Sunny at last

Saturday, out with the gang.

Fine weather at last, and a fine gang.

But only a small job to do, pending the start of the siding 2 relay at Toddington This was to adjust some sleeper spacings by the Toddington south headshunt.

 

 

Moving sleepers around means digging. Luckily we had a strong gang on Saturday, so the job fell on many shoulders.

Either there was a sleeper missing in the length, or else some sleepers were not exactly at right angles to the rails.

Both issues meant digging out.

 

 

 

 

Once a sleeper was free of ballast, and with the help of a pan jack, we were able to lever it this way and that, to get it to the right position.

Then back fill, and Robel. 

 

The weather was splendid, full sun all day, albeit from a frosty start.

Saturday was also the first day of the 2025 season, so trains were running again, and this time with the Bubble Car hired in.

Here it is, pulling out of Toddington. When it reached the end of the 10mph speed limit it began to smoke quite a lot as it accelerated. Maybe it is not used to running on a longer line? We'll soon show it how.

We also noted that it was well filled. Some thought that it was too small (the role having been filled by a 3 car unit before) but we think it was the novelty factor that provided all the extra customers. You have to keep renewing your offering, after all.

The next train out of Toddington was hauled by an old friend, Foremarke Hall. Even though the regulator was only partially opened, it provided a fine trail of steam, thanks to the cold atmosphere on Saturday.

We moved three sleepers further apart, and inserted a fourth one.

Our valiant track walkers also found some sleepers that were not entirely square on, so we dug out one side of them, and pushed them along a bit.

Not very important stuff, but on the other hand, it does show that there are no emergencies on our track, if we are drilling down to this level of detail. 

 

Following an early 2 o'clock finish, we treated ourselves to a rare ride on the train, just to see what our track felt like from on board.

Of course we all congratulated each other. Had to! But the ride, especially at Didbrook, was exceptionally smooth.

Why won't it go round?

 

 

 

After tea in the Coffepot - a much missed opportunity during the winter months of closure - we did a bit of housekeeping.

Dave and Nick changed a wheel on the Ranger. It's had two punctures recently, and we prefer to keep the same group of 4 tyres on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also unloaded 6 cast iron chairs so kindly given to us by the SVR. (see below)

They even had 'GWSR' chalked on them, so that we could find them easily, next to the boiler shop at Bridgnorth.

It's a nice contact between our two PWay gangs. 

Hopefully we can reciprocate with something soon. 

 

 

A ballast regulator is stabled with us, but hasn't run in several years. It would be useful clearing the four foot at Didbrook.

Would it start?

 

Paul took this video. If your vehicle won't start due to a flat battery, use jumper cables from another vehicle....

 

 

 

Sunday at Broadway.

 The class 121 Bubble Car came to a sunny Broadway last Sunday.

 

As it is rather shorter than the former 3 car set, the stopping place along the platform varied a bit. Here it is quite far down.

 The centre of it was right opposite the main entrance, by the footbridge steps.

 

 At the end of the afternoon it stopped nearer the southern end of the platform.

https://youtu.be/ozqPrXRa_dM

We recorded a short clip of it leaving, without the rasping prattle that our 3 car set used to make, as it accelerated.

Note that our Bubble Car is slightly different - it's a class 122. The most obvious difference is the size of the destination board on the front. Experts will no doubt know more.....

 

 

Wednesday, two Usketeers.

Just two of us, as Dave is on holiday. In Plymouth. Yes, some people go there, rather than Fuerteventura.

It was a really pleasant day, the first one with above freezing temperatures in the morning for a long time. And we really enjoyed ourselves too. 

 

 

 

We're on floor laying at the moment. One inside, laying; the other outside, cleaning bricks.

Clean bricks are stacked by the door, from where they disappear at regular intervals. Inside, the new floor gets bigger and bigger.

 

 

 

 

 

Because the floor that we found was partly made of a big ugly concrete patch we are a bit short of bricks for the full relay. 

Extra bricks come from a number of pallets in the yard. These come from Verney Junction, where the builders of the new East-West line gave us a few precious hours to recover as many platform bricks as we could. We got maybe 2000 of them. We are using the Brindles, leaving any engineering blues for a future platform build.

