Work on the viaduct starts.

Friday on steels.

Just a quick picture. Due to a meeting elsewhere we only had a half day, and gave 3 sides of purlins another coat.

Neal welded on the tops and bottoms of the 6th and last stanchion for the P2 building. 

Saturday, with the gang and with rain.

The forecast was a bit dire, but we can't sit round here all day, so let's get going.

All the tools were laid out, while Bert Ferrule got the Transit. That and the crew cab Transit provided just enough room for the 9 of us. Snug. And fuggy, when everyone is in damp clothing...

Before we left we watched the trains crossing in front of us. The dark and rainy atmosphere made for two great photographs.

Here is superstar 2807 pulling away from the bracket signal, released once Foremarke Hall had arrived.

And this is the opposite shot of Foremarke hall, accelerating away from the station. The driver gave it the beanz just as it approached us - great!

We went out to the Gretton straight, with two sleepers to change, and a number of dipped joints to lift. Someone muttered 'Groundhog Day' - yes, it did seem like that.

But not from next week, we are going to kick off the viaduct works!

Here's the bad sleeper being extracted. It was already second hand in the 1990s. 

The replacement sleeper was inserted, screwed down and the ballast shovelled back in. Graham and Tim did the rest with the Robels, and it was time to move on to the next one.

We had several periods of heavy rain, and here the Ranger showed its worth with the lifting tailgate - it makes a handy veranda.

We didn't spend all day at Gretton as we had STEVIE's naming ceremony due at 4 o'clock. We got back to Winchcombe just as the cloudburst was moving away, and the first ray of sunshine gave us a nice rainbow over the mess coach.

STEVIE naming ceremony.

Saturday finally was the big day of the naming of our new (2002) RRV as STEVIE, in memory of our much loved PWay contractor from Winchcombe.

STEVIE gets a last rub down from Mike and Dave.

The rain stopped just in time, and there was even a shaft of sunlight, and just enough daylight to do the naming before the light failed.

 

Picture by 'Daily' Mayell, with thanks.

Members of his family had been invited, but before the off the whole gang lined up in front and had its picture taken.

Jim then gave us a short address, after which he invited Stevie's son Billie to unveil the name plate and explanatory plaque. We already knew Billie a little bit, as Stevie would sometimes bring him to work and the two trundled along in the trusty JCB dragging rail to Broadway etc.

 

Our very own Jim, member since virtually the beginning in the 1980s, handed over a cheque for £212 that we had collected for the hospice where Stevie spent his last days. Graham, his former employer, looked on.

We had covered up the name plate with one of the signal flags from the lookout's kit. It was just right.

Billie then pulled the flag off to reveal the brass plates. The name plate is done in a GWR loco style.

You can see from Billie's face that he was very pleased with the arrangement, and we will be thinking of his father every time we use the RRV.

Stevie's two children then had their picture taken by their aunt in front of the name plate.

Then it was time for a family and friends picture.

Finally we found Stevie's two sisters and his cousin watching Foremarke Hall storm out of Winchcombe. It gave them a good idea why we all volunteer here.

It was a very successful ceremony, and it assured Stevie's family that we won't be forgetting him.

Monday on the Viaduct.

A good turnout of 13, plus our contractors, attacked the lifting of the track on the viaduct with vigour.

Plant, tools,volunteers and contractors streamed on to the viaduct.

In fact the track lifting was our responsibility, but we were assisted by the contractor with an excavator that pulled away the rail. The rest was up to us.

The first job was to remove the fishplates. They all went on the trolley and were stored at the southern end of the viaduct.

Then the de-clipping of the Pandrols followed. Not too onerous, although it looks like one volunteer was already tired...

There are 300 odd sleepers across the viaduct, so about 1200 clips to bend down and pick up. Ouch! Luckily we had a big team with which to ring the changes.

 

 

 

Along the parapet are these little niches, although we have heard say that they are for refuge (when this was double track) and not some sort of garden seat.

 

While we were busy on top, the contractors worked from underneath (where they had their base) and spent the day building a permanent staircase, for easier access from the gate below.

We squeezed round the side and took this snapshot below of the viaduct for you. It looks in good condition here, but what you can't see is that it leaks rainwater and this eats away at the pillars underneath.

