Sunshine!

 

Thursday back at Broadway.

John and Neal have been busy earlier this week, and it was a very pleasing surprise to see the result of that. 

Three more cills have been put down, and surrounded by two courses of bricks.

 

 

 

 

Neal also put up a door and a window frame.

The window frame immediately had several courses of bricks built around it. 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday John moved to the store room end and built up the corner there, as well as two courses of bricks up to the southernmost window along the front.

This is slower work than along the back, where there is just a wall, and lots and lots of bricks.

Along the front we have many specials, and short stretches of wall, which means bricks need to be cut to size. 

Yours truly beefed up the stock of 'headers' again, by cutting 100 stretchers in half, giving 200 'headers'. That should keep them happy for a while.

This is a parting shot near the end of the day, showing the two door frames and one window put in. The RH corner also looks pretty beefy now.

 

 

Friday, just a couple of hours.

A last minute call to help with some unloading came on Thursday, help was needed for 'a couple of hours in the morning on Friday to unload some rail.'

The background is that after ultrasonic testing a few years back now we have 24 rails loaded on a wagon that can go for scrap, or be exchanged in a deal. We opted for the latter, as this is more cost effective, and uses the otherwise empty lorry coming down from the trader in Worksop.

 

 

So here is the load that came down. It has to be removed to make space.

There are 3 lengths of bullhead, two insulated joints, and 24 point timbers. These are expensive to buy new, and hardwood (which they were ) is hard to come by these days.

Everything is second hand of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other side we have the ELK loaded with our scrap rail.

Normally it would be just a simple lift across, but as shorter rails were laid on top, these had to be lifted to one side first, before we could build a new stack starting with the long ones on the lorry. 

 

 

 

 

 

Walt was at the controls of the RRV, Paul was organiser, and Yours Truly slinger.

 

P&O was on a Fire and Drive experience, which amongst other things gave the Costwolds Halt a useful piece of business first thing. 

Among the shorter pieces of rail to be lifted off was this 8ft length of bullhead. It was very different from the rest, and almost certainly served as a post to hold a cast iron 40/- notice. We don't know where it came from, and after closer examination we decided to keep it after all.

 This is what we found on it:

G W R     VIII  8? 

So clearly very old. We had never seen a piece of bullhead rail labelled with the initials of the company. It was considerably more lightweight than the bullhead rail on our operating line.

Once we had cleared the incoming lorry, and taken the smaller rails off the ELK, we were able to start moving our scrap rails across. This was done with the spreader beam, and two camlocks.

Once the lorry was full it left to head north. Then it was our turn and we loaded the incoming rails on to the ELK, after walking them across the car park.

Walt carrying one of the (extra long?) lengths of bullhead across the car park.

 

 In between times we were able to take a snapshot of a passing FOOTPLATE EXPERIENCE train.

 

 

The last thing we did was to move the 24 point timbers to a temporary site by the former garden centre.

Their final destination is Winchcombe PWay yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we packed up the tools a little forklift whizzed past.

It was Neal, with two lengths of tubing, for which he had a plan. They were formerly part of a roller shutter door, and had been discarded.

His plan is to turn these into modesty screen posts, as they are just the right diameter.

 

 

 

The fact of the matter is that we are a post short on P2 at Broadway. When P1 was being built we ordered 4 new posts to the correct pattern, two for P1 and two for P2. 

On the day it was decided to make a modesty screen across the cafe kitchen end using three posts, not the two that were there originally (across what was then a Gents). An extra post was taken from the 4 made, leaving one short for P2. A problem for someone else in the future, which is now.

So Neal will make two additional posts, and the two ex-roller shutter doors tubes are ideal for this.  Why two, when only one was 'taken'? Because the spacing between the posts was quite wide, and with modern softwood there is too much of a risk of the wooden panels warping, so we've gone for an extra post outside the store room on P2. Luckily we were also able to have two new cast iron finials made a while back (part of the order of two for Winchcombe) so we are OK on that score.

Saturday, out with the gang.

Ten of us on Saturday, quite a good turnout. A bright sun, but an icy wind, which was quite uncomfortable whenever the sun was absent.

 

 

First thing we were expecting a visit from an electric impact wrench manufacturer, so we hung around after loading the tools.

To our surprise it was a no-show, so after an hour of hanging around we set off for our target site, Manor Lane between Gotherington and Bishops Cleeve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we were greeted by P&O, with steam on, reversing past us on its way to Gotherington loop.

It was sunny, but quite windy, as you can see from the plume of steam, blowing sideways.

 

 

 

 

We started our job at mile post 16 (from Honeybourne). With trains crossing at Winchcombe, we had a bit under half an hour to get going.

The job was to pack with the Robels the 18 joints welded into 120ft lengths a couple of days earlier. These joints used to be dipped ones, and there would still be a memory of the dip in the ballast, unless packed.

