Usk hut works.

Last Wednesday by the Usk hut.

A volunteer team from Colas Rail came (for the second time now) to help us put a surface layer of small stone chippings on the road that passes by the Usk hut. It was felt that the ballast surface of this road was too uneven for visitors to walk on.

The road, a rough grassy track before work on the Usk hut started, was used occasionally by PWay vehicles to exit the yard, if ever the normal crossing by the carriage 'barn' was impeded, as happens from time to time. Previously heavily rutted, it was dressed with spent ballast by the Usketeers and the toe drain by the cutting side reinstated. This has since been partially piped.

Photographs were kindly supplied by Alan, Margaret and Paul.

 

Several dumpy bags of grey stone chippings were ordered.

These were spread out over a roll of Terram that we had in store.

Second hand sleepers were placed down the side, in order to keep the surface level and away from the toe drain.

The team gradually worked their way down the road towards the gate.

Nearly there - the last two bags were dropped off beyond the gate.

All done ! Looking back over their work.

One more dumpy bag was required, and a sponsor came forward to pay for it.

A final view of the new chippings surface, and the wooden sleepers alongside. It was a cold day, with snow still on the ground.

We did it !  A beaming Colas team, surrounded by members of the PWay gang and the Friends of Winchcombe station, who paid for the bags of chippings.

The whole operation was carried out at no cost to the railway.

Our thanks go to the Colas team, who made it possible.

 

 

At the end of the day, what could be nicer than a cheering fire in your very own fireplace?

 

(picture thanks to Ian Sircombe)

Infrastructure.

Pictures by Ian Scholey.

A MWEP platform was hired in for a regular examination of Hunting Butts tunnel. Although unused in normal traffic, it is still part of our responsibilities.

The MWEP can be seen here at Cheltenham Race Course, just settling down on to the track.

 

An inspection team also abseiled down the sides of Stanway viaduct. The viaduct has been waterproofed at considerable cost, and is currently left to dry out, before undertaking the necessary repairs to damage from the previous water leakage through the arches.

The white stains at the bottom of the picture bear witness to the water that used to leak out.

Friday, an odd job.

A last minute call for help with a sleeper sorting job at Winchcombe saw us meet Paul and David in the yard, on the last of the cold days that we have been having.

 

The purpose of the day was to properly store two piles of broken concrete sleepers that have appeared in our yard.

They were simply dropped off in a jumble, in the area cleared by the grab lorry that came a few weeks back.

First of all we had to clear the area, and make room for the Telehandler to get in.

The jumbled up sleepers required quite a few acrobatics to get them on the forks, and in line with each other, suitable for stacking.

We decided to start a new stack (of scrap sleepers in various shapes) on the area cleared for us by the Usk team last summer.

The foreground is very boggy - a large amount of spent ballast here would do wonders.

A surprise arrival was the green Growler. This had come up from Hunting Butts, with three tank wagons, a burned out box van and a well wagon with - sigh - another load of well used concrete sleepers.

There wasn't really any room in the C&W yard for these extra wagons, so the consist spent a while on the main line while heads were scratched.

What is the plan with these wagons? Well, two of the three tank wagons will be restored (the third hitched a ride for operational convenience), the well wagon is moving to another railway, and the burned out box van will be converted to a weedkiller vehicle. All very interesting.

Taking these vehicles away from Hunting Butts will also diminish the attactiveness for the 'urban explorers' that have been breaking into the site.

David is newly qualified in the Telehandler, and proved himself very adept in it, even willing to listen to instructions !

After we disposed of the two jumbled up piles, we had a spare hour and made good use of that by unloading the well wagon, while it was still stabled in a way that made it accessible for the Telehandler.

 

Sorting the sleepers on the well wagon, prior to lifting them out, 4 at a time.

 

The 20 or so concrete sleepers on it were of lesser quality (minor defects) but still good for sidings, so we stacked those on a separate pile.

Also a surprise during the day - you never know what might happen when you volunteer - was 3850 being drawn out of the C&W workshop. It was, we heard, in there for a second topcoat of black.

Nice of the shunter to park it with the rods down, for a proper portrait.

Saturday - the 76077 AGM

Guest appearance: Storm Bert. He did his best, but there was still a good house. People are keen on an update, and want to help.

