Loading rails.

Friday loading rails.

A small team of 4 spent the whole day loading a stack of 30ft rails in the Toddington garden cntre, and trundling them across the car park and on to the Warflat, parked in the Parlour Road.

 

Here is the stack, 'as found'. Most of the materials here come from MOD Bicester, so it is likely that these 30 footers were part of the deal. They are s/h, but good quality 110lb stock. More, full length rails remain on the other side of the road, but these don't fit the Warflat, which isn't long enough.

 

 

 

We used STEVIE to trundle the rails through the car park, having to go quite a long way round for the widest route through between randomly parked cars. Rails perform unexpected antics, when on the end of a set of chains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday was a Gold Fire & Drive day, and also rather murky, especially in the afternoon, as we finished loading in a fine drizzle, which made work increasingly unpleasant.

 

 

 

 

After quite a bit of time getting the logistics organised, lunch time saw us with only 6 rails loaded. We had planned to remove some of the stacks of cast iron chairs on site as well, but there just weren't enough of us to do two jobs at the same time.With everything in place and with more practice, we got to the half way stage when this picture was taken. Paul is just placing the bearers for the second layer.

 

The bars were for moving the rails around - STEVIE couldn't quite reach all the way across, so dropped the goodies off in the middle, and we barred them further into position.

Here is the site where the rails used to be, at the end of the wet afternoon. Compare that with the first picture. We pressed on right to the end, because it would be silly to get everything together again on another day, just to move the last three rails. But we did get wet and tired....

There's a lot of consumables rubbish here from the house builders next door. It's what they do, we've seen it on other jobs.  

 

Still to pick up: a number of pallets of chairs, some concrete sleepers. Then this side will be largely empty.

 

 

Cleeve Slip.

The site has been graded by a contractor, Dogfish emptied ready for material drops, and CRC made ready to receive filling material for the void.

 

 

 

Saturday on the PWay.

A smaller gang than usual, as some of the principal suspects are away.

The pictures of the day are from David, with thanks.

Seven members of the gang went back to the turnout in the C&W yard, which needs completion of its refurbishment. 

The job is not made any easier if the turnout in question continues to be in use.

Here the 4 Dogfish and Shark, recently emptied for the transport of filling material from CRC, are being shunted away, ready for transfer to CRC. 

 

While we wait, you might at least try to get some lineside pictures...

 

It's one of the advantages of joining the PWay department, next to the variety of jobs, yummy snacks and tea in the morning, and great cameraderie.

 

The sleepers in the yard are ancient, and the ballast +/- non-existent (not counting half bricks and slagstones).

Having dug out the bed, Nick and Dave drag in the replacement timber. 

The timber is then bolted down, even as Jim starts digging out the enxt one.

Under supervision of new recruit Mark. 

David also took a picture of one of the timbers they took out on Saturday - this one has an invisible hole in it (being underneath the oddly shaped chair) but the size of this hole could be the cause of rails spreading, and a subsequent derailment.

One turnout is now done, and a second is about half way done. We are also putting in long timbers, instead of two short sleepers, end to end. In the day we didn't have long point timbers for sidings like this, they were expensive. So two ordinary sleepers would be used, leading to a certain degree of movement in the structure, which is not advisable. It's better now !

Monday on the Broadway waiting room.

Just two of us on the build, Neal not feeling well, possibly COVID - it's still about !

While getting our kit together for the day we found this ancient pot, containing 'Lamb's arch lime putty, in off white, with silver sand'.

So that is what the builder used on the other side, and we still have a large pot of it - any takers? The P2 waiting room is having its arches built with normal mortar, with added blacking.

 

On Monday, under brilliant sunshine but a cold northerly wind, John moved the tower scaffold to the front, and started to infill between the windows.

This is a slow job, as almost every brick has to be cut somehow.

In this close up you can see the wonderful detail, where the column alongside the window frame reverts to a plain rectangular style near the top of the window. There's a 'special' brick that does that job, one of the ones we had to order extra, as they are handed, and we didn't have enough of the correct 'hand'.

Yours truly was on painting on Monday. All our woodwork is in primer, and it has been exposed to the winter storms for a long time. Some of the primer is lifting off, so after repair we covered the woodwork with a coat of grey undercoat. That will protect it better. Ultimately these frames will be dark brown, as per 1904. We also did the boarded door for the end, and heard that the roofing contractor is expected this coming weekend, so our store room could be wind and weatherproof in just a few days.

The final shot of Monday shows how John has done the infill between the first two windows to the bottom of the arches.

A start was made on the second column, by the door. 

Tuesday on the waiting room.

