Vandalism at 'Cleeve

Saturday towards Bishop's Cleeve

We are now nearing the southern end of our 14 mile railway.

Wednesday we reached the southern end of Gotherington loop; here we are on Saturday, setting off further south, about to pass our Manor Lane entry and parking point.

The next place of note we passed was the site of the most recent Gotherington slip, repaired at a cost of half a million pounds a year ago.

There's now an impressive platform behind sheet piling, and Nick, one of the newer members of the team, has stepped up to enjoy the view.

Note how rusty the rails have become. Not for long now though.

By our mid morning coffee break we had done half a mile, all of normal 60ft rail lengths. No 'freebie' 120ft lengths along this stretch, sadly.

Steve and Nick enjoy their break in the open air. It wasn't exactly warm due to the wind, but it was bearable. In any case, what else could we do out here?

 

To our dismay we found the bridge parapets behind us vandalised. On two of the pilasters the top row of blocks has been forced off and thrown over the side. The top tube of the railings has been wrenched off; we found it in the undergrowth.

The special blocks that finish off the top of the parapet lay at the bottom of this cattle creep bridge, now used by walkers form the new housing estate built nearby. Many smashed after hitting others as they landed.

Who could have done this? A cricket bat abandoned, and the new housing estate in the background are clues.

We took our lunch break by the next underbridge along, and after a short break for our sandwiches we pushed on.

This was our unspoken goal for the day: The 16 III mile post, and also the site of the breather, where the CWR through Bishop's Cleeve station site starts. You can see the site marked by the traditional pines in the background.

This is the same place, looking back over the long, straight stretch we had done. Gotherington lies around the corner in the distance, out of sight. Although it was only early afternoon, we felt that with one mile under our belts we had done enough. This work requires a lot of bending over, and the backs were starting to twinge.

The view was not so pretty here, at the entrance to Bishop's Cleeve, with these piles of builder's waste tipped for all to see. Neighbours, eh?

And lastly for Saturday, a plug for an advertisement the company has put up - our 

STEAM HEATING BOILER VAN 

is for sale - see picture above. It was originally a Mk1 BSK, which was converted in the 1960s. It is largely complete, with its boiler, and is mounted on a good pair of B5 bogies. The body requires some restoration. 

Price: £13.500 + VAT

Expressions of interest to: chairman (at) GWSR.com.

Monday - back at Broadway!

At last it's permitted - groups of 6 may meet outdoors again. And that's what we're doing. One gang for Monday, another for Wednesday.

Now we have to get the place up and running again, ready for the re-opening on Tuesday 13th April.

The most immediate job was to clean up the drive from months of relentless pine needle rain. The gullies were full to bursting with them, and armfuls were pulled out. All this went on wheelbarrows and was carted off to the north end for disposal. 

The station itself and the partially complete foot bridge was still looking quite good. No damage to report, despite various storms that we've had. The benches are all out along the platform, ready to receive visitors' bottoms. And one for the loco crew at the starting signal, that was a special request.

A little summary about Broadway signal box:

 

 

It looks a lot more the business since the spearhead fencing was erected around it. These double gates give access to the steps, and also to the grass behind the fence for mowing, or if you ask nicely, maybe for a picnic.

At the other end the fencing is almost complete, with a purpose built gate installed to lead down to the locking room.

We've ordered some more cast iron posts to complete the fencing from the south end to the future P2 building.

Here's a peep inside the box. More instruments have appeared on the block shelf, and tests have shown that the box can now communicate with Toddington.

Asking around a bit suggests that the box might be made operational during the next non-running season, i.e. next November.

Yours truly spent most of the day on stripping the Eynsham bench of dirt and old varnish. It's a slow job, but at the end of the day the back was finally done.

With the bench upside down it became apparent that one of the feet needs surgery. Our usual carpenter is busy though, he's on a job until the end of May. And so is another carpenter we know. Now there's a profession not affected by the pandemic! We hope he can slip the repair in for a couple of hours nonetheless. It's not a big job, but you can't sit on the bench if one leg is rotten.

In the afternoon Dave, Ian and Brian started work on the Hayles Abbey running in board. The paint has failed, after just a season. We're not absolutely sure why this is - either because the water based primer ( a cheapo non brand name) was no good, or perhaps the wood was damp when it was applied?

 

 

There's no work at Broadway on Easter Monday, but that may be the day for a week's work on the PWay on the crossings that have been delivered to Winchcombe yard. We'll find out soon enough.

Tuesday at Toddington

One last push ought to see us through this unloading road, we thought.

First, a look at the new (albeit temporary) approach road. The ballast has been rolled in, and some fencing erected.

