Sometime back in the summer we had added track relaying at Carrs Level to our programme. The gauge had widened at the level entrance and wagons dropped between the rails. After half an hour of digging along one rail, we located the spikes and rotting sleepers. New wood packing pieces were cut and placed between the rail and the level side wall, the rails were re spiked, gauge checked, ballast replaced and we were done!

A test run with the wagon showed that we had been successful.  The wagons can now be safely stored in the mine. It was now time for an early lunch and so back to The Barracks to hear about the morning’s archiving work.

After lunch, the foreman had suggested clearing the gutter in Carrs Level but the team decided to have a look at the water flow in the river to try and find the source of a possible water leakage. We had previously noted an occasional rise in the water level following heavy rain, which as always been a problem for the mine, but this rise seemed to happen faster and often included silt washing through the dam valve.

Down in the river, by the waterfall plunge pool, we dug out the river bed and cleared a large quantity of rock and silt. This work lowered the water level in the river by more than 12 inches and enabled us to see the base of the retaining wall on the east side of the river. We could see some gaps in the structure which would need leak proofing.  A short visit back to the dam in the mine revealed a much reduced water flow, so we had already made progress.