We had an appeal update on Monday which advised that we are now at £293.000 including gift aid. We need at least £360.000, just to do the waterproofing.  Brickwork pointing and repair is extra.

In order to allow the waterproofing work to start this winter season the Trust has stepped in for the balance. Money spent on maintaining the infrastructure will not be spent on heritage (the Trust's mission) so we can only encourage readers to support the appeal. In fact indirectly you will be supporting the P2 build at Broadway, which is imminent.

Stanway viaduct from the Cotswolds side, looking south.

Here is the GWRT appeal page again, in case you would like to help with a last push.   We really need at least £360.000.

https://www.gwrt.org.uk/donate/stanway-viaduct-appeal

Looking past Robert enjoying a little rest in his niche, we can see that it's quite a long way down below.

The rest of the gang soon joined him for a communal lunch, on top of Stanway viaduct. We were very lucky that the weather was fine, as it could be grim up here, as we saw last time we took the track off here a few years ago now.

 

Initially we put the 1200 Pandrol clips into Dumpy bags but then ran out, so the rest were piled up on top of the trolley, then lifted off the rails to one side by the excavator with forks attached.

Behind the excavator a pair of rails was removed to facilitate access on top of the track.

 

The first vehicle through the gap was the Telehandler, which took a big bundle of bearers to the other side.

 

 

 

With fishplates and all clips removed, our next job was to pull the cable troughs out of the ballast, and put them up against the parapet where there was a handy ledge.

The contractor's excavator then made a start with removing the rails, starting from the middle. This was the slowest part of the job, as the Telehandler had to wait each time until the excavator had tracked back to the southern end.

Robert had as a personal mission to put all the lids back on the trough. While they are not so heavy as the troughs themselves, there are an awful lot of them.

 

 

 

More and more rail was being dragged to the southern end, but it was a slow process. The excavator worked very carefully, and it was quite a distance to cover.

Martin was trying to bring the sleepers south as well, but had to wait for the excavator to clear the trackbed.

Eventually he was able to scoop up 4 of them.

 

 

The pile of sleepers to be removed and stacked got bigger and bigger.

 

 

Finally there were 16 of them in a stack, and with the trackbed clear Martin was able to take it south.

Tuesday on the viaduct.

Day two. Also 13 volunteers, but a new mixture, with two new recruits too.

By P1 the C&W 03 shunter was waiting to propel the WARFLAT to the viaduct. 

This is to pick up the spent wooden sleepers there, and later to bring in concrete ones.

A rainbow greeted us too, the first of several on Tuesday. It was that sort of weather.

 

On arrival with the Transit at the viaduct we found that all the rail had been removed. Great!

So our job today could go ahead, that is to say, removal and loading of the timber sleepers.

The Telehandler loaded up 12 sleepers at a time and brought them to the loading area at the southern end of the viaduct.

Here a contractor 360 fitted with forks lifted them on to the WARFLAT.

This side of the operation took longer than anticipated, as the sleepers proved to be surprisingly heavy and after several test lifts, only packs of 4 could be loaded at a time. The 8 in the picture above were not lifted on (together...).

The sleepers on the viaduct were reportedly new hardwood when laid, but they have not lasted well. Many are rotting from underneath, or were attacked by a fungus.

One disintegrated altogether, as seen in this picture.

While we were stacking sleepers, the contractors concluded the construction of the steps at the northern end.

Lunch was consumed al fresco, in the shelter of the parapet. Telephone reception was impossible here while seated, but once you stood up, it was fine. Must be thick walls.

During lunch some off us wandered to the other side to inspect the view. It's pretty, that is true. Below is a farm which we suspect is linked to Stanway House not far away.

After a day's loading we were all pretty tired. The WARFLAT was filled with the sleepers from half the  viaduct.  The plan is to take it to Toddington, unload it and return for the second half.

We walked back in the gloom. All the rail has gone, and 50% of the sleepers.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Getting wintery now, with this day of wind and heavy fine rain. We sat in our little self build, in the dry, and munched our bacon rolls (Paul remembered...).

 

Outside, under a threatening sky and in the driving rain the RRV, now officially 'STEVIE', was manoeuvered with its trolley on to the main line.

We didn't linger after this picture... here is only a part of the PWay gang today, the rest was at Toddington and on the viaduct.

