to remove the last vestiges of mud and slime before they can be sent back to the manufacturers for close season maintenence.
The fence has actually been sitting lower than the edge of the track surface and the trough is now collecting water as it seeps from the greyhound track.
It's too wet to try to spread the saturated shale although we know that this must be done soon before the really cold weather comes and it binds into hard lumps that are of little use to man nor beast!
Punch takes the tractor out, pulling a harrow, attached by a length of chain to the blade. This will help to even out the surface of the track and break up any clumps of shale that have been disturbed as we have been working. The edge of the track will have to wait - it's far too wet to do anything with.
We have completed our work for the day. The entire fence has been removed and transported to the pits.
It still needs to be jet washed thoroughly before it can be sent away for repair / overhaul, and that will be a long, wet and, probably, cold task.
A trip to turn one shows us another cold, wet and dirty job for the future. The main drain is clogged with clay. The pipe, and all the surrounding gravel in the soak away, will have to be dug out and cleaned. I can hardly wait.
A beautiful, if rather chilly day contrasted with last week's leaden skies and blustery showers.
This time there was only four of us to take down the air fences on turns three and four. Because the track at Blunsdon is on a slope, turns 3 and 4 are always drier than 1 and 2.
On hand today is Brian "no problem" Cox. Brian was awarded a special prize at this year's End of Season Bash. If a job needs doing, Brian is always there. He is certainly one of the "unsung heroes" at Blunsdon. During the season we put up the centre green banners first thing on a race day.
Later Brian reappears to act as host to the special guests and patrons. Speedway needs more people like Brian Cox. Each track will have its own "Brian" working away in the background making sure that everything works smoothly.
Track Curator, Gerald Richter is away on a well earned holiday so his number two Rod "Punch" Ford is the man in charge this week. Punch, to his friends, has been working at the Blunsdon track for 36 years and for much of that time has been one of the curators of the track.
When I first started helping out on a regular basis at the track I was warned not to try to match Punch in work load. I'm sure he wont mind, but he is in his 60's yet works with the effort of a 40 year old. A wealth of experiences built up over the years ensures that his opinion is one that you dismiss at your peril. A great bloke whose contribution to Swindon Speedway is more than significant!
Shirley is an invaluable member of the track crew at Blunsdon. During the season she can be found brushing out the pits and making sure that the changing rooms and showers are in tip top condition for the riders. In addition Shirley looks after the track staff, making sure that we are provided with tea and coffee.
At times, she must pull out her hair in frustration - whenever the kettle has boiled and the tea made, we are always to be found at the other end of the stadium. Too often we appear when the tea is cold. Despite this, Shirley always maintains a happy and bright countenance.
The first task is to detach the air fence from the safety fence. This is done relatively easily - at least the catches aren't buried under inches of slime as they were on turns 1 and 2.
Sadly, our euphoria is soon rocked - the kick boards themselves are deep in slime.
Once we've located the kick board (made of thick rubber) we have to find the rivet and then use a drill to drill it out. Trying to move the air fence with the kick board attached is simply too much and there is a danger that the weight of slime on the kick board will be sufficient to tear the bottom of the air bag.
The air fences for turns 3 and 4 have yet to be cleaned so they are "stored" at the back of the pits prior to being washed down.
It takes two, sometimes three of us to manhandle the sections into the bucket of a JCB so that they can be carried off the track.
Lunch is taken early - the job is taking longer than we anticipated.
The rivets on the kick boards have rusted and fused and the drills are making hard work of removing them. Every so often we come across a hasty repair job, nearly always using a strong cable tie. These are a joy to remove - so much easier and quicker.
As we leave our staff room we march through the pits, past the piles of washed fence sections from the week before. Even though they were carefully jet washed down they will still need to be cleaned again to remove the last vestiges of mud and slime before they can be sent back to the manufacturers for close season maintenence.
The fence has actually been sitting lower than the edge of the track surface and the trough is now collecting water as it seeps from the greyhound track.
It's too wet to try to spread the saturated shale although we know that this must be done soon before the really cold weather comes and it binds into hard lumps that are of little use to man nor beast!
Punch takes the tractor out, pulling a harrow, attached by a length of chain to the blade. This will help to even out the surface of the track and break up any clumps of shale that have been disturbed as we have been working. The edge of the track will have to wait - it's far too wet to do anything with.
We have completed our work for the day. The entire fence has been removed and transported to the pits.
It still needs to be jet washed thoroughly before it can be sent away for repair / overhaul, and that will be a long, wet and, probably, cold task.
A trip to turn one shows us another cold, wet and dirty job for the future. The main drain is clogged with clay. The pipe, and all the surrounding gravel in the soak away, will have to be dug out and cleaned. I can hardly wait.
posted by shaleshifter | 2:17 PM
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