Paul, while laying the brick floor at a higher level than before, is now nearing the door. The bottom now needs trimming, so that it will clear the new level of the floor.

Here he is with the circular saw. We drew this across the bottom, along a pencilled line.

This is the bit we cut off. It turned out to have some woodworm along the bottom, so that was just as well. The bottom of the door will get a new rain board, and a reinforcement along the back, to keep it robust. We also gave the exposed edge along the bottom some wood treatment, just in case.

 

 

 

 

 

The door looks a bit short now...

The outside will be built up, to prevent rainwater from running in, as it did in the past. An Aco drain will be laid across the front too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside, we did a test for the layout of the floor in the fireplace.

Also higher than before. For some reason the old fireplace seemed particularly damp. Probably due to the higher ground level now in place outside. 

Lunch was taken al fresco, the first time this year. We also had a chinwag with Mike in the PWay mess coach, and were offered tea and cupcakes. Very civilised. It made for such a pleasant morning. The social side is a big reason for volunteering on the railway.

This shows the floor nearing the doorway, at the end of Wednesday. We still have to deal with the fireplace, and the left hand corner, behind the balance mechanism, under the orange jacket.

We've laid about 3/4 of the floor now. There are 5 or 6 rows to go, with 10 bricks in each, so that's another two barrow loads of Brindles to fetch from the yard. A job for next week. It was quite a tiring push, uphill across the station forecourt to the weighbridge!

Talking of station forecourt, there was some activity around the station canopy today.

This drew the attention of some passers by.

What seems to be holding up the reinstatement, along its full length, of the Winchcombe station canopy is the need to drill some holes into the new bracket castings, for the threaded bar that supports them.  They are curved, and that's not a job that our facilities are up to, it seems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today a small gang had a tower scaffold out, and was painting the woodwork on one end.

The woodwork for the other (extended) end is being cleaned and repaired in the C&M workshop at the moment. 

 

Under the canopy is a pavement, but it is less wide than the canopy reaches out. That means that the canopy can be hit by e.g. a coach parking close to the pavement, or a lorry doing a three point turn. This has already happened once in the past, we learned. What to do? Murphy's law dictates that if it is possible, it will happen, eventually.

Maybe some canon type bollards along the front? 

PWay on Wednesday.

A few snapshots of the gang at work on Wednesday, by Paul.

 

 

 

 

 

The RRV STEVIE was busy with the gang at the Winchcombe end of the tunnel, and inside.

 Here it is, just entering the tunnel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our tunnel is particularly dark inside, as it's on a curve and for most of its length you can't see the end, or any daylight.

Here is STEVIE just approaching the Gretton end, and you can see how useful the RRV is, as it has a good set of lights.

 

 

Picture by Bob, with thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

Although Greet tunnel is generally dry inside, excepting some areas near the two ends, we do on occasion have to change a sleeper, as was done today.

At the moment we are only running at weekends, so mid-week is a good time to do this. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the sleepers changed were just outside the tunnel mouth at the Winchcombe end. The stretch behind the camera was fully relaid about 5 years ago, together with moving the southern station turnout up a coach length.

 

 

 

Then it was time to go home again. If you look carefully, you can sea black smudge just right of centre of the tunnel mouth - we are a steam railway, after all.

Wouldn't it be nice to reinstate the date stone on the parapet? The original (dated 1905?) was made of soft sandstone and fell out years ago. Same at the other end.

 

A look over the fence - Bridgnorth.

A sort of a business trip to the SVR last Friday, to pick up some cast iron chairs for concrete sleepers that they were very kind to help us with.

While we were there we had to feed the inner man, so why not have a look around as well?

 

Because of the land slip near Sterns there were no running trains from Bridgnorth (but they do run from KMR) but the station was open to visit, in particular their wonderful pub the Railwayman's Arms. It was quite busy too, but unfortunately not enough for food, so we took their advice and headed for a Bridgnorth pub across the footbridge. Not without making a donation to their infrastructure fund, in lieu of patronage of the station pub.

 

 

 

In the yard we found Hagley Hall and another GWR loco, without cabsides; we think a Manor class.

