Storm Bram.

Friday, and a quick little storm.

Quite a good team, with seven of us, plus two Usketeers, to move their stuff to the tunnel mouth. That job would be first, and after it, we would continue with the assembly of the replacement CRC south turnout. 

Picture by Paul.

 

 

 

The day before, Paul had closed off a number of car parking spaces. This was to allow the construction of the two switches, which would extend out this way.

As we were a bit under pressure not to take up too many car parking paces, we decided to use this area, but give it back at the end of a day. Quite a challenge! 

 

 

 

Usketeers Paul and Dave (as well as yours truly of course) had turned up this additional day, to use the RRV and its trolley to move the necessary materials for the platelayer's hut chimney up to the tunnel mouth site. 

Anyone who knows railway preservation will know that this is not what played out on the day...

A phone call the evening before informed us that a signalman could not be found for the day (and the RRV), so we would have to PUSH ! The alternative for the day offered was two track trolleys, loaded and unloaded by the Telehandler. Then roll up your sleeves and push them half a mile uphill to the tunnel.

Two rather sceptical Usketeers then watched young David in the Telehandler load up two PWay trolleys before their eyes. The load comprised:

- 240 second hand reds, and 12 blues (for the fireplace arch) 

- A half bag of sand, and a bag of cement

- 6 concrete blocks (site repair, after removal of the stump) 

- Maxie the mixer

- Three chairs recovered from the skip (well, we have to sit somewhere to have our tea break) 

 

 

 

Paul helped to guide in the pallet of second hand bricks.

We loaded this at an angle, because the trackside on arrival was cramped, and the Telehandler could not stand at 90 degrees. Gotta think ahead, you know.

 

 

 

We did a little test run to calm the sceptics, but it was OK really. Dave and young David went ahead with the Telehandler across the fields, and down the slope here, to access the trackbed to the tunnel mouth.

 

 

We even had the time to do a little run past, just for the photographer.

Young David did the honours. His steed is parked just ahead.

Railways are amazing things. Thanks to the low rolling resistance, you can move surprising weights with very little effort. 

 

 

On arrival at the site we unloaded everything. The heaviest thing, the bricks, went into the middle of the site. The mixer will be where Dave is standing, on the corner. The chimney will be on the right.

Two of the Usketeers then returned to their daily lives at home. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, when we hold our annual Christmas dinner. Then back next Wednesday, to start the build, if the weather permits.

 

Meanwhile...

The rest of the Friday gang had resumed work on the turnout in the yard. 

We needed to fetch two more (out of a total of 4) plain rails, which you can see STEVIE lift in here. We had a lovely sunny start to the day, but the forecast for the afternoon was dire, with heavy rain and high winds forecast. You can see the clouds starting to form here, but for the moment we were still dry.

As young David nudges one of the switches, Alistair performs a rain warning off dance, a traditional PWAY method of keeping us dry when bad weather is announced.

 

STEVIE lifted in the two switches, on additional timbers laid out along the area closed off by Paul.

They were not quite equal in position, so the Telehandler was drafted in to give one a bit of a nudge 

 

 

 

Once we were happy with the positions of the switches, they were drilled, and here is Walt using the 'Pogo Stick' to screw them down, as a supervision committee checks what the hell he is doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bert Ferrule put in the bolts, as young David used the IC impact wrench to screw them down.

If it's a big job, it's worth firing up the IC impact wrench, as the battery powered tools do admittedly have a limited range. 

 

 

 

 

 

STEVIE was then used to lift in more closure rails.

Some of these will need cutting to size though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a stock rail being cut to size, for example.

The now low light emphasises the stream of hot particles shooting out at the back.

Always a great spectacle. 

 

 

 This was the position at mid afternoon. Switch rails at the far end, stock rail on the right still to go in.

 

 

 

From this picture you can see how the weather deteriorated as the afternoon progressed.

It's now wet, as the second stock rail was lifted in. 

This picture was taken  a short period afterwards, as the rain became so heavy that we threw in the towel.

To make good our promise not to block the space behind the barriers (see further up) we lifted the end of the turnout with the switches on top of the other two thirds of the turnout.

This is not ideal for us, as to do any further work we will need to call STEVIE out again, and we only have a limited number of operators, and their free time.

