Two weeks to go

Monday on the footbridge

A damp day, but all three of us present! There's always something you can do, whatever the weather.

The woodwork on the centre span was soaking wet, millions of little droplets everywhere, even though the span is covered by its own roof.

Down on the ground things were drier, a strange phenomenon. We decided to paint under the canopy.

First we need to open up the steps, to get to our workshop upstairs. You'll notice two pieces of corrugated iron there (pushed to one side). They keep the bottom of the steps dry, as that area gets very wet without the last bit of the canopy there. Two more weeks to go, and then we start erecting it, and this area will be dry permanently.

This picture sums up our work today: Yours truly on undercoating the boarding, John is primering timbers for the canopy work, and Neal can be seen on the steps reinstalling the timbers for the sides.

We started moving some of our kit on the platform away into storage, in preparation for the mince pie specials, but mid morning a message came round to say that those trains were cancelled (the Santa specials will run normally). The recurrence of Covid is the cause, sadly, and worries about sufficient volunteer numbers to run the trains as a result.

During the morning a visit from a member of the S&T department gave us the opportunity to admire the new track diagram recently installed in Broadway box. 

The artist did a fine job there. Now, when will the box finally open? Next year is 4 years since trains started running.

A blow up of the diagram is reproduced below.

Returning to our jobs under the canopy, we noticed the deteriorating state of the spearhead fencing. A section of spearhead fencing is planned for Toddington. Can lessons be learned from Broadway, where the fencing was painted 5 years ago?

 

 

 At the end of the day we had painted as much as we could, the painting job must be nearly complete now.

In any case, Neal had finished the structural timberwork on the Cotswolds side, and was starting on the Malvern side. We've still got a couple of days before the canopy work starts on January 4th, will there be time to put it all back together?

For those interested in signalling, here is a gradient diagram of our line. Note that Broadway is on the left, and that the mileage reads from left to right.

 Did you realise that Winchcombe station is in a dip? That straight bit south of Greet tunnel is one long, tall embankment, it must be nearly a mile and a half long.

 

 And here is the magnified version of the new track diagram (apologies for the poor light)

 

Note that this one is reversed vis-a-vis the original, which is given below.

 

Does anyone know where this original is now? It was photographed after the box closed, so surely it is still around? In the picture it is pinned to a board, not in the signal box.

 

We very much look forward to seeing Broadway box open. The building, a near replica of Shirley box, was put up before we erected the station building itself, as a sort of test case for the team, so it's been up for quite a while now.

Tuesday at Cheltenham

PWay work has now switched from Dixton cutting (where 14 pairs of replacement rails were fitted) to the northern end of the CRC loop, where we are replacing a complete turnout.

Work has already started in this shot - we are currently working 3 days a week on the PWay, a record level of activity, and something to be proud of. A previous team has lifted out the centre of the defective turnout (it has a crack on one end of the crossing) and made a start on removing the ballast.

The other end of the site, looking south.

As the replacement turnout parts have a different geometry to the previous one, pretty much everything has to come out. Here some of the closure rails have been pulled away. The new crossing and a number of other rails made to fit what will be reused are in the cess.

At the same time as the crossing replacement we are also removing a number of crippled ends in the straight leading to the RDA crossing at the curve in the distance. It means cutting off the last foot of each rail, and re drilling the fishplate holes.

 Walt took the Telehandler to bring the cube a bit nearer the work site.

He then got to work on levelling out, to the right depth, the area where the southern end of the turnout will go.

'X' marks the spot that is just the right depth, while ' --- ' means dig a bit more here.

Unfortunately there was a little collateral damage, such as this pulley wheel support for the rodding run. Hope they've got a spare at Winchcombe!

The last bits had to be dug out by hand, they were impossible to pick up with the digger.

Race Course station, on the Honeybourne heritage line.

In order to avoid the hire fee for a further 'welfare unit' we had arranged for permission to take our breaks in the unoccupied station building.

We ate in the new booking office, which has replaced the original booking office at the top of the path.

A treat today was this home made cake, a Danish/Norwegian seasonal confection called a Kransekake. It contained principally ground almonds and icing, which we liked a lot.

Then back to work, as the light would fade soon. We area, after all, in the darkest period of the year now.

Having dug out the old ballast,Walt filled in the area with recycled ballast. Normally we would have used the laser level again here, but the battery had died so we piled it on as best we could.

Fitting a cropped rail at the north end of the turnout.

During the day we heard a lot of car horns blaring, and it sounded at first as if someone couldn't contain his road rage.

In a quiet moment we wandered up to take a look. It turnout out to be a sort of 'drive in' panto, advertised as 'Car Park Panto'. It was very popular, with maybe 100 cars there.

As people were shut up in the cars they couldn't boo the villains, so when one came on stage, they all sounded their car horns.

The villain made a lot of appearances. Imagine the noise....

Our last picture of the day shows the site dug out, and reballasted on Tuesday. Doesn't look a lot different, but now we know that there is 10cm of clean ballast under the sleepers when we lay them.

The gang will be back on Wednesday to continue the job. (and finish the Kransekake)

Usk Project.

Due to the proximity of Christmas, only yours truly on site, for a quick check up of our roofing materials, a burger and a coffee with a colleague.

Santa Specials were in full swing today, with six trains between Toddington (board the train) and North Pole (Winchcombe, see Santa and get refreshments)

The picture shows the first arrival about to return to Toddington. It came in, drawn by 4270 bunker first (we did not stoop to a photograph) and after a while 47 105 trundled along behind. After waiting quite a time at the home signal, the diesel coupled up to the rear of the first train.

A few minutes later the second train arrived, this time hauled by P&O (the right way round):

Hence this nice steamy picture, with a Santa Special headboard. You can just make out fireman Steve getting ready to return the token to the signalman.

There were lots of elves, decorated locos and special hats, but what really made the atmosphere was the presence of this brass band. We forgot to note down the name, but they did well, sitting outside, motionless, with the temperature just barely above zero.

It added a third dimension to the proceedings, and everyone was very jolly. No wonder the trains were sold out.

The second train was returned to Toddington by the other 47 that resides with us (47 376), and so on, three times each, making six train loads of happy children.

The best bit for us was the burger van on the station forecourt - beefburger, cheese, onions, extra ketchup - that warmed us up!

Here's a picture we missed last week, the barrowing in of spent ballast infill around the platform side of the building. This is to give the trestles a firmer footing, when we put them up here. One of the things we will do from the trestle is build the arch over the big window. Neal has made us a former, and all we still need to do is bed down the second (nearest) support stone for it, the furthest having been bedded down last week.

Last but not least today, a 1963 Christmas greeting from Broadway.

Feeling the chill this winter? How about 1963, when the snow was so deep you couldn't see the rails, and drifts started to form in the cutting leading to Springfield Lane!

Photograph by George Bryant

Photograph by Brian Parsons

Here's WD 90448 on a freight train, photographed twice by two Broadway teenagers as it approached Springfield Lane bridge from the north. They only had Box Brownie cameras, but the photographs are priceless today. The shed code looks like 1G Woodford Halse, where the locomotive was stationed from 1951 to 1964. It was broken up in 1966, after a 21 year service life.

Yuri? (written in the bank on the right). Apparently and act of boredom while waiting for the train, and relates the the famous Russian pioneer spaceman that was a hot topic at the time.

So we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year, and we look forward to lots of exciting heritage adventures in 2022! See you again soon, and thanks for your support, it's much appreciated.