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? 

 

Two GWR lamp posts found.

Saturday, out with the gang.

Fourteen of us at CRC, on what turned out to be our last day on the turnout there. We're an efficient team, and thanks to quite large numbers, we got the job done ahead of time. 

Once STEVIE had arrived at CRC under the bridge, we opened the doors of the 'Cube' and were met with a flood of ferrules, that poured out. Was the sack put in upside down?

 

 

 

 

Another puzzling thing was that Dave noticed himself standing in a pool of oil. Whaaat? It was pouring out into the well of the trolley, which was now filled with slippery ferrules.

We unpacked each item carefully, checking for cracks, frost damage etc, until the culprit was finally discovered: The pressurised vessel that supplies cutting oil to the rail drill had been loaded, still pumped up, with the exit valve on the end of the supply pipe half open... 

With all that sorted out, Dave was able to start work with the RRV, and scooped up buckets of still usable ballast. This was carefully dropped in between the timbers, ready for packing.

 

A row of Duff jacks was then set up and adjusted to the correct height. Two extra Robels (this time with a Kawasaki two stroke) had been hired in, to make up for two of our company ones that were in maintenance.

 

 

 

 

As the task was rather repetitive - the Robels buzzed away most of the day - and photography was difficult, there were few interesting photo opportunities. In the bottom of the cutting the ground remained dark and frozen until the afternoon, while bright sunlight played above our heads. 

 Every time we needed something, or wanted to go for a break, we had to ascend this 'Stairway to Heaven'.

For those who puffed their way up for the nth time, thoughts turned to Stannah. Do they sponsor railways perhaps?

Although the cutting was cold and dark, the terrace outside the original booking office was bright and inviting in the sunlight on Saturday.

There were ample supplies of tea (made by Nick), cupcakes, mini bites, doughnuts, pains chocolats and even a small carrot cake. Energy for the workers indeed. 

With energy supplies replenished we returned to the cold cutting. We soon warmed up by shovelling ballast for the robellers.

At 3pm the job was considered complete. The last holes were drilled and bolted, gauge adjustments made, and the correct fishplates fitted. The new turnout was handed over to the S&T department for reconnection. 

STEVIE lingered briefly to unload the overhauled point motor, as 4 of us hastened to Winchcombe to answer a complaint about a noisy fishplate in the Defford straight cutting.

It's a bit difficult for the driver of a passing train to pinpoint the exact fishplate from a moving train, so we stopped at the platform for additional geographical details - bridge, lineside cabinet, tree etc.

 

3850 was out on Saturday with a single train, to address the half term holiday opportunities. The train ran between Winchcombe and Broadway only, as the PWay was refurbishing turnouts and Gotherington and CRC as part of their winter works. 

A few moments later we were by the lineside cabinet in question. The suspected broken fishplate turned out to be a rough piece of rail (all fishplates intact). which for some reason was being noisier than usual. We're giving that some thought, as there are various options.

 

 

Monday at Broadway.

Three of us on the waiting room site. It was cold and wet. Periods of rain were forecast. We almost gave up after the first mix, but a cup of coffee in the signal box and a bit of patience found us in drier surroundings a bit later on, and in the end two mixes were used.

 

 

 

John spent most of the day building up the inside wall around the fireplace in the waiting room itself, to match the height of the concrete blocks in the store room.

 

Neal here is drilling a hole for conduits from the future electrical cabinet into the waiting room, and then up to the ceiling above it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John's working area looked like this part way into the day. Monday's blocks have the fresher looking mortar around them.

The mortar is very wet, due to the rain showers that we had, hence the props to hold the blocks in place.

It got better in the afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

The morning was interupted by a delivery.

 

It was a bit like receiving a parcel at Christmas - what was in it?

It turned out to be chimney liners and lintels. We had the pallet put on the truck, and it was then pushed up one platform, and back down the other. 

The lintels were keenly awaited, and Neal got going as soon as the pallet was over on the other side. 

Here you can see two of the three lintels that he placed, with a row of blocks already over the top. We are now up to roof level, which is part of our plan. We want a dry storage area for our kit, and somewhere to shelter (nearby) if it rains. 

 

 

 

Near the end of the afternoon Neal suddenly realised that he had the time to get the joists from storage at Toddington. 

An hour later he was back, and we carried them across the tracks.

Then we stored them under the steps. 

 

 

 

 

But then Neal got itchy fingers, and started test fitting them in pairs.