John and Yours Truly again, more brick laying between the windows.

 

 

We been noticing these crows take an interest in the cafe chimney. As the fire has never been lit - not even tested - the chimney is attracting birds nests through non-use.

We saw one go down into the pot, and after a while, reappear. Another hovered over it, looking down, then changed its mind and flew off.

 

Due to the slip repair at Cleeve, we are on a special timetable, with trains running between Winchcombe and Broadway mid week. Weekends are back to normal. This meant that trains at Broadway were more frequent. Occupation was only fair, but at least there were some customers. Also several coaches (see below) and the childrens' wartime experience. There was a nasty spy on board the train - you know who you are !

 The other train was the Bubble car.

 

It stopped outside the cafe, just a short walk to the Cappuccino. Even so, the cafe did only modest business, we heard. Though it was nice to see two cyclists, for example, who came just for the cafe, but not to travel.

The steam loco of the day was BETTON GRANGE, which is a lovely engine to see. But it has a very leaky ashpan, and on Tuesday it left a trail of small fires at Broadway - we put out no fewer than six of them. All leaves and pine needles in the four foot.

John went to put one out in the southern turnout. We got a bit worried when we saw the increasing smoke, but it soon died down once the leaves had burned off. We gave it a soaking for good measure.

 

 

On the building we moved the tower scaffold along a bit on the front.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John finished off the second column between the windows, to the bottom of the arches. Neal wasn't there, and we didn't like to anticipate the next step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside, another coach manoeuvered up to the pavement, behind the little entrance canopy.

 

We're thinking about bollards, or possibly short lengths of bullhead rail, which would be authentic (and cheap) .

The whiter slabs in the foreground are replacements for ones crushed by road vehicles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were more fires in the afternoon:

 

One under the marroon coach. As we were sitting nearby, outside the cafe, we smelled the smoke, before we saw it. It's unmistakeable. Station staff put that one out.

 

 

 

 

The last one was in the run round loop. That got a broadside from a builder's bucket ! 

BETTON GRANGE's ash pan is turning out to be a bit of a collander (we quote) but as alternative locos were not easy to hand, they had to press on. 

All part of running in a new loco.

 

 

 

Wednesday with just one Usketeer.

Two Usketeers cried off with domestic issues, leaving Yours Truly to continue the daily 'grind' with the rusty corrugated iron sheets.

 

 

This was what it looked like at the start of the day. Four sheets done on one side, two more cleaned and ready for etch primer.

The weather was perfect for doing this, hence the lonely post. 

 

 

 

 

 

Winchcombe station was quite busy, being the temporary terminus mid week until the gala end of May.
 

 

 

At the north end we spotted this little interchange between the station assistant, and driver Chris on BETTON GRANGE.

Chris has some great steam memories. He was fireman on the banker up Honeybourne bank, which on one occasion was a 9F.

If only we could have been there. 

 

 

 

  

A little later BETTON GRANGE was out again, still starting small fires. It needs a proper ashpan sprinkler, we were told. Not something you can knock up between one day and the next, so it's a case of 'bear with'.

We took little breaks during the relentless grinding (also to give other ears a rest), and enjoyed a sandwich over lunch with the PWay gang. This is when you get all the gossip...

 

The first interesting bit is this, clearance of a small site so that we can put down some containers. Thanks are due to Rob & Colin, from C&M.

The PWay has never had containers (just about every other department has them) and because of our track laying and extension train history, we have alway stored our kit high up in a wagon of some form. This means lugging all our heavy stuff up and down stairs every working day.

 

 

 

So a couple of secure ground level storage containers have been on the wish list for some time, held back only by lack of money. Now, finally, we've had a breakthrough, made possible by money donated by people like you readers, and very importantly, by the sale of rail ends. Two containers are expected imminently, and they will go here.

 

That means that our tool fund is back down to a low level, while a particular need has cropped up. It's for a dumpy bag beam, like this one. 

We started using dumpy bags filled with ballast to do spot ballasting along the line - not a whole Dogfish at once. This saves us money. The dumpy bags are all second hand. But to fill them, and to stop the loops from breaking when we lift them, we would like to have a bag beam. To satisfy our safety requirements, it has to be new, and certified.

They are £400 - is there anyone who can sponsor one, or part of one?

If so, please send something to the Trust (where Gift Aid is possible) mentioning that it is for the PWay tool fund. It would help if you also let us know via a blog contact form, then we can see if we can buy a beam yet, or not.

Paul our head of PWay says he is even prepared to name it, and you can have your name painted on. Wow. 

 

Another news item is that we have managed to obtain some second hand PWay materials, as per pictures below:

 

 A working PWay trolley, self propelled, with a Honda engine and some trailers, also as per below.

