Roof works.

Friday at Broadway.

Still a few dry days, although not dry enough for that second undercoat on the steel. Assembly work continues, with two of us at it on Friday.

 

 

 

 

 

On this misty and damp Friday in November we see Neal carrying an armful of dagger boards, into which he had cut a groove in one of the containers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stacked the dagger boards on the canopy overhang, for sorting into front and back, left and right. All had been cut and painted under the Toddington glass, but somehow all the identifying marks had been painted over by someone. Well, there are only three people to point at !

We'd just have to work it out on site. 

 

 

 

This picture shows the back of the dagger boards that Neal put on the canopy end a few days ago. The tops still need trimming. On the left, the sorting into size area.

 

 

 

It was really heartening to see that despite his difficulties, John had been to install another arch, this one over the RH door.

That leaves just one more to do, number eight. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving to the southern end, this shows the timber support structure for the other set of end-on dagger boards. 

We had a bit of a funding issue to get bolts for this, so temporary bolts were used. With a new supply of bolts, Neal was able to replace them for the right ones on Friday. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here Neal is cutting recesses into the timber, so that the bolts can sit flush. Then they don't interfere with the fitting of the dagger boards.

He's standing on the store room roof here. It's the only dry place in the building so far.

 

 

 

 

 

We asked Neal about when the roof sheets were likely to go on, and indeed we are nearly ready, but now the two week line block has become available, so we will be using that to work on the front fascia board. 

 

We had a GOLD fire&drive experience on Friday, a last chance to be at the controls of that lovely Black 5.

 

The Black 5 ran round in a large cloud of steam. Blowing piston glands, Neal advised, the LMS ones are not as good as the GWR ones... We would say that, of course.

 

 

 

 

After changing the bolts, we brought a supply of the longer dagger boards to the store room roof, where we enjoyed a brief sorting out period. Are they all there? Did Neal cut them all right? This one appears twice, one must be for the other end...

 

 

 

 

This is us fitting the first two on the south end. Those ratchet G clamps come in really handy. We could only put a handful on, as two more steel stays need to be bolted between the timbers and the truss. Neal has made those OK, but they were still wet from undercoating earlier in the day.

 

 

From the store room roof we saw that pine needles had bunched up in big piles on the guttering of the P1 canopy. A lot of these will be trying to go down the storm water drainage system too, and try blocking it. We saw that last year. A supply of gutter netting exists, but has not been used yet. 

 

 

 

Near the end of the day (about 3.30pm these days, when the light starts to go) Neal put a few more boards on the northern end. Here the extra stays are already in place - you can just see one on the LH frame of the picture, and another behind Neal's head.

 

 

 

Just as we were packing up, the F&D train turned up a second time. Enjoy that loco, it's leaving very shortly. 

 

 

 

It was interesting to see that the F&D candidate was one of our very own volunteers. 

 

 

45110 at rest at Broadway, in the gloom.

A peep into the cab, showing the driver's tea can, and a rather more modern plastic coffee cup. Lovely atmosphere though.

 

 

 

 

Friday in the PWay yard.

Another speciual day, with a small team. 

Pictures by Walt and David, with thanks.

 

 

 

 

A lightbulb went on when we were asked top remove the short demonstration track panel from the garden centre. Why not take it to Winchcombe to store the buggy and its trailers on it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The RRV was ideal for this task. After it lifted in the track panel the first trailer was placed on it. That also freed space in the area in front of the S&T building, where the kit had been dropped in the first instance.

 

 

 

 

 

To save 'siding space' (ha ha) one trailer was put on top of the other. That left enough length of track to putr the buggy. This is now operational, and there is a plan to try it out this winter.

 

At the end of the operation the track panel, buggy and trailers looked like this - neatly stacked away.

Thge buggy storage problem is not completely solved yet, as you can see that it is still out in the open, with a bit of tarp flapping over it. The trailers are completely bare.

We could put up a PWay trolley type shed over them, made out of old sleepers and some spare corrugated iron sheets. But how then to get the buggy on to a running line? It needs lifting by either the RRV, or the Telehandler. It's too heavy to be carried by 4 people, as they used to be. 

 

 

 

Tuesday at Broadway.

