The closed season starts

Friday at Broadway.

Cold and damp, a real wintry feel now. Tow of us worked at Broadway. In silence, as there were no trains around, and no people. The cafe was closed, which to yours truly is the greatest loss. There's nothing like mooching with a coffee at a table on the platform, and watching the world go by.

 

 

Here's an opening shot through the canopy that we built.

That orange thing is John's coat, not a scarecrow. John is on the end of the building, where he is putting down a first course of reds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He then pointed that course.

Preparations were also made for him to work along the back, as some time around when you read this the empty wagons are coming back to be loaded a second time.

For that, the front will need to be vacant for the dumper to shuttle up and down.

So during this session quite a bit of time was spent along the front, where the bricks reached the third course. 

We counted the courses on the P1 building - there are 33 of them, before you get to the overhang at the top. Thirty-three !

We have a long way to go....

 

 

This shot shows how John laid round the north end, and made himself a little start at the back. The back will be without windows. That was as it was, but also to avoid any risk of vandalism or intrusion from the field in the future.

We are using the slightly lesser quality bricks along here, where they are out of sight. Many have small chips or other imperfections on them.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a near end of the day shot, before everything gets covered in blue plastic for protection, as the mortar goes off.

Three courses along most of it, two nearest the camera. John has started the slow process each day of pointing his work.

 

On the corner is the first bull nose, on top of the conversion brick from square to round. The rounded corner in the brickwork is a lovely old fashioned feature.

 

Earlier, at Toddington...

One of the power units of the DMU (that the owners have sold to Bo'ness) waits on the unloading road to be collected and taken to Scotland.

The destination board no longer says 'BROADWAY', but 'DAISY'.

Toddington station building has also been defaced with an E-Scooter notice.

You can also see that the brickwork has been drilled into to attach a collection box, which was then moved to the other side of the window, and new holes drilled to attach it a second time.

Toddington is our only original station building. There are no rules to oblige people to respect our original fabric, or liaise with those promoting our 'living museum'. You can make any holes that you like.

The E Scooter sign and the box account for about 20 holes drilled into the Edwardian brickwork over the last 3 months.

On a brighter note, the Usketeers held a mini Christmas dinner in the Pheasant, together with their wives. 

Greetings to all our readers from the Usketeers! We are currently on the lookout for a new project, and as soon as we get something fixed up, we'll let you know.

 

 

Saturday, out with the gang.

It's the fun period now - no more trains, and we do more interesting stuff than packing and spot sleeper changing.

 

 

 

Last Wednesday saw a start on relaying the four panels taken out the Saturday before.

A tricky bit came at the start, as the concrete CS1 sleepers are higher than the wooden ones leading off the turnout.

 

 

Pictures by Paul Fuller

 

 

 

 

The trackbed was levelled with the little mini digger, and then the sleepers in storage in the C&W yard were brought in by Telehandler, and the rail tipped in by men on bars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then came the following Saturday, when a gap representing the fourth panel remained.

The initial store of CS1s was not quite enough, and a few extra wartime economy ones were drafted in from the PWay yard. These are thinner, and that suits the situation well, as the track behind the camera is laid with steel sleepers, which have a very low profile.

 

 

 

 

Initially work started on Saturday with another short relay, this one 3 panels right outside the signal box. It's another very old section, laid with second hand throughbolters in 1987, as the railhead reached Winchcombe for the first time.

 

Although work didn't start, due to a rake of carriages occupying an adjacent track for a generator change. The RV was trapped behind it until 11.30, with a big part of the day already gone.

 

Finally the RRV was released, as a line of gang members watched with interest.

Well, most of them anyway.

STEVIE the RRV lifted out 6 rails, all shorter than full length. There is hope that we can replace them with 4 longer ones, and so save on a couple of joints.

Picture by John Lees

Talking of second hand throughbolters laid in 1987, here is a picture by John Lees of Winchcombe that May. Recognise it? On Saturday we were working by that white caravan. That corrugated iron hut in the bushes on the left is where the Usk hut and platform are today. Hall Green signal box is being rebuilt. We remarked only on Saturday how well established that box looks, but it's a replacement as you can see.

 

 

Back to Saturday in 2024, and here is STEVIE swinging round one of the 60 or so sleepers lifted.

