Week 19 - Supermegaclippathon

A busy few days, as the railway slowly gets back into action, and we prepare ourselves for an August 15th resumption of services. Both loco and C&W departments are working hard to get the stock ready for the big day. It's not just the case of lighting up a loco and attaching a rake of carriages.

You can book all your tickets on line (in fact you have to) and we all hope you will make full use of our return to action. We need the business, otherwise there will be no money available for anything much at all next year. The best way of raising funds is by visiting the railway. You can go all the way along the line for a full round trip, but you must start at Toddington. This is required to manage any COVID risk and that's in all our interest.

Book your tickets here:

https://www.gwsr.com/planning_your_visit/visiting_gwsr/On-line_Ticket_Sales.html



Saturday

The whole day was spent on an asset recovery exercise, but details will have to remain under wraps until it is completed. This is likely to take several more Saturdays. It's been pretty taxing, as the 'ole body is not used to hard physical work after sitting around at home for 4 months. We were pooped when we got home on Saturday evening!

There are pictures, but you'll have to be patient.



Monday at Broadway

Work has started on the restoration of the all-wooden GWR station bench recovered from Paxford, formerly at Blockley station. It's a one man job; we'll show some pictures when we have a bit more progress.




Wednesday at Peasebrook

Supermegaclippathon! The whole gang, as many people as possible, was called out to clip up about half a mile of track at Peasebrook, all at once. This was in support of a re-stressing project for a stretch of track that had shown some minor signs of movement during the very hot days we've had this summer.




Robert gave his usual briefing, but this time to 17 people - quite a large gang- and that meant a much large circle, due to the distances we have to keep between us.

The other change was a late start of 11.30 - this was to hit the track at a time in the day when it was at its ambient temperature.

It seems that we have a couple of jokers among us. Paul on the left took as his weapon of choice today a large courgette. He's not going to clip up a lot of rails like that, but perhaps he was thinking of John Cleese's Monty Python lessons on how to defend yourself against people armed with various types of fruit?

Anonymous on the right was determined to keep the virus at bay with this new, full face mask. The rest of his clothing drew comment too, as one gang member was heard to query why his Hi Viz vest was so clean, and Anonymous admitted that he hadn't worn it much. Sooooo......!!!

Off we went then. We parked up in the Broadway public car park, profiting from the last few days when it was free to park due to the virus. As proof that the country is getting back to normal, the charge becomes applicable again from August 3rd. Now there's proof things are getting back to normal again.

In the picture the gang is walking down the track, unused for over 4 months now, past the new distant signal. The trees alongside Peasebrook Farm are in the distance, that's where we were headed.

We thought we'd start at the far end and work north, back to this point. It's the northern breather of the CWR ending near Broadway.

We wanted to have the shorter walk at the end of the day, but - in fact it seemed just as long as going there, we were tired out by then. It was a weary trudge over ballast at the end of the day.

On arrival we were met by the GWR Track Engineer, and we gathered round for a briefing session on site.

What we are doing is re-stressing the section in a natural style, without the use of hydraulic pullers. This means unclipping the whole section to let the rail come to a natural state of expansion at its ambient temperature, then clipping it all up again.

We were there for the latter job.

The job was rather repetitive, so we'll spare you many pictures of the same thing.

In the picture, you can see Paul way ahead, clearing the rail bottom of ballast, so that it can safely be dropped down again from on top of the rollers we cleaned last week. Was he using his courgette? We don't know, he was too far out of sight. It seemed a blunt tool for the job, if we're any judge.

Those nearer the camera were using the lifters to raise the rail, after which Rob on the right would remove the rollers and clean the area under the rail, so that it could be dropped down again without trapping anything under it. An army of clipper uppers followed behind the camera.

We spent an afternoon doing this, and achieved about a quarter of a mile of track re-clipped. It doesn't sound like very far, but we're talking thousands of clips here. At least a similar figure still needs doing, as this picture looking north reveals.

Looking south, everything is very neat. Well, that's the bit we did today. We started at a point which is somewhere on the horizon here, it has no name but it's where the sleepers change from Pandrol clips to SHC, and it's about 1/4 mile away.

It might as well be Namibia...

We stopped for the day at MP 5.III (from Honeybourne).


More clipping up will follow, depending however on the achievement of a reasonable ambient temperature for the rail. That probably excludes the next two days, which are forecast to be extra hot.

