Another window at Broadway.

Thursday at Broadway.

Another dry day (after fierce rainstorms the previous night) so we hit the site, with Neal doing a day at Toddington. He reports that all 4 trusses have now been rivetted. But they do still need painting, to protect them from the rain - they are currently exposed to the weather.

John resumed his position at the rear of the building. The wall that is rising there is quite considerable, and there are no windows along it. We will count the number of stretchers along it one day, multiply by the height, and that will give us the number of bricks on the rear wall.

 

 

 

You can see here from the change in the colour of the mortar (from dry to still damp) where John has been working recently. 

The P1 building is now almost completely obscured by the rear wall.

 

 

The two locos out on Thursday were 7903 and here, 3850. The sun is now getting stronger and the days longer, so soft shots in the setting sun are now out of the question, unless we run to about 8pm.

 

This inside shot shows that the second half of the wall is a bit below the 20 courses of the first half, but is catching up fast. John has just covered the day's work with hessian.

A kind blog reader has given us a (fairly scarce) original GWR brick. We will pass this on to the RATs museum for display.

Saturday, Siding 2 with the gang.

Seven of us on Saturday, only slightly better than the previous Saturday. Grandchildren seem to be impacting us over the holidays.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the opening shot, with three panels laid, and quite a stretch dug out by the guys on Wednesday. 

Not much ballast evident in the foreground, just a lot of slagstone and general rubbish in between the sleepers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before starting we had to wait for the two locos off shed, and the first service train to pass, before occupying  the siding 1 road.

 

 Here is the first train south, headed by lovely and black 3850.

 

 

 

 

Next, 7903 manoeuvered around its train, and passed by Jim, Tony and Sam,  contemplating the scenery before starting work. 

Finally all trains had gone, and we could get to work.

 

 

This time we brought a long rope, and instead of guessing as per last week we were able to lay the sleepers exactly in a straight line.

 

Dave is just verifying the distance from siding 1. The bed had already been beautifully dug out on Wednesday, and the depth was perfect.

 

Then we started laying sleepers, one by one. This was quite slow - on the Broadway extension we laid them 4 at a time. Luckily there is no real hurry to finish this job.

A nice part of the Cotswolds scenery was Stanway fountain, which fizzed into life on Saturday morning for about an hour. It's that white triangle behind Sam.

 

 

 

 

As the trackbed is a bit rough here - lots of large slag stones stick out - Nick gave the bed a good going over with the rake to make it level. We can't afford to have a sleeper stick out above the others, they are almost impossible to lower (but you can raise them of course)

Nick is well known for his love of the rake. Dave on the other hand is fond of the ballast fork. We all have our favourite tools.

By lunch time we had the first length in, and a second laid out.

 

In between we always pause to admire the passing trains - the great advantage of a job on the PWay. You see them from ground level, and up close.

Here 7903 is just about to pick up the token from the signalman, who is leaning out of the window of the box.

 

 

 

 

 

Down below, Sam and Tony are clipping up.

This is quite satisfying. It's a skilled job, and you get great satisfaction from seeing more of the track all tight and secure.

 

 

 

 

One rail was found to be bent... it must have gone in that way, back in the 1980s. We managed to persuade it back into the chairs. 'It's only a siding' was the chant of the day.

Once we had reached the end of the bed scraped out on Wednesday Bert Ferrule started scraping out a further length, and then ran the contents, bit by bit, into completed parts of the track.

 

 

 

 

This was the situation at the end of the day. We started a week ago by the Siphon in the distance, so have now done quite a bit. And it's quite nice and straight too. 

So we are pretty pleased with the job so far.

On the way back we checked out the shed, and found that Neal had been riveting again. This is the second of the 4 trusses for P2 that is undergoing final assembly, and exchanging bolts for rivets.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

 

 

 

Just Paul and Yours Truly today, as Dave was away on family business. Steady progress was nonetheless made, in increasingly hot weather. Inside the weighbridge hut on the other hand it was pleasantly cool, so to avoid the mid-day sun, we worked outside first, then inside. Here is Paul in the early morning sun, working on  the new door step. This is going to be built higher than before, as previously water used to run into the building over the top of the old one.

 

 

 

In this picture Paul has laid out the bricks for the new door step. A pile of mortar waits by his side, ready to be used to bed them down.