So watch this space, to see how we complete this turnout, and take it all to bits again, to move it down to CRC.




After the storm...

A broken lamp top at Broadway, and another at Toddington.  

 

 

 This is the Broadway one.

 

 

 

 

It is pretty comprehensively destroyed. Not blown off its mounting as we had first thought, but the whole top is in pieces, after the 4 side struts failed at their attachment points on the corners of the base.

A bit of background to the Broadway tops: Those on P1 were bought from a UK supplier, boxed, who we think got them from somewhere like India. The shape was the required Windsor model, but instead of a side door, the roof was hinged. While working on the interior of one a while back, with the top hinged open, a gust of winds tore it off its hinges, and we saw that the construction was somewhat flimsy. However, the other tops along P1 seem OK for the moment.

Those along P2 were sourced direct from an artisan coppersmith in the UK, and have the correct side door. They seem a little more robust.

 

The top at Toddington had failed in a similar way, but was from an earlier supplier, not known to us. It is fitted with a rather ugly, grapefruit sized bulb, which gives an industrial orange glow. There is no side door, which is the way the porter would place the oil lamp. That's not possible if the opening is through the roof.

 

Inspection of the other tops at Toddington revealed a possible second candidate at risk of failure. (Left) Others seemed OK for the moment.

The issue at Toddington is that the soldering at the bottom sometimes has insufficient area on which to grip the side struts, so that, as in the case on the right, two struts can let go, and the lamp flips over itself. The same orange bulb is in all of them.

Our verdict is that three should be replaced with those supplied by the coppersmith, and two more held in reserve, one for each station. Five coppersmith ones would be about £1500. The railway is mulling its options, no budget being the usual hurdle. 

 

On returning to the engine shed, we were dispappointed to notice that along both Toddington platforms these modern signs have been placed in the ground:

Do other railways do this? We think not. They clearly detract from our heritage railway objective. 

What someone might have done is found one of those old earthenware markers, and had it copied 10 - 12 times by a pottery (such as the one in Becketts Lane). Much more discreet, and in keeping with our aim of being a 'Living Museeum'. A plastic sign off Ebay is not.

 

 

 

Out in the car park we came across this well wagon. It's pretty enormous. Possibly a Crocodile? (albeit with BR axle boxes, and signs of a removed wagon plate.)

This is a private owner, believed to be going to another railway for a special purpose. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside the well it was interesting to see the bed supported by a web of.... Brunel bridge rail.

Is there no limit to the uses that bridge rail can find? 

 

 

 

 

We went to the shed on Monday to paint rivet heads. With the winter weather it is important that these be protected from rust. 

Neal and a small team have been attaching brackets to three of the 4 fascia boards (the front ones; one is at the rear of the canopy below the footbridge steps). The objective was to anticipate as many rivets on site as possible, in order to make final assembly quicker.

We are reliably informed that these are the last rivets to be applied at Toddington. Hmmm.... 

 Elsewhere in the shed the Santa locomotives were asleep, some still warm from Sunday.

 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Storm Bram had passed over, and the three Usketeers were ready for action on the platelayer's hut.

 

 

Now that we are by the tunnel mouth, it's quite a long drag up across the field, down the slope, and along the trackbed.

Here is Paul, with what the French call 'un necessaire de voyage'. No, not a lady's handbag, but a barrow full of brick laying tools, and a few little snacks (of course).

 

 

We set up camp by the future hut, and before long a gang of actual plate layers arrived, and stopped to quiz us. What are you doing there? What's it going to look like? How much is it costing?

They then walked on, into the tunnel, out of which we heard various rattles during the day. 

 

Today was our first actual brick laying day, so we had to have a little think about how it was all going to look. The chimney will need to be slightly offset, as there is only room on the foundations for a 3+2 sleeper wall by the fireplace, not 3+3 as in the drawing (kindly supplied by a supporter). So the fireplace had to be exactly in the right place, or else the sleepers would not fit come the day we were going to install them. Too late to move the fireplace then.

 

 

The design of the fireplace will be a hybrid between two that we have seen. One has a better hearth, the other a better back wall to fit in with the upright sleepers. We're also going to go with a brick arch, and not the steel plate that we have seen in one of the two designs.

How is your Haldex coupling? Mine's making a bit of a funny noise...