Much as we would like to help, we may have to stay at home to rest, and enjoy a refreshing beer. Well, someone has to do it.




Heritage lamps for the Toddington goods shed and mess room extension.


The railway is taking heritage increasingly seriously, and just look at these magnificent copper lamps that we have just commissioned for the Toddington goods shed.




These classic copper lanterns are made by a craftsman coppersmith, and we were so impressed by the quality of both lanterns and their associated wall brackets that we ordered 8 of them. As the railway has no money, we passed round the hat and several generous members of the steam department funded one each.

The lamps come on two types. The one in the picture is a corner one,which sits in a hooped bracket, and has a door in the bottom.

Those for the side of the shed have a side bracket, and also a door in the side.

Here is Nigel demonstrating how the first lamp will be mounted on the corner of the end of the original 1905 goods shed.

The electric supply is cunningly hidden inside the framework, and will barely be visible. The brackets are beautifully made.

Here are the two corner lamps fitted to the office of the goods shed, later in the day. The two modern, temporary lights fitted earlier in the year have been removed again.

We know that our goods shed had at least one lamp like this originally, because we can see the traces in the brickwork on the corner where a small area has been flattened off.

Here is the complete goods shed, with the new mess room extension at the rear. Fitting out of this continues. The other 6 lamps will go down the side of the extension, on the other end, end one on the track side. In this way a safer environment after dark has been created, as well as a more authentic look for this venerable old building.

Well done all concerned!

Week 18

Saturday at Toddington


Out with the gang on Saturday, and doing something interesting, other than measuring, at last. Of course we can't spend any money, not a penny. We never had  a specific COVID appeal, just one to cover half the cost of the Gotherington landslip, so we are paddling our own financial COVID canoe as it were. We are staying very prudent with expenditure. So when we do work on the PWay, it must cost nothing, and this was the case on Saturday.

The job on Saturday was to replace a bullhead half panel of rail by a flat bottomed one. The picture on the right shows the area in question, at the yard throat in Toddington, immediately south of the two turnouts we put in a couple of years ago (and still unused).

The job was raised by our S&T department, who had a simple request: can we have an insulated fishplate immediately north of the turnout you put in?

Knocking out the rails with jacks.

That doesn't sound too difficult, swapping a plain fishplate for an insulated one, does it?

But it was difficult. The joint in question was a transition from FB rail to Bullhead, and was to be insulated. That is a very special, one off set of fishplates, and would cost £1000s. Our cheap as chips solution to this was to replace the next panel of track with more FB rail, instead of the BH rail that was there now. That way we could use a plain FB set of insulated fishplates, which we had in stock.

Digging out the cribs by hand.

The maximum gang size we are allowed was 6, so already you are not well equipped with labour. On top of that, two senior members spent the morning at a meeting, leaving just 4 of us, mostly over 70, to do the hard work.

With all the lockdowns and little physical labour allowed on the gang so far, we were badly out of condition, so this point motor, newly installed, was used as a handy seat for a reviving cup of caffeine.

We got the 9 concrete BH sleepers out and dug out the 9 cribs. They have to be completely free of ballast, otherwise the replacement FB sleeper will ride high and you won't get the rail in. We weren't very happy with this result, the cribs didn't look wide enough. But if we made them any wider, then they would be joining up and in practice you'd be hand digging out the whole area.

Our saviour, as so often, was Stevie. He suggested putting the bucket on the Telehandler (his trusty JCB was off site) and in just a few minutes he scooped out the whole panel, doing in minutes what we had tried to do the whole morning.

With a bed now clean of ballast, the new sleepers with PAN base plates for FB rail were easily laid in.

There were just 9 to the next joint (this end of the yard is very old, and has some mixed bag quality stuff in it) so we were soon lining them up, ready to receive a length of FB rail. The transition to Bullhead rail would then be the next joint, and we could just move the existing transition fishplates along a bit.

A after careful measuring (with a tape measure which yours truly felt was rather stretchy, but hey, it's in our kit) Steve cut the FB rail to fit the gap. Remembering the two expansion gaps, and also the slice of insulation (aka as an end post) that goes between the rails on an insulated fishplate)

Dave had the pleasant job of cutting the new holes for the bolts.

Pandrols have been laid out in readiness for clipping up, but first of all we need to fit the fishplates, which might involve moving the newly cut rail back and forth a bit.