Cold and cloudy. Rain forecast to start at 17.00. It actually started to rain at 14.00, so that put a damper on things a bit. The temperature barely reached 7 degrees. 

 

 

 

 

On Monday Neal was able to add more dagger boards to the southern end of the canopy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, John was able to complete the last, eighth arch along the front. Brilliant! He also started the next course, which goes over it. More bricks are on a pallet (on the LH edge of the picture) and during the day we brought up two more barrow loads.

The brick courses need to go right up to the steel framework of the building, with the top 4 courses all corbel specials. 

 

 

 

 

 

Yours Truly spent the day painting again. There is always something to paint, it seems.

Here we have 3 timbers that will go along the back edge of the roof, and they have an angle cut into them, to match the slope of the corrugated iron sheets. Once dry, Neal will put these up.

We also gathered together some of the items that will be needed during next week, when we share a track possession with the S&T gang. 

Before we were able to sign off this paint job, it started to rain at 14.00. We hastily carried the 3 sticky timbers, and another 7 boards from inside the container, up to the footbridge, the only other dry place we have for long items like this. 

 

Lunch was held in the nice warm signal box, perhaps for the last time, as the canopy gang has been told not to use it any more after November 16th. Just as it's starting to get seriously wet and cold !

 

 

An end of the day shot, during light rain, shows how far we have got with the canopy ends. Neal is still there for a few minutes, changing the last of the bolts. You can just make out the completed arches along the front, and two pallets of bricks ready for the courses above them.

 

 

 

Monday, a special on the PWay.

This was a small group at Stanton, readying the yard for the transfer of a stock of heavy duty concrete sleepers, currently in store in the old garden centre, and in the way.  

 

 

 

 

The yard is a bit of a jumble, with broken sleepers, some military lightweight ones, two turnouts belonging to a third party, and those pads that we took up there a few weeks back. All overgrown with brambles of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This looks a lot better.

Redundant sleepers have been laid out as bearers for what is to come. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the crossing pads that we moved up there have already been relocated - again. Now up against the end fence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The redundant concrete sleepers were put in a pile. While we do use an occasional concrete sleeper, for example to make up a ballast retaining wall, these are basically surplus, should anyone be interested. 

We have also used concrete sleepers to make up the coal bunkers at Toddington, so there are uses for them, with imagination. After all, they are strong, and don't rot. 

 

 

 

That left the second third party turnout to deal with.

We dismantled the first one, and this one is still left to do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

All four of us today, with grey and drizzley weather. Thank heavens for the Pagoda at Gotherington West !

 

 

 

Before going to Gotherington we stopped at Winchcombe, to offload 4 reasonably fresh dumpy bags for ballasting the PWay. 

Then we picked up one of the sleeper off cuts from the platelayer's hut, which will go under the wheel at the bottom RH corner of the picture, the existing one being life expired.

Jules is keen as mustard, we heard the others found him digging at 8.30 ! This is the trench that will take away the rainwater from the downpipes, instead of splashing it at the cabin's frames.

 

 

Inside we used some of the black fence paint, also from the platelayer's hut project, to stain the newer planks we put in the floor. Everything should fade to a uniform grey, once it's been used for a bit. 

 

 

 

 

Outside the others were busy fixing the new skirting boards along the bottom of the cabin, all the way round. They were there before, but had unfortunately all but rotted away.

Dave brought some mastic, to keep the water away in future. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boards were test fitted to the front, and then the ends chamfered.

 

 

 

Here the front one has been fitted, and the side one is being measured up. If you are very observant, you might notice that during last week Bryan had also been along to paint the front in cream.

 

 

 

 

Here the other end is being fitted. It also came to our notice that the ends of the floorboards - which are exposed to the weather, sticking out under the door - could do with some protection. We will do some skip surfing at Winchcombe to see if we can find a suitable piece of angle to covere the ends.

 

 

What's this - has the postman been? Maybe you could write us a letter, c/o Gotherington West.

Note also the state of the end of the floor board on the right. The LH one was replaced by us last week. 

 

 

Paul cooked for us again for lunch.

On the menu: Sausage & Onion baps, with a choice of ketchup, mustard, or Daddy's sauce.

For pudding: Missisippi toffee cake, Mince pies, or Wagon Wheels. 

