Work starts on the Usk hut project

Work on the Usk weighbridge hut, or rather the platform adjacent to it started today. This forms part of the project, and the hut will stand on the patch of ground next to the platform, once back filled.

We have also just received planning permission for the building, which is great news. So the project has a green light, and we threw ourselves into it today with gusto.

Not before tea in the mess coach though. Every volunteer had a mug of it, with doughnuts galore.

A milk maid brings supplies.

The northern end of the new platform.

The we got ourselves ready to start work. Last week, Jim and Paul set out a number of towers of blocks to mark the progress of the new platform wall along the concrete foundations.

The end one then was our starting off point, with Julian laying the first blocks of the day, later helped by Paul. The blocks were trollied up to the site and dropped off in handy piles.

Meet maxie the mixer.

Minnie the Mixer having died a battleaxe's death, we had a new volunteer mixer in Maxine the mixer, a name we soon shortened to Maxie. Maxie and Minnie, see?

Maxie was an older mixer, with no legs to shout about, and a nasty rattle and a cough. She had seen a  lot of action. On top of her cover someone had inscribed 'BAG' and we thought that was a little unfair to a lady of her age. Despite the coughs and rattles she did the job, and we were very pleased she came.

The mixes produced by Maxie, some distance away as the sand couldn't be tipped any nearer, were barrowed up to the platform site and shovelled on to the two spots used by Paul and Julian.

Paul here is building up the tower further, while Julian has volunteered to the backbreaking job of laying the blocks along the first row.

Further along, Jim and John were also setting out, here using the very ancient gauge (it appears in John lees' historic 'Early GWSR' pctures) to establish an intermediate tower at the stop block end.

The stop block will have a return built around it.

We had two steamers out today, Dinmore and Foremarke. 2807 was off sick with a hot box, incurred on Sunday.

In the foreground Julian is doing well with the blocks. Yours truly and Dave P scouted round the yard and found quite a few blue engineering bricks, which we dropped at the start of the site. They, and others, will be used to face the platform with blues, and the blocks will be behind them.

After crossing Dinmore at Winchcombe, Foremarke chugged by the yard where block laying and rail loading was taking place.

We were doing quite well with the block laying, and soon had dealt with one pallet of the things, and had to ask Martin to bring us another.

With a growing pile of blues recovered from around the yard, John decided to clean them up a bit so that they could be used by the future brick layers.

He spent most of the day doing this, the mortar on them was quite hard.

The Usk stone material pallets are scattered round the yard and someone here hasn't been very careful with the Telehandler. The culprit is unknown, luckily. But now that we have planning permission we will be able to proceed with laying them, at least once the platform is done, so they shouldn't get shunted about like this for much longer.

This is an overview of the platform site. It's about 30m long.

The buffer stop is also getting a coat of black paint, we noticed (thumbs up!)

Later in the afternoon Dinmore Manor came by, and members of the C&W team came out to have a look as she drifted by.

The fireman has the token ready for exchange with the bobby, who is standing behind the camera.

And here is the token exchange actually happening.

It's half term at the moment, so there were several children on the train. One had his back to the window, headphones on, and was playing with an Ipad. Well, you can't please everybody.

We also noticed that the mess coach had received visitors since the weekend, as they had opened the fridge and smashed the eggs that were in it. Well, that could have been worse. We shall have to take away the ladder leading to the door for a while.

Mid afternoon Julian was beyond the half way point.

Blocks were getting scarce, and with the Telehandler in use elsewhere in the yard we couldn't fetch any more form the other side.

Here is our end of the day shot, late afternoon. Paul is just pointing the gaps between the blocks, while Julian has laid his last block in the distance, about two thirds of the way down.

The blocks will be at least 6 courses high. This depends on the size of the big blue engineering bullnoses that we are going to put on the top (rather than slabs as per passenger platforms) and we have secured a supply of these from Tyseley, who were sellers.

Laying blocks is pretty back breaking, so we decided to afford ourselves a mug of tea in the Coffee Pot at the end of the day.

Here we are, just like those ladies in Last of the Summer Wine:


https://youtu.be/MTvzH_OBZyg?t=478