There will be boards, insulation and on top a glass fibre sheet (if we remember correctly) which will wrap up against the outer walls, which will rise another course, to hide the roof. The roof will fall towards the rear, to drain into gutters there.

The original toilets here had no roof, a common arrangement at the time 

 

 

 

Tuesday with the Usketeers.

A switch from Wednesday, which the BBC forecast said would have sleet, then rain, then sleet again. And Tuesday was indeed sunny, so we went for that. It was almost windstill, and quite pleasant down there in the cutting.

 

Somewhat to our surprise, we are already  running out of bricks. Due to the change of day there was no opportunity to ask STEVIE to take a load of bricks, so there was nothing for it but to load up the two barrows with as many as we could carry at one go.

These we humped up the steep station drive, and then bumpety-bump across the field and finally along the track. 

 

 

 

 

Feeling a bit puffed on arrival at the tunnel mouth, our first thoughts were to get the chairs out and have a cuppa. 

This picture also shows you the state of play at the start of the day - the fireplace is being corbelled back. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is a sideways-on view of the start, with the fresh supplies of bricks piled up on the concrete blocks along the edge.

They didn't last very long... 

 

 

 

Here we have Paul and Dave discussing the joints, and tactics for the next course of bricks. As the fireplace narrows, the narrower chimney will emerge from it. Dave's excellent 'flaunching' is particularly evident.

We are running during half term on an orange timetable, which means one train between Winchcombe and Broadway. (Gotherington and CRC being worked on) 

In the distance there was a 'PEEP', and we just caught a glimpse of 3850 running round.

 

To encourage visitors with children, we had a room full of railway related toys at Winchcombe. This is an external facility that you can hire. (we did).

Staff here reported a very busy day, which was good to hear.

The little train in the foreground was self propelled, and started by pressing a button. Very popular! 

(to avoid being accused of heineous crimes, we waited with our picture until the very end of the day) 

Lunch was taken back in the weighbridge, which gave us the opportunity of bringing in another barrow of bricks. In fact we probably need another 80 of them, we calculated at the end of the day.

Paul lays the first paver.

 

 

On Tuesday we started to think about the next phase, that of the sleepers.

To avoid the bottoms rotting we will stand them on a row of pavers. The sleepers are 5 inch and the pavers 4 inch, so the sleepers will overhang by 1 inch, and so allow water to drip straight down and not under the sleeper ends. They will also stand on a damp proof membrane. 

 

 

 

At the end of the afternoon we had laid 4 courses, and reached the first course of the actual chimney itself.

Next time we will put up a little framework to represent the sleepers, and the roof line. This will allow us to work out what height sleepers we will need at each end (and in between) so that the sleepers can be cut off-site in readiness.

 

 

Tuesday at Broadway

Neal and John busy on Tuesday. 

 

The store room end of the building is now looking very respectable. You can see both windows in, lintels placed over the top, the interior concrete block wall right up to the top (another course to go eventually) and the roof joists are in.

This is the view of the roof joists from the inside. They went up really quick, but Neal is a trained joiner after all.

Inside, John was raising the blocks behind the fireplace, and was also nearly up to the top there.



Then there was some exciting news at Toddington:

Hawksworth Inspection Saloon 80975 has arrived on the railway. It was completed by newly formed BR at Swindon in 1948, and withdrawn in 1993. It came to us from the Llangollen Railway. It seats 23 in two large end saloons, and has a toilet, guard's cubicle and a small kitchen in the centre.

Picture by Alex Caulfield

Seven examples are known to remain preserved, with this one the last to be withdrawn. The future purpose with us is for private hire, small parties and special occasions.

Up to 2013 we had a similar inspection saloon, but of the LMS variety - M45048, built at Wolverton in 1940. Unfortunately it was then sold.

The new saloon is now being checked over, and a MO devised for its future operation.

Could this exception to our years long practice of running only Mk1s signal a relaxation of that policy? There is a privately owned GWR TK waiting just a few miles away....


 

SVRWiki

This photograph, taken from SVRWiki, shows the stunning interior of similar vehicle 80969 at the SVR. It's breathtakingly beautiful. It will open up a new market for us - would you like to hire it for that special occasion? Betton Grange as traction will be extra though...

 

 

 

We have found, and purchased for Winchcombe, two genuine GWR platform lamp posts.

This was quite a voyage of discovery, a real detective story.

