Rail replacement service.

 

Two trips to CRC by class 26.

A Friday special - a small group of us, aided by some signalmen and two diesel drivers, went down to CRC with 26043 to pick up the Warflat and two Elks loaded with rail.

These were then pulled back in the Broadway direction, and several stops were made to drop off replacement lengths of rail between CRC and Winchcombe.

 

 

 

The starting point was Toddington yard, where we found this carriage covered in a tarp.

It had a bent corridor connection. Also, we heard, a bent sole bar! So this vehicle was bought for spares only, in particular the bogies, which have wheels with thick tyres.

 

 

 

 

26043 awaited us by the refuelling point. We had never 'cabbed' a 26 (or 'Rat', as they were known, and indeed there was a little rat inside with bagpipes) so here are a couple of pictures of the interior for you.

This is the driver's position. The throttle had 5 notches on it, and at one point we did use the top notch, when taking the two Elks uphill through Greet tunnel. That made a great noise.

This is the origin of that noise - the 6cyl Sulzer engine. We were a bit disappointed with the sound inside the cab, because instead of the well known plodding chug of this engine, all we heard was the scream of the compressor. But it was great from outside, nearby.

At Winchcombe we found 3 PWayers staring at the loco - a cameo photo opportunity. But as soon as the camera came out, they got shy and escaped. Simon, our driver was willing to stand in.

 

Hi, Simon ! 

 

 

 

The first stop, light engine, was the signal box at Gotherington.

Here we found STEVIE in the loop, and we stopped to take some tools from the cube with us. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next stop was CRC, where we entered the long siding leading to Hunting Butts tunnel.

Here we picked up the Warflat and two Elks, the latter loaded with second hand rail, bullhead on one, and FB on the other. 

 

 

 

 

 

With the three wagons in tow we proceeded to the sports field at Bishops Cleeve, where a rail was due to be changed.

 

 

 

 

 

Our GWSR Telehandler had a minor breakdown first thing. This nearly scuppered our whole day, but we were fortunate in that our contractor Tom Clarke (with Kev helping us at CRC with a digger) agreed on the spot to come out and help us with his own Telehandler. Very kind of him.

Here he is, picking up the first rail. 

 

 

 

We then moved the train on to the Dixton cutting, where we had surprised 4 Roe Deer on the way out. 

Here Tom helped us discharge 3 rails in one spot, and a fourth a bit further on. We have unfortunately been obliged to change several rails along here, due to damage on the surface. While we got them this way 35 years ago, we cannot carry on indefinitely with such damage, so eventually they have to be exchanged for clean rails.

Tom removing another FB rail in the Dixton cutting.

 

The Dixton cutting is extra wide, we believe it served as a quarry for the long embankment in the Greet area. Behind the Telehandler is a landslip, but fortunately it is harmless to us, as it is so far away. 

While waiting for the Telehandler to put the lifting frame back, we took this portrait of the 26 from under the trees. This is a very pretty area.

Behind the camera is an unusual feature, a stream that crosses the line from a height. During the build in 1905 it was dropped down to below the level of the track, so you have something of a water chute on the Cotswolds side.

 

 

 

On our slow journey north we crossed through Winchcombe again.

Here we stopped to unload the surplus materials off the Warflat, from our recent relay of the turnout at CRC. 

 

 

 

The next dropping off point was along the Defford straight.

One of the issues reported here was a series of 'squats' reported on a couple of weeks ago. That will now be dealt with in the next couple of days, certainly before the start of the main operating season.

The weather was pretty grim on Friday, with drizzle all day long. A guilty member of the PWay also managed to break one of the class 26 windscreen wipers, which flew off in a high arc as we went along. We had to stop the train and search for it - luckily it was undamaged. All he did was turn it on.

 

 

 

After the Defford straight we went all the way back to CRC, where we were asked to store the two Elks as far out of the way as possible, due to the expected race trains here.

This is the furthest south that we have ever travelled on the GWSR.








