Post - op.

Wednesday with the Usketeers

First day out after the eye operation to remove a cataract, which went well. Jolly painful though, with a chap poking your eye and asking the nurse for 'another spear' from time to time. You knew what was coming next then! As we were wheeled back into the waiting room, the next chap in line refused at the fence. The previous candidate was a little old grannie, so if she can do it, everyone can.

Now comes a period of recuperation. There are strict instructions to avoid strenuous exercise, dirt and dust. Oh.
But can I...

- Shovel ballast? No.
- Use a nut runner? No.
- Carry trip jacks and throw them into the Landie? Nope.
- Play with Maxie? Neither.
- Hack open a bag of dusty cement and throw the contents into a mixer? Certainly not !

What can we do then? Stand there and watch, gentle stuff only for 4 weeks...

The doughnuts were plentiful this morning, and they were custard ones too. You bite into them, and yellow custard squeezes out.

Someone quipped that this was like 'biting into a zit'.

That did rather affect the pleasure of eating one...





We had a very small but compact team of two for most of the day. One Usketeer was off sick, another turned up but had a back issue, while a third had a cataract operation and was under orders not to do anything strenuous or indeed dusty. What a load of wimps.

Dave here usually lays plenty of bricks, but had to spend the morning in a planning meeting for our wartime event. Most of the Usketeers wear more than one hat, and also devote time to special events, act as guard, ticket inspector, canopy construction, Hayles maintenance and so on.

So actually doing any work first thing were only Paul and John, with the same number (two) of observers, Julian and yours truly.





As Dave was not the regular mixer and was not well acquainted with the dodge of using a squirt of washing up liquid in the water, his mix came out much too soupy in this first mix of the day.

Paul, a builder with 40 years in the trade, promptly shovelled it back into Maxie for her to 'chew the cud'.

The liquid gloop was then followed by a couple of firm shovels of dry-ish sand, after which the mix had the desired stiffness for laying blues.

 

With the stiffer mortar Paul then built an intermediary column which, like the one he built on the far corner last week, went all the way to the top with course 12. This then leaves 5 courses to fill in here.

John spent the day fetching blues from the other side of the yard, so is out of sight.

Paul built a second column nearer the buffer stop, so separating the five courses still needing to be laid into three stretches to fill in.

There we go - finished. Those blues do look nice. They are all from the old turntable pit at Avonmouth, and constitute the remainder of what was taken to Broadway and not fully used there.

Here's brick fetching John just arrived with another barrow load, and surveying the scene to give himself a bit of a break.

None of us are the youngest on this job, but John we suspect is the least youngest among us, but works equally hard. It's best to keep the body moving.

Elsewhere in the yard at Winchcombe the track gang was measuring up our pile of spare flat bottom rail to see if there is a 60ft one between them.


The devil makes work for idle hands, so we wandered up to the road bridge to see the effect of those big Lego bricks that have now been dropped into the cess by the turnout we moved not so long ago.

A row of bricks at Winchcombe

Here they are, seen sideways on.

The drainage blog is very informative and will be able to say more about what is going on here.

Outside Churchward House two chaps from C&M were looking into a hole. It's what they do.

We ascertained that it was a foulwater drain with a top that had failed, so it was being rebuilt. The white bucket fitted in perfectly and was there to stop the material being chipped away from falling back into the chamber. Very neat.

A visitor returning from Churchward House reported how smart it now looked inside. A credit to those that achieved this.

Back on the wall and we had two visitors from the track gang, who had been out at Gretton to effect some repairs where a small number of sleepers had not resisted well the passage of the tamper today.

In the picture Paul was being offered a bag of his own sweets (Paul has a sweet tooth and always has a bag of sweets for the gang) and appears to have a lot to say about it. We will draw a veil over that.

After lunch Dave joined us again, after a successful meeting planning the next wartime event.

He immediately started on the infill between the first two columns Paul had built. He's up to row 9 there in the picture.

Brick laying isn't just about slapping down some bricks on to mortar, but also about pointing your work, which is what Dave is doing here. That's very slow and needs a good eye.

At one point we thought Dave had invented a new way of laying these bricks more quickly - you start with mortar, not only under the bricks, but also in between, and then you just drop them into the gap, and - finished !

Here's Paul, also infilling between two columns now. We did really well today (after last week's washout) and this end of the wall completed the day with row 10 on. Two more rows to go then.

We think we might be able to get it all done in 3 more sessions? Or maybe that's a bit optimistic, but as soon as the risk of freezing is gone we need to make a start on the building, with its lime mortar.

The end of the day was a bit more gloomy, and the temperature never climbed above 5 degrees. Sleet is announced for tomorrow.

As we walked back to wash up, the tamper trundled by, back from its two jobs at Gretton and Cheltenham. Neil was baby sitting it; we always have a member of the gang on board to act as liaison. The next job here will be to ballast the viaduct and then tamp it, ready to reopen the line to Broadway.


