Turnout started.

Friday, starting to build a turnout.

Four of us on this Friday special.

There were two objectives:

1. To do an additional ballast drop in the Dixton cutting, using dumpy bags.

2. To make a start on building the CRC south replacement turnout. 

 

 

 

The first thing to do was to get STEVIE and his trailer out on the main line.

It's a piece of cake with a road railer, no need for points.

Just pick up your trailer, and drive to the crossing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the Ranger waits patiently in the foreground, STEVIE at the back manoeuvres himself and his trailer on to the yard crossing.

 

 

 

We met at Gotherington Skew yard. Here a dozen dumpy bags, 'prepared earlier' in Bue Peter parlance, awaited loading for just our kind of job. Adding small amounts of ballast to specific areas, rather than load up an entire Dogfish (which can only empty all at once) is what these bags are for. The trouble is with dumpy bags, they are mostly single use only, and weaken when exposed to sunlight. So we could do with a lot more, if any reader has some fresh ones to spare.

The first dumpy bag promptly ripped as it was placed on the trailer. We had been using a sling, which pulls the loops tighter, so for subsequent bags we used the quadruple chain, which exerted less pull on the loops. 

Various low spots had been marked up along the Dixton cutting, so we gradually worked our way along with 6 bags, then went back for 6 more. Almost all of the cutting was done in this way.

Picture by Walt.

 

 

 

 

'Come and join in some ballast dropping' was the call. How hard could it be?

Very hard, all of the dropped ballast then had to be shovelled under the rails.

There's always shovelling ! 

 

 

 

 

After a quick lunch on site we returned to the yard for part two, the start of building the replacement CRC turnout.

As we set up, we were visited by a low flying A400 military transport. They often fly along here, it must be a preferred route. We see quite a few Chinooks too, which then turn left and fly behind the Usk hut.

Before starting on the turnout, we consulted this handy drawing.

It shows the lengths and positions of all the timbers. Annoyingly, in cm, while the timbers are marked in feet. The distance between centres is exactly 762mm - er, that's 30 inches.

We handed over a tape measure that had both imperial and metric measures on it. Only to receive it back at the end of the day, all crumpled and torn. We suddenly had respect for Polonius...

 

Our drawing for the CRC south turnout. Both old and new turnouts are on it. The replacement one has a slightly easier curve.

 

As you may recall, the timbers that arrived by lorry last week were sorted into destination piles. However, within each pile they were still a jumble, so it took us a while to extract the two longest timbers, two fourteen footers.

The 42 timbers required are being laid out in front of the signal box - a flat area, with a straight line down the side of it.

Paul checks the drawing.

 

 

 

 

After the 14 footers came the 13 footers, then the 12'6''ers - where are they?

Right at the back, you say? 

 

 

 

 

The steelwork is here - it's the centre part of the former crossover at Toddington, that was professionally replaced a few years back. Closure rails and stock rails still need to be dug out from the other half of the yard. We'll make a start on this next week.

 

At the end of the afternoon we had got this far - all timbers laid out, bar three in the middle.

Now they have to be aligned with the roadside for straightness, and the timbers correctly spaced. 

 

 

Scrap items?

Our S&T dept has been disposing of quite a fair number of unwanted items recently.

We found these two in the skip.

They are marked WESTINGHOUSE and HAND GENERATOR. We're not S&T afficionados, but can report that they are quite heavy, and make a whirring noise when you crank the handle.

Hand Generators.

Are these really for throwing away? It's old school technology, and we are in the preservation movement, surely they must be of interest to somebody?

 

 

We were able to open one, which was lighter. The gearbox is there, but we think the generating part has been removed. The lid of the gearbox is out of the picture, but still available.

 

The other is heavier, and has not been opened, as the lock nut on top looks rusted fast. Our guess is that that one is intact, being rather heavier. 

 

 

If you are interested in acquiring one or both, drop us a note via the contact form top right. Or maybe help with some info? Did they operate power points in case of failure, for example?

 

 

 

Broadway P2 build.

On Wednesday last week Neal and John added extra courses on the south end of the building, visible by the darker mortar (which eventually dries to a lighter shade) .

Given the damper weather forecast, it was then decided to return the rented tower scaffold. The special bricks that we have ordered won't arrive for another three months now, the supplier estimates.

The Broadway waiting room on Friday.

The roof line of the Gents (aka the store room) will be lower than the rest of the building, so they are near the top of the brick courses there now.

 

We had cause to go through our photographs since the end of 2011 (thousands, on the Broadway build, and Pway track laying to Broadway) and came across a couple that you might find interesting today.