The two Elks were dropped off, and the Warflat retrieved, for stabling at Toddington. It will no doubt be in use again very shortly, in view of its completely renewed decking.

26043 pauses by Toddington box with the Warflat, for permission to proceed.

 

 

 

Saturday - out with the gang. 

The very next day the whole PWay gang was out again, replacing damaged rails with those dropped on Friday.

 

 

 

The job was in the Defford straight cutting, but first three of us had to get the necessary tools, which were in the 'cube' temporary site storage container, currently at Gotherington.

It's a long, tricky reverse from Gotherington skew bridge entrance and along the platform, avoiding discarded sleepers and catch pit covers on the way. 

 

 

 

While the three of us were doing this, the rest of the gang of 12 were in the cutting, lifting out the first of the affected rails. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here (after our arrival from Gotherington) you can see how they lifted out two rails, and are measuring the replacements up. A number of rails along here were 45 footers, so the 60ft replacements had to be shortened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The replacement rail was then cut, after measuring twice (of course). This is a busy stretch, and we don't want any lumps and bumps along here. 

Simon in the meantime has positioned himself at right angles with the beam, ready to go. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even as Leigh is already cutting the fishplate holes, moves are afoot to cut the second rail. It needs jacking off the ground, to allow the rail saw to cut right through

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

The replacement rail, cut to the correct length, was then lifted into place.

Offcuts are in the foreground. 

 

 

 

 

 

Having done two rails at the Winchcombe end, we moved up a couple of 100 yards to the second site, where three lengths need replacing.

 

Here is an example of damage to one of the rails that we were replacing. It's a squat, proably caused by wheelslip from a starting locomotive in a previous life of this rail, which came to us in the late 1980s. It was probably alright 40 years ago, but the initial slight damage to the surface has worsened over time, so now we are dealing with where we find it.

The damaged rail could still be used in sidings, where speeds are very low. So the rail won't be wasted. 

 

 

 

 

This is the second site. The first rail is being cut to length.

Dave surveys the scene.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now the new length has to be moved up a few feet, a tricky manoeuvre with a Telehandler in a cutting.

New recruit Greg is trying out the rail saw on the right - it's hard work, and not easy on the back. 

 

 

 

 

 

We were rather disappointed to find another piece of airborne plastic litter deposited on our lineside.

This one announced 'The World's Best Dad'. It's a brief pleasure, but soon on our trackside, or worse still, choking a wild animal. Please don't buy Helium filled ballons.

We soon had the three rails at the north end swapped out, and here we are tidying up the site.

 

Now all that remains to be done is to pick up the old rails. The involves STEVIE, but he's busy elsewhere at the moment. 

We put all the tools and bits and pieces on to the white Transit, ready to return to Winchcombe. As it was facing north, it had to reverse out of the cutting to the start of Chicken Curve, where there was a flat area to turn.

 

Picture by Liam Percival

Unfortunately, with its smooth road tyres the old girl wouldn't drive back off the damp grass. The wheels just spun. It took almost the entire gang to push her back on to the harder roadway. Your Blogger's contribution was to press the accelerator as hard as he could...

Monday at Broadway.

 

It was a lovely sunny day, so brick laying started again, using the new specials from Ibstock. At last ! 

 

 

John began on the pltform side wall, using one of the new specials, several of which ypou can see on the left. They convert a square brick to a round column.

 

 

Neal was also on site, but only for the morning. He spent that time on woodwork for the internal roof of the store room. We are currently waiting for a specialist roofer to put the flat roof on.

 

 

 

We have also had a piece of good news. A supporter has offered us a Romesse stove for Broadway signal box. This one is from Notgrove signal box, so has excellent provenance.

 

The first thing we are going to do is clean it up with a rotating brush, and then apply some protective stove blacking. We can then put it back together and see the complete stove, and what might need doing to it. 

At lunch time under a brilliant sky we see John completing the ninth course in the section he started earlier. 

He then moved on to a second section.

 

This is on the LH side in the picture here. That was taken at the end of the day, with another 5 courses laid and all pointed up.