 A second lot of plate layers came by. They too paused to discuss things they have in common.

 

Finally a Ranger paused for a chat. It's occupants found a more comfortable solution to the long drag up the line, and into the tunnel.

 

When all was quiet again we got on with the job of preparing for brick laying. We wondered if there was some sort of a door step in front of the entrance, and some digging revealed that there was. That would make a good stand for Maxie, the mixer.

Many of the blocks here are damaged or missing. We wonder if the track layers back in the 1980s had taken them, to beef up the supplies for the temporary platform by the Royal Oak (which in the event was abandoned) ?

We have brought a few spares, but need to hack out space for them in the rubble. 

 

This is the site of the fireplace and chimney then. We decided to corbel out the chimney itself, so that the upright sleepers could be up against the blocks at the back.

Some chopping out of broken blocks is happening on the left - the mix used in the day is extremely hard though. 

 

 

 

Here is Paul, just starting the actual laying.

We don't really have any essential services on site, in particular no water or electric supply, so need work arounds for that.

The first lot of water, used today, was created by allowing storm Bram to fill three buckets naturally. That worked a treat.

 

 

 

Future supplies will come from one of the catch pits in the cess. We had a little peep last time, and there is water down there. 

 

During the day the little site looked like this. Quite crowded. We have some chairs, sourced from a skip, but when we are done it might be more fun to have two sleeper built benches inside.

From clearing the dirt around the entrance we found some more shards. This is tea making stuff: a teapot with lid, a BR china cup, and the top of a Camp coffee extract bottle. Last time we found the handle of their kettle.

 

Yours truly went home early, as he was feeling the rather unpleasant after effects from a shingles jab the night before. This is Paul, just completing the third course. Consulting the photographs that we have, we can see that it's six courses to the start of the arch.

Paul can't wait to get off his knees! He made a good start though. 

 

PWay news.

A very crowded mess coach today, every seat taken, and standees only.

 

 

One reason for the crowd (besides the excellent weather today) was digger refresher courses going on in the yard.

The PWay yard - at the moment - is ideal for this, as we have a large if tatty pile of spent ballast and that was used to (re-) train the operators, from various departments. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main gang was in the tunnel today (see above), while the RRV was on the Broadway extension, dropping ballast.

 

Here is STEVIE, passing through Toddington, as seen from the box. We have a possession for the line at the moment. 

 

 

 

 

These dumpy bags are ideal for ballast drops that are less than a full sized Dogfish. At the moment we have enough, but we are regular users of them, so if you have any, stay in touch. They need to be fairly fresh though, otherwise they will rip when lifting with nearly a tonne of ballast in them.

 

These days the light soon fades, as STEVIE returned home. This looks like Chicken Curve.

Then we have some more pictures from a week ago.

 

 

 

The gang worked on the northern loop turnout at Winchcombe, replacing three more timbers in a programme that has taken quite a while.

But these are the last ones, then the line is good to go again. 

Two timbers dug out, and ready for replacement.

Digging out a third one.

Three timbers replaced. These are the old ones.

Finally the replacement timbers were tamped with the Robels.

Another sleeper was replaced in the platform.

 

 

 

 

As Winchcombe platform roads were comprehensively relaid about 10 years ago, this failure here was attributed to a rogue sleeper. You get them...

 

 

In fact, after it was replaced, the whole lot of sleepers in the platform looked excellent, and you'd never know which one was once a duff one.

See if you can guess....

 

Pictures by Paul Fuller, with thanks. 

Building a little siding

Friday on the CRC turnout.

Quite a good gang of five on Friday. They made the little Battenberg cake that we had brought (love the marzipan!) look rather small. It soon went, but then we had to start work.

 

 

 

The first job was to load the cube on to Stevie's trailer at Toddington.

This was unloaded at Winchcombe, and will be needed as a site safe for our tools at CRC, early in the new year when we put the replacement turnout in.

 

 

 

 

 

The idea for Friday was to rummage through our pile of second hand bullhead rails, and find acceptable ones to act as stock and closure rails for the turnout. 

These are plain rails, in between the crossing and the switches at the other end.

First, we had to measure the thickness of the heads, so that we could approximately match the rails. 

 

 

Then we rummaged through the pile. Not easy, when each item weighs a tonne, and is potentially wanting to break your leg.