What now......?

And there we have it, the plates are on at the other end, but at this end there is a gap. It's too wide to get both sets of plates in, one of them will have to be fitted with just two bolts, or 'fly fished' as we like to call it.

Watch this space on how we overcame the gap. It's a thrilling serial, this PWay stuff, isn't it!





Monday at Broadway


First of all a blow up for you of the re-opening notice on the door of the booking office:

To recap, we are opening from Saturday August 15th, you need to book on line, and journeys start/finish at Toddington, nowhere else for the time being. Got that? So good to see that trains will be running again, and we need to start earning money again. If there are lots of passengers, we might increase the frequency of the trains too. This is a toe in the water, so we hope you will come. And there will be steam!




Back to Broadway activities, we had a fun day building a little stone wall to sort out the situation round this forecourt lamp post, which is too high (after the lamp post was put in at a certain level, it was decided to have a lower forecourt in order to achieve a kerb by the building and minimise the risk of water flowing into the booking office).








We thought the neatest way of boxing it off would be with a row of second hand imperial engineering blues, then to back fill with some pea gravel.

Here is Tony just finishing off the brick laying, leaving a few more blues for a second lamp post, which is also not quite finished around the base.








Tony's gone for a break here, so we can show you what the little wall looks like. It'll look better once the mortar has gone off, and the pea gravel has been filled in around the post and along the front.

This is the other post that needs sorting out around the front. It's also too high, its black octagonal base should be below ground.

The concrete block bin store is something we will need to disguise a bit. We had it planned on a strip of land near the top of the drive, away from the 1904 heritage area, but it was not to be.

During the day we had a visitor from another railway. He was very complimentary about the build of the station (theirs is just a gleam in their eye for the moment) and we were happy to help with tips and sources for all the interesting bits of kit that makes a station look authentic.

He took a great interest in the recently restored platform trolley....

Talking of bits of kit that make a station look authentic, we have just acquired this:


It's a set of GWR 'IN' and 'OUT' plates in cast iron. The beer bottle is to give an idea of the size.

You need to look ahead for this sort of stuff, because it never comes up on the day you need it. We follow various auctions and from time to time something interesting comes up, and we try to secure it for Broadway.

But this set is actually due for Toddington, for the day - delayed by COVID - that the shop moves to bigger premises, and the old booking office and first class waiting room can be reinstated to their 1905 glory.




This is what they would look like in situ. Notice the crowd barrier posts, very topical these days with all the one way COVID systems in place.

We already have a set of these, they're just waiting for some workshop time to remove the damage inflicted when they were bulldozed off their bases.






Given that we now have a set of IN and OUTs, we have a spare OUT in store that is now for sale. It's an original, and we used it, through a little foundry we know, to make a replica of itself and an extra IN, both of which are now in use at Broadway.

This is the spare plate then:

 If you are interested in buying it (and so boost our heritage funds a little) drop us a line at breva2011 (at) hotmail.co.uk.




Wednesday at Winchcombe.


Things are almost back to normal (although work on the Usk building continues to be banned) because today we had - two boxes of doughnuts! Result !!!

These are the slightly higher quality ones from Morrisons (for doughnut afficionados) and they went down a treat. Although we don't currently use our mess coach, so there was no tea to go with them. That tea is essential actually...

In the absence of meeting in the mess coach, we met outside it. As it was quite a large gang today (welcome back, several well known faces!) and we had to keep well apart, we stood in a large circle. Robert read us - not the riot act, no - a list of tasks for the day and this allowed us to split into several smaller groups.

One group set off to grease the breathers on opposite ends of the Broadway - Stanway CWR section, and important requirement during the hotter summer days.

Another group went to complete ballast shoveling and boxing in at the viaduct, a job started last week which follows on from the winter works there.

The third group remained at Winchcombe and sorted out a large pile of CWR rollers, with a future job in mind.

As the rollers are just bare steel and reside outdoors, they tend to go rusty and seize up. The job was to count them all, and to make sure they worked. Many did not, so there was much banging and shaking, and dipping in diesel oil.

Success though, the number was quite high!


More on this job when plans firm up. And there's a salvage mission on Saturday, which is also currently under wraps.

Watch this space...

