Diggings at Winchcombe

Wednesday at Winchcombe

 A good turnout today, with 10 attacking the further renewal of timbers on the turnout opposite the new platform, while 4 'Usketeers' scratched their heads over the weighbridge hut foundations.

These would need some scaffolding boards for the 5m x 5m shuttering. Where to get half a dozen scaffolding boards...

A trip to Broadway in the Transit was organised.  After the removal of the P1 scaffolding, some of the company boards were no longer needed there.

Ah - interesting, they've had a go at fetching over a supply of treads from P2, and laid a few out to see what they might look like. Not bolted down yet though.

Seven scaffolding boards were loaded on the Transit, negotiated with the Broadway team.

After arrival back at Winchcombe they were stacked by the foundation excavation. Some more are on the trackbed, so we should be covered now.

The first steps towards laying the foundations were taken today, with measuring out the four corners of the base. A last check was made with the bottom of the cutting leading to the housing estate next door.




After further measuring, it was found that the levels needed digging out further over about half the surface.

We're talking compacted clay here, on a hot and dry day. It was very hard work.

Can you see the Coffepot? No, I reckon it's a bit further over to the left....

As Stevie wasn't hired in today we had to dig and remove spoil by hand, just the 4 of us.

Periodically we would test various areas to see if we had gone deep enough yet. Usually not....








Every now and then we'd stop to admire a passing train, here with P&O but also with Foremarke Hall.
Anyone know why Halls have a squeak on each exhaust stroke, while other GWR locos haven't? Or is it just ours?

Some of the excavated material was dug out by Jim in the foreground, but we were starting to look at the Telehandler used by the sleeper team with increasing interest.




There is growing confidence in the resleepering team, as the number of timbers replaced has slowly risen over the last month from one a day to four today!

Well done that gang. A few helpful words from Bert Ferrule, passing through, also helped this achievement.

A short but heavy rain shower (see the patches on the side of the Toad) sorted the men from the boys. Management retreated to the balcony of the Toad and continued to arm wave, while the workers on the ground plodded on.

Meanwhile, other troops were also working hard.

We met Roger in the yard with a barrow load of concrete blocks.

Whither goest thou, brother Roger?










Roger was on his way here: the stop block by the new goods platform. The return around the back of it needs a lot of them, so Roger was back and forth quite a bit from the back of the C&M workshop.

As he arrived with yet another load of 3 (top right) the others were down in the pit excavated last week, setting out shuttering and reinforcement bars.










By the end of the afternoon all this was in: planks, a mat cut to size, and bent rebar placed at exactly the spaces of the holes in the concrete blocks. The yellow stripes mark where these go, so the theory is that once the concrete is in, the  back end can be built up with blocks which will fit exactly over the bars sticking out.

This mid afternoon shot captures the activity at Winchcombe quite well. On the left, the team building the return around the stop block, behind them under the tree, the team on the foundations of the Usk hut, centre right by the Telehandler, the team replacing timbers on the yard turnout, and in the distance, Bert Ferrule inspecting sections of plain rail, one of which will be put in at Broadway south for a while, to replace the bent switch, which will be sent away for repair by professionals.

After hacking away at clay and shovelling it out of the hole for a couple of hours, we finally concluded that borrowing the Telehandler might be a bit easier. It's not ideal, but let's see if it can help.

Here it is, trying to get out a scoop of the material we loosened.

It worked, at least a bit. We got out two scoops like this, but there is more to go.

We'll have another try next week, from a different angle.

Time was getting on, if we're not at the Coffeepot before 4 o'clock, there's no tea!

Ooof - we made it! Some more than made it, they secured themselves portions of sponge cake too.

As the Growler rumbles by, Rick can't resist it any longer, he's just got to check the Footsie, hit by US trade tariffs on China. If the value of his pension goes down, he may have to pass on that piece of cake.


Mystery picture

Found in a collection of pictures held by the Winchcombe station group, can anyone say what is happening here?

Note that it doesn't have to be Winchcombe. In fact it looks more like the south end of Toddington yard, with those hills on the left. It looks like the leading axle has derailed at the yard throat, but the track on which the gangers are working also looks a bit rough, with the rail jacked clear of the sleepers. The clothing suggests 1910 - 1920s. The picture quality is rather poor and it's not clear whether there are one or two lamps. If one, it's a passenger train, if two (a second over the RH buffer?), a freight.

Can anyone say any more?