Milepost 15.I

Friday at Toddington

The concrete having set, two of us returned to grind off the strips that held the angled guide rails in place prior to the pour.

We found the scene thus this morning. The contractor had returned and dug in the rest of the ACO drain across the entrance. This should intercept water draining off the car park.

The rest of the concrete will be poured next week.

Neil spent most of the day grinding off the strips, while yours truly heaved and levered away at the battens to free the flangeways.

In the station rakes of coaches were being shunted - we are getting ready for opening, the sleeper is beginning to stir!

 

 

A few battens wouldn't move at all. They had swollen when wet and were now jammed.

We got round that by cutting into them with the circular saw, to relieve the pressure. Worked a treat, that did.

 

 

 

 

 

From time to time we tired of wet knees and being bent over all the time, and so we wandered over to the far corner of the car park, where there was some sort of activity.

It was Stevie, our friendly contractor. Having prepared the ground for the relocated approach road over the last few days, and suffered a ginormous puncture for his trouble, he put down Terram today and can be seen here spreading out the ballast that was delivered on Wednesday.

We watched him spreading it out evenly, after which it was rolled.

At the end of the day we had all the strips off, and all the battens were out, so that's a success. Not long now and the unloading road will be ready for - unloading again.

Saturday at Far Stanley

Seven of us today, including the welcome return of faces we hadn't seen for quite a while. Many of us have now had a first shot.

Here is where we started again - MP14 at Far Stanley. This, and the Dixton cutting around the bend in the distance, are amongst the quietest, most rural stretches of the line.

We've had a series of mechanical failures on our Bances, so Nick here is trying one out to make sure it works while waiting for the main contingent to arrive from a lineside parking area about half a mile away.

We had brought the kit in the white Landie.

While the others arrived, we laid out the tools by the side of the track, as the two trolleys were underneath on the back. They are built to be manhandled by two people - well, that was us, so we set them up on the rails.

 

As last week we had two teams with a trolley each. The first one undid the fishplates - looking south in this picture, gave them a whack with the keying hammer to loosen them, and then sprayed on the Interflon.

This picture at the JJ Farms lane shows very well how our line used to be double track.

 

 

The second team, behind us, tightened the fishplates again with a second Bance impact wrench.

Trailing a bit behind - theirs is the slowest part of the job - are two members of the team with manual torque wrenches to give the nuts one last turn to the correct setting.

 

 

We made smart progress initially, as the first stretch had been relaid at some point and pairs of rails welded together to 120ft lengths - half as much work for us, and elimination of half of the dipped joints too.

At lunch time we reached the parking area for the others, at the northern end of the Dixton cutting.

The weather was cool and dry, ideal really for working, and a few jackets actually came off, as this is healthy exercise. We ate our sandwiches in the open air.

Did you notice the orange campervan in the background? It's the same one as this one at Broadway in 1989:

Picture by John Lees.                               Honeybourne line track walk in 1989.

It's the same driver too, still volunteering on the PWay ....

Then it was on to the Dixton cutting straight, with the 14 III mile post in sight. 

In the four foot is a replacement FB rail for a short piece we put in as a patch a little while back. We still need to do this swap.

 

Mid afternoon we got to this distant signal. It's operated by wire from Gotherington box, which is quite some distance away. 

Must be quite a pull, this one.

We had several enforced rests. Two were due to equipment failure, and a third was a sudden requirement to fill up the Bance, when the Landie with the two stroke can on board hurtled past on its way back to base to get something.

Halloooooo.....

And this is where we got to, mile post 15.I and so over a mile from our starting point. We think it's a record this year. We only stopped as we were getting exhausted from the constant bending over, and carrying the heavy impact wrenches.

Wednesday with the gang

A good turnout today, as people are slowly coming back to work. We assembled in the yard at Winchcombe, which has had some deliveries:

8 lengths of FB rail - looking good.

And 3 almost new crossings, marked up with assembly instructions and their locations: two for Toddington, and one for CRC.

It's planned to put these in during the week after Easter.

 

 

Two members of the gang set off for Broadway on a small job, and the rest of us went to Mp 15.I to carry on where Saturday had left off.

An issue raised by Saturday was a seized bolt, and we dealt with that by replacing it with a new one, while others hauled the trolleys off the Landie. We're on the skew bridge at Gotherington here.

After half an hour of work, we started to approach Gotherington station.

That's a private house today, so the track stays on the down side.

We have good contacts with the owner though, and were grateful for the patio tables and chairs on the platform.

