Skegness 28th May 2018

We hadn't been to Skegness for quite a time so decided to pay it a visit. We made a reasonably early start and when we arrived we had it in mind to park in a place we had used before, the parking there is free as opposed to the car parks that cost £7, not a fortune but worth saving. We went straight into a free space. There were lots of people about and all the rides and amusements were in full use. If you like a traditional seaside experience then Skegness is a great place to go. It's noisy, colourful and most of all fun. Candy floss, fish & chips, shops selling what the unkind would describe as tat are there in their hundreds, not everyone's cup of tea but in small doses we love it.

Northampton Stadium 1st Shale meeting 27th May 2018

Northampton Stadium has always featured a tarmac track but it was decided to experiment with a shale (dirt) track. This was laid over the tarmac track and could, in theory, be removed. Coventry Stadium (a shale track nearby) had been closed for a while and as this had always been very popular with spectators, I would guess that it was hoped that some of these spectators would be attracted to Northampton. The shale was laid during the week before this meeting and had been levelled and graded. A quantity of a clay-like substance was put down to bind the shale to the previous surface. The first meeting certainly attracted a good number of competitors with probably about 60 F2's in attendance. As far as comments from both sides of the safety fence were concerned, if you asked 10 people you would get 10 different answers about the success of the venture. Certainly, the surface was very bumpy and the Rebels (with their lack of suspension) really struggled with the surface, bouncing all over the place. Water was applied very regularly and this seemed to bind the track into a fairly hard surface. I did wonder whether this was the underlay and whether the intention is to lay more loose shale onto the surface now that this layer is totally compacted and bound to the original track. Although I have personally always preferred tarmac tracks I think that this somewhat brave attempt at change will eventually bear fruit.

Railway Track Laying Souldrop Beds

THere are currently three railway lines running past Souldrop, two fast main lines and one used for freight. This is being expanded to four lines with an extra slow line being constructed. The main purpose of this line is to carry slow passenger traffic from stations between Bedford and Kettering (I believe that this is the case).. The work is done overnight and has been going on for many months. Last night 13/5/18 I decided to go down at about 10pm to see what was going on. It appeared that a train had used hopper trucks to release ballast onto the existing line and then a number of JCB type machines that could run on the rail lines were busy moving the ballast to the side of the track where the new line will run. A similar machine was dragging new sections of rail up to where they will be needed. I took a few pictures but the site was being lite by powerful lights and any type of photography was very difficult, so very sorry about the quality of the pictures.

Stradsett Hall May 2018

On the 6th May (Bank Holiday Sunday) 2018 we visited Stradsett Hall to see the Vintage Rally. For a very reasonable £7.50 entrance fee we were able to see a very interesting show. There was a limited number of traction engines but literally hundreds of tractors. Of particular interest to me was the collection of old Oval Racing cars. There was a number of Superstox, a Grandprix Midget and the John Halifax vintage  Saloon Stockcar.