The contractor was finishing off and had added the last two ACO drains across the entrance, filled in the last bit of concrete and finally (after the picture) re-hung the gates.

Our little gang removed the strips holding the flange guides, and then levered out the battens, so that the track is now usable again. You may now load! (Or unload...)

We spent the afternoon with a general tidy up, and in particular sorting out the bizarre arrangement of downpipes in the old garden centre. They collect rainwater from a surprisingly large surface area, and all fed (or in some cases didn't feed) into a - water butt!

We used some old bits of plastic pipe that was lying around to direct everything into a proper drain in the corner.

Because of the pandemic, the plans to develop this site are shelved for the moment, until there is more cash available.

Wednesday, playing with Interflon (again)

It was bright and sunny, getting rather too warm even, later in the day. We had a pretty large gang today, and it split into a number of different activities. One addressed the issues raised on Saturday (eg seized bolts), others resumed track walking in preparation of steam trains running again, another team went to Bishop's Cleeve to see if the vandalism on the underbridge could be repaired (see below), and finally a gang of 7 went to Two Hedges Bridge (through Bishop's Cleeve) to resume fishplate greasing, trying to get it all done down to beyond Cheltenham by the time the trains come back.

The fishplate gang repaired to the foot crossing at 'Cleeve and set up the two trolleys under the bridge in the distance. We started at MP 17 I , being the end of the CWR where, sadly, fishplates start again and we had work to do.

Mid morning we were at MP 17 II, where John decided to launch a few chestnuts. Chestnuts - aren't they a winter delicacy, John?

 

There were these two Irishmen, see, and they went into a bar....

 

 

 

A late morning coffee break was held quite a long way down the straight, where you can glimpse Two Hedges bridge in the far distance.

 

 

 

After lunch, and now on the curve leading into the straight before CRC station, we paused again at MP III, after several people admitted that the heavy impact wrenches were starting to take their toll on various backs. We're all retired here, you know.

So after ticking off another half a mile we had to stop. We have one more chance to knock this greasing on the head, which is Easter Saturday, so with a bit of luck and determination (and a slightly younger team) we might be able to reach CRC station, or even into it. Fingers crossed.

After unloading the tools again at Winchcombe - note that Gotherington village is closed for the next 13 weeks! -  we had a quick peek in the C&W 'barn' and were thrilled to see progress on our mess coach. The C&W blog also gives good coverage of this, they are really doing a good job.

 

 

The vandalism of the underbridge at Bishop's Cleeve was very disappointing, and two of us (of the Usk gang) immediately volunteered to put back the bricks that had been thrown off by the vandals.

You may recognise this face - it's Paul, back at last from about a year's absence. Last seen building the platform wall at Winchcombe.

Paul couldn't resist a good brick laying, so when he heard, with Dave, that vandals had pushed the top layer of capping bricks off the pilasters here, he got a truck with sand and gravel and can be seen here this morning, replacing the bricks and the missing safety bar on the first pilaster.

And here is the result of today's efforts. One pilaster rebuilt!

One more to do though. That will be for next time. They didn't have enough replacement capping bricks on site to do both sides that were attacked.

Derek on the Isle of Man in 1964

In July 1964 I made a visit to the Isle of Man with the Oxford University Railway Society (OURS) and here are some of the pictures from that tour.

We sailed from Liverpool to Douglas by Isle of Man Steam Packet Company boat. It was a very smooth crossing, with the biggest waves being in the Mersey Estuary.

We didn't waste much time before taking ourselves to Douglas station, and the first picture is of No.8 Fenella with the 3:00pm arrival from Ramsey, just passing the engine shed before arriving at the platform. This picture and the next were taken on 3^rd July 1964. [A07.01]

In Douglas station, waiting to depart with the 3:40pm to Port Erin is No.10 G.H. Wood. [A07.02]

The next pictures were all taken on 4^th July 1964. No.10 G.H. Wood is seen at Port Erin before taking the 10:35am train to Douglas. [A07.03]

At St.Johns, No.12 is seen with the 12:00noon departure from Douglas for Ramsey. St.Johns was the junction for the Peel and Ramsey lines and formerly of the Foxdale branch which had closed long before. [A07.04]

Next, still at St.Johns, Mona is with a train for Peel. [A07.05]

No.12 is seen leaving Kirk Michael, on the line to Ramsey. [A07.06]

No.5 Mona, is shunting the Peel section for Douglas at St.Johns. Also in the picture is No.8 seen taking on water. [A07.07]

Readers should know that the Douglas to Peel section of the Isle of Man railways was closed in 1968 and subsequently demolished. So Derek's pictures have quite some historic value today, especially as they are in colour.

Remember that you can buy full sized electronic scans of any of these through breva2011 (at) hotmail.co.uk