We had our elevenses there - coffee from vacuum flasks, as the full Devonshire cream tea service did not seem to be operating....

Is that a ray of sunshine we see there? Despite a weather forecast for grey skies, a sunny beam penetrated the gloom and we were actually quite comfortable up there.

But what's this? A shiny pair of new boots? Who's the lucky boy then? Someone who doesn't come so very often.... mind that you don't get them dirty. Is that a speck of dust we see there?

Late morning saw us power through the platforms, and here we are at the southern end of them, by the GOTHERINGTON running in board.

Lunch was taken Al Fresco as is our wont, and we picked this spot by the Bradstone signal box, where the signalman's crossing afforded us a slightly higher place to sit.

Mid afternoon we started to flag, and we looked for a good place to stop. We decided that the end of Gotherington loop would be a good marker point. Note that we are doing both tracks on the loop at once here.

We reached the southern end of the loop, having done both sides- CHECK !

On the way home we passed Winchcombe station building, where the C&M gang was busy with a repair on the pavement outside of the building. We're definitely getting ready for opening again.

On the way back we picked up the welder's tools at Little Buckland, and locked the gate again. The welding job is now done. Then it was home for a well deserved beer:

Derek's 1964 steam pictures.

Flying Scotsman is seen here passing Grendon Underwood on an SLS/MLS railtour on 18^th April 1964. Doesn't it look better without the smoke deflectors. 

On the same day a DMU is seen approaching Quainton Road. My notes say that it is the 12:30pm ex Nottingham Victoria. 

On 3^rd June 1964 Fairburn 2-6-4T 42252 is seen drawing in to Woodford Halse on a train from Banbury. 

These LMS tanks designed by Charles Fairburn were once quite common, and so successful that they were to become the basis of the BR standard 4 tank engine. 277 were built between 1945 and 1951, mostly by Derby but with some help from Brighton works. They were used mainly for suburban passenger trains. BR 42252 was a Derby built example and came into traffic in 1946 at Newton Heath. It had a 21 year life - not too bad - and a somewhat nomadic existence, certainly in the latter years. One posting was to Tebay in 1966 and one could speculate that it was one of the bankers over Shap for a while. At the time of Derek's picture it was actually based at the station it is entering in the photograph, but three weeks later it was posted to Chester instead. It finished its life in 1967 at Normanton and was scrapped.

Two examples survive, both famously on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway, where one was once painted in a Caledonian blue livery. That put a  few noses out of joint!

Skipping a couple of years for a minute, on 28^th August 1966 the driver of this Oxford to Cambridge through train is taking the token for the single line towards Sandy. My notes don't say where, but I think it is Blunham. In its day, the Oxford to Cambridge route either joined or crossed seven main lines out of London and should never have been closed.

We asked Derek what he was doing in the train passing through Blunham, and he said:

It was a day out in Cambridge. It was a through service from Oxford to Cambridge formed of a DMU. It was a travesty that this line was closed. In its day it either joined or linked seven main lines out of London (Bahh!).

Blunham is a tiny village on that section of the Varsity line (now being rebuilt) which lies between Bletchley (target of the current rebuild, of which Swanbourne and Verney Junction are parts) and Cambridge. Some of the trackbed has been built on, and this third section will need a lot of innovation to get it back up and running. The final course of the rebuild is not yet decided.

Back to 1964 and I like this view of a Deltic on the northbound Flying Scotsman service, complete with headboard, passing Sandy on 29^th June. This view shows the layout before rebuilding. On the left is the double track Oxford to Cambridge line, with the double track east coast main line on the right. With the subsequent closing of the Oxford to Cambridge through route the east coast main line was quadrupled here. That, together with a housing estate on the Oxford-Cambridge line where is crosses the east coast main line before arriving at Sandy station means a huge detour whichever way they choose to go on the reinstatement to come. Then of course there is the guided busway at Cambridge that has commandeered some of the former route.

At the time of the picture I was on a journey from Oxford to Lincoln and changed trains at Sandy.

I have a copy of the BR Midland timetable from 1967/68 which shows the Oxford-Cambridge service (slimmed down by this time) with a warning note that the service would be withdrawn within the currency of that timetable. Indeed it was closed, at the end of 1967. Shortsighted as ever. 

The weekend in Lincoln was not dedicated to railway interest, however I sneaked in one picture here at Firsby on 1^st July 1964 with a train arriving for Grimsby Town. Waiting in the siding is a train for Skegness.

Remember that you can buy original electronic scans of any of these pictures  (+/- 5Mb) through breva2011 (at) hotmail.co.uk.