Spring clean at Hayles Abbey halt.

The Usketeers are a loose knit group, and also rebuilt Hayles Abbey halt. It's finished now of course, but it still needs some aftercare and tlc.

The grass is starting to grow, so a small group went out to mow the grass, as you can see on this rather sunny picture. Also taken today, well the weather does change this time of year.

The stock of leaflets was replenished with 2020 ones, and the notices refreshed.

Finally, John also took a picture of the running in board, which looks the same as before but the board itself has in fact been completely rebuilt. Instead of plywood it is now made of tongue and groove planks, which we think will be a lot more robust. Well, that is how they were made originally.
The very effective rebuild was done by the Broadway maintenance gang, and they did well.

If you have read the Cornishman just out, you will know the story behind the letters 'HALT'.

A rare find

A wooden bench for Broadway.

Looking forward into equipping P2 at Broadway, we need one of those wooden benches that sat under the platform canopy.

In this 1904 picture, taken shortly after opening, you can see the wooden bench that stood under the waiting room canopy on P2.

These benches, completely made of wood (no cast iron bench ends) are quite rare. They were designed to stand in the dry, but in a lifetime they were invariably dragged out into the open and then started to deteriorate.

Hence it is very unusual to find one intact. We have never seen one for sale at auction, for example.





Great was our surprise when, passing through a local village, we glimpsed a familiar curved armrest in a bus shelter. Surely not? It certainly looked like a wooden GWR bench, but how could it be in a bus shelter in a village without a station?

There it is, that's a GWR bench, isn't it?

We contacted the Parish council and, quoting its poor condition, wondered if we might be permitted to rescue it for Broadway station.

The parish council very kindly said, yes, OK. So on Thursday last we borrowed the company truck and went to pick it up.

The bench was in very poor condition. The bus shelter had a wet floor, and the legs were very precarious. Indeed, one of the six legs was missing altogether.

We talked to our C&W department, who restored the P1 bench at Broadway to beautiful condition. However, they were really short of people with carpentry skills, and couldn't afford to take on another project, so we took the bench to our friendly carpentry contact at Willersey.

On the back of the truck the state of the legs became painfully apparent.

This leg on the corner is missing altogether. In the bus shelter, to make up for the missing leg the bench had been screwed to the back wall of the shelter. That's alright then....

The seat was made of a single plank of wood, something you don't see today. Even the repaired Broadway P1 bench has two planks. Can you make out what was stamped on the bottom?

We lifted it off the truck carefully and put it down in front of the joinery for assessment.

Not easy, if one of the legs is missing, very visible here.

In summary, the seat and back are not bad, but the legs are terrible. The far set of legs and armrest need to be replaced altogether; the nearest set repaired. All of the legs have had some material sawed off the bottom at some time, to cope with decay from the wet bus shelter floor, and to keep the bench level. Also, it is a 10ft bench, but a bit had been sawed out to make it fit a 9'6'' bus shelter. Ouch!

We looked at the bench that was recently donated from Eynsham to see how long the legs were at the bottom. The answer was: a lot longer, so all of the legs will need some patching to bring the seat height up to the normal 17 inches.

At the time of writing we have asked the joiner to give us an estimate for the cost of bringing the bench back into service.  It won't be cheap. At least one end needs to be completely rebuilt.

How this will be funded is not clear yet, but at least we have saved this rare piece of GWR furniture. Let's hope the estimate is not too high.







Wednesday on the goods platform wall.

Five of us this morning, and one man down with a back put out of joint. The skies were grey, and there was plenty of standing water about, left over from 'Dennis' and his minor stirrings afterwards. The forecast for today wasn't too brilliant either, it has to be said.

A large area of the yard at Winchcombe had been reserved for something, with an additional Telehandler hired in too.

Then this substantial lorry turned up and reversed itself into a convenient unloading position.

The reason for the hired in Telehandler soon became apparent, as it was used to unload some huge 'Lego' concrete blocks. These are destined to prop up the cutting slip below the 3 new houses built in the place of the former Harvest Home pub. More details about that can be found on the Drainage blog.






We watched the unloading spectacle for a bit, wondering if the Telehandler + block wouldn't take out one of our parked cars, but no need to worry.

Then we got Maxie out of her hiding place in the lamp hut, set her up on the pedestal and started pulling. It took 11 pulls this morning to coax her into life. The choke is broken, and the temperature on site was only plus 2 degrees. Some reluctance to start apparent then.

We had course No. 7 up last week, so today we made a start on No.8. Four spots were set up along the wall, and we remarked how much easier it is now to lay bricks, as we can now work almost standing up.

The four brick layers set up position just about equidistant along the wall, and worked towards each other.