 

Chairman Chris Irving deals with the formal side of the AGM.

The project to rebuild our Standard loco is going really well. Our loco has only done 250.000 miles since new, and while the boiler is also in generally good condition, it has sat on 3 different 76s, and so has done 500.000 miles. That is also still young though.

We want our boiler to last a long time, so are giving it a proper overhaul, not just a patch up to get it going. The front parallel section of the boiler will be replaced (Barry damage, after 20 years of water through the chimney), new tubes and flues will be fitted, as well as a host of the sort of things that get done during a boiler overhaul. The estimated overhaul cost is £150.000, so this time last year a fund was set up to pay for it.

In a year's time the boiler fund has done quite well. We are half way there, at £75.000 in the kitty. Yours truly put some more money in the pot after the presentation, and if you want to do that too, you can do so here:

https://standard76077.com/boiler-appeal/

The latest news on the boiler is that we have paid a deposit to the boilermakers, and the 76077 boiler has now actually left Toddington, and has been lifted off at Leaky Finders Ltd. Work will start as soon as next week, so now the heavy bills will start coming in, said our cautious treasurer.

Work at Loughborough has accelerated a bit, after one or two other projects with higher priority were completed. The cab has been rivetted, seats and storage boxes made, and, most exciting for those that sponsored it directly, the one off reverser gearbox has been completed. Ours was removed at Barry, and could not be found again. We had to start from scratch, but just look at the result:

It's a masterpiece of casting, cutting and machining. A number of smaller items remain outstanding. One of these is that originally the indicator drum was nickel plated. One side had a nickel background and painted figures, while the reverse had a painted background and nickel figures. This was to enable drivers to see at a glance in which direction the reverser was set.

Our engineering director is happy to paint the whole thing black, but if there is anyone reading this who would like to sponsor the nickel plating, then please get in touch. (directly via the 76077 website, or via the blogger contact form top right.)

Our engineering director fields a tricky technical question from a shareholder.

 

There is news on the tender too.

Originally it was intended to leave the construction of the tender to one side, and concentrate on the loco itself. Ad interim, on its completion, a tender could be hired in.

However, what has happened in practice is that in the meantime some very useful parts for it have been sourced. The most interesting was the offer for sale by the Bluebell of a wheelset for a BR2 tender. This was duly acquired, and also settled the decision between the new build of a BR1, or a BR2 tender. In support of this acquisition a brand new set of Timken roller bearings has been found, as well as the cast iron covers for them. Horn guides have also been cast to seize an opportunity that presented itself. The raw castings now await machining. Two tender springs have been found, and finally we joined in with another group to acquire a dome and a filler cap.

There are no plans at the moment to go much further, and the estimated total cost for a new tender is £250.000 . That is quite a large figure.

An 'O' gauge model of our loco, a one off commission from a supporter. Beautiful.

Latest news:

Two pictures of the boiler leaving Toddington for the boilermaker's.

We're on our way !

Pictures copyright Toddington Standard Locomotive Ltd.

Monday, back to bricklaying.

Thanks to icy cold conditions, and the visit of Bert, there was no brick laying last week, but now we are off again.

John spent the day on the rear of the building. As the wagons are due to be emptied this Wednesday, their return could be imminent. That means that we can re-hire the digger, and any work on the front would then be in the way.

So the day was spent on the back, adding a fourth course to about half of the rear.

 

Yours Truly spent the day cutting bricks in half, yielding about 100 half bricks a day.

Here is an image of a recent ' brickathon'.

It's repetitive, dusty work.

After reaching the southern end, John built towers around the store room entrance, and managed a fourth course in this area as well.

Our joiners report good progress with the door frames, which might be delivered around Christmas (not a present, we are talking about £12.000!)

Usketeers.

Agreement has been reached for a new job for the Usketeers. They have been straining at the leash... 

We'll find out more next week, after a site inspection.

Wednesday on the railway.

A quick trip to Winchcombe, for Usketeer discussions. These were fruitful, but complicated. We'll work something out...

On the way, one of the results of 'Bert' was visible at the Toddington entrance. Because a large vinyl banner had been fixed to the temporary gates at Toddington, it had acted as a sail and pushed over the last section of fence that the Usketeers built. The banner had flapped itself into tatters.