Some of these, we heard, were giving cab rides on open days, something which was quite successful.

 

 

 

Of interest to us was the new refreshment room, a new build in some ways not unlike the new P2 waiting room we are building at Broadway. How had they solved certain problems, what ideas did they have? We were curious to find out.

We liked the cast iron gutters set into the walls, the type 2 (higher) lamp posts, and the 'Stafford Road' cast iron tables with benches outside. So much better than the pub type trestle tables that we use.

Less good we felt was the austere look of the blue bricks throughout, unrelieved by any reds. The corbels under the gutters were also very plain.

 

 

The refreshment room wasn't open, so we had to make do with a peep through the windows.

Nice floor tiles, fireplace, dado and picture rails. Picture rails in the cafe at at Broadway were refused as they 'gather dust', which is such a shame.

The lighting was of particular interest to us. We're going to have to think about this for the P2 building. We are aiming to recreate 1904, when there was no electric light.

 

 

 The new refreshment room also has new toilets to one side, and we certainly liked these.

The cubicles look very authentic, and have real spikes along the top, to hinder those who want to save spending a penny! The lighting is much more authentic than that at Broadway, where we were told that the ceiling lights had to be one of two modern options. Clearly not true.

After collecting the PWay items for which we came we spent a happy hour in Bridgnorth itself. It's a lovely town, with a footbridge over to it straight from the station.

Bridgnorth being on a promontory overlooking the Severn, there is a short but very steep cliff railway down to the bridge across the river to the lower town.

 

The ticket building at the top is very charming. The cabins on the railway look like 1950s buses, and indeed date from that period, when they replaced earlier ones from the end of the last century.

You'll see what we mean about the bus resemblance here:

 https://www.lodgecoaches.co.uk/copy-of-1962-bedford-sb-duple-super-vega

 

 ... where a 1948 model even has the same colours.

 

The railway used to be water powered, like the one at Lynton. However, unlike Lynton which took its water from a stream at the top end, the Bridgnorth one had to pump its water from the Severn and uphill in a cast iron pipe, which you can still see.

Today it is electrically powered, with a tram style controller that the 'driver' (as he was called in a maintenance notice) was happy to show us. 

Neal enjoys the view, but not for long.

This picture, taken from the bottom, shows the full extent of the track. The bus style aluminium body sits on a triangular frame, and is supported by 4 leaf springs, for a cushioned ride.

Originally water would be pumped into a tank under the uppermost car, until it was just too heavy for the lower one, and they changed places.

They are linked by a wire rope, which is wound by an electric motor today.

The SVR has a new car park behind the station, at the top of a steep hill. Motorhomes, please desist, says a notice. It's a one way circuit, so coming down sends you under the railway, with this lovely view of the station from the other side.

 

 

A Bubble Car arrives.

Saturday, out with the gang.

A good gang on Saturday, and one beefed up with a new recruit - Sam. Welcome to the gang, Sam!

What are we supposed to do with this then?

 

We had a bit of a one off job on Saturday, inserting two brand new insulated rails at Gotherington Skew, to replace a set of insulated fishplates that were giving alignment trouble.

 

Time is beginning to press, as live trains are due again in March, and there are race trains too. So this job had to be done in a day.

First thing to do was take off the existing insulated fishplates.

Fishplates off, the next thing was to cut a gap long enough for the two new rails, with a couple of extra cm for the welds - these new rails will be welded in.

Here is David on the disk cutter (once we had it started...) These two-strokes are so temperamental.

The rail came out in two halves, with the old joint in the middle.

A complication of the joint replacement was that the new joints, which are permanently glued and bolted to their rails - were designed for Pandrol clips, while this stretch has SHC clips. So two sleepers had to be removed, followed by the dreaded ballast digging for two new beds to be created.

Dave then went to get the two replacement sleepers off the Transit.

These have to be loaded on a previous day, while on the day we need to think of taking the right chains for both types of sleepers, the hook attachment for the Telehandler, wedges for moving the rail up or down, the list of critical items is quite long.

 

 

The two Pandrol sleepers were then lifted into the beds we had dug out.