After a few moments 'STEVIE' came by on the main line, now under clear signals.

The combination rumbled by, on its way to Toddington to replace a trap point with plain rail.

That is the sort of thing STEVIE was bought for, a great job.

Here are a couple of stop frame videos that Walt took (with thanks)

Back home in the dry we found Paul working on the support for the safe from Broadway.

Paul was cutting a mitre for the plinth.

Note the coat rack above, the sort of thing you would find in a worker's cottage.

Outside in the rain John was busy on the side of the cutting (it is just starting here, on its way to the tunnel mouth) where he was digging out bramble roots and ivy. 

When the spring comes we intend to sow grass seed along here, stopping what used to be a jungle of brambles and nettles.

Dave spent the day along the side of the recently backfilled area around the raised drain. We are building a low retaining wall here of leftover Usk stones.

The one on the corner is a chunky dressed quoin, and we think this is one from the station building that was left over. It is more finely dressed than our material.

During the day we went to get a gate post and a receiver for the gate that we are putting in. This will separate the public around the Usk hut from the PWay yard.

Paul came to see how Dave was doing - OK, but tiring ! We had forgotten how heavy those stones are.

Once Paul had finished with the pedestal for the safe, he took an interest in the gate we are going to hang. It's a free gift, so we need to size it up for suitability. At 14ft long it is too big for our purposes, so we will trim it to 10ft, which is the more normal opening and suitable for the Telehandler to pass through. (if necessary)

We organised some testles and laid the gate on them, ready for work to begin.

After measuring it up, we took the gate post that we have and tested it against the gate for fit. Three inches out, dang ! Why aren't these things standard?

 

 

In the afternoon the day brightened, and Dave made good progress with the retaining wall.

It's almost finished now. It needs a bit more height on the left, then we will back fill against it to level out the two areas, and bring the slope down gradually.

The fence will start with the post planted on the corner earlier.

Here' a picture of the pedestal that Paul made, with the safe, polished up by Greg, on top of it.

Wellies and some coats on the hooks finish a working area picture.

The last shot is of something we recovered from the metal skip today.

Recognise the combo?

 

You'd be hard pushed to locate one of these cast iron castings on the left. They are very scarce - we have never seen one for sale. Now it's safe. Maybe one day we can replace the modern signal boxes that we have with GWR ones...

 

See you next week!

Topsoil all over.

Friday on steels.

Another dry day, good ! Another opportunity to undercoat the purlins.

But the ones we needed (in green primer) were out of reach.

 

So first thing Neal got the little Telehandler and juggled with the 9 items, until the ones we needed (at the back, underneath) were on top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We now cut to just after lunch (early departure of Yours Truly for family reasons) and the main pile had been shifted to the right, while the primered trusses were on trestles on the left, with an undercoat now applied. They are getting more and more protected, which is just as well, as winter and wet weather is approaching.

 

 

Still to do: four individual sides. Out of 18 that needed brushing clean, wiping with turps to remove drilling oil, and painting in undercoat. We're getting towards the end, phew.

Neal and John were in the shed, cutting and welding. A nice big working space has been opened up for us, good news. Or so we thought.

Ian finds a handy use for the 76077 boiler crinolines.

In fact the opened up area was designed for society stands, not us. We huddled back into our corner, and let 76077 put their stand up. All 3 of the canopy gang are shareholders, so we are all friends.

Where are you going to with those RSJs, Neal?

He's taking them down to the steam shed for trimming, and having their base plates welded on.

They are the uprights for the ring inside the P2 building.

 

 

Arrival of the uprights in the steam shed, and that nice new empty working area...

 

After lunch John and Neal started welding on the base plates. The other RSJ is in the process of being trimmed, behind.

 

On the way home we had to take a deviation via Laverton, as the A46 was choked up (once again) due to what appeared to be an oil spillage. That meant we were heading for the Cotswolds edge, and with the sun being at a good angle, we stopped to take an unusual wide angled shot of the train chugging up to Broadway, with 37 215 in tow.

35006 P&O at Laverton, with 37215 in tow.

If you zoom in, you can make out Broadway tower towards the left side of the horizon. It's very pretty up here.