 

 

 After half an hour the new door step was ready. It just needs the mortar tidying up at the front. We still need to bed in an Aco drain across the front, which means taking up the concrete that was cast in front of the building.

 

 

 

 

We then made a start on the bed of the fireplace. The bricks had already been cut a week earlier, so all Paul had to do was mortar them in.

 

 

 

 

Here is the bed of the fireplace, completed. Again, the front just needs the mortar tidying up. One slate is still missing. It snapped in two last week when Dave put it in, much to his annoyance.

 

 

 

At the end of the day we had a pleasant chat with the chaps from C&M. The hot weather was certainly bringing out the convertibles.

 

Beforee we leave Winchcombe, here is a request. There is a bin store next to the weighbridge, and among the bins recently added to it is a new food waste bin.

 

 

The request is not to mix food waste with plastic. Plastic is not food. This example was found this morning, a plastic bag containing small plastic pots. We are requested by the council not to include packaging of any kind.

 

 

Short visit to Broadway for a catch-up.

At the end of a rather hot day we stopped off at Broadway to see how the build was going. Neal and John had been on site for three days this week already.

 

 

 

Great progress has been made on the southern end wall, where one of the small windows has been placed on its cill, and was then built around to lock it in. This area was the Gents before. Keeping the look (with lots of toilets over on P1, and a fresh connection to mains sewerage very expensive to make) we will fit this out as a workshop/store room for the maintenance gang.

 

 

The rear was has also been built up to be the same height almost all the way along. Maybe time to fit the Thermalite blocks on the inside too?

 

 

To our surprise the next train that came in was headed by a class 37. We think this may be related to the lineside fire risk. It certainly made an interesting change.

 

 

 With the Growler running round we can also get a better view of the current height of the rear wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 PWay at Toddington today.

 

The first part of the siding relay is almost complete.

 

 

Today the gang did actually get to the end...

However, due to the heat and possibly slightly too wide gaps further down, the last two rails wouldn't go in, but only by 1/4 inch! So close... Maybe on Saturday, first thing, when the air is still cool.

Half of the gang today stripped the sleepers that came out. They are clearly no longer good for supporting trains, but we have no further use for them now.

 

 

The C&PRR Bubble Car was also spotted on the unloading road today. It was about to go home, and make way for the gala locos that are coming.

 

For Yours Truly, a native of Kent, the most exciting one is the South Eastern Railway 01, 31065. This regularly worked on the upper half of the K&ESR, and was involved with the demolition trains there. It so nearly came to the K&ESR, but currently resides on the Bluebell. 

 

What a lovely idea to invite such a venerable visitor, it was built in 1896! But Ashford locos were not built (according to the works plate), they were 'constructed' there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PWay hut build?

 

There's an idea floating about that the Usketeers could take on their next project, the recreation of an authentic sleeper built PWay hut. The likely location is an existing concrete block platform, just outside the Winchcombe end of Greet tunnel.

 

The design we would like to copy is therefore built of vertical sleepers, with a sloping roof and a brick chimney at the rear. However, we know of few photographs, let alone plans.

 

It's early days yet but to get the ball rolling, does anyone know of drawings for a sleeper built PWay hut, even for modelling? Or photographs? Message us via the contact form, top right of the blog.

A look over the fence - Fawley Hill.

We had the opportunity of booking an afternoon at Fawley Hill, with its famous standard gauge garden railway, and steepest incline in the country. It was established by Sir William McAlpine, and is currently open on a number of special days a year. You may visit, but on prior application for each day only, in order to regulate visitor numbers. There's an email address on their website to do this.

Fawley Hill is a bit special, as it's not a preserved railway, and does not pretend to represent any particular railway company or era. It is Sir William McAlpine's private estate, collection and fancy, and very charming it is too.

 

 

The approach is via a lengthy single track road. Luckily, most traffic seemed to be going in the same direction. You are deep in the countryside here.

The centre of the railway is half way down a hill, comprising station, pop up cafe, and a very large museum. Railway items come from every corner of the UK, with a Midland signal box at the centre.

 

 

 

This is the station. It is actually Somersham, transported here all the way from Cambridgeshire. The seats are a mixture of GER and GWR .

