Week 6

Slight software issue this week, as the blogger Windows 10 powered desktop has decided to freeze up when uploading photos. Hours on the phone with a remote PC doctor achieved only a part solution, and a search on the internet revealed that it is a Microsoft issue, and there is no immediate fix. So we're looking at a work-around. Pictures this week are from the archives, with the first few wriggled in under the Windows 10 radar - it seems a single picture at a time can be uploaded.

We're into week 6 now, hard to believe.

We'd invite you round for tea, but can't. So share some virtual scones with us, with whipped cream and some top notch cherry jam.

Behind the tea is a TICKETS casting, an original, possibly even from Broadway itself as it was found in a house in Willersey nearby. It's in store for that big day when we restore Toddington station back to its original condition, with a booking office (no more queuing on the platform), real stationmaster's office and First Class Waiting Room.



We've had more fun with those WAY OUT board replicas. Both the P2 (Over Foot Bridge) and the P1 board (plain Way Out) have been 'outshopped'. Ready for the P2 building now, and the P1 canopy extension.

Right

Left

 
















A slight worry while making up these boards was would we get the texts the right way round, and the two fingers pointing the same way.

Remember that this is a two sided board, which will hang from the canopy overhang at the bottom of the steps. It will be seen from underneath, from both sides.

Before finally screwing down the last letters, we lifted it this way and that, but it seemed to be OK. Nothing was upside down, phew!




We still need the steel brackets and suspension rods for these, which in the past were made by a clever member of the Broadway gang.

Next on the production line is a new GWR poster board, double royal in size.

This one will be situated outside, so could suffer in the rain, until we have widened the little canopy over the front door. It will be lettered by Alex from C&W so needs to have a smooth background. That wouldn't work with T&G as used with the other boards, so we have ordered a sheet of marine ply (very expensive!) which can be found in the same thickness as the groove in the replica moulding - 18mm. Piece of luck that. More details on what it will look like when it has been lettered.


Slip Appeal update

Good news on the GWSR slip appeal, it has breached the £200.000 and as of today stands at £208.000. We intend to resume work on completing the slip repair soon, so it's vital that we raise the full sum - £42.000 are still to be found.

https://www.gwsr.com/Emergency_Embankment_Appeal.html

If you haven't helped yet - or maybe you can help again, after a month has passed - then above is the link to the appeal page. We are getting there!



Honeybourne triangle

We have been fortunate to acquire a set of pictures of the Honeybourne triangle as it is today, and share these with you below. Hopefully we will get there one day.

The Honeybourne triangle was where the Oxford-Worcester line crossed our Honeybourne line, and to make the maximum connectivity 3 of the 4 corners were connected with chords. The only one that didn't have a direct connection was, say, Broadway to Moreton. The terrain there is to steep and the angle too sharp.

The Honeybourne triangle - Copyright A. Kenney

A. Kenney from the PWay gang very kindly let us use his sketch map of the area, so that you can see where the pictures were taken.

The first picture shows the overbridge where the Oxford - Worcester line crosses the Honeybourne line, looking north.

This bridge as you can see was renewed only a few years ago, and wide enough for a re-routed access road to a farm (formerly with a rather dangerous user crossing on a bend) as well as space for a single line north, into the triangle. The picture was taken from the site of Honeybourne West Loop junction, a few hundred yards north of the big 8 track yard just visible at the bottom of the map.

The second picture is looking east, alongside the main line, and looking towards the bridge in the first picture (out of sight in the undergrowth).

The whole of the Honeybourne triangle has been used as a dump for spent ballast for a very long time, so many of the ground levels have risen.

Sadly the big double gate from the access road under the bridge is left unlocked and wide open, so much so that it even no longer has its bolt. This gives easy access, in particular to fly tippers who have left builders and household rubbish in various areas.

This next picture shows the location of the former switch to the ballast dump, the tip siding on the map.

The line on the left is the start of the former line from Honeybourne station to Stratford, now in use as a long siding to Long Marston, with occasional use.

On the map the area is known as Honeybourne North junction. Each had its own signal box, and the top of one can be seen in the car park at Toddington.

This is a picture from the highest point in the centre, looking north east. It's a bit of a jungle.

