Back to work

Usketeers on Wednesday 16th September.

Down to two men last Wednesday. Yours truly away on a working week, and Jules with a minor medical issue. Paul and Dave ran with the baton!

 

 

 

As the internal frame of the little cabin at Gotherington is rotten at ground level, we have rooted around the railway for some replacement timber that doesn't break the bank. In fact the bank account is empty...

Thanks to our supportive friends at C&M we were allowed to take one or two of the timbers that used to make up the original Building & Services shed, from which C&M used to operate. It was taken down a while back, and the best bits of timber put to one side.

Here is Paul, cutting one to length. This is so that it would fit in Dave's car ! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arrived on site, the first job was to cut the timbers to the length that was actually needed.

This will be one of the new corner posts. 

 

 

 

 

 

The old corner posts will remain in situ, but as the bottoms have gone, new extensions bolted to the inside will support the weight of the cabin.

 

This is how it was done.

The new (old, now well seasoned....) piece is attached to the inside, and bolted through the good part of the old corner post to secure it. 

 

 

 

PWay on Wednesday 16th September.

A small gang was out at Hayles - just south of the road bridge - jacking and packing some dipped joints. 

The lifted joints were then packed with our Robel hand tampers.

Two of our Robels are currently inoperative. Luckily we have four in total, so work could progress nonetheless.

We are now approaching the winter closed (well, not completely) season, and our winter work project is looming.

We haven't circulated any firm plans yet, but it looks like a refurbishment of Cleeve Station Road bridge is on the cards. 

 

 

 

We're always interested in wildlife along our line. In fact it's a bit of a green corridor. No housing estates, roads, or many humans. Anmals quickly get used to the passing of an occasional train.

 

So what caught our eye last Wednesday? It's visible in the LH photograph, but if you can't see it, we've ringed it in green on the right.

 

It was a little toad.

 

One interesting wild animal event that occurred right in front of Yours Truly a few years back was a rabbit hopping by along the trackbed, right in front of us as we munched on a sandwich. It was hotly pursued by a stoat. 

The rabbit suddenly did a U turn, came back in our direction, was startled by a track ganger sitting on a concrete bin, and dived into the undergrowth.

The stoat left empty handed (or empty pawed). 

 

We forgot who took this picture of the Black 5, but it's a magnificent animal.

Thanks, whoever. 

 

 

 

 

A look over the fence - Rother Valley Railway.(RVR)

An old stomping ground of your blogger is the K&ESR. Our volunteering began there in around 1974, and although living abroad for most of this time, we joined in the relaying of all the sections to Bodiam, over the many years. We were invited to join the RVR relaying gang for another working week.

The RVR is the final push, from Bodiam to Robertsbridge Junction, on the London-Hastings line. In the early days the Minister of Transport denied them this last section, as it crossed the A21 and cars must not be hindered. That view has now changed, and a level crossing is now permitted.

 

This is the project. If you'd like to help with a donation (we did) then the details are on the poster.

 

 

The current site access is off Junction Road, a bit beyond the current terminus of Bodiam. We're in the valley of the river Rother, 500 years ago still a sea arm from the channel, and today still susceptible to regular flooding.

Several WW2 pill boxes can still be seen, such as this unusual circular one. 

 

 

 

Track had actually been laid a few years back beyond Bodiam, right down to the former level crossing over Junction Road.

 

 

 

Until a few months ago there was a stop block here.

Then the river Rother, just a few yards to the left, gnawed at the embankment, and now the rails have been lifted again to permit access to machinery for piling. 

 

 

Behind the camera, on the other side of the road, the line continues, and for the moment, gives access to what will be a run round loop. This is a convenient point between the only other run round opportunities at this end, Northiam and Robertsbridge.

After a few 100yds the line crosses Austens bridge. It was the most modern on the line, but was found by the RVR to be part demolished. It's now refurbished, and provides a handy barrier to unwanted site access.

 

 

 

Just beyond that is another bridge, number 24. It's an odd one, as the bed under it is dry. It's needed here for flood alleviation, pressure relief in case the valley floods - again.