We made two smaller piles - one of scrap rail, and one pile of rails useable in the turnout. We needed 6 rails of 60ft each, or equivalent. 

 

 

 

 

Rather than make one big pile of useable rails, we decided to bring one round, since it was already attached to Stevie.

 

 

 

We lifted that one in, to see what it looked like.

It looked OK. 

 

 

 

The day was damp and somewhat blustery. We escaped most of the downpours, such as that one !

 

 

 

That first one went so well, that we decided to bring more round. In the end we put 3 plain rails in. The fourth that we had in mind was the full 60ft length, and needed the stretcher bar for carrying (it was too floppy) which, as things always turn out, was in a different station. Dang. 

So that one is for next time. 

At the end of the day we thought that we had done quite well. To the question 'Can you see what it is yet?' we think that we can answer 'Yes'.

The idea is to assemble it fully at Winchcombe, sort out any problems (we already found a few on Friday), and then re-assemble it at CRC. That shouldn't take very long.

Full assembly at Winchcombe does mean however that the turnout will reach into the area of that parked car in the distance.  In order not to interfere too much with the busy Santa volunteer parking, we will try and do the rest over one working week shortly. It does mean that we need additional mid week volunteers, to get the assembly done in one go.

Form an orderly queue, please... 

 

Some readers may be wondering, what are they going to do with the existing turnout at CRC?  There is nothing wrong with it as such, its main problem is expired timbers, and the metal is rather old school GWR. So we are going to re-use it in the PWay yard at Winchcombe - see picture below.

This is the future site of the CRC south turnout. It will go in on the right, by the pile of rails. It will give a simpler approach to the two C&W carriage stabling points. C&W don't want too many curves and switches throwing the stock this way and that, as that makes it difficult for the buckeyes that we use.

 

The PWay stock siding will then be the one on the far left. One day there may also be a carriage storage shed here. The exact location and size have been the subject of discussion for some time now. And of course there is no money.

 

 

Saturday, out with the gang.

Despite the 'Heavy rain' forecast by the BBC, it was quite a pleasant day, and 12 volunteers turned out for what became quite an interesting couple of jobs.

 

The first job was ballasting at Little Buckland, where the recent tamping had exposed sleeper ends and shoulders that needed boosting.

We met the loaded ballast train at the Stanton yard. 

 

 

 

 

Not long afterwards we heard the steady Plod-plod-plod of the Sulzer diesel. 

It was 26043, whose crew were delighted to come out for a job.

Here it is, just backing on to the ballast train, before propelling up to the job site. 

Once arrived, an eager volunteer sprang forward, ready to wind the 'Pirate ship's' wheel about 100 times, to get the ballast plough underneath down to rail level.

Then we were ready for the drop. Here the train is just manoeuvering up to the start of the drop. Several men were up on the Dogfish, ready to open the doors, whole others followed on in the Shark behind.

The weather at this point was a bit cold and grim, with dark skies and drizzle.

Below is a film of the train doing the ballast drop, with all four wagons being emptied, and the Shark brake van behind ploughing the ballast out of the four foot, and outside the rails left and right:
 

 https://youtu.be/x7gZ_EoUj6Y

Here is the train about to come to a stop again, with the new ballast very evident, as it comes from a  different quarry than that dropped during the extension build.

The gang on the balcony of the Shark were clearly having a good time. There was an atmosphere of great joy, and visible pleasure of doing something different from changing sleepers and packing the inteminable dips.

 

 

 

With the drop completed we returned to Stanton.

While the main party moved on to Toddington, a small group stayed behind to load another wagon from the small pile that remained. 

 

 

 

 

Lunch was held in the mess room at Toddington. After that came job No.2 for the day: to lay in a short stretch of track near the yard throat, so that 3 diesel bogies could be stored on it. 

This is the area proposed, that green bit on the left. It's just for storage, doesn't have to look too pretty. Mustn't cost anything either. 

Luckily we have quite a few lengths of old rail (Old? Look at this one !), so they could be lifted in on top of some GWR throughbolted sleepers that we have stacked by the driveway (which we were also pressed to remove)

While waiting for the Toddington Telehandler to arrive with the first sleepers, we devised a little puzzle for a newbie: 

 Can you just knock that key back in? It seems to have fallen out. Ta!