All 3 did you say? Why certainly, it's Liberty Hall here, we're old enough now. 

 

 

As we tidied up the lineside hut looked like this. Bryan will paint the skirting boards (brown).

Dave is applying a last strip of mastic.

We also dug the hole for the wheel of the cable run that operates the adjacent signal.

 

 

On the way home we called in at Winchcombe again.

 

You'd better be careful when crossing the tracks behind the C&W shed. Not only might you meet a train or a shunting loco, but today it was STEVIE with two dangling rails.

 

 

These rails were dropped off outside the S&T building.

 

Walt revealed that these were for a student project from Gloucester college.

It's nice how we can work with the local community. 

PWay today.

 

Toddington was the place, making good use of the fact that the coches were being decorated for Santa at Winchcombe, so the platform tracks were free for once.

 

 

 

Some less than fresh sleepers were changed here, and the remains of one of them were so small that they made a small pile of lighting up wood on the platform.

 

 

 

 Some members wore poppies, as today was 11.11. The Usketeers even had a minute's silence.

 

 

 

Elsewhere at Toddington the good quality concrete sleepers, ex Bicester MOD, were re-stacked to make their imminent removal to Stanton yard easier.

 

MIC: Warming up PWay machinery.

 

The message below came round on a circular, which we think is worth sharing with other PWay gangs, or anyone else using motorised machinery. 

 

 

 

This is the piston from one of our Robels. It's the second engine we’ve lost due to bore scoring - the other being a Husqvarna rail saw last year.

Using full power immediately after startup can have the aluminium piston heating and expanding faster than the cylinder wall, and even a decent Honda is not immune to the damage.

To prevent this from happening to any more of our petrol machines, please could we make sure that when starting the engines from cold, we give them a few minutes at idle to allow the engine to warm up. They only need a minute or so. Likewise when finished with, we should ideally allow them to idle for a short while before we switch them off.

Petrol machinery includes the Robels, rail saws, sleeper drills and rail drills - all of which will be used in anger in the coming months.

 

By the way, there is a new blog post of Yeo Valley Lines, on the Barnstaple and Yeo Valley Railway Trust. You can see it here:

 https://yeovalleylines.blogspot.com/2026/11/groundworks.html

 

A winter sunset.

Friday at Broadway.

The day started with a puzzle. On Thursday Neal noticed that the station's exterior lights were on at four o'clock - 23 lightbulbs in all, including down the station approach. They were still on when he looked on the webcam at 18.00.

Checking with a station staff member, we were told that they would go out by themselves, as they were on a timer. 

On his way home from a pub meal, Yours Truly checked at 22.00hrs, and all the lights were still on. The station was a blaze of lights.

Friday morning, on arrival, they were still on, but were eventually turned off at 11.00am by station staff. 

 

 

During the week John managed to instal another arch, the fifth of the 8 along the front. Three to go, then the rest of the front wall (mostly the corbelling.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neil spent the day working on the north end.

Here he is cutting a profile into the end of the fascia board, so that the second cross member of the triangular end can be fitted.

 

 

 

The profile that Neal cut into the end of the fascia board.

 

 

 

 

Next, Neal cut a sloping joint into the LH end of the board, so that it could be mated with the similar board on the other side. Here he is doing a test fitting.

 

 

 

 

This is what that board looks like when fitted - temporarily. Unfortunately it is lower than the already low truss, so with the board in place we are now obliged to pass under the two on our hands and knees. 

During lunch we were joined by a young local artist, who it turned out, was also a Trust member and had known Fred Lea. His speciality is landscapes, unfortunately not yet charging steam locomotives.

You can see him on the footbridge, chatting to Neal. 

Given the fine weather currently Neal asked us to undercoat the steel structure - again. Let's hope it stays dry for that.

 

 

The sun sets early now, so this is Neal at about 15.30 with the board in place.

Although bolted on at both ends Neal has made two additional brackets to stabilise it against the truss. One can be seen +/- in the middle of the picture.

These brackets are the sort of thing Neal would make with the remaining lengths of angle that were inadvertently skipped at Toddington. 

 

 

 

We left at 16.00 to buy another paintbrush. The one used on the first undercoat of the roof had completely worn down.