The first is this extract from a drawing of the station site, very early on last century. It shows the sizes of the original buildings, and the purposes of the various rooms.

The current new build on P1 is about 50% longer, mainly due to all the extra toilets that we need. That means that the new building is several feet closer to the footbridge, and quite a bit longer at the other, southern end. Today, the corner of the new building is roughly between the letters 'O' and 'N' on the forecourt.

The little steps shown at the top are still there today (they led to the garden entrance of the stationmaster's house, a handy shortcut for the employees that lived up above), but the road centre left leading to the horse dock was sold off before the GWSR was founded, and was filled in to a higher level behind a hedge today.

Our today's platforms continue off picture on the left, made longer to accommodate 10 coach trains. 

As the new station building is so much larger, it was agreed early on that the waiting room would also be bigger, in proportion. Not any old longer length was possible, the extra bit had to be a multiple of the truss distances, so that is what we built, with one extra truss, to make 4, in stead of 3. The P2 building is sited the correct distance from the footbridge, and in the correct relationship to it. When finished, the circulating area at the bottom of the steps will be bigger than that on P1, where it is incorrect because the builder we used would not have the canopy touch the footbridge. (!) Yes, that's the sort of inane argument we had during the build. But we got there in the end, thanks to Neal's clever steps redesign to accommodate the P1 errors.

Back in 2013, as the P2 blockwork was proceeding along the trackbed, the old Cotswolds stone concrete bed of the former waiting room was exposed. Today, the trees along the back by the waiting room have all been felled. The footbridge steps came down from the right.

 

 

A year earlier, in August 2012, the site had been part cleared of the remaining low wall left after demolition in 1963.

The nearest two trees have also been felled. The area cleared next to them held 7 or 8 platform slabs in a fallen over pile, and next to them were the two cast iron columns that held up the end of the canopy/bottom of the steps. They were snapped off at the bottom, so alas, no good to us. 

 

 

The next picture is from April 2012, four months earlier: 

Here is Andy P (for it is he...) with an SDS drill releasing all the remaining bricks. As you can imagine most were damaged in some way or another, and there were too few of them, so they could not be re-used in the rebuild, but they were all used in backing up the platform blues. All were from Redbank, as with the other brick Honeybourne line buidlings.

 

 

Monday to Wednesday.

The weather has been poor, there's been no work possible at Broadway, and the Usketeers cancelled Wednesday, due to heavy rain.

Work may continue at Broadway next week, likely to be interior blockwork. 

The Usketeers have accepted a request to repair the failing gatepost at Hayles, so that will be a 'quickie' in between. In the meantime, the tarmaccers are expected later this week to complete the Winchcombe P1 platform repair, and fill in a strip outside the door of the weighbridge. That would complete the weighbridge repair, but for the rotten window. Paul is mindful for doing that.

On Monday we had a quick session in the mess room container at Broadway, to complete the stripping of the upholstered GWR bench, prior to its upholstery refurbishment, due at the end of the year. It got a thorough sanding down back to bare wood. This released a large cloud of dust, much to the chagrin of the other Broadway volunteers, for which we apologised profusely. Sweeping out the room was only partially successful. Luckily it's not used that much; the days with 24 volunteers on a day have gone now.

The GWR bench, ready for re-upholstering.

 

 

Wednesday on the Pway.

It was a wet day, a good day to do - wet beds. What are these? They are areas where water collects under the ballast, and when trains pass over, the alternating weight pumps the water up through the ballast, bringing a white, ground down stone residue with it. You can recognise them by the white areas along the track.

We have one principal area of wet beds along our 14 mile railway, by the road bridge at Southam. For a reason we cannot explain (nor can the water company) water constantly runs out of the weep holes in the Cotswolds side bridge abutment, rain or shine. As a result, the cutting there over several dozen yards is wet, and the track pumps up and down.

 

 

 

Here is a wet bed, partially dug out. The bottom is made up out of ground up ballast, ground into a white slurry.

Notice also the presence of the rail joint, which exacerbates the problem. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the gang today, assisted by a contractor (in the good old days, this would have been Stevie Warren), digging out the spoilt ballast from between, and indeed under, the sleepers.

 

 

 

 

 

To cure the local problem, a membrane is inserted under the sleepers in the troublesome spot, and the area back filled with clean ballast.

Here the clean ballast is evident, seen by the rail joint. 

 

 

The longer term solution is to remove the water that keeps coming back into the bottom of this shallow cutting. In fact the bridge is slightly hump backed, because the cutting is only shallow. And yet water pours out of its weep holes. The opposite side is dry...

