Christmas roundup

Monday at Broadway.

A nice dry working day, just what we needed.

Neal worked on the sides of the steps, John on the temporary supports for the P1 steps roof extension, and yours truly on painting the temporary roof sheets, as in the picture here.

Mid morning Neal had put up several of the timbers he had cut to size of the last few sessions, to see what they looked like.

We like !

We have saved a number of key pieces from the original HIA woodwork, and one essential item to copy is this curved transition piece, which sits between the intermediate landing and the lower half of the steps.

Neal has now copied this curved piece, and attached it to one of the timbers. What do you think?

John has been beavering away in one of the containers, to make the temporary uprights, and their clamps.

Today they were ready, and one is about to be trial fitted.

Just as well, as the trial showed that it didn't fit.

Back to the container for a bit more grinding and welding, but the second time it did fit, and we moved on to the de-rusting and primering stage, which was completed at the end of the day.

Mid afternoon Neal had also been doing a bit of trial fitting, to wit all the upper timbers along one side.

As you can see they fit well, and it's with a well deserved smile that Neal slowly walks down the steps, like a famous guest singer on a talk show.

We were lucky to hear a faint toot while using the angle grinder on the metal supports, and we were surprised to see the class 73 light engine enter the station.

Hopes for that long sought after glint shot rose higher...

After a quarter of an hour at the north headshunt, the class 73 re-emerged with the rake of Dogfish and a bogie flat in tow, purpose unknown. No doubt something to do with the winter works, which start on Jan 4th on Stanway viaduct.

The class 73 and its train of Dogfish swept past, unfortunately a few minutes too early as the sun was still high in the sky and no glint was available. So near!

This was the best possible shot, with the sun too high in the sky and making a plume that looked as if a bomb had dropped. The ideal time looks to be around 15.30 with an incoming train required. Maybe later in the week, when the post Christmas trains run until the end of the year.

Other interesting bits.

As there is no Wednesday Usketeers session (Christmas day, let them have a well deserved break), here are some other tidbits from the last few days that might interest our readers.

This is the latest situation with the mess room extension to the goods shed.

The roofing felt is on. There will be slates made of fibre, which simulate the look of the real thing.

In the loco shed the two tops for the two 13' 8'' high yard lamp posts have arrived (a platform lamp is just half this height above ground).

We saw photographs earlier, but failed to realise the magnificent size of these replica tops. To give you an idea of the scale we photographed this one again, using a tail lamp to give the relative sizes.





In Toddington yard there is another bit of news, now confirmed in a circular to our volunteers. The lease for the garden centre, which occupied a large part of the whole of the Toddington yard area, has expired and was not renewed. The lessee has just vacated the premises.

This is a view from Stow road. In the foreground is the former garden centre car park, with room for approximately 60 cars. The white buildings in the background are the steam and diesel loco sheds. The width of the garden centre site is apparent.







This is the view in the other direction, with a little slip road that used to be blocked with two large flower pots.











This is the back of the garden centre building, where there is a further large area, once filled with tables of plants for sale.











A photograph of the same area, looking in the opposite direction. The station building is on the left, out of sight.

More or less in the middle is the grey roof of the wooden Flag & Whistle building.

The garden centre has rented this space for a long time, certainly at least since the 1980s, as it appears on a map of the Toddington site that formed part of a publicity leaflet in 1982, reproduced in part below:

Reference points are the station building at the top, and the goods shed top right. The loco shed below it is the old Dowty shed, which was replaced by today's steam and diesel sheds. The curve on the NG was not retained.

The garden centre site represents approximately one third of the whole Toddington site, north of the loco sheds.

It's very early days as to what the railway could do with this opportunity, but a clear and very welcome increase in the car parking spaces available is an immediate advantage. Our car park has proved to be too small since we opened to Broadway.

It is likely that a completely fresh approach will be made to the shape of the whole site. This is a wonderful opportunity - visitors could turn off Stow Road and see straight away: This is a Heritage railway.

76077 news

Monday at Broadway

Quitre a nice day really, considering, allowing the continuation of work on the footbridge steps with both carpentry and wood conservation work going on.

Neal is now well into the carpentry process for making up the sides of the steps. All the timbers were cut, preserved and primered, and here he is under the roof (where we have stored them, to be out of the way) measuring up to select the next timber on which he plans to work.

Here he is with a short piece, for the intermediate landing.

Using two G clamps he has simulated the uprights left and right, and he's now marking out the cuts he needs to make to get each piece to fit round the steel hoops, and into the next piece.

Then it's back down to the ground floor to cut.

Each timber is different, there is no mass production possible, everything has to be measured, cut, trial fitted, cut a little bit more, and so on.

Neal started with the bottoms on the near side, and these are now ready. They are being preserved and painted by John, where cut wood has been exposed.

