We're off!

Monday at Broadway 

It was the day before the scaffolders came, so we prepared the site for this event. We dismantled the Heras fenced compound under the tower and parked the panels by the front of the building. Once the scaffolding is up, we can then securely fence it off from the public.

The former compound was then emptied of all sorts of accumulated debris from the previous works, and the area now looks a lot tidier. probably not for long....

Next, we decided to ready the staircase for the works. This meant removing the bottom two sheets of corrugated iron, as per this photograph. The last part of the canopy will extend to the point where the dagger boards end, a bit beyond the truss, which will rest on the two uprights.

With the sheets loosened and put to one side, we had a bit of a pause in the new light here. You can see how the end of the building is at the same level as the beam on which Neal is resting.

From below the stairs look rather naked, and not protected from any rain. Not for too long though. We have a big pile of coated, extra thick roofing sheets in store. We bought ahead, after being warned that the thicker gauge would soon no longer be available in the UK. Only the flimsy stuff will be available. That prediction came to pass as well, so we were proved right to buy up front.

In between, the other job was to re-attach the boarding to the timber framework that Neal installed last week. We had a lot of interruptions today though, and progress was slow. Neal got to panel 10 (out of 55 per side) when panel 11 proved elusive. He eventually found it mixed in with the panels for the other side, temporarily stored in a container. We thought we had to give up our workshop on the platform for the mince pie trains (which never came).

We thought we'd take a last picture of the bottom of the steps/end of the building area, as it will soon change for the better. Within the next 60 days there will be a large circulating area in the dry there, and Broadway station will start to have an almost urban station feel to it. Have a look at Hall Green, to see the effect.

In a small workshop nearby, work has started on refreshing the LADIES ROOM and GENTLEMEN signs from Broadway. We took these down, as they will be in the way of the scaffolding.

 

Once they were unhooked from their attachment stays, closer inspection revealed quite a lot of rust on not only the letters, but also the steel framework and attachment stay rods.

 

The rods, newly manufactured in 2018 just prior to opening, have already started to rust, after only 5 years.

The cast iron letters, still in situ on this original board, but repainted by us in 2018, have also started to rust, and notably along all the leading edges.

We are taking them off to be shot blasted and zinc primered. We believe that this more professional coating will prove to be more resilient.

Tuesday at Broadway.

The scaffolders are here! They brought with them a large radio, without which all work grinds to a halt.

In the first picture you can see the basic layout being established. We heard that our structure took quite a bit of thinking about, not only in terms of shape and where you put the uprights, but also in height, so that we have a platform that is effective for the level of the bits on which we are going to work. Finally, the scaffolding is permitted to occupy the P1 road, but must keep the P2 road clear (although the line is blocked anyway, due to the works starting on bridge 8)

The erection is estimated to take two whole days, so by lunch time on the first quite a bit had gone up, but with plenty more to go. For the first couple of hours we stayed nearby so that Neal could give advice on how it should go, from the user's point of view.

After a wet start - there was a touch of snow on Fish Hill - the climate got distinctly sunnier towards lunch time, so painting and the fitting of boards could resume.

 

 

Here Neal has finished the first of the 5 sections on the Malvern side, and has just moved on to the second.

Towards the end of the afternoon Neal was moving on to the third section, approaching the half way mark.

We can't do anything on the canopy until the scaffolders have finished, probably on Wednesday evening.

As the sun began to set the scaffolders called it a day. We've had a lift and a quarter - the planks you can see represent the platform from which we will work.

The security camera was also taken down, ready for relocation on the last span once it's up.

This is the view down the steps. When complete, the platform will reach into the staircase.

A last view from the south now. The sky is a complete change from the snow we had first thing in the morning, at least on Fish Hill, with sleet in the valley.

This picture shows where Neal stopped. It might be possible to complete this side in another working day, but then there's the Cotswolds side to do as well, followed by filling in the nail holes, and another coat of paint on the inside.

Broadway is always so beautiful in a winter sunset. This is a parting shot, as we gathered up our tools. There will be more work on Wednesday, when it will be fine and cold, but Thursday could see the return of the sleet, so we will see on the day whether to continue, or call a day's rest.

That said, we aim to get ahead of schedule so will put in a lot of days, as you never know what fate throws at you, and we need to be done by the start of March.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Did you see the forecast for Wednesday night? Minus 4 degrees! That's far too cold for our mortar, so we decided to slot in a day of other useful activities.

