Saturday at Welland.
The GWRT had a stand there over the three day festival, and we volunteered for the Saturday, being one of three there.
Here we are, sheltering from the rays of the sun. The grass was tinder dry, and had been trampled by tens of thousands of people into a fine dust, which the wind blew into every crevice.
This was the view from the inside, a procession not only of people but of many, many half or quarter scale vehicles, including a mighty Foden with a lawnmower engine. That would make some people cry...
The purpose of the stand was to raise the GWSR's pofile, answer questions, and perhaps take one or two memberships, or even potential volunteers. You never know what might come up - one potential visitor came with news that a large ballast regulator was up for disposal, and that made a few hearts gallop in our PWay department.
Our stand was in a good location, not far from the entrance, so that almost everyone would pass by at some point. This was the view towards the main arena (one of several), with the fun fair in the background and a little light smoke drifting by. It gives you a good impression of just how many visitors attended the event, and this was just one of the three days.
Three volunteers manning the stand is just right. Two deal with the questions, while the third gets coffee and refreshments, and gets a chance to take a quick look at the goings on.
We managed a quick half hour, to scout out what food was on offer, and check out the arena, where the veteran tractor parade was taking place. Many of these looked like steam rollers, but with primitive combustion engines on the frames.
There was a large contingent of Field Marshalls, right opposite our stand.
This single German visitor, in a similar Lanz Bulldog (it has an extraordinary 10.3L single cylinder engine) hopped around the field with a large 'JUST MARRIED' sign on the back. Basically a tractor with hot bulb starting, there was a luxury model called the 'Eil-Bulldog' (Speed-Bulldog) which had upholstered seats and a convertible roof cover.
Of all the amzing agricultural contraptions that puffed around the field, this one was our favourite:
It's the American Rumley Oil Pull from La Porte, Indiana. The notice under the rather flamboyant name on the radiator says:
Guaranteed to burn all grades of kerosene ( Paraffin) under all conditions at all loads up to its rated Horse power.There were two; we caught its slightly larger brother on video here:
The engine layout is very strange, and it seems to be going along while pushing a large stove out in front of it. Puffs of smoke emerge from it periodically. The video captures the strange sound rather well, and you can see the driver pulling the lever (also in the picture above) which disengages the clutch, while the engine continues to huff and puff.
The arena had a regular parade and line up of different types of vehicles. In this picture it's steam; traction engines, rollers, and we can also see a Sentinel water carrier.
The site had several ice cream vans, which always had a small queue. Most popular was the 99 cone, but sadly not for the price promised by Count Binface. In general, prices at the different stands seemed higher than in a normal shop, which was surprising. We bought a can of coke from a food stall for £2 ; in the Broadway garage these are £1.15, and so marked on the can itself.
The steam wagon is also visible in the shot, as Burrell PRIDE OF THE WEST trundles past. Many engines had trailers, some for rides like this one, or with large, symbolic loads like giant tanks or diesel engines on them.
The other arena had some quite heavy stoff goung round it, raising a huge dust and smoke cloud, and many fascinated stares.
Sometimes it became hard to see through the gloom what was going on.....
This large J&H McLaren traction engine was hooked up to some sort of dynamo (off camera) which had a variable load, making the engine strain, with loud, fighting exhaust beats.
To one side was this huge Fowler ploughing engine. The mechanical setup was amazingly simple - a crankshaft behind the flywheel, with a shaft on two crown wheels bringing the power down to the big steel cable drum underneath. Two of these would pull multiple ploughs backwards and forwards across a field, much faster than a horse.
Another general view of the site, a flat bottomed valley between two rises, shows the enormous exhibitors' caravan camp. Car parking was of a similar size, i.e. pretty large. The event was clearly a big success.
Although with a three day event, including the funfair running in the dark hours, it could be tiring for some, who fell by the wayside.
At 4 o'clock the long awaited event for the Field Marshalls took place. Several dozen of these fired up at once (hand cranked, after a glowing fuse was inserted into the cylinder head) and slowly but noisily wound their way through the parked up fellows to the arena. After several circles they lined up in the middle, and, after a signal from the announcer, all opened their throttles at once. A tractor to remember...
The GWRT stand had a good day, and answered lots of questions. Not always about the railway. For some reason our little stand, green between two long exhibition tents, caused many people to ask us completely random things. We must have looked somehow official. No fewer than six wanted to know from us where the toilets were. One lady came to ask us for a taxi to Worcester. Good luck with that, in the middle of the exhibition fields. One chap demanded to know why the internet reception was so poor, as he had lost his son. Please handle, GWRT. Another wanted to know the location of the stand that serviced broken mobility scooters.
That said, we did also have a lot of requests for information about the GWSR. They're just not quite so memorable as the random ones. Several volunteers called in to say hello, and a number of vintage afficionados wanted to know why we had stopped having car, bus and motorcycle events. They clearly missed these.
The consumption of much food and drink during these hot days left a lot of waste. It's got to go somewhere. While the bins overflowed, looking on the positive side it was good to see the litter here, and not around the site, which was remarkably clean.
Monday at Toddington.
We had 4 Dogfish with left over material from the Bishops Cleeve landslip. Readers may recall that they were taken to Broadway, where Neal did his best with the hired in digger to empty them from above.