 

 

 

 

Here is such a joint, recently welded and then ground flat.

Behind the team is the Vale of Evesham.

 

 

 

 

As expected the next train came down past us, after crossing P&O at Winchcombe.

As the season has only just started we have a BLUE timetable, i.e. one steam, one diesel. This time we saw the hired in bubble car coming past us.

Behind it you can see a spinney of trees that was recently planted, as part of the plan to make the railway greener. At this time of day the hump makes a great place to photograph southbound trains, but as track workers we are advised not to 'split the gang' by standing up there alone. Hence the picture from the shadow side.

 

After packing several joints it was already lunch time (due to the late start) and we chewed our sandwiches 'al fresco' from any convenient perch.

Jim and Dave contemplate the last fields remaining between Bishops Cleeve and Gotherington. Will they be filled with houses too? 

On the wing wall of a nearby underbridge we found empty energy cans, a TNT Nuclear Caffeine shot bottle, a Nicotine supplement folder warning that the product was 'highly additctive', and the wrapper for a box of anti depressant/OCD pills. What kind of people could be frequenting our trackbed?

After the bubble car came back from Cheltenham it was the turn of P&O, now facing south. The sunny intervals became scarcer, leaving just the icy wind.

The welders earlier in the week did 18 joints, but two welds unexpectedly failed. We hadn't seen that before.

Here you can see that the far rail has two welds L and R, indicating that a short piece has had to be inserted.

The short piece that was cut out had one of the failures on it.

We think that this was caused by the hot melt escaping from its packing around the mould.

All repaired now, but it was a tight thing, with the first commercial train later the same week!

The packing around the moulds of the Thermite weld is done with a chemical bond called luting paste.

We were disappointed to find no fewer than 9 tubes of the stuff discarded down the embankment. We picked these all up, together with quite a lot of what might be called 'picnic litter' which may or may not have come from the same source. All in all we picked up about 2 cu ft of the stuff, which all went in our bin back at Winchcombe.

 

It might be spring now, but don't tell us that gloves grow on trees!

These also went in the bin at Winchcombe. 

Due to our rather late start we were about an hour short in our day, and didn't manage to finish off packing the last of the newly welded joints.

We saw the bubble car come by once more, and must admit that it has something about it. It was, once again, quite well filled.

 

We packed up our tools and headed to the Coffeepot, just in time before it closed at 4pm. That's always a good occasion for a wind down and some team bonding.

 

 

Monday at Broadway.

 A hot day, most of which was spent on the road.

 

 

 

To start with we gave John a mix, and he spent half a day on the southern, platform side of the building, where he put two courses on. He was off for the afternoon, but we'll be back on Tuesday for a full day.

 

We then fetched the truck with the tail lift from Winchcombe and took it to Broadway. There we loaded it with almost a full deck of items that are surplus to requirements on the site. In the fullness of time we need to remove from Broadway everything that is not associated with the station as such, once it is fully built. Then we can claim it as a representation of the 1904 era that we have chosen - the 'living museum' that we say that we are.

The truck was loaded with surplus material, scrap, and items that could be sold for cash.

The first stop was Toddington, where we dropped off the scrap.

A quick look in the loco shed found Neal and Ian bending angles, one of the last fabrication jobs left on the canopy roof structure. 

This was the back of the truck, after removal of the scrap iron. (except the wheel-less wheelbarrow).

The next stop was the RATs sales shed.

Here we dropped off a lineside telephone, an oil lamp, a lightweight sack truck, and a set of scales (on wheels).

These are all for sale, so if interested, visit the RATs shop at Toddington.

The trip then ended at Winchcombe, where we dropped off some concrete troughs and two Heras fencing gates.

Job done! Broadway now looks a bit neater.

Tuesday at Broadway.

It's going to be sunny all week, so we are making hay while we can. A half day's brick laying on Monday, all day on Tuesday, and another day pencilled in for Wednesday. And now the trains are running again too, which makes things a bit a bit more interesting.

While the sun is still low, the first train of the morning sneaks in at 10.30. It's the C&PRR's bubble car, which is on hire for a short period with us.

John has a full day today, which he is spending on the corner of the building here. As you can see he is filling in between towers on the corner, and up against the door frame / stanchion here.

 

 

After the first train of the day has left we usually visit the cafe, which is quiet then.

While some of our fellow PWayers are on a jolly across sunny Scotland, we thought: Life ain't so bad down south here either. 

The Broadway cafe now has magazines to read, over your Cappuccino and a piece of cake.

 

 

 

John carried on laying bricks, slowly but steadily. He's now on courses 13 and 14 on this corner, about the same as along the back.

 

 

 

Only the rest of the front is lower now, so no doubt we will soon see the rest of  the window cills bedded down, so that he can build around them.