The existing rail on the other side of the old fishplate then had to be cut to size.

Chris is doing the honours here. Standing stooped like that is very tiring after a while, so we took it in turns.

After final cutting to size, to make sure none of the joints were over a sleeper, the new rails were lifted in.

This picture shows why different, Pandrol fitted sleepers were required.

The factory fitted insulated fishplate has special cutouts underneath for such a clip to be fitted. 

Lunch was our first one taken al fresco in 2025. It was a lovely sunny day, and the bridge parapet is just the right height for sitting on. Coffee, with lemon muffins, went down particularly well.

 

 

After lunch we fitted the second rail, back filled the ballast, and spent some time on slewing jacks and bars getting the alignment just right. The welders who will finish this off need the rails to be just so. We don't want them to weld a 'threepenny bit ' curve here.

 

 

 Finally, the new sleepers we packed using our Robel hand held tampers.

Here is the final product, a nice, straight insertion. We are not just repairing track issues, we actually improve the track.

 

The operation also yielded a little side benefit - four perfect anvils, or door stoppers, that came off the brand new rail when we cut it to size.

Seize your opportunity, we don't have many that are so brand new. 

 

 

 

 

Finally, a little insight into the gang's daily life. For every outing, all our tools have to be taken out of storage, often 5ft up in the air, and humped on to a flatbed truck, and back again.

This item is always the heaviest: It's a sports bag, with a broken carrying handle, that is filled with sockets of all sorts and sizes. Most of these we never use, yet we carry the whole bag round dutifully.

David handed it to us on Saturday, with the comment: 'Here it is, the BAG of DOOM' !

Never a truer word. We staggered off.... 

Monday at Broadway.

Brick laying at last ! There is a small window between Monday and mid week, where the temperatrures are above 3 degrees for 24 hrs.

 

 

There were several pre-opening jobs to do at Broadway - trains start to run again this weekend.

The most important one was to find a storage place for the windows and glassware supplied by the joiners. In the first instance this had been put in the Ladies' toilet, but the Ladies will be back now and the stuff had to go somewhere else.

 

 

 

 

 

John came to lay bricks, the first possible day in, what? - three weeks? Just look at that sky, we could hardly believe our luck.

John was working on the corner here, and along the back. 

 

Neal was on site too. He set out to beef up a drain cover at the bottom of the drive with this new one here.

Neal cutting a shape for the new drain cover.

The ring and cover needed replacing in steel. The previous model was conceived for pedestrian traffic - it was on a footpath, after all - but who would have guessed that HGVs would use the station approach to do U turns in front of our overbridge, and reverse up onto the pavement? They even snapped a concrete kerbstone in half. 

This abuse of our (private!) driveway is one reason we have not yet put back the original GWR cast iron gate posts here, although we have an offer from a supporter for a replacement pair (the originals were dug out and re-erected at CRC).

 

 

 

 

Mid day found Neal using a Kango to remove the earlier concrete around the plastic riser.

The new steel ring is lying up against the fence here. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nearer the end of the day, and we find John pointing up his work. He laid a line of half bricks along half of the back, raised the corner, and started a tenth course from the middle.

Neal completed the drainage cover replacement. It's all in here, and packed in with concrete.

The ROAD CLOSED sign was just used to cover over the site, until the concrete has gone off.

The tamper arrives.

Now that the Didbrook second relay is complete and welded up,  the tamper can be hired in to do its work.

Pictures by Paul.

 

Next to its crew of two, there is always a representative of the PWay department on board. Just in case contact with the railway is needed, or local knowledge.

Last week it was Bert Ferrule, who is seen here waiting for Bob to do his preliminary inspections. 

 

 

 

The Didbrook section was tamped thoughout, and tested at 25mph. The result was - smooth as butter ! Nice.

Another PWay job done in the (short!) closed season, and on time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A bubble car arrives...

 

 
 

 

 

 

On Tuesday 'Bubble Car' DMU 55024 arrived at Toddington (by road, by road!).

This will no doubt plug the gap left by the sale of our 3 car DMU a few months ago, and prior to the entry into service of our own (slightly different) class 122 Bubble Car, No. 55003. It's a short term hire, we understand.