Tuesday at Broadway

 

Another dry day, so more brick laying.

 

 

On Tuesday John carried on with the second section (LH, above) and raised it to 15 new courses.

He then added more bricks to Monday's RH section, so that they are now both the same height.

 

Included in this new brickwork are the additional specials that we ordered from Ibstock. They are almost a match, being slightly lighter in colour. Can you see them? They fit in pretty well really, especially as the original specials had at least three different shades between them anyway. We're happy with the result.

Last thing on Tuesday we took this picture, to show the overall effect of the renewed brick laying. It's by the two windows on the left.

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A big day for us today, as we are going to lay out and mark up for cutting the complete kit of second hand sleepers that we need for the platelayer's hut.

These sleepers were very kindly sponsored by blog readers - they are good quality second hand ones, purchased from a rail intermediary. They are in excellent condition - we want our hut to last a long time.

 

So, thanks to those generous readers who contributed, we were able to pick 36 excellent sleepers, and lay them out so that they can be cut to size with a chain saw.

 

We did a lot of head scratching on site last week, about the height of various sleepers, and the angle of the roof. We consulted a drawing provided by a blog reader, and adapted it to suit our particular circumstances. This is mostly about the fact that we are not burying the ends of the sleepers in the ground, but placing them on an existing concrete base. On that they will rest on a row of pavers, covered by a DPC, so that the sleeper ends will not get wet. The height of the pavers, as well as the chosen roof angle, all have to go into the equation.

 

Finally we were able to draw a yellow line, to indicate the desired cuts. The spray paint was rather blotchy, so Paul followed it up by scratching a clear line into it with a nail.

In the picture you can see the 5 + 5 sleepers that will form the end walls, and in the background the 12 + 12 that will form the sides, with a slope. Sorry about Paul walking across the view, but there are two diagonal lines in the second and third set.

 

Paul from the PWay will ask someone with a chainsaw ticket to do the cutting. 

 

After laying out the sleepers and marking them successfully, we felt rather good, had lunch, and with lots of daylight left, decided to head out to site and do a bit of brick laying as well. As we had rather a lot of kit - more bricks, sand, two heavy concrete blocks et al - we used the Telehandler to carry the stuff, STEVIE being otherwise engaged at Gotherington.

 

Dave in the Telehandler picked his way carefully down the slope and onto the trackbed. There were no public trains today (but Race Trains this weekend) but we did read about a plan to run a test train for the Bubble Car to Broadway. Hope it was a success.

 

We made Paul a mix, which is on his spot here, right next to - his mobile phone! That's builders for you....

 

 

 

Paul and Dave put three additional courses on today. We reckon that two more courses will see the top of the screen, after which the chimney stack itself will rise alone above the roof.

The screen is an option that we saw in one model of platelayer's hut, and it is designed to fill the gap between the smaller chimney and the wider fireplace below. Another option is to have no screen, but fill this gap with odd bits of wood. We'd rather not.

 

 

With the better weather recently our buckets have not filled with water, so we opened up one of the catch pits and dropped down the bucket a few times. That works fine.


 

Here's the situation at the end of Wednesday, as we left. Quite a few courses on that fireplace now. All that heavy material has had to be taken to the site from the yard half a mile away, so we think that we did well.

 

When the hut is complete, it should really complement this view of the tunnel mouth. One for our photographers. The hut will not occupy the entire concrete base, and there will be a small terrace in front, which will be really inviting to place a few chairs and enjoy the view! 

 

 

Wednesday on the PWay.

A last push at Gotherington. The Manor Lane end turnout is getting an almost complete renewal, with new timbers and a new crossing in the midddle. The pressure is on - we are running race trains this weekend, and they are critical.

 

 

 

There was a big gang of 21 today, all hands on deck. STEVIE was there too, with the cube and its tools. He's been staying at Gotherington, but will now return to Winchcombe, to free up the line, and we give back our PWay posession of the Winchcombe - CRC section.