The trailers that go with the powered trolley.

  There are also several pallets of track components, vats of grease, and a set of traffic lights:

 

 Apparently they announce speed restrictions. What could we do with them?

 

The PWay gang, many having just returned from a rail jolly to Whitby, continued the lengthy job of retimbering the key turnouts in the C&W yard.

 

We also have a new PWay recruitment leaflet - new, because we've never had one before - so if what we do is of interest, why not join us? Working outdoors is good for your health!

 

 

 

Near the end of the day Walt arrived with STEVIE, and the second refurbished parapet on board the trolley. This should go out to the site near Stanley Pontlarge in the next few days.

STEVIE will be working on Friday in the PWay yard, testing a possible new layout with the turnout components retrieved from CRC during the winter. 

 

 

 

 

A shunter also came down from Toddington to take the 4 empty Dogfish to CRC for loading (for the slip repair), but despite lurking on P1 with a Cappuccino and a camera, we did not see it come past, but, we ascertained, it will do so on Friday morning.

So at the end of the day we had cleaned, primered and painted in bitumen paint two more corrugated iron sheets. That means we now have six done, all with one unpainted side remaining. This side will be underneath. We might have a crack at that next week, if the spirit is still willing.

 

A defibrillator for Broadway? 

This is the plan, we read. We were pretty shocked, a bright yellow modern box, on our flagship 1904 station? Why? There is already a defibrillator at Broadway, in the stationmaster's office.

The argument advanced is that a public and visible defibrillator box would be needed for those days when the stationmaster isn't there.  But the only time someone is at Broadway without a stationmaster is on a Monday, when 4 - 5 members of the FoBS do some maintenance.  

A bright yellow box in full view goes against our 'living museum' principle, and would ruin the chances of a filming contract. It is also a slap in the face for those who fought so hard to make the station authentic. For such a tiny benefit? 

 

We have appealed internally, behind the scenes, but it's to no avail. We were stiff armed; there is no compromise possible. A defibrillator 'must take precedence over purely aesthetic considerations'. There is no legal obligation, but it is felt that there is a moral one. 'It may not be visually pleasing or in keeping with heritage, but safety and welfare needs to be foremost.' It is important that these devices are available outside public hours.

What do readers think? 

 

 

 

Sunday in a cricket club.

 

We just thought you'd like to see this balmy evening view of the local cricket pitch, with a hot air balloon just about to land in the area of Stanway viaduct.

A small group of volunteers meets here for pub quizzes, and it's here that important, often heritage, stuff is discussed. In a bar, of course. 

 

  

A ballast train, and a hole.

Saturday, out with the gang (on Vintage Weekend)

10 of us on Saturday, out beyond the tunnel on changing sleepers along our oldest piece of track. In that location the Vintage Weekend largely passed us by, although a number of us gave credence to the rumour that the rail car was coming to Winchcombe. Something was indeed signalled, we ran out, but it was just the normal 'kettle'. 

'Normal kettle' steaming by, in the form of 2807.

Oh well, might as well go to work then.

 

 

 

After a brief second breakfast of pains chocolats, doughnuts and chocolate biscuits we loaded up the tools outside, and had a brief debate about who was doing what, and placing which where.

 

 

 

 

 

Yours truly and Tim got the job of putting out the advance works site board. It was at MP 13.II, which is right in the middle of the (wider) Gretton Halt site.

It was very windy, so we brought a cast iron chair to hold the support down.

Two mistakes here: one cast iron chair was not enough to hold down the board (it promptly blew over, but only once we had driven back) and the second was putting the wrong board of two up. The green back was the giveaway... 

 

 D'oh ! Back you go with the correct board. Just as well, as it had blown over anyway.

The flail has been along here, very efficiently, but it has exposed the extreme height of the embankment in the Greet area. It's a bit daunting, especially when driving in reverse. 

 

Then it was off to work with the others. We had a digging team, and a sleeper replacement team, as you can see on the picture.

The challenge of 15 sleepers done on Wednesday hung over us, even though this team is less than half the size.

We did have a new recruit, Mark. Very welcome he was, too.

 

 

With BETTON GRANGE facing north, we had the opportunity of shots from both directions. 

Unfortunately the orientation of our railway, along the Cotswolds Edge, is such that we are always pointing at the shadow side of the train, pretty much into the sun. 

2807 made a fine sight heading south with its train. Looked quite well filled too.

Under the driving wheels you can see the new Robel obstruction free jacks. We need to drop them down when the train approaches - a quick kick with the heel suffices - but they can remain in place. 