 

 

 

Col Stephens built the bridge with parallel RSJs on concrete abutments. As they were beyond further use, a new bridge on similar design principles had to be used (to avoid a new planning application). With its central pillar, that now looks just like a turntable, in the middle of nowhere. The river Rother is just behind it, by the dark trees.

Looking back towards Bodiam, the 'turntable' bridge 24 is currently isolated. The trackbed beyond it leads back to Junction road and can't be relaid for the moment, as it is used for access. Austen's bridge can just be glimpsed.

In the foreground, however, is the start of the relay that we came to work on. At this point several 100yds have already been laid, to form the through line of a run round loop. 

 

 

 

This is the through road as we found it on Monday 14th September, the start of the working week. We're looking towards Robertsbridge here.

Earlier relaying started at the other end of a long S curve, at Salehurst. It had reached into the distant trees to the right of the 360.

 

 

 

The start was so far away that two volunteers offered a taxi service, in their increasingly muddy cars. While the area is muddy, the trackbed has been given a dry base layer, which was compacted. That worked well, as when laid, the sleepers were basically all on the same level, so avoiding the problem we had with alignment on the Broadway extension, where we started with an 8inch new ballast layer. (which was a bit irregular)

 

 

 

 

Here is a distant shot of the previous rail head.

Some ballast was put down in the foreground, as this is a user worked crossing. 

Unlike as on the Broadway extension, where sleepers and rail were bought out on an as needed basis, on the RVR all the sleepers and rails were laid out to one side a year ago. 

 

The preparation work needed to make this trackbed useable again after 50 years should not be underestimated. It was huge really, they've been at it for months. 

 

An example is this drainage ditch, which had an enormous tree stump in it. All the drainage needed reviewing; none of the (substantially sized) cross drains were usuable any more. All had to be dug out, and replaced with new abutments or head walls. By the run round loop there were big piles of earth from the clearing operations, and these were being dumpered out across the site, where they just disappeared in the ground.

The trees on the right mark the shore of the former sea arm; the flat field was the bottom of it. The K&ESR spends much of its way running alongside this old shore.

A similar area exists on the left, before another old shoreline appears. 

 

 

 

The start of the working week was here, half round the S curve emanating from Salehurst.

The first job on Monday morning, as others were still arriving, was to clip up the last panel laid.

To give readers an idea of the scale of the job, there are 112 Pandrol clips on each panel. 

 

 

 

The target of the working week was 20 panels, and to meet up with the already laid through road of the run round loop.

Are you doing any mental arithmetic yet? 

For 20 panels, that's three volunteers pulling and hammering in 2240 Pandrol clips, after adjusting each sleeper for height and exact position. 

 

 

 

 

The modus operandum was similar to how it was done on the Broadway extension, except that the K&ESR was single track of course.

A single 360 was used (we had Stevie Warren in his JCB) and the rails were half laid in, then the rest of the sleepers, then the rails fully laid in.

 

 

Something that slowed down the process - we were hoping to do four panels each day over the 5 day week - was the need to cut the rails.

 

 

 

The rails were second hand, and many had also been cut into 30 ft lengths to make removal easier. This meant that every rail had to have both ends trimmed. This trimming was also required as we were working on a curve.

 

 

The RVR gang had made themselves special blocks for supporting the rails when they were first half laid in. The two cut outs underneath allowed the blocks to fit over the Pandrol hoops on the sleeper, while the top had a steel strip, which allowed people with bars to slide the rail more easily.

 

 

 

At the end of the first day we had indeed laid 4 panels, so that was a relief. The weather was kind to us.

The picture shows the extent of the first stretch laid, about half way along a field. 

 

 

 

 

 

A trolley with materials followed us, but the majority of the heavy stuff was already in place along the trackbed, in dumpy bags.

Every other joint would be welded, but that still left a lot of fishplate hole drilling, which fell behind rather. 

A thicker, angle iron spacer was used for gaps to be welded, while a thinner, Dexion spacer was used for future fishplates.