 

Until we have solved this mystery, it is quite possible that this area will remain wet.  The issue has been reported upwards, and is being investigated at high level.

Elsewhere, the tamper has been out and about. Last week , it was on the Broadway section; this week it is in the Defford Straight cutting.

The tamper on the Defford Straight, here at Old Farmer's Bridge.

At the end of the day, and with heavy rain clouds billowing across an angry sky, the tamper had reached the start of Chicken Curve.

At Toddington, the roundabout was decorated for Rememberance Day. It was beautifully done, with poppies and silhouettes of WW1 soldiers. We are impressed. 

 

Finally, a quick look into the C&M workshop at Winchcombe shows the Hayles Abbey Halt running in board under repair. It's proving difficult to keep our RIBs in good condition, because they are basically made of wood, and constantly in the wind and rain. They rot quickly, probably because of the poor quality wood that we are obliged to use these days. One trick we have learned is not to have a moulding along the bottom, which avoids water being trapped there. The GWR used the same trick !

 

 

From the GWRS newsletter, September 1981.

The chairman celebrated the establishment of the GWSR plc, next to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Society. The plc managed to raise an initial £73.720 , a sum which really needed to double if we were mindful of starting to lay track, next to buying the line. The minimum capital required was £50.000. At the time of writing (Sept 1981) work was going on at Toddington under a lease.

5952 Cogan Hall arrived, owned by the Great Western Steam Locomotive Group, owners also of Ditcheat Manor and Odney Manor, already at Toddington. (all three would later move on). Four GWR camping coaches were purchased from Dawlish Warren.

Arrival of a camping coach.  Picture by John Lees.

COGAN HALL has just arrived, together with a box van.

 

At the end of August 1981 a sponsored 24 hour overnight track laying was organised. 

This raised £550, and 269 yards of track were laid. (the rail head had not yet passed the station throat though, it's a long straight to the first curve at Didbrook)

Toddington after the removal of the track - picture via John Lees.

  

Construction of the station throat, but no running line yet. The signals are bare. Picture by John Lees.

The lack of a play area on site for family members of working volunteers was regretted. Examination of the site revealed a clean (-ish) strip of land to the extreme west of the Toddington site. That would be ideal, until a member brought a couple of hundred yards of 2ft track that he had in his garden - that was the start of the Toddington narrow gauge.

Stock now on site:

Locos: Cogan Hall, Ditcheat Manor, Odney Manor, 2807. Pecket 0-4-0, an 0-6-0 and a Hudswell Clarke diesel shunter, all privateley owned.

Rolling stock: GWR auto coach 169,  2 camping coaches and a box van.

To speed up the track laying a shift system is proposed:

Saturday: 9am to 3pm 

                3pm to 9pm (under lights) (!!!)

We have come a long way... 

  

 

 

RIP Roger Johnson.

News has reached us that our colleague Roger Johnson has passed away. Roger was on the Broadway rebuild project pretty much from the start. He was a property manager in his working life, and at Broadway could be seen doing any one of a number of jobs, such as :

Laying backing up bricks, some of the 10s of thousands behind the blue platform wall, that the public doesn't see.

Clearing out the centre drains, unattended for 50 years. Terry (L) and Rod (R) are still with us today, working in C&M out of Winchcombe now.

 Stripping the telephone kiosk of old paint, and here, placing the new perspex 'TELEPHONE' insert.

Digging holes for lamp posts. See here with Clive and Jim (who no longer volunteer) and centre, Roger's buddy Jim Hitchen, who passed away of cancer a couple of years ago. Roger and Jim H both came from the general area of Milton Keynes/Bedford, and would compare notes every morning on how their (rather long) journey had gone. Roger would screech up in his one series BMW, managing to get into third gear up the station approach. That was before the traffic humps went in....

 Mixing mortar for the brick layers, here with Jim.

 

 

 

When the extension to Laverton Halt opened in 2012, we thought we'd go down there, to remind the railway that far-away Broadway still existed.

Second from the left is Robin Elliott, on whom we reported a couple of weeks ago. 

 

 

 

 Roger and Jim, bringing in supplies for the mixer, in clearly cold and wet weather.

Roger and Jim (R) during a running in board post recovery excercise from Gotherington. It was a very kind donation from owner Bryan, and this original enabled us to have several authentic copies made. 

There are 4 people on the lighter end of the post, while Roger and Jim took on the heavier end... 

Roger and Jim, fitting the temporary lineside cabinets along the platforms. Unfortunately they turned out to be permanent, and do not belong on a replica of the old station.