 

 

The Baguley Drewry rail car was out today. It manoeuvred itself into this position on the foot crossing, for easy loading of components. Moments later it set off for Toddington, with a full complement of S&Ters.

 

 

As we will be building a brick arch over the large window, two bricks deep and two bricks high, we need about 100 bricks on site to do this. Dave, Julian and yours truly set off to fetch these from the other side of the yard, while John stayed by the hut to continue back filling.

Dave with the first load, about 25 bricks - they are heavy!

The bricks were put on one of the pallets. A nearly empty one was of 12 inch quoins, we used a lot of the heavy ones lower down on the courses.

 

 

As it was icy cold in the morning, we decided to have an early cup of coffee in our tin mess hut.

We were well looked after in terms of cake today. Coffee time cake was (cold) hot cross buns, best eaten with a drawing of the Usk hut on your knees. How high are the walls again? What size lintels to we need for the windows?

As Dave couldn't lay blocks, he paired up with yours truly and together we hunted round the site for loose blocks to fill various gaps, ready for the next mortaring day. Looking at the weather forecast, that could be in a week's time, when this cold spell is over.

This is a view of the corner on which Dave was working in the previous picture.

The quoin on the corner was already up there from a previous day, so today we paired it with two on the left and two on the right, those on the right being quite low to match a half course that we have there.

A blue brick has been laid on the window frame to see what the arch could look like.

The sun came out in the middle of the day, and lunch time came all too soon. Back into the little 'mess room' then, and Dave produced his goodies of the day, 4 slices of fruit cake with brandy, made by Mrs. Dave. She does spoil us, but we love it.

Post lunch Dave decided to give Maxie the mixer a little makeover.

Maxie received a new air filter, but she was being uncooperative because her studs were the wrong length for the replacement. Dave spent a long time with John recutting the threads, but in the end Maxie muttered back into life, so we are ready to go for next week.

 

 

During the day we had a quick walk up to the site of the slip, to see how far the repair had got.

As you can see the sheet piling is complete, and the large crane has gone again. Soil nailing is next.

If all went well, contractors should also have started on the repair of bridge 8, the subject of the successful Trust appeal for help. Unfortunately it all happens underneath, so passing over the top shows little change for the motorist. No doubt we will have a Civil Engineering report in due course, once there is something interesting to say.

Julian took these two pictures of the site today. It's nice to have a view through someone else's eyes. The first shows the platform from below, with diamond cut edging blocks assembled to complete the top around the stop block. The remaining brickwork here is being done by another group, but the Swanbourne blocks are ready to go.

Here's our end of the day picture, showing some extra blocks positioned on the corner but not yet mortared in, and the result of John and Julian's barrowing of fill in the foreground. The Usk hut now no longer looks as if it is standing proud on a mound, it fits in much better now. There's about another day's worth to go on the right.

PWay update.

Work continues at Cheltenham on the replacement of the northern loop turnout. It's a long job, everything has to come out. We expect to be there until the end of the month, then have more work to complete in the cutting at Dixton, before moving on to Toddington. There we have a smallish job on the main line to yard turnout fitted a couple of years ago, then there's the northern loop turnout to replace, in a similar way to the one at CRC. Another big job.

You can imagine then that our plucky little team can't take on even more this particular non-running period, so the largest job of all has been given to contractors, funded by a donation from the Trust. This is the complete replacement of the crossover at the south end of the loop, one of our oldest installations on the whole railway.

 

 

The necessary parts for the replacement of the crossover, both rails and timbers, arrived today, all the way from Bridgend.

Here you can see the parts being unloaded in the car park. It's very impressive. Another lorry loaded with the long timbers necessary for this sort of major installation is waiting to be unloaded in the background.

Thanks to Bob for the photographs.

If we have an opportunity to visit Toddington we will provide an update on the replacement, although at the moment it is likely that a lot of time will be spent at Broadway, getting the last section of canopy on. The team is even prepared to be there on a daily basis, if push comes to shove, but we are determined to see it through before trains start running again.

As of Wednesday evening the scaffolding at Broadway is full installed, and a start was made in the last hour of the day to remove the temporary end of the canopy as it is at the moment (plywood sheets and other temporary fixings).