You can see the triangle of boards on the end. The one at the south end is already fitted. They will support the dagger board ends, which Neal was mulling to fit in the near future.

 

S&T have taken out a two week section block in the second half of November, and it's agreed that we can use the same block to work on the platform side fascia boards, fitting the supporting woodwork, dagger boards and guttering. Good news, that! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday on the PWay

 

A one off day out, ballasting along the Gretton straight. Pictures by Paul and Walt, with thanks. 

 

 

 

 

 

Four PWayers were out to do some spot ballasting, using dumpy bags.

The bags had been loaded ready for use and lined up alongside the track at Gotherington Skew yard. 

Once enough bags had been loaded on to STEVIE's trailer they headed south, where some unsupported sleepers ends had been identified.

Doing this with the bags instead of fully loaded Dogfish is much more practical, and cheaper. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bags can be lifted one at a time, and the contents dropped where they are most needed.

This picture shows the issue - not enough ballast at the sleeper ends. That situation often arises after a previous lift from the tamper, and the ballast then needs replenishing.

We use second hand dumpy bags. Some have a tied up opening at the bottom and can be re-used. Others, like this one, need to be cut at the bottom to get the ballast out. They are then discarded.

The dumpy bags in any case have a finite life, as they quickly degrade in the sunlight. 

 

We also had a Telehandler training day at Winchcombe. One a refresher, and one for a newly trained driver. Paul and Sam watch the training session going on in the background.

On the previous Friday a small gang with STEVIE went to Gotherington Skew.

 

Here they unloaded the last of the 64 sleepers removed from Stanway viaduct that were at first stored at Toddington. It's part of the 'tidy up' operation by the greenhouse there.

STEVIE then took the rail lifting beam and placed it on the ELK wagon at Hunting Butts. This is part of a proposed rail drop that is on the cards. On the way back the little group rearranged several rails that were lying lineside, all part of a juggling act for future operations.

 

Wednesday on the PWay saw the gang change 3 timbers in Toddington yard, amongst a number of other smaller jobs.

This is one of the timbers, and it shows three faults: It is split, the throughbolt (on a 1902 chair!) has come loose, and the chair has dug into the wood, softened by decay.

 

While the top of a timber might look OK, the underside definitely wasn't. Sometimes second hand timbers would be turned around, and re-used. 

Here one of our new electric sleeper drills is being used. We are very pleased with these tools, bought by donations from kind readers to our tool fund, as well as the remarkable success of Andy's rail end selling. 

 

 

The main gang on Wednesday was at MP 8 1/2, where the ballast boards around an underbridge were insufficient, due to the track level slowly rising after tamping.

 

 

Sunday, a quick go on the paint.

We've kept a careful eye on the weather, and the forecast for Sunday afternoon suggested there would be a few hours of sun, after a foggy start.

The forecast showed a change from 'FOG' to 'MIST' mid morning. A subtle difference. In the end we dropped in at 14.00, after the first rays of the promised sunshine appeared. 

 

 

 A Halloween dressed Bubble Car was waiting in the platform.

After an hour's sunshine this was the state of the steelwork. Wet ! Luckily we had thought to bring a towel, so we rubbed down the areas of interest, and waited for the sun to dry those out completely.

We did about an hour's worth of painting, but it was hopeless really. Unless we get several days of hot sunshine, any more painting looks unlikely until the spring.

 

As we painted a gentleman called up from the platform to offer us a takeaway tea. How kind ! It turned out to be a supporter, blog reader and donor. We had a nice chat on the footbridge.

Soon the sun went down again, but now we are moving into the season of early evening winter sun, and a glint on the incoming trains. 

It was 3850 today, steaming off into the setting sun.

Beautiful.
 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

All four of us today, on a cold and blustery day. No heating in the Pagoda, and the insulation capacity of Edwardian corrugated iron was discovered to be low. We kept warm with hamburgers.

 

 

 

 

Before arriving at Gotherington we had a short detour to Winchcombe. This was to source some second hand 100mm pipe, and a few assorted planks that might fit the gaps in floor of the ground frame hut.

We arrived on site an hour late, beyond the traditional coffee, cake and the usual 'organ recitals' of our various age related ailments. 

 

 

 

 

The lads were already hard at work, here fitting the first of the new boards to the front of the cabin.