The full Broadway construction gang in 2012. Project leader Bill Britton is kneeling in front. Roger is standing at the rear, third from the left, in a green jumper. There are 24 volunteers in this picture. The Broadway maintenance gang is what remains today, and they could do with help.

Roger Johnson, always in good humour.

 

 

Non running season starts.

Friday on PWay duties.

In preparation of our winter works we had a consignment of point timbers coming in on Friday. Paul dealt with this, together with 3 volunteers.

 

 

 

 

David, the first volunteer on site, got going straight away. The lorry was already half empty on our arrival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The priority for the day was to unload the timbers, and let the lorry, from a dealer in Worksop, return to its base.

The timbers were in no particular order, but had been ordered according to size. At first, we dropped them off as and where we could.

 

 

 

The secondary objective was then to sort the timbers according to where we planned to use them. This meant a pile for each of CRC South, Gotherington South, the Bishops Cleeve CWR expansion joint (4 timbers) and the rest for Winchcombe.

The timbers were checked for length, and then allocated to each pile according to a list that Paul had prepared. 

As we  were doing this, there was a lively discussion outside the C&W shed, only broken up by a heavy rain shower.

It was a showery day - see the puddles outside the S&T workshop - and the worst one was a mid-day, whereupon we quickly called it lunch. We sat in the C&M mess room, and listened to the rain drum down on the workshop roof. 

Chris and Paul check off the list of timbers - have we got everything?

After lunch saw a complete change in the weather, and after the band of rain had passed the sun came out again. We completed sorting the timbers into their 4 piles, and then checked each one off the list, to make sure that the pile was complete.

The next job is to build a new (second hand, but more modern) turnout for CRC south, outside the signal box at Winchcombe. When it is fully assembled, it will be taken apart again and moved to Cheltenham, where the current, older turnout with failing timbers will be removed. 

Monday at Broadway.

Three of us all day, plus the Broadway maintenance gang. No more trains now, and no more cafe for elevenses. We will miss that, especially as it gets colder.

However, 'no more trains' is not absolute, there will be odd ones such as a charity Santa, fireworks and race trains. These interuptions during a 'non running' season make life harder for those trying to maintain the track with major winter works, or even erecting a canopy over a new build.

 

 

 

This was the state of play at Broadway P2 on Monday morning. A very windy day.

The tower scaffold was moved to the southern end, where we can still lay plain bricks. We would like to complete the 'Gents', aka the store room, so that we can have a weatherproof space while we work. 

 

 

 

 Looking down the steps, the scale of the end wall, completed by John in a solo effort, is impressive.

There's a first row of corbelling (as along the back as well), with three more corbelling courses to go to complete the brickwork. We're going to do that when we have actual scaffolding next year.

Monday therefore was spent at the southern end.

There was one last window cill to go on.

 

 

 

 

 

There was quite a bit of measuring and shuffling around, as the cill needs to be right in terms of the bricks and half bricks that lead up to it.

 Here trial spacings are being done with plain bricks, although specials will come into play here.

John also put down three courses on the platform side wall of the 'Gents' store room. This doesn't need any additional specials, just bull noses on the corners, which we have.

Later in the day the cill was well bedded down, and already partly encapsulated in two courses of bricks.

On the right hand side you can just make out one special (which we had) which starts off the columns that up, go along the windows. 

Here are both cills in one shot. The nearer one is missing the specials which convert columns back to plain bricks, and temporary plain bricks have been put in their place.

We'd really like to get a roof on here, but can't, if the walls aren't finished. 

This was the view at the end of the day, as the light was starting to go.

The plain brick end wall will have two large poster boards on it in due course. We still have to make these, and find suitable 1904 era posters for them. We have two in store so far.

 

We are also still looking for upholstered interior GWR benches. If you know of anyone who would like to sell one, or see one in an auction, do let us know.

Monday to Wednesday on the PWay.

Pictures by Paul, with thanks. 

The tamper is here again, it came as soon as the last commercial train had left (and P&O was taken out of service for overhaul).

 

 

 

The section being addressed this week is Laverton bridge to Broadway. This is mostly on embankment, and has had a tendency to undulate here and there, possibly due to the very dry summer that we have had.

As you may know, it is built on clay excavated from the cutting at Broadway. 

 

 

 

 

 

On the curve north from the Laverton No.2 crossing the cant had a tendency to vary from +8 to -14, so the tamper put in a standard cant of 10mm round the whole curve.

Hope you will appreciate, as passengers. 