Readers will recall that the last fence post was planted without Postcrete, so that it could be moved once a permanent gate is erected here. Bert took advantage of that. We hadn't reckoned with Vinyl...

Further down the car park we found brave Neal standing in a muddy wagon, with outside temperatures of 4 degrees.

Neal was helping the grab lorry to (completely) empty the wagons of clay, which gets stuck in the corners.

As we were on our way to a meeting we were unable to help, sadly.

 

Picture thanks to Paul.

Last, but not least, the PWay gang changed 5 timbers on the turnout at the south end of Winchcombe. This is right by where the neighbour's land slipped down upon us a couple of years ago - see the lego blocks behind.

Somehow they managed to do this under a blue sky, while the rest of us shivered in a 4 degree icy drizzle...

Unemployed digger.

Friday at Broadway.

The digger is still on hire, so as we wait for the wagons to come back empty, what else could we do with it?

 

 

Neal had a go at a second tree stump extraction, and this is him back filling the hole. He did pretty well with this smaller mini digger, to get these large stumps out.

As the wagons are not yet back empty (Race trains were running is one possible explanation) we took the mini digger to the other end of the site to see what we could do without actually removing any soil.

 

This is the area of the future modesty screen, so needs to be at floor height, and level.

As soon as we put the bucket in, demolition rubble appeared. We got quite a few useful blues out, which just need cleaning and mortar removal.

This curious item surfaced as well. This end of the former building had a Gents toilet, so is it something to do with that? Or part of an acetylene supply? (the gas was made across the road in the goods yard, up to around WW1)

After grading the area was flatter, but now we have a soil pile to dispose of.

In the background John laid bricks all day. He's on the third course all the way round, and just a few bricks from the end.

A question to readers:

When we first started the rebuild of the station several S&T cupboards were put up on softwood legs along both platforms. There are 5 or 6 of them. They were supposed to be temporary, but were never removed. Now they are still there, and look ugly. They don't belong.

An S&T cupboard along P1. Plastic conduits rise up underneath.

They are largely empty inside, and most only contain a tap and the wiring supply for the lamp posts.

 

 

Here is an example on P2.

The platform lamps are wired up in parallel, so lots of conduits come out in each box, one from each lamp post, plus the main supply, and often a tap.

 

We would like to replace them with something much smaller, but what? What is available, and would look authentic? Any ideas?

Our own idea is for some green cast iron cabinets, as used by the GPO. They look like this:

https://www.ringbell.co.uk/nostalgia/AAR.htm

But where to get them from? They have completely disappeared from our streets, and have been replaced by much larger, modern armoured boxes. Where are all the old cast iron ones?

We have looked on Ebay and on the net, but none are for sale that we know.

Any ideas?

Saturday, out with the gang.

Cold, with rain later as it gets dark.

We were outside the Winchcombe signal box again, on the three panel stretch that we have been refurbishing.

We stopped off at Toddington to measure up the original door knobs, and found, sonmewhat to our disappointment that...

 ... the wagons filled with spoil had not been emptied, but simply left in the parlour road.

The 3 ton digger hired in at Broadway is there for a week, and that in the expectance of further empty trucks for it to fill. So far it has worked for two days, and at the moment that looks like all it will do for the week's hire.

On to Winchcombe then.

 

 Friday, Saturday and Sunday are Race Train days. We worked in between their comings and goings.

Shovel packing, and robelling. Hard work.

 

 

 

Rails, sleepers and some ballast are now down and aligned, after extra work mid week. There remained only the levelling. As we only had a limited amount of ballast the Robels could not be used in all places, and much of the day was spent on the heavy task of shovel packing.

 

 

 

Nearby, the Usk hut was looking very floral, a bit too much we felt, as it's meant to be an industrial building.

It's a question of winter storage, we ascertained, so it will revert back to its brutalist industrial look next year.

The roadway that passes by the Usk hut has been marked out for a surface layer of grey chippings. A group from Colas Rail (who came for a day's volunteering before) will spread out this layer in the near future.

It was proposed that the roadway be defined by a number of sleepers positioned down the side, so these were brought in on Wednesday by the Telehandler.