At the end is a 'tunnel' which also serves as a garage. Next to that is a GWR water column, with a swarm of bees beginning to settle on it as we watched, mug of tea in hand. The catering was basic, but very tasty.

 

 

 

From Somersham you can get on a train that takes you down the hill, in a Shark brake and a small 4  wheeler with a balcony on the leading end. It's very up close and personal. The level crossing has an American WigWag signal, which actually works, as do the signals, operated by the box.

You can watch it all from the footbridge. There's a nice picnic area nearby, but for those filming there was a distinct drawback - an ice cream van with its engine running, and an outside loudspeaker with music. It was our only negative note during the whole day.

 

Here is the train coming back up the hill.

The intention was to have a steam loco doing this, but the Fawley Hill owned one is under overhaul, and a temporary replacement hired in from Didcot was out of action on the day, with a technical issue. Traction on the day was therefore from a class 03 shunter. It managed just fine, except once when it was stopped on the level crossing, from where a renewed departure into the station was clearly difficult. It got there...

Note that the signal is now 'off'. 

Here is the top of the climb. Not the place to ask the 03 to stop, and start again... It's a 1 in 13 gradient!

From L to R: Cafe area, Somersham station, Engine shed, and the extensive museum on two levels.

Under the station canopy are these Sugg lights. We have a globe for one, but not the fixing ring (s?) for the glass. Any ideas where we can get one from? 

 

 

 

There's also a Road-railer landie. Happy days when we had ours...  it's now on the Paignton - Kingswear line, still going.

 

 

 

 

This is the view from the picnic area (with ice cream van music). The railway runs down the hill to the right, where it reverses at the bottom, to go down an extra bit of branch line. In your own garden ! The garden itself is usually closed to visitors, as it is full of deer and peacocks. A pond has been created in the centre, with a GWR pagoda at one end, presumably to hide equipment.

The arches in the background sport large letters LSWR, clearly some sort of rescue of a building being demolished, that Sir William spotted. On the top left is one of three main line carriages that are now static, but at least preserved.

Then there is a trip down the line:

Having come down the incline, the train passes a second signal box and stops to reverse on to the branch line. We await clearance from the shunt signal.

After proceeding forwards, we pass the bottom of the incline, in the middle of the park. You can see for yourself just how steep it is.

This is the train arriving at the very bottom of the 'garden', where there is a little halt called Inverernie. It's also the site of the PWay depot, with extra 'economy' sleepers and some more rail.

Progress back up the hill was steady, and not a real problem for the 03. A shame we couldn't hear a real steam engine trying it on.

 

We then checked out the extensive museum. On the ground floor there were several model railways, some of which could be operated by children.

We were green with jealousy at the sight of the several GWR upholstered benches that Sir William had accumulated. This is the sort that we would like to see in the P2 Broadway waiting room. Thanks to a blog reader, we have secured one - it's a start. At least we could photograph them up close to see how the oil cloth was fastened down on to the boards.

One of the volunteers here opined that Sir William's collection was probably the finest in the country, after that of the NRM. He really seemed to have everything. What impressed us the most was the very nostalgic collection of enamel advertising signs along the wall, with goods that we had often never heard of (Victorian raincoats, anyone?)

Take a look at this area for example, called the 'GWR Room' Do you have a GWR Room at home? Only locomotive name plates were missing, as probably too valuable to display openly. There was even a compound steam engine cylinder, and it was operational!

All in all, a very pleasing afternoon visit, with family. There's nothing like sitting on the terrace with a piece of cake, and watching it all happening before you.

 

Easter period - we keep going.

Thursday at Broadway.

No trains on Thursday! That was a surprise, and a bit of a disappointment, as it is always a pleasure to spend 20 minutes in the cafe after the first train has left. So it was vacuum flask coffee only, not  Cappuccino.

 

 

 

On Thursday John returned to the rear , where you see the first course of the day going up.

That was No. 16, with No.17 applied in the afternoon. 

Besides making mortar for John, and shuttling backwards and forwards with supplies of bricks, we also continued dealing with the large (but now substantially reduced) pile of broken bricks under the footbridge steps.

These broken bricks, mostly from the original waiting room but no longer useable, are reduced to rubble bit by bit. This rubble is then used around the building to improve the ground under foot. We will be grateful in winter, when the clay gets sticky again.

