Another brick from the wall

Saturday at 'X' station

Seven of us were finally able to set off to a mystery location, where there were two long platforms and a bay built of bricks that we were allowed to recover.

 

It was an early start, as the destination was some distance away, and we all had to get to Winchcombe first.

Here is our fleet of Transits, at 7am in the morning. It is just getting light. Each truck can carry 1500Kg.

And here is our destination! We can't say where it is, as we will be returning next Saturday for a second day's work.

Two days to attack this vast pile of bricks is all we've been given. A very modest, some say symbolic, gesture but we will be able to save some of them for the railway.

 

 

Jim sent us a couple of pictures he took earlier, when we first started discussing the brick recovery with those responsible for the site:

June 2020

Check out the electricity pylon in the background, this is the same view! Note also that one track was still in place, but that too has since been lifted.

This is the same view in June 2014.... we have been discussing the recovery of some, or all of these bricks for 2 1/2 years now, and in the end it came down to a quick snatch over two Saturdays, before the crushers come in.

Our first impression upon an earlier fact finding mission was that these were imperial blues, but they turned out to be Brindles, also a hard brick.

The copers had already gone, so we addressed the low hanging fruit, which was the corbelling bricks. Behind the facing bricks the rest of the platform was built generally of red or red-like bricks, something of a mixture really. Sadly none were marked, to allow us to identify the source, but undoubtedly local.

It was hard work, bashing away with bolsters and lump hammers. We gradually realised that some areas were hard as rock, while others came away in your hands, so once we had that sussed, work accelerated somewhat. It just depends on who was mixing the mortar, all those years ago.

We ate 'al fresco' on the back of one of the Transits. No chance for a pub lunch, this place was in the middle of nowhere!

After lunch, more bashing with the lump hammer, but we soon found a soft spot, where it was possible to break the bricks out with your bare hands.

At intervals there was a puzzling grille, with a channel that led to where we suspect the station buildings were. Would they ventilate the suspended floors perhaps? Similar ventilation grilles were found in the rubble at Broadway.

In the picture you can see the different colours of the bricks: Purple on the facing side, reddish behind.

Mid afternoon we started stacking the first lot on the back of the Transits. A brick came in at 4.5Kg so we reckoned we could take about 330 of them at a time. Not too many, but they are heavy, and imperial in size. If you wanted to buy them, a reclamation yard would charge you £1 a brick, and we use quite a few of them on new platforms, walls and in Lineside Drainage. We could even build the turntable pit with them.

Mid afternoon saw us load the third transit, and you get an overview of the site as we left it. We took just under 1000 bricks back to Winchcombe, and left another 1100 for stacking on pallets for next time. We intend to do another day, take another 1000 bricks, and have the rest collected by lorry, for which the owner has rather kindly agreed to pay.

A blast from the past

Rob from our Construction & Maintenance department very kindly sent us three pictures from the very early days of the GWSR:

This one shows the arrival via Mike Lawrence of 7821 Ditcheat Manor.

What is so amazing about the picture is the emptiness of the Toddington site. On the right is what is now the loco yard with water tower and GWR yard lamps, while on the left is what is now the main line just beyond the signal box, where today a train headed by classmate 7820 Dinmore Manor ran happily with 6 coaches for Cheltenham Race Course.

Haven't we come far! And from such a low start too. The pictures look to be taken around 1981/82.

The second picture shows Ditcheat Danor just about to touch those very early scraps of GWSR metal.

GWR 7821 was BR example of the famous GWR class, and has led a somewhat nomadic existence since touching down at Toddington. It was rescued from Barry in 1980, so these pictures must have been taken soon afterwards.

Currently 7821 is owned by the WSRA and, restored but out of ticket pending repairs, it is believed to be on display at Swindon.

The last picture was taken on the same day Ditcheat Manor was unloaded at Toddington, but actually shows one of our faithful and still current residents, heavy freight loco 2807.

There are just a few track panels on site so far, and the goods shed on the right is actually bricked up!

Tuesday in the loco shed

All is ready outside in the yard to relay the unloading road between the goods and loco sheds, but work hasn't actually started yet due to an issue with the levels.

Here is a supply of better second hand sleepers, and a ballast train with which to pack them.

On the new mess room / goods shed extension, heritage style lamps are being attached now that the steel platform is up.

 

 

 

The Broadway canopy team was asked to help with preparations for the unloading road on Tuesday, so we spent the day cutting and welding for that. Got to help the others out, when they ask you so nicely!

On the left are the raw materials, lengths of angle iron and steel rebar. Together, the two will form a channel alongside each rail for the wheel flanges, where the bent rebar will be buried in the concrete pad on the top to hold it into position.

At the end of the day we had done 7 strips, and the other team doing this (last Saturday) did 6. There is at least one more day's heating, bending and welding to do, but at least we have now cut all the bits of rebar to length, so the project is on the home stretch here.

Wednesday on the Usk project.

Also a day of slow progress here, this time because of the foul weather. There was incessant rain the whole day long, so we couldn't lay any bricks or blocks.

What to do instead?

As there were only the two of us on site today, we decided to position the blocks around the area where they will be used, which you can see on the left here. Others were placed on the trolley and on a pallet nearby, ready for the taking!

The idea is to put the blocks all the way round the stop block, on top of the wall, then back fill the area in front.

There was a one train service today, effected by Dinmore Manor. There was plenty of steam heating to be seen, and many faces pressed to misted up windows. Still quite a few passengers about, which is good to see.

Having laid out all the other blocks we are likely to need to finish off the platforms, we stacked the remaining ones on two pallets at the corner, handy for picking up by the Telehandler when it comes back from its current station at Toddington. The site of the hut rebuild is now clear again, but it still needs a major sweep out of the mortar chippings, and thousands of acorns.

End of the afdternoon it stopped raining. Tsk! Typical that is, but by that time we were soaked and it was too late to start anything.

See you next week then.