They were stacked on the trolley, and removed from there at the end of the day.

A second trolley load was collected, and then the 3 panels in question were clear of rail and sleepers.

This view was taken from the top of the signal box steps.

This shot down the tracks shows the extent of the works, which are expected to be complete in about two weeks (but no trains are running anyway).

 

On the C&W side the larger team had just completed laying in the last of the sleepers.

Beyond is the end of the new FO, on which the sponsor (as we understand it) was taking conservatory measures.

The sleepers nearest the FO are of the thinner economy type, ex Didbrook relay (part 2 of that is our main winter works project).

They suit the location, as the FO is standing on very low profile steel sleepers, so that track has to meet that level.

The rails were rolled back in by men on bars, in the traditional way.

The last of the 4 rails on the Malvern side didn't fit...

This was caused by over generous gapping in the previous three. Rather than unclip all three of them again and move them along a few mm, it was easier to cut the end off.

 

 

Tony did that, no problem.

 

 

 

Then it was just a question of clipping up (here) and refitting the fishplates.

Some sort of ballast will be needed here, as with several different sleepers types some packing is clearly needed.

 

 

 

It just so happens that we are getting some spent ballast out of the relay by the signal box, where the trackbed was dug out by STEVIE. 

That RRV is proving quite invaluable.

That spent ballast was being piled up by the road crossing, from where it can be loaded for transporting to the siding relay site.

In the meantime Simon is unloading the second pile of sleepers with chairs from the trolley.

All in all, Saturday was a very productive day, albeit a short one. A delayed start, and a rapid loss of daylight after lunch.

Monday by the Usk hut.

A request was made to change the surface of the track that bypasses the Usk hut (intended as some sort of emergency release for PWay vehicles, in case the crossing by the C&W shed is blocked).

Neal and Yours Truly were volunteered to scrape away the surface material. We were joined by Paul and Margaret.

 

The intention was to use the mini digger to scrape away surface material, and the dumper to carry it away.

We found the mini digger absent, reportedly parked up in another yard, and the dumper locked, with no key present. That rather frustrated our intentions, so we made do with what was available - the Telehandler.

 

After scraping the surface as much as we could - the Telehandler was too big for this job really - we did use it however to bring in fresh material, to extend the width of the road over the adjacent toe drain, which we converted to a perforated pipe.

 

Afterwards, the wider road with a refreshed surface was rolled by Neal, after an extensive head scratching session on how to get the vribator on the roller going.

We did eventually get the Good Vibrations... the actuating cable seemed to have seized up.

The road is now ready for a new surface layer, which will be applied by visiting volunteers from Colas, we learned. They enjoyed their last visit to us, and want to come again!

 

 

In an idle hour during the day we applied another pair of corporate GWSR stickers to one of our Transits, this one being the latest arrival.

We used to put these stickers on our carriages, but have now decided not to brand them any more. The small remaining stock has found a new and very suitable purpose though, as you can see.

Tuesday at Broadway.

One of several very dull days in a row, which end in it getting dark. Not much fun to work in.

John completed the third row along the front, and then turned the corner and made a start on the north end, second row.

 

To be honest, there's a bit of chopping and changing, as the mood takes us.

Here is John on the north end, but if you look carefully, you can see that he has also started on the back

Here is evidence of his productivity along the back - a long row of headers, which goes to just beyond the half way point.

Yours Truly was completely covered in pink dust from cutting bricks in half, trying to keep up with John, and also building up a stock for when we are otherwise occupied with the digger and dumper, filling the trucks which are due.

 

At the end of Tuesday John had laid 150 bricks, all headers (i.e. half bricks). 

But also this corner, with the lovely bullnose on top.

 

On Wednesday the now empty goods wagons were brought back, to be filled again with clay during the non-running season.

We still have spoil from the building's foundations to clear from the top of the cutting, and then there is a big hole to be dug at the bottom of the steps for a big concrete block, which will support three posts for the canopy between the building and the bottom of the stairs.  We are likely to start on that some time next week.

 

Meanwhile, a mysterious parcel has arrived in the blogger workshop.

Thursday should see a trip to pick up another mysterious parcel, and we hope to show you both next time.