Pandrol clips came in big bags. They were all mixed up, so a mixture of standard and smaller e-clips was used. These fitted in reverse order, which needed getting used to.

 

Setting the sleepers in a straight line was achieved by using a length of rail along one side.

This was pulled along to way points marked out by a surveyor earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

Correct sleeper spacing was achieved by the use of three specially made sleeper spacers. Three were used, so that the bump from placing the next sleeper didn't move the other ones.

The sleeper spacers, made of lightweight aluminium, were lifted out of the cribs by another home made gadget, the hook in the foreground. That saved your back - someone had clearly thought about this.

 

How did we do then? Check out part two in the next blog.

Interim update.

Interim update.

As readers must have guessed, a blogger needs to have a break to keep his sanity. We spent 14 days away from the GWSR, in the totally different Trento region, and then in Lombardy. Next week we're away too, so the blog post following this one is likely to be on the Wednesday after (i.e. in about 10 days).

 

The Usketeers motored on nonetheless.

Well, for the following week, the week after that they took a holiday too. It's the season. So here is the work from 10 days ago.

 

 

 

The week before we lifted the tilting cabin using bars and blocks. The next time Dave, Paul and Julian borrowed some Duff jacks to lift the cabin higher still, and then rested it on the two sleper offcuts we had left over from the lineside hut.

The idea was to free up the sunken foundation blocks on the two front corners, and build them up with bricks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see Paul doing just that. The first course of bricks is already down.

 

 

 

 

The next idea was to get some decent second hand sleepers, and use one to support the rotten frame at the front.

Station owner Bryan was very helpful, and gave us a couple of good second hand spares that he had, and even a trolley on which to drag them across the site. 

 Here they are on arrival, a bit puffed out after the long drag from the other side of the house.

 

Steam was on again, so there was also the chance for a quick snap of a real train going by.

 

 

 

With the two front corners built up again, the intention was to slip the sleeper on top of the corners, and under the rotten frame. The vertical panels are not so good either, and may well get replaced entirely, but as a start we cut off the bottoms to get the sleeper under.

Thanks to C&M we have been able to obtain some lengths of second hand timber, that formerly held up their old workshop, until it was knocked down earlier this year. 

We don't envisage spending much, if any, money on this rebuild. 

 

 

 

Finally, success! The sleeper is under the frame, and on top of the higher corners.

The wreckage in the foreground is from Bryan's own attempts to righten the cabin. 

 That success deserved a coffe break. Even a failure deserved a coffee break - we like coffee breaks.

 

Dave took this lovely shot of the blue Growler coming into Gotherington.

The last shot is a frontal one, showing the sleeper in place, on the new brick supports. The SB name plate (home made by Bryan) is off, with a view to refreshing the T&G down the front.

Greet tunnel.

 

There's a debate going on about the missing date stones on the portals of Greet tunnel, the second longest in the UK preservation world.

 

Here's a picture of the current situation, taken from the new lineside hut. The date stone has fallen out of its socket, probably in bits over several years. The bits we found on the ground are of soft, Cotswolds stone, it's just crumbled.

 

We would like to replace the date stones with new, better quality examples. The trouble is that we have never seen a photograph of either tunnel portal, showing them in place. Can anybody help with an old photograph?

 

In particular, we don't know which date Greet tunnel actually carried. Hunting Butts was 1906, so is it safe to assume Greet was 1905? Winchcombe was opened in 1905; Bishops Cleeve in 1906. 

Then there's money of course. The company doesn't have any, so it's not in anyone's budget. If there is enough interest, we could try an appeal on the blog? Are you interested?

 

 

Work at Broadway.

Neal and John have also been busy over the last 14 days.

 

 

 

People may have noticed on the CCTV camera that there was a pile of specials on the corner of the scaffolding. Now it's gone.

 

 

 

This is where that pile of specials went - it made up the missing fourth row of corbels along the back. The upside down curve is the last row. Another job ticked off.

 

 

 

 

And, o miracle, Neal managed to heave the incredibly heavy last fascia board at the back into place. He was assisted in that by some members of the Broadway maintenance gang.