Neal and John will be back on Wednesday.

 

 

 

The last DMU service of the day brought in the early departures from Broadway in the morning, and then all was quiet again.

We were amused by the destination blind: ''BARKING''

Well, we guess it helps if you work around here....

 

 

Wednesday on the Weighbridge Hut.

Another bright and sunny day, it really lifts the spirits.

 

 

 

 

Dave is feeling somewhat better now, but can't return to work yet, so it's still just the two of us on the weighbridge. 

Paul bought kiln dried sand and a tin of Cementone black to fill the cracks between the bricks in the new floor. 

Here he, is mixing one with the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was a case of brushing the mixture back and forth across the floor.

Note how dry the bricks are now. It could be the weather of course, we will know for sure next winter, when the outside will be damp again. 

While we have now damp proofed the floor, the issue of damp coming through the walls remains. The building as put up (we think) without a damp course, but in any case the outside ground level has been raised all round, so any damp course, if ever included, would now be superceded by the higher ground level.

What we are going to do next is a kind of skirting in slate, with a layer of DPM behind it. The most obvious damp is visible in the bottom two courses.

Here Paul is tring out one slate, to see how that would look. We'll fasten the slates to the wall with brass roundheaded screws. Note how the colour of the floor has changed, due to the Cementone in the mix.

 

 

 

We still have the fireplace to lay, and a stoep to build. But beyond that, we'd like to replace the bottom two courses of reds around the front. They have badly spalled, again because of higher water levels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pete tipped us off that there is a small pile of original reds in the yard, so we went on a foraging mission, and brought these back. They are indeed from the same source as the original station bricks, coming from Redbank in Measham. (Leics) 

 

It was really busy in the station today, the season is back with a vengeance. Every possible parking place was taken, and then came two coaches! It was a miracle that they managed to turn around, having to go into the back yard to do so.

It was very atmospheric on the platform, as the big lumbering Pacific slowly drew its long train around the curve and up towards the tunnel.

 

 

 

Here's a little puzzle for you:

What do you think caused these chips taken out of the tender paintwork?

 

 

 

 

 

 

And another puzzle:

After C&M moved to Churchward house, their old workshop is being taken down at the moment.

In the back this cast iron 40/- gate notice was found.

Can anyone say any more about it? Which railway company is it from? We have not seen one like it. Subject to C&M agreement, we might like to sell it.

 

 

 

 

In the C&W shed more of the traditional 'Ferret & Dartboard' logos are being applied, but there seems to be a shortage of funds to buy the necessary transfers....

 

 

 

 

 Meanwhile, out in the car park....

 

 

A fabulous Bentley. The owner was happy to pause for us. It looks like a 'Blower Bentley' but the attachment on the front is fake, as the real blower was not very reliable. The rest of it was absolutely immaculate, it had just come out of a full restoration.

 

 

A look over the fence - Isles of Scilly Railway.

During a short break we had the opportunity of visiting the Isles of Scilly. We thought there were no railways here, but the locals were only too keen to prove this tourist wrong. 

 

 

 

It was clearly a very early railway, as these stone blocks near the harbour on the main island of St. Mary's show. Of course there are no trains today, but if you looked carefully, what the locals said was true, there were signs everywhere.

The many islands of the Scillies were once all connected, and even today the water is low enough when the tide is out for trains to cross from one island to another, on rails just below water level.

 

On St. Mary's, here is how the trains once entered the bay between St. Mary's and the nearby island of Tresco. It's just a short run, something like the trip to St. Michael's Mount.

 

Here is the view from the top of the ramp. The proximity of the other islands is clear to see, it's not far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the top of the ramp there was a turnout to a short stub, where passengers could board.

Some fixings still remain in the cobbles. 

 

 

This was the spot where the 'frog' or centre of the turnout was located.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind the camera was was the former engine shed, now surrounded by yachting paraphenalia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a fairly robust structure, and it needed to be, with the winter storms here.

The original doors are still in place.

 

 

 

 

 Further inland was the carriage shed, still quite intact.

The scenery here is stunning, but everything is low, and close to the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further inland there were other signs of a former small railway network, although still standard gauge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A level crossing lies abandoned in a spinney on St. Mary's.

 

 

This third class carriage is now almost unrecognisable, seemingly converted to a tool shed on the edge of a field on St. Mary's.

The most amazing item was this well built stone tunnel vent. The local islanders explained that Brunel, having reached Penzance - and with the experience of building a tunnel under the Thames in London -  considered using the already existing tin mine tunnels going out to sea as a starting off point for a connection to the nearby Scilly Isles. How much safer and more comfortable this would have been than today's boat journey, which was extremely bouncy!

On Tresco this trackbed ran away from the shore opposite St Mary's, and into the dunes. 

Does anyone have a map of the system?