Next, Neal is doing the tops, and you can see him here offering up the next piece before marking it up.

The last pieces he will do will be the two vertical ones on each panel, as these are the simplest.

Elsewhere, benches received a repaint, or as in this case, a coat of topcoat it never had. It is certainly looking very shiny now.

We are looking for another all wooden bench like this one (a GWR one of course). Or even two, if we can find any. They would go under the canopy on P2 (early pictures show that there was one) or indeed inside one of the 2 rooms in the new building.

If you know of one that is available, even in poor condition (most are by now) do let us know.

We would also be interested in a similar bench, but upholstered for the interior (like the one currently in the booking office).

Outside the container on P2, John was painting a number of corrugated iron panels.

We would like to build a temporary roof over the bottom of the P1 steps, to protect them from the rain until the canopy extension is in place, in a year's time.

On top of the station roof primer was being applied to the two beams that support the corrugated iron sheets. These were not painted during installation. We think it's wise to protect them.

This is a long, slow job. Care has to be taken not to get white primer on the light stone roof sheets, and the back of this long timber is really awkward to paint, as it's too low to sit under, and just too high to paint lying down.

Mid afternoon Neal had fitted the two upper timbers, with a last one to go at the top. In the picture he's talking to Mike, with concerns as to how best to protect the bridge against the driving rain that we keep getting.

The two pieces he fitted in the morning can be seen here.

Of course everything has to come down again, to be painted with preserver and the primer.

The joinery on the two pieces he fitted earlier is lovely. The upright for the hoops goes right through the join, and then you need to consider the change of angle from level to, Neal said, 14.35 degrees.

This is where the giant school protractor comes in. Got one of those at home? Thought not....

This is the joint in the picture. Isn't it a great piece of work? All done in a morning.


Wednesday PWay work and Usketeers.

All went off to have a jolly Christmas dinner. You'll forgive them for that, won't you? So no work today.

This isn't going to help me eat my cheesecake?

Heritage bulletin - Toddington Yard lamps

The specialist manufacturer has completed the two yard lamp tops that we ordered.

 This is one of them, all wired up for the electrics, and with the frog fitted, ready to go on the post.

Chimney detail.

Canopy, with lighting.

The manufacturer was able to equip it with 6 gas light LED lookalikes, on the left, and achieved a superb detail on the chimney, all cut out of copper sheet. Didn't he do well!

The lamp tops are about to be delivered to the railway, and may even be fitted before Christmas, so keep an eye open for them. Next summer, on a sunny day or a moody evening, you should be able to take some very authentic photographs of our locomotives resting at the back of the loco shed.

Looking further forward, (the Toddington site redevelopment....) we could do with another couple of yard lamp posts, so if you know of any that are available, do let us know.






76077 update

News here is that the frames, shotblasted and painted at Toddington last year, have now been moved into the workshop of Locomotive Maintenance Services Ltd at Loughborough.

76077 frames arrive at Loughborough.

 Pitchford Hall has been outshopped, and now there is room in the shed for our locomotive frames.

76077 frames under cover at LMS.

In the workshops.

Heavy work on the frames will start in the new year, just waiting for the Christmas hols to be over.

Refurbished safety valves.

Andy, our engineering director, also let us have pictures of some individual items that are ready to go back on.

New snifting valves, marked 76077 L and R. Neat, or what?

These snifting valves are new. They are replicas cast by the sister 76074 group, who borrowed our originals (and quite a number of other items) to get their own loco up and running, and these items are now being returned, or replaced by new.

'Smiths Industrial Instruments, London NW2'.

Finally, we have acquired an original speedometer  (marked 'BR' of course) from the 80072 group at Llangollen. We are lucky that we have a Standard locomotive type, and many components can be sourced via other locomotive groups with similar designs. The biggest missing item is still the reverser gear box. If we can't find an original we know of groups that already have patterns made and new parts cast, so while a new gear box is do-able, it won't be cheap. We're also after an injector, which could cost around £4500. A new chimney is also being sourced at the time of writing.

As restorations go 76077 is quite straightforward.
We have enough funds to get the restoration up and running, but need more help to continue the good progress beyond the end of 2020.

If you'd like to help you could do that by becoming a £500 shareholder:
https://standard76077.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/190123-TSLL-share-application-form.pdf

Or in smaller bite sized chunks, say the cost of a meal per month, how about setting up a standing order of say £25 a month to buy shares in installments:
https://standard76077.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/180623-TSLL-BANKERS-ORDER-FORM.pdf

Yours truly bought a block of £500 shares last summer, and now that the Christmas presents have all been bought, has decided to continue with a £25 monthly standing order. A case of putting your money where your mouth is.

Glorious mud

Monday at Broadway.

