Winter games

Saturday on the unloading road

Only 3 degrees on Saturday morning, and a biting wind. Winter is knocking on the door, and the Santa Special trains were out, bringing happy punters to visit the famous old man.

Less famous old men were working on the unloading road at Toddington. Wednesday saw half of it levelled and packed, but with a high spot. Could a heavy loco be shunted up and down it to push things back into place?

It could, and the weapon of choice was the class 45, pushed cold by a shunter.

But first, the good news that services have resumed again, now in the guise of 'Santa Experiences' (as per new headboard). Two locos were out on Saturday, and here is the first one leaving Toddington, being heavy tank loco 4270.

In the box is loco volunteer Alex, reaching out as far as she can with the token hoop.

'It can deal with dips this deep'

After the commercial side was done, we set to work. Mark offered us the loan of his laser level, which was gratefully accepted. Once we had understood how it worked, that is.

We then cautiously had a little go ourselves, and were soon delighted with its ease of use.

It meant that Bert Ferrule had nothing more to do from now on than to stand there and produce a series of beeps, while Dave struggled with the fiercely resisting Duff jack.

Meanwhile, back in the shed, a loco frame had been stripped of its wheels and suspended in mid air. We won't give the game away, except to say that the cards have been thoroughly mixed and this loco is not now where it was in the shed last week. Which one is it?

And then, out of the mist....

..... comes.....

Dinmore Manor! But you already knew that, didn't you? It's the second locomotive on duty Saturday, shunting to attach to the second rake and take happy (and fare paying) punters to the North Pole a few miles away.

Meanwhile men were struggling to pack the unloading road. It was really hard work. After half the road was packed on Wednesday, we had to do it all over again, and more, after the class 45 had marked its weighty presence. Many of the sleepers needed a further 3 inches of lift. They really did, we couldn't believe the laser level at first and went to check with a builder's level as well, but the gap under the sleepers was true.

So get packing!

This shows us nearing the end of the new building, with a visible dip on the left still outstanding.

The occasional passage of a train was always a welcome relief to the very tiring activity of shovel packing. GWR 4270 is about to pick up the hoop a second time from signalman Alex.

With the hoop safely on board, the regulator can be cracked open a bit until the train reaches the end of the 10mph station limits speed limit, quite some distance away.

One more click - one more click - just one more click...

Andy holds the laser level and tells Nick and Steve when the desired height is reached, but it's a task of Sisyphus. Every 'last click' just pushes the jack further into the soft ground underneath, and you never seem to reach that level. And it took two of us to force the handle down, such was the resistance.

 

Here is the result at the end of the day. The whole stretch has been straightened and lifted. Part of it for a second time, after it was steam rollered by the class 45. The steam roller will now pass a second time, and no doubt the whole thing will need to be lifted once more. Hopefully it will then stabilise a bit, with all the new ballast we pushed underneath it. (Update - the second passage of the steam roller Cl 45 was on Saturday evening, and the track has apparently held up quite well this time)

The Santa Specials are very successful, earning us a useful mention on the local BBC Midland news. However, due to arrangements necessary to achieve social distancing the actual passenger figures are only half those of last year. At least we are allowed to generate some cash; not all railways have been so lucky.

Tuesday on the Broadway canopy completion project

Back to work on fabrication at last! But it was jolly cold, 0.5 degrees to start with, but at least we were out of the wind and during the day the temperature rose as the sun popped out.

So where did we leave off? We were making the embellishments around the bottoms of the two supporting columns that will go left and right of the staircases. Last time we had made up 8 panels.

This time Neal and John clamped two sets of 4 panels together with angles and G clamps. The result was carefully measured and tapped into place.

 

 

John then tack welded the 4 sides together, here with the frames of our mystery loco suspended in the background.

You can't look at welding of course, so we've hidden the light behind John's body.

 

 

In this picture the photographer hid behind the lifting jacks, and let the camera see the welding and snap a picture.

We can also see Neal grinding off the welds on the first box, as John is making up the second.

 

 

Then it was time to take the car for an MOT, so we don't know how far they got at the end of the day.

On leaving, there was just time to take this picture:

In the NW corner of the car park containers and portacabins have been moved to make room for a new way through from the former garden centre car park. The idea here is that this new approach road will give direct access to the main car park, without having cars passing in front of the station buildings, where there is always a crowd of pedestrian comings and goings. Cars in a hurry going N-S and passengers not paying attention going E-W is not a good mix, so this new approach will give us a better flow. It's a small part of the much larger plan to redevelop the entire Toddington site. When we have some money.