This shot is from the same spot, but looking roughly south west, towards Honeybourne station.

This shot is from the middle of the triangle, with the remains of the tip siding in the foreground. One of the loco crew at Toddington was actually a fireman on some of the spoil trains that came here, and he remembers pushing the wagons up here, and moving the siding bit by bit.

The buffer stop from the tip siding (which is no longer connected, and well overgrown).

This one is quite interesting, as it shows the approximate and still quite recognisable line of the through line north from Broadway to Stratford. Nothing in the way there.
The chord on the map to the Oxford line would have been to the right of this, but that area is buried in spent ballast to some height.

The last shot shows the view from the ballast pile near the chord, looking north. The water visible in the top right hand corner is actually a large lake in a field which may have been caused by the failure of the drainage through the chord, or the heaps of spent ballast. The level goes up and down.

Left of centre are some trees and these mark a cutting in the siding to Long Marston.

Overall then the spent ballast has changed many levels, but the original line through to Stratford is unencumbered, and the chord from the south westwards towards Honeybourne is almost completely intact, suffering only some minor invasion from the highest spoil heap.

Finally, a picture of a new sign on a public footpath leading to the huge Honeybourne West loop sidings site, and further on to the disused trackbed all the way back to Broadway.

Underneath is a link to www.railwaypaths.org.uk, which is:

'a specialist organisation which owns and manages a portfolio of former railway land to provide routes, roads and paths suitable for cycling, walking, horseriding and wheel-chair use'.








All in all very interesting photographs, which show that there is nothing substantial in the way to recreating either a through route to Stratford through the site, or a chord round to Honeybourne station itself. The funding hurdle of course is another matter.






Answers to last week's quiz:

 Got your pencil and paper from last week ready? Here are the answers:

1. Evening STAR

2. Hong KONG

3. KING John

4. WESTWARD Ho!

5. WESTERN Enterprise

6. DOMINION of Canada

7. The GREEN Howards

8. Resolven GRANGE

9. DUCHESS of Gloucester

10. ARK Royal

11. Green ARROW

12. LORD Nelson

13. Sir FELIX Pole

14. Home GUARD

15. Great GABLE

16. LADY Margaret Hall

17. CLAN Fraser

18. Winston CHURCHILL

19. Burton AGNES Hall

20. CLIVE of India

And this week's new quiz:

 

NEXT STATION

What’s the next station in the following sequences:

1. Cheltenham Race Course: Gotherington: Winchcombe:             ………………………..…..

2. Camborne: Hayle: St Erth:                                                    …………………………....

3. Penrhynn: Minffordd: Boston Lodge Halt:                          …………………………….

4. Great Malvern: Colwall: Ledbury                                                    ……………………………

5. Summerseat: Ramsbottom: Irwell Vale:                                       …………………………..…

6. Stonehouse: Stroud: Kemble:                                                    ………………………..……

7. Beasdale: Arisaig: Morar:                                                                 ………………………….….

8. Highley: Arley: Bewdley:                                                                 ……………………………..

9. Totnes: Newton Abbot: Teignmouth:                                       ………………………..……

10. Goathland: Newton Dale Halt: Levisham:                           ……………………………..

11. Barnt Green: Bromsgrove: Worcs Parkway:                          ……………………………..

12. Corfe Castle: Harmans Cross: Herston:                                       ……………………………..

13. Darlington: Durham: Chester-le-Street:                                       ………………………..……

14. Goodrington Sands: Churston: Greenway:                          ………………………………

15. Settle: Horton-in-Ribblesdale: Ribblehead                          ………………………………

16. Southall: Hayes & Harlington: Heathrow Terminals 1-3:             ……………………………….

17. Ashford International: Ebbsfleet Int: Stratford Int:                          ………………………………..

18. Worcester Shrub Hill: Pershore: Evesham:                                       ………………………………..

19. Aberystwyth: Capel Bangor: Aberffrwd:                                       ……………………………….

20. Goodge Street: Warren Street: Euston:                                       ……………………………….

Not too hard, that one, and perhaps easier than most because you can easily look these up. Write them down on a piece of paper, and we'll give you the answers next week.

Have fun, and see you again soon. And thank you for your help with our appeal!