It was here that Yours Truly helped to lay the first piece of extension track to Broadway, now 8 years ago.

Saturday on the PWay.

Autumn gala day, so limited possibilities on the track due to heavy train traffic. Yours Truly had a family day at home, but the gang pressed on with a trip to an occupation underbridge between the viaduct and Stanton yard, where ballast was spilling over the parapet.

 

Pictures by Bert Ferrule, with thanks.

 

 

Here are two shots of the gang on that underbridge, strengthened by a large cream cake, we heard. So that's why the ballast disappeared so quickly! The sleeper ends were freed, and ballast retention boards fitted.

They then moved on to the second site, half a mile south. This was just on the Toddington side of the viaduct.

... and afterwards.

Before....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here the job was to clear the four foot of surplus ballast.  Strange, isn't it, they are almost on top of the 15 arch viaduct (parapets in the background), but you'd never notice it. But without it we can't get to Broadway. Work is definitely starting on Monday 6th November, but the appeal is still short of even its minimum target of £350.000 (waterproofing only). The Trust is now going to have to dig into its reserves - for a moment even the funding of Broadway P2 was in doubt - unless more people respond to the appeal.

Here it is again:

https://www.gwrt.org.uk/donate/stanway-viaduct-appeal

Please see if you can help.

 

 

 

After  lunch the gang moved to the yard at Winchcombe to carry on tidying the site and making a clear space under and next to the mess coach, when it moves.

 

 

 

 

Of course we did once have a tidy yard, but every week something is taken away and the next week something else is added, so that after 5 years you have one big untidy yard.

Those manganese rails here are on offer, and the stop block behind them is due to go to Toddington.

Some of the rubber crossing pads can be used where at the moment we have some rather rough ballasted crossings, eg at Gotherington Skew, or at the top of the Working Lane approach. That should reduce the piles somewhat.

 

One more week, and then the track will be taken off the viaduct. Just minutes before that a short freight train will head for Broadway....

Tuesday on steels.

Sunshine and showers, three canopy gang members on site. And that was dry - phew! We can paint. Under the 'greenhouse' it is dry in principle, but then we get wind, and that can soak everything.

Two steamers on Tuesday, 2807 and 7903.

Here's 2807 just coming off shed, in the drizzle first thing on Tuesday morning. 115 years old this year...

 

 

 

Alan from the Toddington station staff offered us this vinyl poster, now superfluous after last weekend's successful gala.

We gave it to the Railway Archiving Trust shop (on the left), maybe someone would like it for a donation?

A rummage in the steam dept. skip also produced 3 puzzles, a thick railway book and some sort of rack, brand new (for shoes? CDs?) that we also gave to the RATs shop. They can turn this sort of stuff into cash for heritage projects.

 

Then it was time to get to work.

Neal brought the Telehandler, so that we could re-stack the 9 purlins in a way that allowed the 4 that still need painting to rest on top.

He also brought up the two uprights that had their tops and bottoms welded on. Here they are, next to the three imitation cast iron columns. This pile, when complete, will be sent off for galvanising.

Neal then picked up the other 4 uprights (out of 6 in total) and brought them down to the shed, where John will fit the remaining tops and bottoms.

 

 

The car park looked quite busy on Tuesday, esp for a shoulder season. Various schools have half term we ascertained, and also it's the 31st October - Halloween.

Our venerable 2-8-0 was in regular passenger service on Tuesday, and this fine shot was possible during a burst of sun in between showers. It sported a SPOOK SPECIAL headboard.

 

We spent most of the day cleaning and painting 4 sides of the last 4 purlins. At the end of the day they were done at last - now all have a minimum weather protection of one coat of primer, and another of undercoat.

 

The sun was failing rapidly as we put away the painting parephenalia.

Just as we were leaving Neal emerged across the car park with three of the other 4 uprights, also fitted with tops and bottoms. One left to do.

 

A last look in the shed, where other fabrication was going on.

This looks like a body shell for a small car... it's actually an ash pan, upside down. That's one hell of a puzzle that the guys have welded together.

Very impressive.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Bad news as soon as we set foot in the door - Paul had forgotten to buy the bacon rolls!

Paul, how could you !

He excused himself with a packet of very sweet jam roll, which we accepted grudgingly. We chewed over that (how ironic - we had a dentist's appointment coming later in the afternoon) and sipped our coffee.