 

 

The gang was working hard under a brilliant blue sky. There were 4 timbers left to change, the entire turnout needed hand tamping with the Robels, and then the site made tidy and safe.

This is the view at the end of the day, it's done ! You'd never know that all these timbers have just been replaced.

The turnout at CRC was also completely relaid, and the PWay has given up its possession of it and handed the job over to S&T for reinstallation of the point motor and cabling.
 

 

 What's left to do?

A group photograph, of course ! Here is the proud gang, all smiles. Another successful winter works session concluded perfectly. 

 

Back to full strength.

Friday team.

A team of four, with a specific task:- clearing up some of the piles of chaired sleepers by the Toddington drive. The chairs on the sleepers make them hard to stack, and move around, so we needed to dismantle them into their useful components. The sleepers come from siding 2 (part finished, but work is due to resume shortly) and around Hayles, where concrete sleepers were substituted after the Didbrook 2 relay.

 

 

Thanks to the electric impact guns we were able to easily undo the normal bolted chairs, and about three quarters of the throughbolters.

That left about a dozen throughbolt chairs still fixed to their sleepers, with the bolts seized and the nuts underneath spinning round instead.

Here David is cutting through one of the nuts. This is a very slow job, and he wasn't able to do all of them, leaving several sleepers with one chair still attached. 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent all day Friday doing this. With David, Tim and Yours Truly on dismantling, Paul was busy with the Telehandler sorting things into easily transportable piles. We ended up with several pallets of chairs, which will be taken to Winchcombe, while the throughbolters will go to 2807 to be turned into boot scrapers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an example of the finished product. Some sleepers were set aside for CRC (for gardening), some for the Narrow gauge people, and some with base plates on were reserved for Gotheringon.

The orange bag contains a collection of litter dropped by the builders next door... it's what builders do, it seems. 

 

 

 

We got soaked by squalls from time to time, but ended the day with a good feeling of satisfaction, as we had dismantled everything that there was to do. Now it remains to actually load it, take it somewhere, and unload it. That means two Telehandlers, and a truck. Maybe another Friday?

Next Friday will see us enjoying an outing with a real PWay train! All useful, mind, all useful.

 

At the end of the afternoon we returned the Transit to Winchcombe, in a heavy rainstorm.  

 

You can see it here, still receding, as 3850 pulls away with the last train back to Toddington.

On the left is the new saloon coach, just arrived at Winchcombe. 

 Here is a more general view of it. 

 

 

 

 

We were intrigued by the retractable steps. These would have been made available to the track inspector travelling in the coach, so that he and his assistants could get down on to the track for a closer look.

There is even a little red light ot illuminate them. 

Didn't the GWR autocoaches have them too? 

Finally, a view from outside in. The sumptuous furniture is still under wraps. No doubt everything has to be cleaned and tested first.

 

Saturday - a sighting of the Bubble Car.

Correspondent Sam spotted our elusive Bubble Car on Saturday at Winchcombe, when it was out on a shake down and driver (re-) training trip.

 

Sam Daubney

 

It had stopped a bit short, to avoid any storm assault by customers. Luckily these had left on one of the orange timetable trips to Broadway.

One or two issues were reported, but it can't be long now before we see it in service at last, so don't miss it. Could it be paired with the newly arrived inspection saloon? 

 

 

Monday at Broadway.

A basically dry day, so three of us on the waiting room site. John spent the day on internal blocks, while Neal and Yours Truly spent much of the day dealing with the arrival of the material we found in front of the building at 08.30.

What greeted us on arrival.

This order was cleared for payment rather quicker than we anticipated, and here it is: Some additional concrete blocks, the joists for the main building, more bags of cement, and finally, plywood sheets and roof insulation for the store room. We are close to using it, but need to wait for a date from the specialist roofer for the outer covering. 

All our deliveries now have to be hauled down one platform, and up another. At least the weather was kind. 

 

The insulation and plywood sheets were trundled past our building, which shows the concrete blocks rising out of the brickwork on the end. 