 

 

 

The other daily activity is the cutting of bricks into halves, for the make believe headers.

Thousands are needed. But we do 50 - 100 a day, and have so far kept pace with the laying of them.

Specials also need cutting. This is to make them fit around the doors and windows.

 

At the end of Thursday John had reached course 17 on this half of the back (the end is up to course 20).

It's starting to look quite enclosed in there.

 

Good Friday at Broadway.

There is no stopping the canopy gang, even on public holidays. For yours truly this will be an exceptional 6 day week on the railway. Is that what retirement is like? We only worked a 5 day week before... It must be because we enjoy working in a team that achieves something (this includes PWay and the Usketeers BTW). Maybe you would too? Come and find out during one of the Trust volunteer team events, which take place every month - https://www.gwrt.org.uk/volunteering/volunteer

Heavy rain was forecast by the Met Office, light rain in the afternoon by the BBC. Who was right? We thought we would make a cautious first mix, and then see. In the end we made three mixes, one more than normal, and no real rain ever came.

 

John continued along the back.

In the distance we heard the first train of the day coming, by the fact that it was blowing off.

It blew off past the goods shed, and into the station. 

It blew off at the end of the platform...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ... and carried on blowing off on the loop points.

 

 

Safety valves finally closed again, 3850 trundled past the P2 work site.

While John was laying courses 18 and 19 along the northern half of the back, Neal busied himself around the site, and we see him here with a laser level on the corner of the building.

This was, we ascertained, to check the height of the two columns that will be planted at the bottom of the staircase. (replacing the two temporary RSJs there at the moment.) 

At the end of a long Good Friday John had laid an exceptional three courses along half of the back, matching the 20 courses of the end. You can see the newer bricks by the damp mortar, which is darker.

Looking at the building - for that is what it now is - from the end, we can see quite a substantial wall on the right. This will be fitted with poster boards in due course. It will be the first thing you see when you come down the stairs.

Being Easter, the station was quite busy during the day. We took this picture to give you an idea of the crowd waiting for the incoming train. 

We couldn't help noticing this Mk.1 in red and cream, with its authentic BR 'Ferret & Dartboard' crest. Isn't it wonderful? It's beautifully restored, a real credit to our C&W department. First class too.

Saturday, out with the gang.

Just the six of us on Saturday - this number will have been impacted by grandparent duties. It was Easter Saturday, and the 'Easter Eggspress' was out and about.

Here it is, picking up the token from Toddington signal box, watched by an assistant.

 

 

With the section of track on siding 2 cleared on Wednesday, we were able to start digging out the bed, and relaying with the Didbrook economy sleepers.

It's great to have mechanical aids, but in the end it's Joe Soap (or here, Jim Soap) who has to finish off the excavation by hand.

You can't escape the shovels...

 

 

 

Getting ready for the relay were Leigh and Dave (in the Telehandler). They brought supplies of economy sleepers from the garden centre site down to the ash pit, from where they could be loaded on to the RRV trailer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Dave in the Telehandler, loading what he had previously brought down on to the RRV trailer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soon the first sleepers were being laid into the scraped out trackbed. (missing is a lengthy period of scraping, where we tried to work out if we had scraped deep enough)

 

 

 

 

 

 

While getting some more tools we deviated via the loco shed to see what was new:

Neal has bought himself a new (s/h) mag drill, after the other one was stolen from his workshop (sadly, together with a lot of other kit).

Over the last couple of days he has been happy trying it out on the 4 trusses for the Broadway waiting room.

 

 

 

 

 

Once the ends of each truss have been bent to the correct angle, the parts have to be drilled, bolted together, and eventually riveted in situ.

Once assembled on site, together with the purlins and fascia boards, they will be further rivetted all together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bit further along is a Great Western cab being made.

Is it for children to practice on, or is it for a locomotive being restored from a Barry wreck?

The green rings around the window cut out are originals, all that could be saved from the cab, after all its years at Barry and a hillside in Blaenavon.

 

 

 

Behind that is our own Bubble car. It's got a lovely coat of paint on it, but the interior still needs completing.

Working on it on Saturday was a man from C&W who specialises in Mk1 door locks. All the locks need revisiting. Too loose, or need a boot to open them. That won't do, but they are in experienced hands.

When will it be ready then? Some time in the autumn, was his unofficial opinion.