Wednesday

Still no work on the Usk project, as some of our critical members are off sick. Fingers crossed that they can get themselves sorted, as we miss them!

Wednesday's activities were devoted to further moving of sleepers on the Broadway extension, the same job as a fortnight ago. Only this time we were better at it, having established a system, and two gangs, one preparing the cribs and the other one doing the actual moving.

This picture shows two members of the moving gang first thing. Those sleepers can be quite reluctant to push along, even with a Duff jack, so at times we had to double man the jacks.

It became apparent that the sleepers could be reluctant to move for quite minimal reasons, just a handful of stones could suffice.

Once we had these cleared away, we reverted to single manning and here Andy and Martin are capably managing a jack each.

In the distance the digging out gang could be seen, here at Peasebrook, preparing our next job.

 

Their enthusiasm was surprising to some...

We are multi taskers - Sunday, an Elf, today, a shoveller. But the hat was the same.

A fortnight ago we did this sleeper moving for the first time, and managed one in the morning, and one in the afternoon.

Today, we managed 6 in total, each involving three sleepers (with two neighbouring ones being moved a bit as well, to get the spacing equal). So we were much more efficient.

All that hard work deserved a nice picnic and a chat. How lucky we were that there was a tiny bit of sun, and no rain like the last few days.

Pity we had to sit in the shadow of a sewage plant!

More of Derek Palmer's 1963 steam photographs

Here is the next batch of slides that Derek Palmer took in the spring of 1963. At the moment, we are still in the Oxford area, although later you will see that he started to roam, so then we will see some other, non WR trains as well.

A Worcester to Paddington train passing Wolvercote, viewed across part of Port Meadow on 14 March 1963.

We're wondering what type of locomotive it is, so here is a crop with an enlargement:

What do you reckon, is that a Castle?

Next is 6954 Lotherton Hall with a freight train on the down relief passing Moreton Cutting, between Cholsey and Didcot on 28 March 1963.

Lotherton Hall was a 1943 built locomotive that managed a 21 year career. Not as long as it might have had, but longer than all of the BR Standards. It was scrapped by Cohens in November 1964. It spent most of its life based in the Bristol area, and at the time Derek took the picture its home shed was St. Philips Marsh, from where it was also withdrawn about a year after Derek took the picture.

Then it's 7013 Bristol Castle passing Moreton Cutting on the up fast on 28 March 1963.

Bristol Castle had a much better service life of a respectable 40 years. This loco entered traffic as GWR's 4082 in 1924, and was launched as Windsor Castle. What about the change of name then?

The story is that in 1924 it was the Royal locomotive and was driven by King George V himself from Swindon works to Swindon station on April 28th 1924. In February 1952 King George VI died and inconveniently the Royal engine was actually being overhauled in Swindon works, and was unavailable for the funeral train. What to do?

Solution: Swap the identity with another loco! 7013 Bristol Castle was chosen, and became 4082 Windsor Castle. And the other way round too. Afterwards it was decided to let things rest, so only the commemorative plaques were reinstated on the original Royal engine. Sadly, neither engine was preserved and the example in the picture was cut up in January 1965 at Cashmore's in Newport.

30840 Urie S15 Class passing Moreton Cutting, light engine, on the down relief line on 28 March 1963. 

This LSWR designed engine was built by the SR in 1936. It wasn't named and we don't know much about it. It was a freight engine, and seven examples have been preserved. This one was cut up in November 1964, so had a respectable life of 28 years.

Finally, it's 7900 St.Peter's Hall passing Moreton Sidings with a York to Bournemouth train on 28 March 1963. At the time, this locomotive was shedded at Oxford, appropriately because St.Peter's Hall was part of Oxford University. However St.Peter's Hall was given collegiate status in 1961 and became St.Peter's College. 

St. Peter's Hall was a BR build of the GWR design and entered traffic in 1949. It spent its life mostly going up and down the GWR main line to Bristol until 1952 when it was moved to Oxford shed, which fits in with this slightly unusual train of Southern green coaches on their way to the sunny south out of the university city. The loco was cut up after a brief 15 year career in April 1965.      

Derek continues to say that beyond the footbridge in the distance there was a spot where, ten or so years before this, my father, brother, and I used to spend the day watching the trains having cycled there from Oxford where we lived.

Happy days!