Tumbleweed...

Monday at Toddington

Just two of us on Monday, John had another (railway) hat on.

Yours truly continued painting the trusses and fascia boards in dark stone undercoat.



Neal busied himself with the canopy overhang posts. Where the angled brackets will be bolted on he needed to provide extra meat on the inside of the columns. The way he did this is to weld on strips on the inside. Of course you can't weld on the inside of the columns, so what he did was drill holes through (picture), clamp the strips on the inside, and weld them on through the holes, then fill the holes back up with weld and grind the whole thing flat again.

Then he placed the brackets made up last week near the top of the columns. A 90 degree curved piece still needs to be made up (by an outside contractor) to connect the two ends of the bracket.





With the brackets clamped into the position to which they will be bolted, Neal then drilled holes through the brackets into the post, and through the strips inside.

Here are the two brackets in their place, with a spacer in between, and each with two holes drilled right through to the strips.

This is the end on which the truss will sit; it will run from top to bottom, so you can see how the brackets would give extra support to the truss.






We then had a bit of an interlude. A lorry turned up with 5 pallets of floor and skirting tiles for the goods shed mess room extension, work on which is continuing for the moment. Neal was asked to take the pallets off the truck.

As he did this, a rather noisy yellow helicopter flew by slowly, no doubt on a job verifying the power lines here. Better than a man with a bicycle and a ladder, no doubt.

We had hardly started again when another request came, this time to move the 5 pallets into the actual building. Oh, the drawbacks of being multi-talented.... Neal, can you just do this.....?

Then, finally, back to painting and drilling. Here are the two purlins in undercoat. Starting to look like a canopy overhang!

Back with his drilling, Neal here has taken the brackets off again, and can be seen cutting threads into the holes, including the strips now safely secured from the inside.

That tin of Trefolex looks like a trusty product that has been in use for generations.







At the end of the day, we had the two purlins in undercoat, and one of the two canopy support posts with bolt holes and bolts, ready to go.

There's lots more work due on the posts though. they need tops and bottoms welded on, and decorative panels in the lower half, to give them the appearance of cast iron.









Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Well, this is a fine kettle of fish.

The corona virus situation has obliged the railway to cease running until further notice, and our wartime in the Cotswolds event is cancelled. Many other railways are doing the same.

Tumbleweed....

 The Winchcombe car park was empty this morning, never seen anything like it.  It was like a western ghost town, with tumbleweed rolling down the main street.

A few volunteers did trickle in eventually, enough for a PWay party to go ballast shovelling at Stanway, and for a brickie and his mate to carry on with the Usk platform.







Railway policy now is that non-customer facing areas may continue if they wish, within government guidelines. It is appreciated that some of us might not like to be marooned at home, and that was certainly the sentiment of some who turned up today. Our wives do not appreciate living with someone who is stir crazy, pacing up and down and looking out of the window..

We had a lengthy meeting in the mess coach to start with, but sat some distance from each other, and washed hands when we could.

It was also felt that an outdoor activity like brick laying was not too risky. Numbers are low, and we are at some distance from each other, by the nature of the work.

Starting with 2 volunteers, we were soon joined by Jim and later still by Dave, who had however texted first thing to say he wasn't coming due to family pressure.

There's another one who was pacing up and down at home... No doubt another case of 'Go on then, gerrout of here'







The forecast was OK-ish at the start of the day, with increasing chance for drizzle in the afternoon. Jim and Paul did a great job at the stop block end and laid 3 rows and so bringing that end to the full height required.

Project leader Dave came just before lunch time, laid just two bricks (he says) but redeemed himself by bringing a box of 12 fairy cakes.

Munching these, we soon forgot about his late arrival.

As you can see from this photograph, the sky darkened and the low cloud hid the usual view of Cleeve Hill. That bode no good for further brick laying.

It then started to rain with a very insistent drizzle. We tried to tough it out, but everything was soaked. Great big drips plopped down from the branches of the oak tree above us. You can't lay bricks like this.

It was decided to use the remaining mortar on pointing the blocks around the bottom of the future hut rebuild, and with that exhausted, we washed our tools.

On the way back we stopped off at a DIY store to get some materials. It was busy there, more than usual. Probably a case of 'If I have to stay at home, what can I do?'

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good.