While Julian carried on with that, Paul and Dave were cutting the skirting boards to length. We hadn't even finished putting the primer on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a surprisingly short period of time Julian was up to the penultimate board in the corner, banging his hammer loudly.

Inside the cabin it was like being inside a drum, causing some unkind remarks being addressed to the hammerer outside. 

In the foreground is one of the scavenged second hand lengths of wood, that was found to be perfect for the missing floorboard here. 

 

 

 

 

 

In the above picture you can also see evidence of the knotting carried out at the start of the day.

Paul and Julian then measured up for the last length of board, and can be seen here cutting it to size. 

 

 

And there you go - it fitted perfectly.

After a bit of professional hammering.... 

The front still needs putting in primer, but at least it's knotted now. Bryan will put the final coat on himself, he likes to be in control over the actual colour.

It's in - sort of. Where's that hammer?

Lunch time was Paul's opportunity for some sophisticated gastronomy. (not)

A large frying pan was produced, 4 hamburger patties, and a packet of cheese slices.

There was hamburger relish, and even some gherkin slices ! Mouths were beginning to water... 

This was the finished product. Want one? You'll have to join the Usketeers. Behind it is the pudding. There was a choice today - lemon drizzle cake, or early season mince pies. Wash everything down with coffee.

Still left to do after lunch were the other two holes in the floor, one on each corner. They were cut to allow the corner braces to be fitted.

In the meantime Jules had dug a trench for the 100mm drain pipe to be laid, underground. The far end still looks a bit high, maybe excavate a bit more next time, to continue the fall to the edge of the embankment.

Here is our end of the day shot. It shows the little cabin lifted off the ground, stabilised, vertical, and with the front boarding restored.

 

Still to do: The skirting boards, fitting the downpipes and linking to the new drain, refitting the footpath wires (removed to allow work at the back) and reinstating the lever/signal mechanism. 

On the way home we called in at Broadway, to see the work Neal had done on Tuesday, and work going on today.

What couldn't be seen through the CCTV camera was that Neal had fitted the heavy duty framework for the daggerboards at the southern end as well. It shows even more how the (former) toilet block on the end was not under the canopy, but was open to the elements above. We have fitted a hidden roof inside, to make this into a store room, without changing its appearance.

 

 

 

 

At the northern end Neal had fitted half of the dagger boards already. These had been cut to all sorts of different lengths under the glass at Toddington, knotted, numbered, primered, and painted, ready to go.

 

 

This will surely cut a lot of the wind out, from which we suffer up on the scaffold. Also, when we fit the roof we don't want the wind to get underneath it, with the risk of subsequent storm damage.

 

 

 

 

 

One drawback of fitting the dagger boards is that it will deprive CCTV viewers of a lot of what is going on up there. Oh well.

 

On Monday John did a great job in constructing the sixth of the eight window arches along the front, and on Wednesday he and Neal fitted the seventh. 

 

One more to go ! Nearly at the end now.

 

 

 

 

 

 Wednesday with the PWay gang.

'No sleeper changing' was promised. and there wasn't, it was changing point timbers at Winchcombe. At least they didn't have far to go, and the nice warm mess coach was just a few yards away.

 

Pictures by Pete, with thanks. 

This was one of the timbers in question, being extracted. This one is on the main line, but there are no trains for a while now, so it's our chance to get on with it, undisturbed.

 

 

 

 

And here the new timber is in. It's only a short one, being very near to the heel of the turnout.

Notice that the gang is using the Robel obstruction free jacks. They are a bit harder to raise (turning the big T spanner can be difficult for one person) but they are much easier to load into the van and carry around the site, because they are a bit lighter than the solid Duff jacks. Also, as they have a lower profile, they are rather easier to insert under a rail.

 

 

 

 After back filling the crib, the new timber was robelled to pack it securely.

 

 

 

 

Another timber was pulled out of the same turnout, but a bit further along. You can see straight away what is wrong with that one. It's also on the main line.

 

 It too was Robelled, after shoveling.

In the background you can see the welcoming mess coach. With only 10 degrees C and a biting northerly wind, it was certainly very welcome. Shame only that without running services we can't go to the Coffeepot for the traditional end of the day cuppa.