 

 

 

Then back on site, where more scraping was going on. The first 8 sleepers were down, but after that the ground seemed to rise. Or did it?

Unfortunately we do not have a laser level for this sort of thing, so it was done by eye.

 

 

 

Time for another shot of a departing train. Here it's 7903 Foremarke Hall, having just picked up the token for the next section to Winchcombe. It's a cautious departure, as the station limits section (max 10 mph) is quite long.

 

 

Finally we had a full length of sleepers in, although these rail lengths are shorter than usual for some reason. When they were laid back in the 1980s they came from all sorts of places, but mostly sidings, where they were already well worn.

We lifted the first pair of rails back in, always a satisfying moment.

Construction is better than destruction. 

In the background STEVIE is scraping out the next section.

At the end of the afternoon on Saturday we had completed the first length, and laid out half of the next, with the trackbed ready to receive the remainder for the second length.

 

By this time in the afternoon it was the turn of the daily diesel locomotive to take the train south.

It's a nice human moment to see the signalman handing the token to the driver, with a second person in the box looking on.

 

Tuesday, back at Broadway.

An additional day of brick laying, with just the two of us on site.

 

John was laying on the second half of the rear. He put down two courses, but has not yet reached the height (20 courses) of the northern half.

Keep plugging away, John !

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

 A full complement, plus visitor/supporter Mike.

 

 

 

Most of the day was spent fitting the slates to the skirting board level, and then around the inside of the fireplace, which also had symptoms of damp - possibly from above, through the open chimney.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went around the bottom of the fireplace, before doing the rear and sides. 

This shot shows pretty much how far we got. Just the sides still to do, then we can mortar in the bricks that will form the bottom (stacked on the right). At the same time we can do the doorstep.

Dave and Paul made their lunch extra delicious, by toasting their sandwiches. The verdict was - very tasty, but too hot to eat.

Well, you only had to wait a bit !

Two steamers were out today, 7903 and 3850. This is the 2-8-0, just about to exchange tokens at Winchcombe.

We also rescued an enamel sign from the old shed being demolished. We heard that the old Building & Services shed was actually put up by the builder Cook, who used to occupy the yard before we sold him a parcel of land on the forecourt, on which he then built his own offices. These we (much) later bought back again, and the building became our new HQ under the name Churchward House.

In the picture is visitor Mike, admiring one of the trusses for Broadway, now complete and fully rivetted. Well done, Neal! (and friends)

 

PWay on Wednesday.

These pictures were taken by Walt and Paul, so thank you both.

 

 

 

The gang was in two halves today. One was sorting out sleepers in the garden centre yard, and loading them, the other was busy extending the relay along siding 2.

Here is a trailer filled with economy sleepers, ready to be trundled down siding 1, and the rail head.

The rail head was where we left off on Saturday, with 1 1/2 panels laid. During the day a further 3 panels were laid in, and the excavated trackbed considerably extended.

Of course work had to stop when trains came by. The RRV would drop its jib as a sign of submission...

 

With the train out of the way, work could resume - digging out in the background, and filling in the old ballast again in the foreground.

STEVIE (operated by Walt) had quite a sucessful day. The RRV not only dropped in all the sleepers and rails for 3 panels, but also dug out a large part of the formation, almost back up to the goods shed. This is where the panels that we relaid, together with the new stop block, stopped last time.

Based on the experience from Saturday a few adjustments were made to the MO, and  one of these was how to test the correct depth of the trackbed. Here a short piece of concrete sleeper is being used to simulate a sleeper in place.

Near the end of the day the green Growler came by on the main running line, ready to take up position at the rear of the up train.

Over in the old garden centre the other half of the team was dealing with the dismantling and sorting of the worn out wooden sleepers that we lifted out. They also helped the Telehandler load itself with supplies of economy sleepers, which it took down to the ash pit for loading on to the RRV trailer. It was all go.

 

Finally, a quick peep into Andy's car boot, to show more supplies of rail ends that we sell. It is amazing how popular these are, they are still selling well, and these sales (plus some generous donations that we have had) are making it possible to order several Milwaukee PWay tools. We can't wait to start using them. 

You can buy the rail ends from the Cotswolds Halt lobby. They generally come in door stopper or anvil sizes, and come waxed or painted.