 

 

 

Ah! here comes Simon with the sleepers.

 

Just drop them off slowly along here, while you reverse. 

 

 

 

As the gang was laying out the sleepers with the throughbolters on, the 'Rat' 26043 came back from shunting the ballast train, and prepared to return to the diesel shed.

STEVIE brought in odd lengths of rail that were left over from a crossover that we put in here about 5 years ago.

 

 

 

 

And Hey Presto ! After just a couple of hours the storage siding, about two lengths long, was there. A bit rough & ready, but that is all that was wanted.

Hmmmm... How about a bit of loco ash, the traditional packing material for cheap track? That would level it out a bit, especially at the far end. 

In no time the Telehandler, this time the larger one from Winchcombe, brought in a couple of bucket fulls.
 

There's a bit more fettling to do, but that's basically it.

 

 

Tuesday, painting at Toddington.

On this sunny day we took the opportunity of painting rivet heads at Toddington.

This is the last of the 4 trusses, with rivet heads primered and undercoated. That should deter the rust a bit for a while.

The canopy structure is now likely to be mounted in September next year, just for the asssembly phase on site. It will be on a non-running day, but will not otherwise need a line block on a longer basis. There will be scaffolding only around the building, and this will allow us to work on the canopy until the closed season, when there will be a shorter period of scaffolding actually on the loop.

That's the plan at the moment.... 

 

 

 

Passing through the loco shed we spotted this interesting chimney casting, together with the pattern.

You don't see that very often. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A busy day, again in the sun (the forecast for the next 10 days is very poor though) and we spent it most usefully by preparing for a supply drop of materials to the platelayer's hut on Friday. 

 

That meant finding and carrying to the loading area behind the C&W shed everything heavy that we were likely to need over the next several weeks by the tunnel mouth.

This included about 240 reds, some blues for a fireplace arch, half a bag of sand, some concrete blocks to replace those that were removed to get rid of the tree stump there, Maxie the mixer (tried out, and still going strong!) and three chairs that we found in the skip. We want to be able to sit down for a cuppa from time to time, after all. 

 

After a couple of hours on the scrounge we had assembled this little package for STEVIE to trundle up the line for us. There is no budget for the platelayer's hut!

STEVIE actually came by today, but was sent out on a mission to Bishops Cleeve, and was likely to return too late. So the supply drop will be on Friday.

 

 

 

Much of the rest of the day was spent clearing up the weighbridge site, now that we have finished everything, bar the wooden window (which will be a fill in job on rainy days).

Here is Dave shovelling up the remains of the old tarmac, next to the new strip. 

 

 

 

 

Then we took down the Heras fence. The two holes at the front have now been filled in again, so there is no longer any need for it.

The weighbridge now looks normal again. FoWS still intend to give the interior a repaint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Heras fencing panels were taken to the compound, and put into store with the others up on the mezzanine.

 

 

There seemed to be a lot of military activity in the sky today - this A400 was seen three times. Or maybe there were three of them...

At the end of the day we dropped into Toddington, to see what Neal was up to. On Tuesday he took our mini digger there, to dig a hole. 

What was that all about? 

The answer today was that there will be a short extension to the concrete apron in front of the loco shed, and in anticipation of the concreting a drain was put in first.

 

 

 

Next door BETTON GRANGE was given a short trip by the shunter. The loco is decorated for Santa, and was lit up for a boiler test, we ascertained.

It was nice to see this little GWR diorama, withauthentic water tower and two yard lamps, and the loco's brasswork shining in the low sun. 

 

With the Grange outside there was space in the loco shed for a snapshot: there's a 38XX, a Hall, and a Merchant Navy. Only the 2-8-0 is ready for service; the other two just started their regular overhauls.

At the back are three fascia boards for Broadway. Neal brought them in, no doubt for more riveting. He's trying to do a maximum at Toddington, so that there is less to do on site once the canopy goes on. When we built the P1 canopy there was much more riveting required after the canopy was assembled, and we'd like to shorten that.

Under the glass of the side-less greenhouse more daggerboards had received a coat of paint.

These here are the longer ones that go on the canopy ends, and they have just received their first coat of undercoat.

All around there was lightweight debris, evidence of the strong winds and rain that we have been having. The rain goes straight through here, we're basically doing all this work outside.