Week 17 - still no bridge work

Saturday out with the gang

Modest PWay work continues, mostly concerned with recording our assets and gathering information for officially required paperwork, although on Wednesday the gang was out with shovels, boxing in ballast along the viaduct, where it was not ideally distributed following the works there earlier in the year. It all looks much better now, and also permits the track walkers to see what/if any defects there are. So we are active, but not very yet.

Catching wind of the ballast shovelling, yours truly was quickly off to the Isle of Purbeck to enjoy an off season trip to the Swanage, but postponed by 3 months due to the dreaded Lurgi. More of this later.

Saturday's mission was to measure up turnouts and make a start on sidings at Toddington.

Yes, make a start on sidings..... the start is under that coach, who left that there?







Two of us measured up switches at Toddington north, while three of us set off along siding No.1, a strange piece of track which is more or less where the up line used to be, but as it's now a siding, it had to be further away from the running line and there is now a larger gap in the middle, in the picture with a bracket signal in it too.

One of these days it may revert to becoming a running line, with yard access at the southern turnouts that we reinstalled.

 So we stretch out the measuring tape. Rail length is in feet and inches, wear in millimeters! Work that one out.

But how do you get the tape inside one of the Mills keys? That looks like one of those impossible puzzles you get in a Christmas cracker.

We put Steve on to solving that one! Hmmmmm...

Passing through the yard at Toddington, we noticed the goods shed mess room extension pretty much complete on the outside. As the function of the building will be rather different from what it was (showers, toilets, canteen, changing rooms etc) the windows couldn't be authentic on the west side, but we did manage quite a good series of arched windows on the east side, the one more commonly seen by the public. We do try.

For lunch time, it was a safe, outdoor picnic with one volunteer per table.

The main gate was closed (we're not running yet) but it struck us that there was a constant stream of cars and motorbikes that turned up, only to drive away again. What was going on?

Three more cars were trying to get in when we left. We couldn't resist the question: What on earth are you doing?

'' We're on a Father Brown exploration trail'' was the answer. Ah.

At Broadway (and no doubt elsewhere) the hand sanitisers are out in force.

Not very 1904 or Father Brown, but we are assured they are temporary.










A look over the Fence - Swanage railway

Here's another of our occasional looks to see how other railways run their show. You can always learn!

We had 3 days booked in a pub at Lulworth Cove early in the season, but the rise of COVID delayed, but luckily did not stop, this little jolly to a pretty part of the country. Back at work tomorrow though!

So enjoy some scenes of the Southern, and early BR:

The Swanage railway is already running again, albeit with measures as you might expect. The 'toe in the water' trains are diesel hauled and we booked as such. However, even as we arrived they were already doing crew training runs, for a 50% steam service from tomorrow. Well done that railway!

You can only board at Swanage, and you get a shortish return trip to Norden, intermediate stations being closed. There's a public car park near the bridge at Swanage from which this picture of 1806 was taken, but if you don't mind a half mile walk there is a cheaper car park at North Beach, and even the possibility of streetside parking for free. We walked! It's good for you, go on!

Each heritage railway has its own atmosphere, even raison d'etre. Just look at our line, one that started with rides, and since the opening to Broadway we have a public transport function from CRC as well. With the Swanage we got a similar feeling. Swanage town is a seaside destination, and a pretty, busy little seaside town. We liked it. But the road there gets oh so busy, there was a road accident straight away when we got there, and we hadn't even entered Corfe Castle yet. So the Park and Ride at Norden is excellent, and soon Wareham will be a boarding and transport option.

1806 chugged past beneath us, and headed past the single road loco shed, with a huge BoB pacific parked outside. It was in light steam too.

We liked the original little engine shed, just right to park an M7 overnight, but 257 Squadron might end up with its a**e end exposed.

Charming was the little hang-out for the enginemen centre right. What a great place to watch your loco raise steam, and swap a few tall tales.

Opposite, from the camera viewpoint, was a similar place for the public, a little gated grassy area with a bench. The Swanage is a great place for photographers.

The class 33 hauled service train with its 5 coaches trundled back in, and a little while later so did 1806. The station is a bit pushed for space, it wasn't designed for the activity it has now.

There is no run round loop from P1 here, so the rake has to be pulled back out by a station pilot.

Waiting for the masses.

What was special about these early re-opening trains then? Passenger streams were split into two for entry an exit, and the BR style uniforms were covered with bright yellow 'steward' tabbards. We booked on line a week earlier, and were allocated a fixed, numbered seat. We got the impression that most of these were at one end of the train, and of course you were not encouraged to walk to the other end to hear the Crompton burble.