Here Neil and Dave are about to meet.







Unfortunately before we could ready the second mix it started to rain, later in quite a persistent manner. We decided to stop for an early lunch, and sit it out and see if it would dry up in the afternoon.

Sadly it did not, the rain just got steadier, and we couldn't work with mortar in this wet weather. It's the first time we've been rained out.

This then is the site at the end of the day, with most of the action at the far end.

Better luck next week.

The contractors working on the slip weren't using mortar of course, so the manipulation of the blocks continued right through the steady rain.

Here they have all been taken off the lorry, and two are being loaded into a 9 ton dumper, which then took them to the slip site on the other side of the road.

Rain or no, Usk related work continues behind the scenes. When the joiner took the new window apart for repair he found that the metal strip on which the rollers ran was heavily cratered. This could explain why one of the little brass window rollers was seized, and had dragged along and worn itself a flat spot.

In the picture you can see a new running strip fabricated, and the roller in the foreground has been beautifully repaired by John from the canopy gang.

Underneath is a new poster frame being put together. This one is also for Broadway; there is room for 2 more double royal ones, and two quad royal ones. Four GWR travel posters on laminated aluminium sheets have already been ordered for them.

++++++++++ *** ++++++++++

Tomorrow your blogger will sit down in a chair and someone will poke a hole in his eye with a sharp instrument. A machine will then suck out the contents of his lens! Yes, it's a cataract operation. Reason for this blog to hit the 'Pause' button for a short while.

See you again soon then - perhaps even a bit more clearly ;-)

Broadway canopy extension lamps

Monday at Broadway

Monday was a very wet and windy day, the aftermath of the storm at the weekend, with the skies still very troubled.

Neal carried on regardless, despite the rain hammering down on the roof of the steps.

John and yours truly painted once again, we must be coming to the end for all these bits now, surely?










In this picture, taken in the afternoon when things had improved a bit weather-wise, we could see that the top rail and the uprights were in place, but they may well come down again for final fettling! Watch this space then.

Off site the production of the 'WAY OUT' signs continued, with the first (double sided) one just about ready now. Just the screw holes still need filling in, and repainting. Had to think twice about the orientation, to make sure the little hand pointed in the same direction on both front and back....

The bigger one, with the text about crossing via the bridge, is waiting for some extra letters to come. It shouldn't be long.

Things are finally moving with the production of the two large hexagonal lamps that hang under the two canopy extensions.






















In this blow up from one of the 1904 opening pictures you can see one of the two lamps in the distance, just to the right of the WAY OUT sign.

These reproduction lamps are specially made for us, and are funded by a valliant supporter of Broadway heritage, who also funded the three suspended gas lamps under the platform canopy.





Of course we had no drawing of these lamps, and this picture is the only one that shows one of them. A pretty fuzzy picture it is too, but it allowed our specialist advisor to make a drawing, and after much debate and delay production finally started last week.










Although not quite the same, this lamp at Birmingham Moor street is similar, and gives you a good idea of the general look. They are big!








Below are three of the first glimpses we have of one of the hexagonal lamps being made:

 

One of the reasons for the delay was the choice of electric light fitting, and the late arrival on the scene of a realistic LED fitting that replicates the cluster of gas burners. It caused a last minute redesign, but we will now have it.









Now all we have to do is build the canopy extension, and talks have started with a view to cutting metal and riveting arrangements for completing the steelwork, which currently is partially completed at Toddington.





Wednesday at Winchcombe

Two of our brick layers were absent today, with family duties deserving priority over building a wall. It's what we have to do at our age. Grandchildren, or own parents, our generation seems to be in the middle.

We got Maxie the mixer out, and gave her something to eat and a drink of water, with an added extra - a squirt of washing up liquid, a trick used by the canny brick layer to make the mortar creamier.

Maxie bubbled with pleasure...

There were two brick layers today, with two brick layer's mates. There was a great deal of activity at the stop block end, where a tower is being built to guide those who are to lay the bricks on the other side.

Paul worked on the northern end, increasing the height right up to the top, which is row 12.

Our other brick layer today, Jim, was at the stop block end, a place with limited room and lots of things that get in the way.

You can see his tower rising in the corner on the left here. Almost at the top now.

During a moment of absence we had a peep at what Jim had achieved.

Jim built out this corner, then started a course down the side.

When going down the side on the 7th course, Jim was assisted by his 'brickie's mate' Neil.

This 'assistance' seemed to consist mostly of looking over Jim's shoulder. Ho-ho, well someone has to do it.

At the end of this modest day we had erected a tower up to the 12th course at each end, and Jim had laid the 7th course on the southern end, to bring it level with the northern end, also now on course no. 7. So a straight run through, just over half way up.

Looking in the other direction at the end of the day we can see Paul's tower, and this has made the northern end look very neat, and dare we say, now finished?