 

The Telehandler is a big machine, and unfortunately it ran over the end of our diamond pavers and cracked one. Unfortunately we have no spares, so it's going to have to stay this way.

 

 Later in the day the empty Race Train passed our work site again.

The full race trains go down to CRC at 10.00am, and then return to Toddington with the empty stock. They will go back to CRC at the end of the afternoon to pick up the happy punters. 

We have had the bright idea of using the same rake for a mid day fish & chip train, since the locos are still hot and the carriages warmed.

What an excellent idea!

We noticed later in the day that the Toddington car park was absolutely rammed, and that in November.

Clever, so clever.

Just before dark the train returned from CRC, tender first.

Tuesday, at Toddington.

All pictures by Paul Fuller, out on a track walk in the snow, which kept the rest of us at home.

We particularly like this scene with Toddington box. Note that the restored GWR goods wagons have now been put up against the buffer stop, as was always intended.

 

 

No trains this week (there was a charity Santa last Sunday) but real Santa trains will start this weekend.

Stanway viaduct, with its 15 arches.

We are still well short of the funds required to do the actual repairs to the piers, damaged by the leaking deck (now waterproofed).

If you want to give the Trust a Christmas present, make them a gift aided donation to help:

https://members.gwrt.org.uk/donate

There's also an option to buy a commemorative plaque, one on each of the new guy ropes fixtures that support the parapets:

https://www.gwsr.com/support-us/stanway-viaduct-commemorative-plaques

 

 

Looking south along the Cotswolds side. These are the parapets that were stabilised. That was an unpleasant additional cost, on top of the waterproofing works.

Water and frost are the typical things that damaged the piers.

 

 

 

Beautiful pictures, but because of the snow and freezing temperatures overnight, there is no brick laying work at Broadway this week. The emptying of the clay filled wagons is pencilled in for the 27th.

Wednesday at Broadway.

Sub zero temperatures, so no work on the P2 build.

Instead we headed for the Broadway mess room, and started stripping the paint from the MR bench

 

This is the MR bench that was donated by VT at Tyseley. It struck us as rather gloomy looking, all in dark brown paint. That merited further investigation - was it always painted dark brown?  It turns out only the front is, the rear is varnished, but out of sight.

 

In fact we have an identical MR bench at Winchcombe in the booking office, and this one looks much brighter. There's no brown paint, just clear varnish over natural wood.

So we decided to strip off the dark brown paint back to the wood, and that job was started today. It's on an-and-off job, one that will be done if the weather is unsuitable for brick laying, like today.

 

As you will have read in the comments to the previous blog, the bench may have originally been rescued from Wilnecote (BR)  Midland station. That was very interesting, and sounds very plausible.

 

 

When we turned the bench upside down, to start stripping paint from the back, we found this label attached. In case you can't make it out, it says:

From: (BR) WOLVERTON

To: TRAFFIC DEPT.

       SUTTON PARK.

 

 

 

Note also the plywood,  which runs all along the bottom. That is a modern material of course. There were scraps of webbing, and this will have been the original material to support the springs and horsehair stuffing. When that gave way, Wolverton made the plywood repair. And maybe repainted it?

 

Lastly for this week, a couple of finds from the dig behind the former building. These are relatively modern bottles. They had rolled off the debris at the back, to the foot of the fence line.

The one on the right is a 200ml  bottle, which we think once held Orangina. It does though seem a bit small, and Wiki states that Orangina was sold in 250ml bottles. The pear shape and outside texture, made to resemble an orange, are typical though.

The one on the left is moulded, with somewhat old fashioned bubbles in the glass. Of note is the pronounced lip at the top of the neck, which we think was there to stop a wire retaining a cork from slipping off. So what was in it? Ginger beer?

These two are probably from the time of the demolition in 1963.

 

In a similar place, i.e. up against the back fence, one of the RAT Trust members found a cast iron finial in the early days, and this formerly sat on one of the P2 modesty screen posts. It most likely rolled off its post when the bulldozer pushed over the screen.

We still have that original finial. Many people think that the modesty screen posts had the finial as part of one casting, but it was loose, set into position by a small screw in the side. We have used the original to make replicas for Broadway, and two for Winchcombe.

We are always willing to help out other stations, in a quest for authenticity.