Before tidying up.

With the hut itself now as good as complete, we are devoting our efforts to the landscaping around it, remembering that the site chosen for the rebuild of the Usk hut used to be a builder's tip.

The official unveiling of our big enamel plaque was offered to the company as a PR opportunity several months ago, but despite initial interest nothing has come of it. It is now too late to do anything this season, so although we were tempted to just go ahead and instal the enamel sign anyway, we decided to wait for next season and try again.

Today we continued with levelling the site around the tree with the topsoil that we shared with the drainage gang. It's great stuff.

Also, now that the pit for the deep level drain has had 4 extra rings and some soil added to it by the drainage gang, the new ground level has made the loose wall made of leftover Usk stone somewhat redundant, as both ground levels are at equal height here now.

 

 

Dave and John spent the whole day filling barrows with the new topsoil, which is very light and fluffy, and easy to shovel.

Paul enjoys carpentry, and spent the day making a pedestal for the safe, so that it can be admired more easily.

Here he is trying the T&G that he cut outside for size.

See also our heritage pattern Bakelite light switch.

 

The area outside the hut will gradually slope down to the foot of the tree, where there will be minimal fill.

The same gentle slope will also be evident on the roadway, once we get our spent ballast. This now looks like happening next year after all.

We saw the Telehandler at work in the yard, and when it had finished unloading the bogie flat we asked driver Martin if he would shift these half empty bags for us, which he willingly did. They are now behind the Telehandler. They are all almost empty, except the one with Cotswolds stone chippings, which we will take to Hayles at some point.

Later in the day the little pedestal was finished as far as the frame was concerned, and we decided on a test fitting with the safe.

It's door wouldn't open very far. We throught at first that we had built the pedestal frame too close to the rough stone wall, but it turned out that there was plenty of room, it was just the door that was stiff.

So we now need to oil the hinges. There is a hole on top, so we will try to pour some oil down that.

 

 

Then we had a visitor bearing a gift - Greg, fervent member of the Railway Archiving Trust (at Toddington, with its museum behind P2 on the station) - and it turned out to be a small cast iron hearth. This fits our fireplace, so we accepted the kind gift with gratitude.

Here is an overview of the recently filled in drain area, and the end of the Usk platform. Our plan is to make this one continuous slope, with a post and rail fence where the green grass is visible. That will mark the separation between Winchcombe station, and the PWay yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were surveying the site, Walt was practicing his skills with two new buckets that we have acquired. RRV 'STEVIE' didn't come with any buckets, so we couldn't dig with it.

Now we have a second hand 60 inch bucket, just right for loading ballast or moving volumes of other material.

 

 

Back to landscaping though.

After the 'before', and tidying the area.

We got quite a long way with spreading the topsoil, and after removal of the mostly empty dumpy bags you can see how close to the pile it has come.

This is the view from the hut itself. A big achievement for today.

The only annoying thing is that our seeding of the lighter strip by the goods van has not (yet?) taken, as it is now getting too late in the year. Hence we can't yet seed the latest, darker area of topsoil, but will have to wait until next season.

Now a last look. The whole area has been smoothed over with topsoil, with a gentle slope down to the tree.

A suggestion made was to put a circular bench around the tree. That could look quite attractive, and might be of interest to visitors to sit on and watch trains, but we have no budget for that.

And now for a bit of history (this is a heritage blog, after all):

 

 

The cause of the 1976 Winchcombe derailment.

On 25th August 1976 the 06.35 coal train from Toton yard in Nottinghamshire to Severn Tunnel Junction derailed on the approach to Winchcombe as it crossed Chicken Curve. The freight train was headed by Peak class 45 076. 22 hopper wagons came off the rails and emptied their contents all over the approach to the station site. The chaos of twisted rails and wagons on their sides took more than a week to clear up.

 

Thanks to Greg Wigg's fascinating interview with former Bearley signalman Andrew Whitehead, we now have an eye witness (or nearly) account of what happened on that fateful day for our line:

Greg: Andrew Whitehead was a signalman at Bearley Junction on the day that the crash happened, and I’m just going to ask him now what happened on that fateful day.