This section is the last laid on the GWSR, and the most modern, with deep ballast, concrete sleepers and new rail. 

 

 

 

 

At the end of Monday the tamper had arrived at Little Buckland bridge, seen here on the left. Not a bad day's work for an old S&C tamper.

The section north, alongside Peasebrook Farm, is next. 

 

 

 

As at Broadway P2, Monday was stormy and at the end, very wet.

Here the tamper is looking back at the job just done, under a disturbed sky. 

 

 

 

Wednesday, not with the Usketeers.

But with the Construction & Maintenance team.  The interuption of services makes it possible to repair the partly sunken P1 platform surface at Winchcombe. 

 

 

 

Your blogger's role was to fetch the little 1 ton dumper, and shuttle debris from the platform repair to the Telehandler, which was waiting with a big bucket by the kitchen door. 

We drove down the platform to get to the site, a tricky approach as the Santa tent at the north end restricted access, and the canopy from the Bradstone visitor centre was just a bit too low for the dumper's orange warning light on top. We managed to sidestep that, without hitting anything. 

 

 

 

The little mini digger was occupied on the platform, scraping together excess spoil. The lumps of tarmac did not fit its bucket, and were transported by the dumper, and later directly to the Telehandler by wheelbarrow, so the dumper was in the end stood down.

The Usketeers came to watch the proceedings. Why wasn't your blogger having tea and cakes with them? That would come later...

 

 

 

 

The mini digger dug out some of the spoil, but it was mainly about the big tarmac slabs, piled up to the right of the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the digging out proceedings, the PWay team came by with a trolley, filled with necessary bits for replacements in the tunnel. 

It's so much easier now, without trains. 

 

 

 

 

 

A few moments later the team was inside the stygian darkness of the 700m long Greet tunnel. 

It has a curve in it, so at one point you are totally isolated in the dark! 

Here is a terrific picture by Paul (thanks, Paul !) and we wonder how many blog readers will know which way Andy is looking here? North, or south? 

 

 

 

Back to the platform works.

Once enough spoil had been removed and the ground levelled by the mini-digger, Rob used the whacker plate to tamp things down again.

 

 

 

 

 

With the platform surface well whacked down, it was time to add some ballast, which had been positioned last week in two dumpy bags.

The Telehandler picked them up, and, with an extended boom, positioned them on the platform. 

 

 

 

 

 

The contents of the two dumpy bags were then barrowed along the platform.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At lunch time, the two dumpy bags were used up, and more ballast was found in the yard to make up the shortfall.

A train of barrows waits to be distributed. 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day all the ballast was spread out and well tamped down. Now we await the tarmaccers. They are due Friday week, and will also do the patch outside the weighbridge hut at the same time.

Yours truly was released at lunch time, and re-joined the Usketeers. We missed them ! 

So you think this is too dark?

 What have they been doing, ad interim?

The answer is, pointing the cracks on the facade at the front. We hope that, with the underpinning on the front corner, this crack won't get any bigger now, so we are filling it in. With coloured mortar, but someone has been a bit too generous with the colourant... 

An hour later a second mix was made, with less colourant. This lower portion shows what that looks like.

The mix will grey out when it dries, so hopefully it will blend in. 

Dave did some of the pointing, and later, a rather exuberant Paul. 

 

At the end of the day, all the pointing on the facade had been done, which leaves only the tarmaccing by the door to be done, and the bottom framework of the window to be replaced. 

The Usketeers were then called away to Hayles Abbey Halt, where a failing gate post was reported. 

So you reckon we can repair this, Paul? No problem, Dave, you just watch!

The receiver gate post had a serious wobble on it. We think the bit underground has gone, Strangely, the hinge post is steady as a rock. Not sure what is going on here, but we can address this, using our trusted godfather post idea.

That'll be for next week. We then went to the Pheasant to reserve the Usketeer Christmas lunch... 

 

 

The tamper at work on the Broadway extension.

Thanks to Chris, we have a couple of pictures of the tamper at work on Wednesday. (It's coming back next week)

Here's a fabulous picture of it at Little Buckland.
 

Unfortunately, for the wrong reasons. It's a very old machine. It's kind of designed to shake itself to pieces, so it does.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look carefully, you can see the driver on his hands & knees , dealing with a seized bolt on one of the tines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The repair was successful, and another quarter of  mile was tamped on the Broadway extension on Wednesday

 Here's a little video of the tines doing their work.

Unfortunately, after the quarter of a mile the tamper broke down again, but, it has to be said, it did a jolly good job on the curve coming off Little Buckland.