 

 

 

The reason for the delayed fitting was here - the board had to be cut to fit around the corbelling brickwork.

 

 

 

 

And, to our astonishment, we found that Neal and a small group from the loco department had actually started riveting. This is the north end of that same fascia board. It's going nowhere, with all those rivets in it now. The corresponding temporary bolts have been removed. Some were so old that they had already been used for the same job on the P1 station building.

 

 

In the same corner we also see the brace that was fitted. This will stop the steel structure from flexing. It's not original, but necessary due to the change in the way the structure is now held up. Not by the brick walls of the building itself, but by an internal steel cage, hidden inside the walls.

 

 

 

Here is another that hasn't been fitted yet. A number of holes have to be drilled in it first, and also on the fascia bioard, for the rivets to go in.

 

 

 

 

Isn't this a fine example of the old fashioned riveting that our building has! A passing visitor on Friday remarked that Broadway was the most beautiful station building that he knew. Let's keep it that way, let's respect the 1904 date and our living museum vocation.

 

 

 

Later on Friday Neal was measuring up for some frame extensions, and to illustrate a question about the braces at the staircase end, Neal produced this little drawing. It will be made of angle iron, to a sort of butterfly shape.

 

 

 

 

This is where that butterfly shape will go, in between the two columns at the bottom of the steps. A half butterfly has already been fitted on the right, and two more will go in on the left.

 

 

Neal has also made 4 frame extension pieces, two for each end of the building, where the purlins stop. These will support the wooden boarding at the end. They now need de-rusting, priming and painting. 

 

 

The north end has both extensions fitted, the south end one of the two. A third piece will come off the ridge (the purpose of Neal's plywood drawing...)

 

More riveting could take place next Wednesday (Yours Truly is on another railway next week) and Neal reports that there are still a few more holes that need drilling.

 

Painting is likely to become more difficult as we enter autumn, due to the heavy rain that is forecast for the last quarter. We are conteplating making an early start on the roofing in one corner, to get a dry working area. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PWay last week.

 

There was lineside work on Wednesday and Friday, of which Paul kindly sent us some photographs.

 

 

 

The job was at Laverton, a bit beyond the concrete rail over road bridge. We seem to get regular undulations on the Malvern side, and indeed prior to opening a small slip was repaired here.

 

This is the 'before'. 

 

On the same day the Peak passed the work site. Gang numbers are a bit low at the moment, due to the summer holidays.

 

 

 

 Paul tried a bit of an artistic shot; you can just about make out two guys using Robels to pack the track (possibly Bob and Simon?)

 

 

Afterwards, and with a cheerier sky, the track was level again.

Until the next time. 

 

Due to the higher (concrete replacement) bridge there is more ballast here than usual, and this may be weighing down the side of the trackbed that has track on it.

 

After our exceptionally dry summer, we are monitoring the track carefully to detect any signs of slippage on our embankments. The Bishops Cleeve slip was detected late last year as a long crack, which with heavy rain running into the crack during the winter, did indeed turn into a slip. 

 

Clay embankments - that's the nature of our line. 

 

 

We also had sleeper changing south of the tunnel. That's an old section of track, now long on second hand woods from the early 1990s. We keep having to come back to it, until it gets exchanged for concrete sleepers. One day... the list of jobs is long.

 

 

 This sleeper doesn't look too bad, but our track patrollers are very vigilant, and it's coming out.

 

 

The replacement area was then Robelled. We use these machines a lot, and are seeing more failures in the 4 that we have. Currently we are down to just two.

 

 

 

The reward for sleeper changing was the sight of 3850 chugging hard out of the tunnel. It's uphill, until 500yds behind the camera, then level on a long embankment through Gretton.

 

 

 

 

Last but not least, a plug for the friends of Pilley Bridge nature reserve. It's a kilometre long nature reserve on what used to be the Cheltenham - Banbury line. It's in the heart of the souhern part of Cheltenham. 

 

Maybe drop in for a visit next Sunday?