Week 13 - daylight at last !

Slowly the railway is getting back into gear. This Wednesday there were 6 volunteers to do track recording, as against only 3 last week. But the weather was rather disturbed, and we can't do the recording when it's wet - the paint won't stick to the rail, and the recording sheet gets wet. It was a heavy, humid, damp day, with thunderclouds hanging above us.

Heigh - ho, it's (back) off to work we go.

The descent from Stanton yard on to the track.

The next thing we had to do was trudge up towards Broadway to the point reached by the previous asset registration gang. This was at mile post 7-II.

Here we are passing under the aqueduct, the metalwork of which was repaired last year, with more stringent handrails.

MP 7-II at last, and we prepare ourselves for the day. Who is going to do what? It should be a lot faster, with twice as many people as last week.  But half the people haven't done it before, so there is a bit of adjustment going on, before we get into our stride.

In this picture we are just north of Stanton Fields overbridge, a tiny lane that leads to a couple of houses, but which some vandal has found, to climb down on to the trackbed and spray paint one of the bridge abutments. It's a new one too.

Fashion wear tip of the day: shorts! A sure sign of summer here. Very painful on the knees though if you want to kneel down in the ballast to paint the numbers on to the rails, which is probably why that job was left to yours truly, with his long trousers on.

A knobbly knees contest candidate? We think so, yes.

Progress was pleasingly forward moving, if we didn't have to keep stopping for Peter to find his contact lens.

We are now required to identify each individual rail, even if welded up with others or as part of CWR.

So how do you affix an ID number? We have tried scrabble tiles, but are currently favouring a spray painted block, with a number drawn into it, starting from the last MP. So there should be at least 22 per quarter mile.

How do you draw that number? Well, we tried a stick, a piece of plastic insulation from a cable, but the best way seems to be the human finger. If in a glove, but the paint soon soaks through that, and we can reveal that this blog post is 50% typed with an orange finger tip, even after the obligatory scrubbing up shower.

Oh well.

Here we are between the B4632 road bridge (lots of rust streaks under it on the ballast, it is clearly not waterproof, or leaking water from something) and behind the camera is the lane leading to Stanton village.

In the picture we have just reached an insulated block joint, witnessed by the S&T cabinet on the left.

At lunch time we emerged from under the road bridge at the level of Stanton yard, which was amazing progress. But the clouds wre getting ever darker and we could hear rumbles now, from two directions at once.

We were in a bit of a quandary, as we were tired and hungry, but as yet it was dry so should we press on?

We decided to go on to MP  8-I (three quarters of a mile done then, the same as all day last Wednesday) providing we could find it.
Eventually it turned up in the grass, apparently a victim of the flail.
These early day metal ones are gradually being replaced by replica GWR wooden ones with steel letters, albeit not on the original lengths of bridge rail, which we still find from time to time.

Having reached this goal, we broke for lunch, at last.




Lunch was a quickie. Ideally we wanted to reach the southern breather on the Broadway extension, which is just north of the viaduct.

We did another quarter of a mile, as the clouds got more and more menacing. Raindrops started to appear.

 Mike volunteered to test for lightening strikes, but no luck. It's all part of the jolly banter in the team.

Robert noted all the measurements on a paper excel spread sheet.

Funnily enough, the rain that came didn't so much interrupt the paint spraying (which was on the web, still dry) but it made the spreadsheet wet - a fatal flaw. We also ran out of paint, what with spraying every weld, and there were many on this last quarter mile. The number of rails increased from 22 to 41! This section dates back to the pre-Broadway area, before we had the fund raising share issue for the extension, which allowed us to buy new rail.

So with a quarter of a mile still to go (we have already measured the main line where it is fishplated) we called it a day, and walked home among thunderclaps and heavy spots of rain. We had done a mile today, an excellent result.

En passant as it were we noticed this drain, beautifully reconstructed by the drainage gang. It was busy dealing with the results of yesterday evening's downpour and hailstorm.

Didn't the drainage gang make a beautiful job of this channel?





***** A number of photographs have been removed on request.



Hot news:

In an internal circular yesterday, released to our 900 or so volunteers, we were advised that we are going to re-open the railway to volunteers progressively over the next two months, providing the crisis continues to abate. Individual departments will effect a phased return to work. There are risk assessments to consider, anti infection measures for those likely to work indoors or close together, but we are coming back!

The best bit of news was slipped in at the end: Once the volunteers are back, with the competences in place and the rolling stock and locos vetted, we are considering re-opening to passengers from August 15th! It will be a steam hauled service, but initially with a limited timetable and with reserved seating. No doubt a more public announcement setting out how to reserve will follow in due course.

We will therefore have a very brief season in which we can try to generate a little cash flow, before we close down for the winter again. It's a toe in the water, but that's how you start to learn to swim.





This week's quiz:

This one has been prepared, for fun and exclusively for this blog, by Broadway and C&M stalwart Jim H.

Thanks, Jim! Let's see how far you can get with this one:

1.     Which two locomotives were named King George VI?

2.     What was the name and number of the GWR’s only pacific locomotive?

3.     How many BR Standard locomotives were built and in how many classes?

4.     Which was the only class of express steam engine that operated on BR without a red buffer beam?

5.     Where was the northernmost depot employing GW designed locomotives?

6.     What was the final GWR design of steam locomotive?

7.     Which is the only preserved “Manor” not to have been rescued from Barry?

8.     In what year was the Territorial Army formed?

9.     Greet Tunnel at 693 yards is the second longest tunnel on a preserved railway.  Which railway has the longest tunnel, what is it called and how long is it?

10. How many sleepers are there in a mile of track?

11. Which was the only ex LNER locomotive to survive from Barry scrap yard?

12. What is the name of the most northerly junction on the BR network?

13. What is the longest name ever carried by a “Castle” locomotive?

14. Apart from locomotive 46220 Coronation, three other members of the same class carried crests above their nameplates.  Which locomotives were these?

15. Four locomotives were involved in the 1952 railway accident at Harrow & Wealdstone. What were the numbers and names of these engines?

16. Between 1968 and 1990 how many locomotives left Barry scrapyard for preservation?

17. Which “Hall” class locomotive didn’t survive into BR ownership? 

18. In 1952 4082 Windsor Castle swapped identity with which other class member?

19. How many BR Standard 9Fs were fitted with mechanical stokers?

20. Where and what is the steepest gradient in Britain today over which passenger trains are operated just by adhesion?

Jim is a former railwayman, so this quiz is a bit meatier than the fun-time PWay Christmas dinner ones. No need to remove any of the riskier questions either....

Sharpen your pencils! Answers next week.