30ft of rubber insulation strip

A lousy weather forecast: heavy rain, followed by showers.

Miserable with this unpromising start to the day, only 13 of us gathered in the mess coach to sip our tea and nibble at Jim's doughnuts.

What to do? It pelted down, even after a second cup of tea. Finally some of us in the best wet weather gear got the white Landie going and loaded it up with redundant GWR throughbolt chairs, something that would keep 2807 supplied for their boot scrapers, as well as tidy up the yard a bit.

Suddenly the heavens cleared a bit, and the forecast for mere showers looked a bit more plausible. Dare we risk it? We dared to take the risk.

We got Maxie out and fed her a dusty diet of sand and cement, which didn't go down too well, it made her cough.

We banged Maxie on the back to stop her coughing, or is there a Heimlich manoeuvre for concrete mixers that people know of?

We also gave her a bucket of water to drink.

After all the coughing and slobbering, we thought it best to wipe her mouth.

And it worked! She 'coughed up' a load of the finest mortar, just what was needed for the small group of block layers that had ventured out into the damp.

Jim and Peter decided to build up the tower at the northern end to see how the courses would run up to the top.

The red and white pole on the right has a black stripe round it, and this is the platform level. The stick on the left is marked (on the other side) with the level for each course.

Here are Jim and Peter checking the height of their tower, course by course, against the 'ruler' that Jim made.

Trains interrupted our work from time to time, this one being the first one of the day, headed south by Dinmore Manor to pick up eager tourists from Cheltenham.

The rails were wet and it was a spectacular start as the loco started to pull its heavy train away from the bracket signal, trying not to slip.

Later in the day P&O pulled away heading north, but less sure underfoot and we heard a brief slip.

In the foreground you can see block laying, and a little supply train bringing more blocks. We need to lay 100s of these hefty things.

We were delighted to see Paul back from a brief spell at home. He must be feeling better, as the air, despite the rain clouds, suddenly got a lot bluer!

Paul pushed the tower higher, still with Peter in attendance, while Jim moved further along.

Nearer the middle of our 30m wall Dave started to help raise this tower, which also had its own 'ruler' to guide the levels upwards.

After raising the middle tower a bit, and with a drier weather outlook, Dave thought he'd start the last, short stretch of the wall, where no blocks had been laid at all yet. This was daring, as it floods easily (we noticed the last two working days, which were equally wet) but John here brushed the water to one end and scooped it out.

The water that was too difficult to scoop was retained by a neat little dam.

By this time Dinmore Manor had done a complete round trip, and is seen here heading south for the second time. Again, a delicate start on slippery rails.

The weather, while drier, had now settled down to a mixture of short spells of sunshine and heavy showers. Twice they were so bad that we had to run for the shelter of the corrugated iron hut (from an orchard in Bredon, should you ask) and we were even entertained by a hail storm which rattled down on top.

In between the hail and rain showers, short spells of full sun! Peter takes 5 sitting on a rail, while Dave seems to be laying an imaginary block. Well, they are lighter.

The unbuilt on length of platform wall by now was almost fully built on. Dave was doing well, some labelled him a 'Blockstar'. Such puns. But please don't sing.

Just a handful of blocks to go here, and when we come back next week they will have gone off and given us a dry surface to work on, floods or no floods.

The block tongs are also in evidence here, they are so handy, especially when you are laying the bottom row.

An unexpected visitor mid afternoon was this diesel loco without a train. It's marked D5081 but can also emerge as class 24  24081. The loco has been active throughout its preserved life (since 1981!) but over the last few months has had a bogie refurbishment, which looks to have been a success as it allowed itself a turn to Winchcombe to see how it went.

Near the end of the afternoon there were more spectators than block layers, the last of which was Dave, still putting them down at ground level. Well done Dave, we really advanced the wall today.

This spectating was thirsty work, or else it made the mind think of tea, because after washing up the tools the Coffeepot was the universally agreed destination.

'John, you made the tea really well'  ' Aw, shucks...'

Seven of us concluded this very happy day with tea, and more fascinating tales from Paul, which we can't repeat here as this is a family blog. What a rich life he had, our Paul.

See you next week!

Oh, yes:
30ft of rubber insulation strip?

Heading for the Coffeepot, we met Peter from C&W coming the other way, bearing a parcel.

Got a cake in there then, Peter, you lucky lot in C&W?

No, it's.......