While idly watching one of Henry Cole's Petronalia buying stories, we saw two GWR platform lamp posts flash by on the TV screen. Whoa - what was that ??? They seemed to be stood loose on the ground, not buried in someone's patio or garden.

The moment we saw a couple of GWR platform posts flash by on TV.

The programme does not reveal the exact locations of the visits, all we had was a first name of Francis, and the fact that it was not that far away from Henry's base. Frustration....

A couple of years passed, then we saw a repeat of the programme. Dang, what if the posts are still there?

Conflab with a member of the RATs Trust. We decided to send an enquiry to Henry Cole TV, could they put us in touch perhaps, if the other party was willing? A pro-Forma 'No' came back. What now?

Saturday a week ago there was a breakthrough. A RATs member had been to a swapmeet in the area, and asked if anyone knew a Francis that was visited by Henry. Oh, that must be Francis Barber, said a stallholder. Lives in Kelmscott you know. He even gave us the exact address.

We decided on a reconnaissance visit, and a timid knock on the door. Maybe he would be cross by a blunt visit to his front door? But we had no contact details, so it was nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A visit to Kelmscott found the posts still standing there in the yard, (phew!) but no one answered the door. We were practically forced to have a slap up lunch in the Blake's Kitchen cafe in nearby Clanfield, a great bakery with bakery related meals. (recommended!)

After lunch, a second attempt at the door. This time with success! Francis and his wife Sarah welcomed us very warmly, with offers of coffee and a comfy seat. They are not at all opposed to visitors, au contraire. They run a small architectural salvage business from their garden, and if you want the remains of a WW2 radial engine washed up on a beach, Francis is your man.

 

  

 

We were shown round the yard, which was full of interesting things.

 

Up against the garage were the famous two GWR lamp posts, still there. The exact origin is currently unknown, but they came from another salvage dealer in nearby Lechlade (but not Lechlade station, which had a different type of post).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a bit of haggling a price was agreed. The two posts were paid for privately by the two railway volunteers (the railway having no budget for this sort of embellishment).

Francis very kindly offered to deliver them, and they came on Friday, in the rain and sleet.

No matter, our enthusiasm was high ! 

 

Here they are, in store by the signal box in Winchcombe. Of course we have a purpose for them, in fact we could do with further such GWR platform lamp posts. So if you think you have one you'd like to pass on to the railway (where it will be put to good heritage use) then drop us a line (blogger contact form).

 

  

 

We have a longer term ambition to replace the 1980s garden type mini lamp posts at Winchcombe with genuine GWR ones. We have already installed three genuine ones on P1, and are now looking at the last 'garden' type on P1, and the next one would be one of the ones on P2, like these here.

There is also a plan to extend the platforms at Toddington, for which another 6 posts are required. Our historic platforms there are now too short for the trains that we run, obliging us to lock the doors on those coaches that do not quite make it into the station.

 

 

 

 

Other news from Friday.

 

A road accident outside the station garage last Wednesday! A van from the Broadway direction was about to turn into the garage, when it was overtaken by a car, which bounced off and hit a parked car on the pavement, pushing it into a street light. There was a loud bang, causing the volunteers to run down the station approach to investigate a suspected bridge strike.

 

John and Neal with the heavy bench, under the canopy.

 

 

 

What with services now booked on Saturday for half term, we had to remove the newly upholstered bench from the Gents', and find it a new, dry home. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That bench is made of proper wood - it is pretty heavy.

To avoid a long carry in the rain, Neal had brought a small trolley with him.

It was really a bit too small, but we managed by balancing it on two legs. Not ideal, but we got there.

 

 

 

 

With permission from Sam, our PWay colleague who is now also the new head of our S&T department, we stored the upholstered bench in the signal box, which is dry (unlike the old mess cabin, which has leaks)

Here are the two GWR benches that we have saved so far - the upholstered one at the back (6 legs) and a plain four legged one at the front, formerly at Eynsham and donated by a supporter. 

 

On the way back, in the pouring rain, we paused to photograph the store room end of the new building, now with interior block walls up to the top, and the last window in.

It's looking quite substantial now, isn't it?

Plans are being made for joists and its flat roof, hidden behind a low wall. 

A last look at the new building, in the rain, from the footbridge. Once the weather improves we will finish off the interior blocks, then resume with the bricks.

On Friday we also spent half a day grinding millscale off the three posts at Toddington, ready for galvanising. Neal also welded on the bottom plates, and reamed out holes for vertical adjustment, once they are up.