Andrew: I was on duty doing the six in the morning to two in the afternoon shift. We had a freight train which was a regular thing come past our signal box at Bearley. It was the hot summer of ‘76 and right in the middle of the train was a big hopper wagon and all the wheels had got huge flats on the tyres and it was making one hell of a noise. But because we didn’t want it on our patch because the Midland Region of British Railways finished just beyond Stratford and then it went on to the Western Region we decided to - all the men in the box - decided to let it go. So it carried on, and it carried on until it got to Winchcombe. But by that time the ground had become that dried out that much with no rain or anything that the big embankment at Winchcombe here had moved. And as this bad wagon came round it rode up on top of the rail for about 50 yards, kept on the rail by the tension of the train which had a class 45 on the front and then came off. And then it gone after that to roll up like chestnut fencing the track into a big heap, until it got to such a state that everything came off. The guard jumped into the brambles by the big road bridge. They had to extricate him, you couldn’t see him apparently at all. When we came down here, that’s a colleague signalman and myself in the afternoon to have a look we got to the goods, the gates by the goods side here at Winchcombe because there was no passengers, no station, nothing, no buildings, and the police were on the gates because of this very valuable anthracite, and they waved us straight in thinking we were officials and we had a good look and we walked down to where it came off and we could see the track curved round then it went straight on the curve, then it curved again, and you could see a white mark on top of the rail where this wagon had rode until it just rolled the fencing up. The driver didn’t stop until he got well beyond, nearly to the bridge. Because as you probably realise a class 45 is nearly 4000 horsepower and he didn’t feel any particular jerk until it was a heck of a mess behind him. He stopped, tried to find the guard I believe, couldn’t find him, so he walked from here to Cheltenham Malvern Road, which is about 7 miles. He went up the steps and said to the signalman I think we’ve got a little bit of a problem at Winchcombe. That’s my recollections of this accident. (Foremarke Hall passes by) and it took them about, I believe, about a week to clear it up with a mechanical shovel. The line never really reopened ever again. They relaid the up line, this line, but decided it wasn’t worth pursuing. The shame is the track was in bad condition anyway and they were going to join Toddington box with Gloucester power box because the trunking, the concrete troughing, was already up the side, but that never happened. That was the end of the line.

 

There are very few photographs of this accident. It happened on a line without regular passenger services, with a duplicate line not far away. No one was hurt.

The picture below is what we could find, and the sources as far as known are given:

 

Source: Cornishman, Ron Bryant.

 

 

After one wagon derailed (the one with the wheel flats, as described by Andrew Whitehead) it formed an obstacle, and the rest of the train piled up behind it, shedding its load of coal. 

The front of the train was unaffected.

Source: Cornishman, Ron Bryant.

This photograph locates the site of the derailment very clearly. Destabilised by the slip on the curve, the wagons piled up just at the entrance to the yard. Today the carriage sidings are on the right, and the EE and PWay sidings on the left.

Note that both sets of rails are shiny and were clearly in use, with evidence of recent reballasting.

Source: RAT Railway Archiving Trust GWR0025

 

 

 

Empty coal wagons, on the down side. 

No more evidence of coal here, miraculously cleared up by local residents.

 

 

 

Source: RAT Railway Archiving Trust GWR0376

 

 

 

A view looking south towards the station some days later, evidenced by rust on the rails.

Some coal wagons have been lifted up right, or even placed back on the rails.

By this time the goods shed and weighbridge were the only remaining buildings on the site.

 

Source: RAT Railway Archiving Trust GWR0023

 

 

 

 

 

Twisted rails were cleared to one side.

This view is looking north, and over the site of the pottery below, with the pole route crossing the valley on the lower level.

 

Copyright: Paul Shannon.

Another later shot with rusty rails. Apologies to Paul Shannon for the use of the picture, but we don't know how to contact him. On the right is the pile of discarded track remains seen in the picture above. Next to it is track with a dark patch, which would be the reinstatement of the up line mentioned by Andrew. The down line in the foreground still has a twisted section, and while the wagons have been put to one side, upright, they still await removal. New cable troughing is also visible in the foreground, as mentioned by Andrew. Track panels with new sleepers await installation.

A minor detail of interest to volunteers today is the colour of the toilet block on the far side of the goods shed. It used to be brick coloured! (now white)