Now that the joists there are in, two more courses of blocks are due to go on top of them. 

John spent most of the day behind the fireplace, where he added two more courses of blocks.

He left a square hole near the top. This, Neal explained, is to allow the chimney flue to bend backwards under the truss that will be placed there. The angle iron that you can see is temporary.

 

Quite some time was spent on Monday moving concrete blocks around, after heaving them up and down the platfoms. In the latter half of the day we found Neal inside the store room, working on the joists.

 

 

 

Wednesday, with all the Usketeers.

With the very welcome return of Julian, the Usketeers are now back to full strength of 4 members. 

 

 

We soon had him in harness, pushing a loaded wheelbarrow up to the tunnel mouth site. 

In truth, we need at least one barrow of bricks a day to keep us going on site, as well as, this time, a barrow of ballast and an old terracotta drain pipe, which will make a classic chimney for the hut, such as would have been used in the day. 

 

 

 

 

Paul equipped himself with a long batten, all stuff we have scrounged that was lying about the Winchcombe site.

This hut is costing the railway virtually nothing, we are very frugal. 

 

 

 

 

 

'Unfortunately' we have had relatively little rain these last 7 days, so our buckets, upturned towards the heavens, had but a modest harvest of water.

 

 

 

That left only plan B, dropping a bucket on a rope down one of the catch pits.

A well placed broom down after it made sure that it faced sideways at the bottom, to allow it to fill with water. 

 

 

 

 

While Paul and Dave busied themselves with brick laying, Jules and Yours Truly took care of the broken block wall around the concrete base.

The corner here has taken a knock. We cleaned it out, and inserted a new half block. 

 

 

 

 We then mixed up the ballast that we brought, to make a barrow of concrete mix.

 

 

 

 

This mix was then poured into the replacement blocks fitted a couple of weeks ago as well as over a broken one on the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's an oversight of the infilled blocks. Nice and smooth, as well as solidly fixed.

 

Jules couldn't resist drawing in the fresh concrete.

At least it wasn't rude. 

 

 

 

 

Also, here's a picture of the new half block we fitted on the end. There was some muttering from the brick layers when we took some of their mortar, but not much. 

We didn't quite finish the concrete infilling, it's a bit difficult to judge the quantities required. Next week we'll be doing the rest, about another 50%. Then we'll look at the path up to the hut, which has a slope that has disintegrated.

As Jules and Yours Truly were concreting, Paul and Dave were laying bricks. We're on the chimney proper now, but still with the curtain wall at the back. This will go as high as the sleepers there - something still to work out.

 

 

And we did that too. How high should the roof be? What slope should it have?  How much headroom in the doorway? What about the corrugated iron roof sheets - we don't want them to hit anyone.

Here Paul is marking various possible heights with nails as reference points.

 

 

 

 

We made up a frame to try out various combinations.

 

With the measurements obtained like this we will lay out sleepers next time back in the yard, so that they can be cut to length. 

 

 

The brick layers consumed one barrow of mix, and so raised the chimney by another three courses. You can see the chimney rise from the mantlepiece, but still accompanied by the rear curtain wall. This will go as high as the sleepers there.

This was the end result today. The chimney has definitely started, and we are now thinking ahead of sleepers. Enough of these to build the hut have been sponsored by kind readers of this blog, so next time we will lay them out in the yard, and indicate where they need to be cut to size.

 

 On the way home we stopped at Broadway, to see what they had done on Tuesday.

 

It was a further block laying day at Broadway. The interior walls are now outpacing the outside ones, but have reached their final height. The joists are in, and you can see the ends, now enveloped by further blocks around them.

It's dark in there, as the roof is currently covered by scaffolding planks. We are waiting for a date from the roofer, before putting in the definite roof here. 

 

At the end of Wednesday, this was the view of the waiting room at Broadway, now definitely taking shape. We are on the case !

 

BTW, strange happenings to the blog viewing figures. They dropped from 20.000 per month to 15.000, then suddenly went back up, and currently stand at 39.000 views per month.

Was it something we said?