Siding joined up again.

Saturday, just three of us.

It was a very modest turnout for the PWay gang on Saturday, just three volunteers! Yet it was such a lovely day, and the job was interesting.

 

 

 

On Wednesday the remaining rails and sleepers were laid back into the siding 2 trackbed, all the way back to the start. This is where we got to, when we did the stop block, plus a couple of lengths.

That short piece is now occupied by the two GWR tool vans, with a tank wagon in between them. 

What they were unable to do on Wednesday was get the last pair of rails in. They were left in the 4 foot, ready for the three of us to consider on Saturday.

The two rails were between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch too long, the result of an accumulation of a mm here and a mm there, at each joint reassembled.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the view from the gangway end of one of the GWR tool vans.

A member of the RATs trust has been restoring the inside of this, and a jolly good job he made of it too. The sliding doors, very hard to open previously, now roll with perfect ease. 

The inside of the tool vans is very light and airy, thanks to glass inserts in the roof. All the original racking is still in place

Motive power on Saturday was P&O and 3850. Business seemed a little less brisk than during the Easter holidays, although it was a bank holiday weekend.

 

 

 

While Bert Ferrule spent half an hour assisting the diesel department, Nick and Yours Truly perfected some of the sleeper spacings. We were watched by a member of the steam Dept.

 

 

 

 

Still waiting for Bert to come back, we thought we'd spend some time tidying up the site. We removed various bits of scrap and remnants of decayed sleepers, but also quite a bit of litter and other rubbish that had accumulated between the wagons that were parked here.

Lots of lumps of slagstone remain - you can't pack track with these, but we did not know what to do with them. We left them in piles in the 6 foot.

 

We had a debate over the breakfast pastries up in the mess room about how to insert the last rail.

We measured up the exact length of the two rails, and their corresponding gaps. The options were: 

- Trim the ends, meaning new fishplate bolt holes needed to be drilled, or

- Find the missing mm by moving the rails up and down.

 

We looked at the gaps and felt some could be closed a bit more.

This one also offered an opportunity. Siding 2 is a very old one, and was laid with very second hand rail. You can see here that it was cut badly back in the 1980s;  the tops meet, but the bottoms do not.

So if we push the rails up a bit (loosen some fishplates and clips) and trim the top off this end, we should win the necessary mm. 

We loosened, pushed and trimmed. Then, three men (the whole gang on Saturday) heaved both rails into their positions, using a turning bar and two plain bars.

This was the result - all rails back in. We felt pretty pleased with that.

In the meantime, P&O came back, and was handed the token by the signalman.

 

 

We were now joined by Simon, who had been greasing pointwork at Broadway.

Together we fitted the fishplates, and the siding was complete again.

The returning train, headed by 3850, saw Nick and Bert Ferrule jack up the end of the newly fitted rail, in order to bolt up the last set of fishplates.

This part of the siding is now resleepered, and joined back up again. It has not yet been ballasted and packed.
 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

 Two of us again, Dave still being absent with family matters.

 

 

While Paul was working on the floor inside, we dug out the corner of the building, where there are many spalled bricks.

We need to determine the extent of the problem, and how many rows are affected. 

We also had a forage round the yard, to see if any plinth blues were available, to replace those damaged over time.

 

 

 

This is the same corner, seen from the side. We might need to replace three courses here, with only two to replace along the front. 

This work is likely to start next time, when Dave is also expected back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside, we cut some bricks to complete this corner by the door.

 

Now this corner just needs sand brushing in, which Paul is doing in the next picture. 

Paul mixed up some sand, and a healthy dose of black Cementone colour.

The 'OFFICE' door plate by the way comes from a failed attempt to produce replica BOOKING OFFICE door plates for Broadway. In a deviation from the original at, say, Toddington, our builder used double doors instead of single ones, and made the two halves of the double door very narrow. The result was that our replica (cast from an original) did not fit!

 

Here is Paul brushing in the floor by the door.

We are now close to completing the interior, and will start work on what we were going to do originally, i.e., deal with the spalling and cracks.

Last thing Paul also made up a small mix of mortar, which again he coloured black, and pointed up the doorstep he laid last week.

The mortar should be a little greyer than it looks there, once it has gone off.

On the way  back we called in at Broadway.

Neal made the mortar for John on Wednesday. He is still laying along the back, which seems to swallow countless numbers of bricks.

 

 

PWay on Wednesday.

Pictures with thanks to Paul.

There were two teams today, thanks to a good turnout. 

The first, smaller team went to lift a small dip reported just north of Stanway viaduct.

 

You report it - we lift it ! No need to thank us...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second and larger team worked on Siding 2. The steam dept. offered a supply of ash, which we used to pack the track in the traditional way.

There was ash here already, but generally speaking this end of the siding had little material, while further away from the camera more and better packing material was used. (... in 1981)

The structure of the economy sleepers is very clear here, with those two holes in the middle, to save on concrete during the war.

 

Both teams met for lunch, on the sun-drenched balcony outside the mess room. Happy campers all round.

We just want to mention also that we have a supply of several hundred lighter weight sleepers that we can't use.

On the other hand, they might be of use to someone for a different purpose, eg for a roadway.

We would let them go for a small donation to our tool fund. If you are interested, drop us a line or send a blogger contact form (top right of the blog).

 

 Here's a little treat for you as well, from the packing gang by the viaduct. Enjoy !

 

 

 

Willersey village.

Last week we had the occcasion to pass through Willersey. It's such a pretty little village, as you can see from the picture below.

It has Cotswolds stone houses, a duck pond, two pubs (the Bell, and the New Inn), and is one of the closest villages to the Honeybourne line. It's just a short walk from the former Willersey halt. The next proper station along from Broadway was Weston Subedge, but that is quite a distance from the latter village, and even further from Bretforton, a (joint-) name it carried on opening in 1904. The GWR probably chose Weston Subedge as the next station, as it is about half way between Broadway and Honeybourne, while Willersey is just 3/4 mile (and one bridge in poor repair) north of Broadway.

Willersey did eventually get a halt of its own, a sleeper built one with a Pagoda, a few months after the line opened in to Broadway 1904.