First thing, a brighter picture of the new WAY IN sign. It's true, we'd like to widen this canopy, but when to find the time? First we need to finish the footbridge steps, then the P1 canopy extension including its prior manufacture, and then we're on to P2, which also has a canopy and its own extension.

Plenty of food on our plate then.

Broadway entrance in sunnier climes.

All the shaped timber for the sides of the steps has now had 3 coats of preservative, and two of primer, so Neal was finally able to make a start on cutting it to size.

Here we see him with the first piece, starting at the bottom. A great day!

While Neal was starting to measure angles and cut wood, the other two continued with primering the 3 by 3 timbers. It seems endless, but we did get to the end today, and also to the bottom of the gallon pot of primer. Good coordination there.

Neal's 'workshop' was the northern end of the building, in the belief that this would be less windy. But it wasn't, we seem to be going through a North Easterly at the moment. At least the sawdust didn't hang about, it just disappeared in the gusts.

The first timber to be fitted was a tricky one straight away. Neal had to tailor it around the upright supporting the roof, and at the bottom some unkind person had planted a rivet in just the wrong place.

Neal seemed to be expecting this, and had brought a very large diameter drill bit, with which he drilled shallow holes that would take the rivet heads.

After finishing the primer work on the timbers, we got out a large cardboard box, whose contents had been shot blasted an zinc coated a few months ago. These were the handrail brackets, originals from HIA. They had all been carefully unscrewed and left in a plastic bucket somewhere on site.

We counted 36 of them, or 9 per handrail. Looking at the steps though, we reckon we need at least 10, so we'll have to make a few more. Others look surprisingly moth eaten, they must have been those at the bottom of the HIA steps, where there was no roof. Another is bent, so a little more TLC is needed here.

As the sun went down, mid afternoon, Neal was just fitting the second timber, and making sure that the two met perfectly, to minimise any gap for water ingress.

All the timbers will be taken off again, so that we can properly treat the freshly cut ends with preservative and some paint.






Wednesday on the Usk platform.

Low numbers today, as several were on yet another course. A small gang went off to near Hayles Abbey halt to do boxing in of ballast, two went off to return the white Landie from its MOT and overhaul, and just two were on the Usk platform today.

The day started muddy - these two enormous lorries brought stone to the contractor on the river Isbourne, to put into gabions.

They made a mess of the PWay yard and its approaches, there is mud everywhere.

Have we got to lift this? Just the 4 of us?

We then had a customer round to collect the 4 No.1 lamp post castings that he had ordered. They're just under 200Kg each, and can be lifted by 3 fit men, but we didn't have 3 fit men. 3 kind volunteers came to help, and eventually we did manhandle them on to the trailer, which fortunately had a very low bed.

Need a GWR platform lamp post for your railway? Drop a line to breva2011 (at) hotmail.co.uk. All profits go to GWSR plc.

Are you going to behave yourself today?

So just yours truly and Paul on the Usk wall today. We got Maxie out and placed her on the throne, and after quite a few pulls on the cord - more than usual - she eventually muttered into life.

Paul showed us a wrinkle today used by bricklayers - a dash of washing up liquid in the water makes for a very creamy mix. It had to be dry too, as the blues we are using do not absorb any water at all.

The job today was to put up a tower round the end of the platform, including on that extra bit of concrete at the back that we laid last week.

This is as high as Paul could go, as otherwise the bricks will start to slide around.

We liked the wall, it's going to look great. Rain came after lunch and it soon got dark, so that was about it for today.

We had some hot Cornish Pasties for the team for lunch, a great treat. And the visit of our new director responsible for the PWay - coincidence, or not? They must have a nose for it.

Helping to churn the mudbath was this dumper, which the contractor on the Isbourne is using to ferry the stone down to the gabions at the edge of the river.

After the rain and high winds we've had, the already deeply rutted path to the site is now filled with water, with the dumper rocking, swaying and splashing its way along.

Here's a peep over the works, taken from the start of Chicken Curve. The right hand side looks done, lined with the gabions, and the left hand side is now being addressed.

The upstream end on the other side of the embankment - through the little tunnel - is also going to be done.

Finally we took the remains of the smaller Usk building window to a volunteer joiner, who will make a new one (or rather two new ones; we have the third, big one) in his spare time. It's not a big deal if you have the skills, but it's still very kind to offer to help.

This is the window in question. All the windows rotted, having been made of softwood 150 years ago. The big window on the left side, which allowed the weighbridge operator a good look over the weighbridge table, had completely collapsed, helped along by a rotten softwood lintel and a French lorry that reversed into it while turning to buy something from the burger van opposite.

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A late submission by John M shows the small gang out along the track today, boxing in south of Hayles Abbey halt:

Beautiful countryside, fresh air and sunshine, why not come and join us?