Broadway posts lifted in

A Friday special

Months of planning and fabrication came to fruition on Friday, when we lifted in the two posts for the final part of the Broadway canopy.

The two posts were loaded on to the Transit, together with the extension pieces on each side.

The holes for the posts have existed for some time. The covering slabs were removed and the securing bolts exposed.

After a little cleaning up a bed of mortar was made for the posts to stand on. This fills the void created by adjusting the 4 bolts for height, so that the post stands level.

The first post was then lowered into the Malvern side hole.

Fingers crossed that holes and bolts line up!

But they did.

The second post was then lowered into its hole. This one is right by the fence, which equates to the side of the building. The first post is opposite the end of the platform side of the building, and sits exactly underneath the middle of the truss that will go on top.

The two rails in the foreground were planted a while back, and, when all is ready, will support the sign that requests people to use the footbridge when crossing the line (later versions just plainly told you, but that was another age)

From the store in Toddington we also brought up the 'wings' that we manufactured earlier. These will bolt on to three sides of the two posts, and act as additional braces.

And here is the end result. The two posts are in, and correctly aligned. 

We've still got the 'wings' to put on, and of course complete the steps.

The rest of this last part of the canopy is due to be erected over a period of some two months when no trains are running, likely to be early next year.

Neal's 'letterbox' (in case you wondered, but no one asked) allows a line to be drawn from the existing canopy to the top of the platform side posts, to calculate the correct alignment of it all.

'It needs to be this much wider....'

Late in the day we had a visitor - Greg, a former director of the line from the very early days. He was kind enough to take a picture of the canopy gang that planted the two posts:

From L to R: Jo, John, Neal, and Andy. Thanks for your interest!

Saturday at Southam.

A small team went out to Southam to re-pack the wet bed that we dealt with earlier in the week. The passage of several heavy trains has settled the joint down, and it needed a second packing session.

Our arrival at the RDA crossing coincided with the arrival of the first train out of Toddington at CRC, and here it is. P&O is in charge of the 7 coach train.

The car park at Toddington seemed busier than before on Saturday, even though there are still empty carriages being run up and down. This is to do with the COVID measures, and stations getting exclusive carriages. We were delighted to see a coach delivering passengers too.

The wet bed place at Southam is a bit inaccessible, as it is here that the track changes over from one side to another, so you can't drive the Landie along here as your track gets narrower and narrower. So we put our stuff into wheelbarrows and barrowed it out.

Interesting are the white dust beds on the sleeper ends next to Bert here. These, he explained, are caused by corrugations in the rail (second hand when laid...) which cause the track to vibrate and grind the stones. It only happens on one side, as that is where the affected rail is.

When we arrived on site and got our kit together we had to wait to allow the train to leave CRC again. We are wasting a lot of time waiting doing nothing, under new rules.

Eventually we were allowed to start, so got the pan jacks under the fishplates, and dug out the sides of the sleepers to reveal the voids underneath.

Once revealed, the voids were filled with ballast with hand beaters. This is an exhausting activity, particularly now, with all the heat we're having. We did the job, but just the one bed. There are many others.

Afterwards we retired to Winchcombe for lunch and an ice. We then went on to Toddington to inspect a turnout there, which is getting life expired. It was built very early on and needs some tlc, but also money spent on it. This we don't have.

On the way home at the end of the day we passed Broadway and were delighted to see two more coaches (!) on the station forecourt there, with lots of people milling about.

Monday at Broadway

We had a little special job on, one of those that no one wants to do. Our Bridge Engineer was desperate for help.

Round about 2017 three of the ballast retaining boards on bridge 02 at Childswickham were hit by a passing Telehandler with a cargo of concrete sleepers for Broadway. These boards stop the ballast raining down on passing traffic underneath.

 

We took out the broken ones, being the three on the end.

Neal is a joiner by trade, so had no problem at all in knocking together three replacements. We brought along some spare wood we had at Broadway.

The smaller ballast board was easily replaced with one of the larger ones that was damaged, cut to size.

Here it is in the foreground, already installed.

The longer missing one was made up out of scrap wood, and with a lot of cutting and fettling, finally was made to fit the second gap along, in two halves.

Here is the job, finished.

Then it was back to the footbridge, for a day of cutting boards and painting.

The Malvern side is cut to size now, and is upstairs being repainted. It's a slow job.

John spent most of the day adding an extra coat to the structural woodwork on the Malvern side. Neal made more T&G boards to fit, while also adding an extra groove for that old fashioned effect. At the end of the afternoon he was on the 4th of the 5 segments.

Tuesday at Broadway

Lots of painting of the T&G on the centre span, then mixing concrete to fill the holes in which the two posts stand.

 

An early start was required, to meet the builders' merchant bringing a bag of ballast and some cement.

 

However, we couldn't infill the holes without arranging for the stormwater drain to be brought to the surface next to the foot of the columns.

This required a trip to Evesham to get a pair of drainage bottle sumps. The downpipe from the footbridge and canopy end will be attached to the back of the column here, and will drain into this sump.

In the original version of the footbridge the downpipe was inside the column, but this arrangement did not work well in practice. There used to be a little cast iron door in the bottom of the post to give access to the inside downpipe, but that turned out to be a weak point and it was here that the columns fractured when they were bulldozed in 1963.

Tuesday was a running day, and the platform was reasonably busy. It's very hard to tell how busy we are, as the trains always appear to have empty carriages going up and down, but this has to do with COVID arrangements, and unfortunately they have just been extended by another month. That will hurt us financially.

