Getting Christmassy

Friday at Broadway.

And just Friday. That's yer lot, this time. No PWay work on Saturday, it's the start of the Christmas season and that means Christmas dinners! Or training sessions on the Pway, where a further 8 are being taught lookout duties.

It was a grim day at Broadway today. Although our stuff was under the canopy, everything was nonetheless wet, from spray with the high winds.

At one point you could barely see the end of the line, it was raining so hard.

No matter though, because we already had a kind of indoor job in mind, which was to pick up the door for the Usk weighbridge hut from our friendly joiner at Willersey.

In the picture you can see that he has made it a completely new frame, using reclaimed wood at the top, and new wood down the sides.

At some stage the door needs rubbing down and the frame needs the application of several layers of preservative, but there is probably no hurry as we won't be starting the build until the frost is over.

In return we took the large replacement window up, for a similar but smaller repair to a corner of the frame.

Back at Broadway station around lunch time, we found the tower scaffold erected outside the front door. What's going on here then?

Oh, right, they're going to (finally) put up the WAY IN sign that we made a few months back.

The double V board is all new, manufactured in house, the BOOKING OFFICE letters are from a smaller V board that we bought but used only the letters, and the WAY IN and & are new castings in aluminium, using some WAY OUT originals that we had. The metal work for the suspension was made in house again, and so we have a new board that suits our particular purposes.

The new V board was opened out and offered up to the front door, where the ends were attached to the wall, and the nose was suspended from the canopy.


























While John and Neal were fiddling with the hanging of the V board, another volunteer 'planted' a GWR boundary post at the point where the two drives part company. Some grass seed was mixed in, so that this area should be weed free in the spring. The post adds a bit of colour.

The boundary post was donated by the RAT Railway Archiving Trust. It is an unusual angular design. Most GWR boundary posts were in the form of an old medallion type roundel on top of a length of bridge rail. This style looks more modern, can anyone say something more about it?

After the fierce downpour we were treated to after lunch, we had 10 minutes with this shaft of sunlight illuminating the otherwise deserted station.

We had a little poke round the station to see if there were any other interesting sunset pictures possible.

By putting the lamp post in front of the orb of the sun, you get the lovely orange glow in the glass of the lamp top. The platforms were wet, with large puddles, and these too reflected the orange sunlight.

Turning the other way....

...you get this amazing orange glow on the station building. It lasted just a few moments.

Step back, and admire the 'light and dark stone'. Now light and dark orange.

And then the sun was gone. It was cold and windy again, and getting dark too, Neal and John finished hanging the V board, so now passengers will know where the way in is. Apparently, some do not know this, hence the board. The old station didn't have such a board, as the entrance was round the side and on to the platform.

Two WAY OUT signs, with a pointing finger, are next on the 'to do' list. We already have the letters - and the finger !

No Saturday report then, due to other activities. Reporting looks likely to be a bit intermittent over the Christmas period.