 

 

When lunch time came everyone hopped into a vehicle to munch their sarnies and cake, except one....

BETTON GRANGE's second pass of the day. A bit more into the sun, as that moves further south.

It was a day of showers and high wind - we even had a brief hailstorm. Where that comes from you can see on the horizon. 

We're back at the Gretton halt site here (MP 13.II), picking up the site boards, ready to return to base before the Coffeepot closes.

 

On the way back we dropped off the 'garden quality' sleepers that we extracted - by a garden. It's a supporter of the railway, and it saves us having to take them home for disposal.

We also passed this small pub.... couldn't find any printable on-line reviews, must be very private.

Back at Winchcombe there was more of a carnival atmosphere. There was a live musician on the platform, children were having enormous fun with a room full of railway related toys in the visitor centre, and this 3 coach shuttle train rolled in from Toddington.

It was hauled by 24081, one of those very slow running Sulzer diesels. The idea was to connect our two most active sites on Vintage Weekend, Toddington and Winchcombe. It also added extra interest, together with the class 20 we spotted running through Hayles later in the afternoon.

On the way home we stopped at Hayles, to see if the rail car came in.

The class 24 did, there was even a passenger.

It suddenly struck us that the corrugated iron shelter now had a poster on it.

What's this?

 

 

 

 

It's not really authentic for the hut here, but it does look realistic, admittedly. A member of the RATs did it - we share the same drive for a genuine Heritage Railway. OK, quite well done, even.

Waiting a bit longer saw that class 20 with a train (no photograph) and then after another few minutes, 2807 returning, tender first.

Our beautiful Cotswolds edge countryside, with a 1907 locomotive and a perfect copy of a 1928 GWR halt.

 

 

 

Monday, on a ballast train.

Two of us, plus two loco crew. We had 4 Dogfish filled with ballast, and they had to be used to supplement where the tamper had raised the track, so that when empty they could be used by our infrastructure team.

 

On arrival at Toddington we paused in the loco shed, where the overhaul of 35006 was well under way.

Here was our first glimpse of No.22, tucked safely away in the shed.

These rail cars are quite vulnerable to deterioration from the weather. It has taken the K&ESR a long time to get the bodywork of their No.20 repaired. (But it will be ready this year) 

 

 

Our train of 4 Dogfish and a Shark was hauled by 24081 for the day. As we are all enthusiasts, and had a posession for Toddington - Gretton for the day, we did not attempt to resist a couple of photo stops on our way to the two dropping sites.

 

 

 

The first dropping site was Chicken Curve, where lifting & tamping recently exposed the sleepers.

We stopped just short, to allow Paul a last minute inspection of the site, to determine the best dropping zone. 

 

 

 

We stopped by this signal, where the loco crew and Yours Truly profited from a rare Cotswolds side shot (PWay usually being confined to the shadow side of the track).

 

Here's a nice portrait. The weather played its part too, being mostly sunny. What you can't hear is the old Sulzer churning away to itself slowly, at idling speed.

 

 

Once on Chicken Curve we dropped three of the 4 Dogfish. The current source of ballast is not as good as the last one (Dean Forest) and contains a lot more dust.

There was also some contamination. One Dogfish wouldn't empty, and we found black matter mixed (soil?) in with the dusty ballast, leading to a blockage. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the result of the drop. Ballast levels restored, but too much in the middle now.

A job for the regulator! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We moved on, through Winchcombe, and took another 'selfie' by the tunnel entrance. Clouds a bit thicker here.

If only the platelayers' hut was finished... 

 

 

 

 

The second ballast drop took place at Gretton halt. No picture of that, but we did take a picture of what one of our neighbours there has done:

 

He not only has a 5 bar gate on to our property, he uses it to access our embankment, and dump his garden rubbish there.

 

He also dumped these strange slabs on us. We went down there for a closer look, and established that these are slabs of house insulation, covered with grass clippings to disguise them.

 

We then returned to the train, and propelled back to Winchcombe. 

.... stopping for a while at the Greet tunnel southern portal, for a rather nice picture of the now empty ballast train.

We took this snapshot of the half built platelayer's hut as we passed.

The Dogfish were dropped off in the C&W yard, and the light engine returned to Toddington. 

This is Phil - does he remind you of the Grim Reaper?

During our absence there was some serious cleaning work going on - they also serve. Most people probably don't realise the dirt and the dust that remain, once the jolly old steam engine has chuffed along the line.

 

Volunteering at its best! 

On the way home we called in at Broadway. Here work has gone on at the end of the building, with a lot of cutting and jiggling to get the arches in. All three end arches are now in place, built over, and the first row of corbelling on top too.