The origin of this unit is the Chinnor & Princes Risborough railway, who have two of these class 121 single DMUs.

Here it is, just a few minutes after unloading, in the Toddington loco yard. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something that we liked was the duck - it's from Aylesbury depot, after all!

 

What could we put on ours...? A doughnut springs to mind....

 

 

 

 

 

 Pictures with thanks to Chris Sturgeon.

 

 

 

 

 ... and a few more very recent pictures from Paul, taken only this afternoon:

 

Our black 2807 is also back, so we are all ready to start the new season. Just need to change that PADDINGTON destination board....

 

 

 

Tuesday, brick laying again.

 All three of us profiting from the crisp, clear weather on Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week is either wet, or too cold again, so more brick laying will have to wait until next week. 

An occasional visitor on Tuesday felt that we were making great progress, but to those on site seeing half a row a day laid the progress seems quite slow.

 

 

Neal made himself busy by building solid plank platforms along the back, so that John can work without having to stand in the sticky clay. 

At the same time Neal brought over a whole lot more bricks, finishing one of the packets (we have others...)

 

 

 

 

John was working around the south end and rear on Tuesday.

Neal is just bringing another barrowload of muck - John got through three of them, but there comes a point when you need to stop laying bricks, and get on with your pointing. 

At the end of the day John had finished the tenth row of reds, and was on the eleventh. This end of the rear is slightly in advance of the far end though.

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Just two of us today, as Dave is off for a couple of weeks. How the other half lives, eh?

The weather was attrocious to start with, making us sit in the weighbridge hut and looking at our watches. Will the rain stop soon? The forecasts had differing opinions on the subject.

 

Finally, after multiple coffees and biscuits, we could wait no longer. There's nothing for it, but to get your best rain gear on and stand outside, cleaning bricks.

These are from the top floor that we took out. Liquid cement seems to have been poured into the cracks, which all had to be chipped off before we could lay them again cleanly. We're going to use dried sand to lock the bricks in. 

 

 

We put the bricks that were ready by the door, while Paul, inside, levelled the sand and placed the bricks. 

He's making a lovely job of it. Plus, we want somewhere to sit. To start with, we were perched into a corner, but at the end of the day, it felt a lot roomier already.

 

 

 

 

We bought a third dumpy bag of sand, and barrowed some of that in as well. We're working towards the door, but before we get that far we need to trim off the bottom. A bit like the cream coloured door frame, which, in the corner, has been truncated by someone, and a brick substituted at the bottom. We're planning to come out at a level a little above the doorstep, to ensure that water can no longer flow in during heavy rain.

At the end of the day Paul had laid 50 or 60 bricks, and was indeed close to the door. Best to trim that while the weather is dry though, hopefully next week.

 

Winchcombe was really busy today. Vans were bringing in supplies for the start of the season (Saturday), all the carriages were being checked, and police with a bomb disposal van turned up - luckily just for an exercise.

 

On the footbridge the guys from Construction & Maintenance were fitting non slip treads down the P2 side. This meant drilling holes into the metal treads underneath, so that the non slip ones could be bolted down.

The chaps were inventive too. How do you drill into steel when the existing non slip surface prevents you from using a mag drill?

Answer: Weigh down the drill with a 56lb weight, and a beefy chap standing on top of it...

Worked a treat.

 

The up side was almost completed when we took this picture.

In the platforms are two of our rakes, being readied for the resumption of services.

Hope it's a good season, 2025! We've got Betton Grange residing with us this year, and the maroon Bubble Car for a couple of months.

Come and see them.

 

 

 

And finally...

 

A very kind supporter has offered us a GWR lamp post, complete with gas lit top. We do appreciate such offers, as we can certainly use more, genuine GWR lamp posts. There are several places around the railway where they can realistically be used. Remember that we started our railway with nothing, just a bare trackbed and 4 demolished stations. We're still on the lookout for another GWR upholstered bench, if you know of one.

We will pick the lamp post up next week, so the next blog issue will see a report, with all about it. 

Got a post in your garden that needs a good home in a GWR museum? Send us a note via the contact form, top right.