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 They have completely disappeared from our streets, and have been replaced by much larger, modern armoured boxes.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.