End on view of the P2 waiting room, site of the former Gents toilet and workshop to be.

 

 

 

 

 

We took this picture for you, of the third completed arch.

 

All the brickwork at this end is now complete, except for the final three rows of corbelling. 

 

 

 

 

 

A full view of the new waiting room, with completed end brickwork

 

We are now waiting for the roofer to put on the (gently sloping) flat roof here. It'll be hidden, below and behind the corbelling.

The rivetted canopy covers the actual waiting room itself, starting from where the building becomes slightly wider, and has windows at the front.

Note how the corner has bull noses up to about head height, after which it reverts to rectangular bricks again.  It's a lovely detail, which is very rewarding to reproduce.

 

 

Tuesday with the Usketeers.

Our usual day was switched to Tuesday, which suited one of us better this time, and it was also forecast to be drier, important when painting corrugated iron. Gotta be flexible, ya know.

Yours truly spent most of the day in front of the weighbridge, grinding away at two of the six corrugated iron sheets. It's tiring, and a bit disspiriting, but at the end of the day - with a lunch break by the tunnel mouth - we had two more cleaned of rust and powdery zinc. Two were painted, and one left in primer, as it began to mizzle and the others went home. It's almost impossible to manipulate those corrugated iron sheets on your own, so we left them in a pile (with bearers in between) and with a heavy rubber wheel on top to stop the wind blowing them away. 

 

This is the pile at the end of the day - looking much better. However, some sheets are also rusty on the underside, shall we do those too? A question for next week.

 

We paid a social call on Paul and Julian, in their new home. As we approached, only their legs were visible, but at the last minute we were spotted, so they turned round to face the camera.

 

Julian has been busy fitting the slats over the sleeper gaps. They look a bit bright now, but the whole shebang will be painted with black decking paint, to make it look like creosote (which we can't buy any more, unless in the name of the plc).

In this picture he is fitting the last of the sleepers, No.5 at the front. The remaining gap is for the door, which Paul will make. So, basically, that is all the walls erected now.

 

Paul drives in chunky nails to hold things together to start with. The end product is a kind of frame inside, running round the top, and another round the bottom. The bottom one was fitted on Tuesday. 

 

While we were on site, we took a snapshot of the Bubble Car coming out of the tunnel. In truth we were an all diesel railway on Tuesday, as a kettle had failed and there was a class 37 substitute. So you could choose between a scenic rail car, or a 7 coach main line train, with a roaring monster at the front (the class 37...). Not so bad after all. As you can see, the Bubble Car was quite well filled. We also had 2 coach loads of kids. They were told by farmer Giles what a rotten old time WW2 was, but what they really liked, those damned kids, was a go on the stirrup pumps. Water everywhere...

 

 

 

 

Julian provided this end of the day picture.. He's got the strips along the front, and most of the way down the back too.

 

It's nice sitting in there, quite windstill now. Still need a roof, as there were showers about on Tuesday. Those rafters are only temporary, before you write in. We'll straighten them up, and level them, for the corrugated iron sheets to sit on. 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the afternoon we had our mug of tea in the Coffeepot, and some biscuits left over from the morning. The Bubble car, well filled, was waiting to leave as one passenger ran into the cafe for that extra snack. It left, very sedately, once the class 37 was in.

 

 

A hole has appeared....

Hot off the press: 

Due to the heavy rain that we had this winter we've suffered a minor landslip between Manor Lane and Bishops Cleeve. The news was made public on Tuesday, but it's been ongoing for a while, as we determined the size of the slip, its activity, and the possible measures to counter it.

We noticed last September that a crack had appeared in the roadway on the up line. During the winter we had heavy rain, and that water went down the crack and eventually lubricated a layer of about 3ft, which slid down the slope and curled up at the bottom.

 

Our infrastructure people check out the slip, and its monitoring equipment.

  

Detail of the slip at the top, with monitoring equipment.

Looking at the nature of the soil here, it appears to be mostly ash and spent ballast. It is similar in nature to another that occurred in the cutting at Toddington. Luckily the running line is not directly affected; trains can pass at 5mph.

We have no further detail of the proposed solution, except the press release on the GWSR website:

https://gwsr.com/news/landslip-at-gotherington/

...posted on Tuesday. That indicates that we now know exactly what is going on, and what we are going to do about it.

As so often our Trust has been asked to provide funds for this. It means that valuable reserves are going on maintenance issues, instead of new heritage projects, such as the proposed museum and visitor centre at Toddington.

 So if you'd like to help, please do so:

 https://www.gwrt.org.uk/donate/how-to-donate

 The Trust would certainly be very grateful.