Deffo wear gloves, if from a tram line then not too bad, but if from normal railway, then will have had many years of excrement dropped onto them from the carriage toilets.
Unfortunately not. The garden is all walled with a small doorway. The garden is multi tiered with sets of steps so even if it went in I wouldn't be able to get it from place to place. The digging is keeping me fit... Just finished filling in at the back of one of the sleeper walls with hardcore and topsoil- area of 8x1.5x0.6m