This left a couple of cubic yards in the bottom of each, and the Dogfish were taken back to Toddington for the rest to be extracted via the bottom shutes.
On Monday we did the third and fourth, the first two having been done a few days earlier.
There was also a diesel photo shoot out and about.
This took a little while to start (the platforms were blocked by two rakes) and in the meantime the photographers milled around the Dogfish and 03 yard shunter, which also qualified as a diesel.
An extra, free of charge !
The MO was rather crude. With the bottom doors open, Chris climbed inside and paddled the stuff down. It wasn't easy, the fill type was chosen as it was 'sticky' and stick it did. Copious use of the iron bar had to be made to get it to run, even though the stuff was dry as a bone.
Down below Neal and Yours Truly shoveled and scraped the stuff into the bucket of the coal loading Telehandler.
In amongst the material we found this vape - the second find in as many weeks. The other was left on a bench at Broadway.
Our first inclination was to throw it in the bin, but on checking with Google we learned that you can't do this - they start fires, hundreds of times a year. The only thing you can do is take it to a recognised recycling place, often a retailer where they are sold.
It took almost the whole day, with the three of us.
At the end the unloading road was covered in ballast, despite 8 or so bucket fulls taken away by Neal. As the little mini digger was on site, we swept the stuff into a pile, and Neal pushed it into the bucket.
With the hot weather, the shoveling and tramping was very tiring, but we got there - all the Dogfish are empty again - phew !
As the photo shoot special pulled out of Toddington just a few yards away, we had a sneaky shot of the Hymek. What a civilised sound it makes, not at all like the Growlers and Sulzers that we know on the GWSR.
Wednesday with the Usketeers.
Which reminds us - don't forget that the road bridge by Winchcombe station is closed ! The bridge deck is being replaced by Gloucestershire Highways. For a whole month (!) cables are being re-routed, prior to the actual bridge works next year.
More detail about the work can be read here:
https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/major-projects-list/geotechnical-and-structural/winchcombe-bridge/
On Wednesday morning all the road closure signs were up, and digging work had started immediately.
Looking at the depth of this access shaft, the BT cables must be pretty close to the deck of the bridge. Laying those cables years ago could explain why the deck is now in such a state that it needs replacing.
Prior to setting off for the lineside hut the Uksteers joined the main PWay gang (we are a sort of subdivision) for a cup of tea and a nibble. The purpose was to have a chat about possibly building a garage for the 'buggy' recently acquired. As we didn't know too much about it, we also wanted to see how big it was, and could it be lifted by 4 men?
This is it. It's got a Honda engine, and 4 seats. It was surprisingly heavy to lift, and for that purpose it was fitted with an eye for a lifting hook.
If this is to go in a garage at right angles to a siding, it would be difficult to turn by 90 degrees. It is also a bit longer than it seems, due to various bits sticking out, front and back.
The question of buggy hut, and if so where, were not really answered today. As our railway is one of the very few to be formerly double track, and with a haul road all the way along it, we can get anywhere we want by simple trip in a Ranger, or a Transit. No special 'tickets' or line blocks required.
So can we use it, or should we put it up for sale? No doubt you could always make us an offer...
Due to the drought we are running diesels only. Not too many passengers on board we noted, except for a party here and there. Thank heaven for coach parties!
Jules was with us today, but not Dave.
Jules applied a second coat of black to the hut, to make it really black, and hide the yellow numbers that sometimes shone through.
When sitting inside in the shade, we noticed a bit of light at the back here, so Paul fitted some spare lengths of timber. This will make sure no south westerly rain (our principal type) can blow in and rot the tops of the sleepers.
Jules painted those black too.
... and also the front, while Paul was sawing those strips of timber to length.
The second diesel loco out today was 26 043, here emerging from the tunnel.
We noticed that the photographer's special on Monday had paused here, to take shots with the new hut on it.
Result ! And this is why we built it.
Inside Paul was fixing the legs of the bench to the sleeper wall, and also a bit more forward, which was felt to be more comfortable.
The other sleeper (-bench) is still outside.
Now that the job is near to completion, we have a pile of building materials to go back. Ideally that would be STEVIE with the trailer, but not on Wednesdays, a running day.
Today we also completed the little stepped path from the trackside to the concrete raft on which the hut is built. All done with odds and ends found in the yard, at no cost to the railway. The whole hut in fact is at no cost to the railway.
With the pile of pallets at the back removed, Jules could complete the painting there.
Finally we adjusted the end of the downpipe, so that it could be fixed to something, and not move about in the wind, or get kicked by someone. This is what we want it to look like, but some glueing of the pipes is required, and cementing in the block through which we have fed it.
On the way back some very large and juicy blackberries drew us to a halt. We're only human.
In the latter half of the afternoon we stopped at Broadway, where we found Neal and John, back from being away, laying in the shortened blocks that we sawed to size a few weeks back.
The platform side had already been done.
We also need to corbel the back of the building, before the steels go on later in August.
A second reason for stopping at Broadway was to drop off this GWR boundary marker.
It was surplus to requirements in the S&T department, so they offered it to us. It was very heavy.... three of us managed to manhandle it into the blogger car, and with some difficulty it was dragged out on arrival by Yours Truly, alone.
This will be its future location, a rather bare area of the station approach.
The 'No Parking' sign isn't really working though. This is because other people are using the station forecourt to park their cars, despite the signs.