While John and yours truly filled in the base of the platform side column, Neal was installing the bottle sump on the forecourt side.

Imagine the planning to get these drains laid, before the footbridge steps were put up. The same goes for the locations of the fixing bolts for the posts. In the end they were perfect, the posts being only a few mm out. Excellent work by Neal.

Here is John putting the last bit of concrete in one the platform side post. The ground level is several inches higher, so you won't see that the embellishment box is only short.

The last thing we did on Tuesday was to fill in the forecourt side hole. By the time your read this the concrete will have set, and the posts will be immovable. But thanks to the 'letter box' Neal knows that their position is correct. No worries.

To close for Tuesday, a portrait of our big Pacific. Rods down too. What a beautiful machine. It's driver was the 76077 project leader, it's a small world...

Wednesday on the Usk hut.

An early start today, with this bright sunshine we are waking up early.

Our first job was to get the replacement window out of its storage van.

This window is a little industrial jewel. It is ex Minehead weighbridge (we were told) and has two sliding windows, with sash window locks.

 

 

John, who had been cleaning blocks of old mortar, decided to give the big window a go, to clean it up so that we can give it a coat of primer.

He started with one of the sliding sashes.

These slide along a metal strip on two little rollers each.

The trouble is, the rollers have seized, and been rubbed oval. They will need removing and freeing up.

On the block laying side, our initial plan was to back fill the first course on the Malvern side, but plans go awry.

We got a bit distracted by the door frame, and thought it would be better, in the first instance, to give this more support by raising the blocks around it.

Here is Paul looking over the edge. Before we put any more blocks on, we need to raise the inside course. This is a lot more random, with flat surfaces that can only vaguely be described as 'flat'. It really does look like it's made out of a load of old rocks. And it is too.

 

We had a visitor today who looked surprised. 'Gosh', he said, 'you're doing a lot better than I thought.'

Well, we need all the compliments we can get, even if back handed, they count as well.

This picture shows Dave roughly laying the inside course to one side of the door frame. He's trying to get it level, so that we can put another quoin in, on which the door frame will be secured.

Then we went round the corner, to get a base for the next corner quoin, for next time.

It might be this one.... we have some ginormous pieces of stone, and it would be better to install them lower down, when we still have the chance. This one is 70cm long! It weighs a ton... we should be able to drag it along on this sack truck.

Trains came and went, but looked not very full, as before. Is that because of COVID distancing requirements, or because the public is holding back, until it can roam freely? One member of station staff we spoke to felt that we needed longer rakes, as he was turning people away (at Broadway) as allocated coaches were full. Others were empty, being destined exclusively for other stations.

Here's our end of the day shot. What did we achieve today then? Well, basically it was an extra course on the LH side of the door frame, and backing up to suit. Then we placed the next level quoin by the door frame, as you can see. We can't do more than two courses, as the blocks start to move around with too much weight on.

We did a bit of work on the RH side where we ran out of mortar last time, and threw the last of the mix at a few blocks to back up the Malvern side first course, out of sight here. As intended initially.

One thing we noticed, after coming back from the Coffeepot with a Magnum ice, is that you can now see some blocks going up from the platform. Great!

Derek's 1965 steam pictures - the last days

At Kennington Junction again this week on 28th December 1965 :

 

... and two views of a Standard Class 5 heading south with the Pines Express. [A12.16 and A12.17] 

Zooming in, we can identify the Standard 5: It's 73114 . It's belting along on a cold, crisp, sunny morning. 73114 was actually a namer: ETARRE. This name came from one of the earlier King Arthur classes, which was withdrawn in 1957. The standard locomotive was built in 1956, took the name of the withdrawn King Arthur, and lasted just under 10 years itself, being withdrawn 6 months after Derek took the picture. It was scrapped by Cashmore's of Newport.

 

Still on 28th December 1965 and now at Wolvercote Junction with D5226 taking the slow line with a southbound freight. [A12.18] 

This diesel loco was a class 25/1, built at Darlington only 2 years earlier. Under TOPS it became 25076 in 1973, and had a modest 21 years service life, being broken up at Swindon in 1986.

That's a lovely GWR box in the foreground, just caught in the December morning sun.

If you were patient in 1965, a steamer would come along...

Same day, same place, and two views of Black 5 45089 on a southbound York to Bournemouth train. [A12.19 and A12:20] 

 At the time of the picture this was a Banbury loco, here with a long overland train heading north to south. The rolling stock is green - Southern!

This Black 5 had a 32 year career, and was probably still going strong at the end but was halted by the end of steam in 1967. It was scrapped by Cashmore's at the end of the same year.

On 1st January 1966 Modified Hall 7924 with a freight is heading south approaching Oxford station from the slow line at Walton Well Road. [A12.21]

A GWR Hall! Well almost, it was a modified Hall ordered by BR in 1950. The name it carried was THORNEYCROFT HALL.

You can order full sized electronic scans of any of these pictures from breva2011 (at) hotmail.co.uk.

 

 

Amazon Smile - Free money!

If you change your Amazon purchases to Amazon Smile - it's exactly the same, but donates a few pence to your favourite charity with every purchase you make - you can generate free money for the GWRT, our charitable trust.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk

This is the link. All you have to do is nominate the GWRT (in full: Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Trust) and then shop normally.

They send you a statement once a quarter. Here is an extract from yours truly's:

Total orders since changing to Amazon Smile: 67

Free money generated for the Trust: £9.75

Total generated for the Trust from all so far: £460.10

 

That's approaching a free £500, so why not join us? All you have to do is slightly change the link, and nominate your charity. Nothing else changes.