The rake consisted mostly of TSOs, in which every other table was blocked, as in the picture. There was an explanation, accompanied by an appeal for financial help.

Sometimes the tables were staggered, and sometimes in pairs. We can't say that we were unduly concerned by meeting too many people in corridors, as these early, diesel hauled trains were only modestly patronised, maybe 30 - 40 passengers each. But face masks were obligatory and observed, also a few in the streets of Swanage, but none at all in Corfe Castle or on the ramparts.

Overall, walking about the town and the castle is outdoors and the risks must be fairly minimal.

The class 33 sputtered mostly uphill to Corfe Castle station, where there was a token exchange and then a further half mile to Norden, a platform adjacent to a very good Park and Ride. There you could get out and photograph the rather attractive run round by the old mineral railway bridge.

Near Corfe Castle station is the railway's diesel depot, with this beautifully painted DMU, which we believe is designated for the new Wareham service. That has not yet got off the ground. It was due to technical issues last year, and COVID so far this year. Fingers crossed!

The Wareham main line connection could provide a stimulus for quite an increase in the passenger numbers, as a pure transport play.




A useful second day around the Swanage railway can be had by 'doing' a day round Corfe Castle. There really is a lot to see and do here.

The Castle is 3/4 mile from the Norden Park & Ride. It's dirt cheap to park there (70p!) and then there is a most attractive walk through woodland, past a mineral railway museum, through the Norden platforms and then alongside the railway right up to the foot of the Norman castle.

This picture was taken from Norden halt - the castle is almost 'a stone's throw' away. It controls a gap in the ridge on the approach to the coast.




The Norman castle was once one of the strongest in the whole of England, and in 1643 was defended by the chatelaine Lady Bankes against a siege by the roundheads. They failed to take it, losing 100 men to her two.

In 1645 the roundheads came again, and again failed to make much progress. The castle fell when one of its officers offered to get reinforcements of another 100 men, but when he returned and entered the castle, they turned out to be roundheads in disguise - Lady Bankes was betrayed! She was allowed to leave and 15 years later she got her castle back, but not before the government had comprehensively destroyed it with gunpowder. The results of the enormous explosions are quite alarming to see.

Nonetheless the ruins are well worth a visit, and from above you get stunning views, including of the passing trains for quite a distance.

1806 chugs through with another familiarisation train.

Afterwards you can drop down to the station which, although not open for ticket sales, is open to visitors, in the hope for a small donation which we willingly gave. The line at Corfe Castle is particularly picturesque.

Everything is painted in the very warming cream and green Southern sunshine colours, and the replica signalbox, which looks very well executed, has deep windows in the front through which you can observe the signalman at work from the other platform.












You can photograph the passing service trains with 33 111, see the token exchange in front of the castle, then repair to the Bankes Arms a few yards away in station road and enjoy an IPA and rather good food, all still within sight of the line, which runs along the bottom of the garden. Who could ask for more?



For a small donation the stationmaster will show you the inside of Corfe Castle station, which has received particular attention to detail. It is an absolutely charming period piece. The station was intact when the railway took over, but had been in use as offices, so all the detail had to be put back.

Didn't they do well! A suspended wooden floor, marble fireplace surround (very similar to Broadway's in shape) and we particularly liked the period lighting, which is part of the 1940s atmosphere aimed for by this station. The only thing that intruded was the large panel on the left, which is a form of electronic poster board for cashless donations. On the other hand the model locomotive for cash donations did have some charm of its own.






The stationmaster's office is a working one, but still in the 1940s style. It can be done!

The desk and chair were fabulous.








Adjacent to the booking office was the Ladies' Waiting Room, with an early Victorian fireplace and period lamps above.

We have the opportunity to achieve such heights with our First Class Waiting Room at Toddington, when the shop moves to new premises and the station can be restored to its original layout.





Corfe Castle station had a resident stationmaster who lived in the building, to one side.

His private living room has also been restored to a 1940s appearance, it's really worth taking a privileged peep to see how people lived 80 years ago.

Well done that station group!

If you're still up for it after visiting the castle, the station and the pub, what you can do is climb up to the top of the adjacent East Hill, for a brilliant view of the line, the castle, and the Corfe gap it was built to defend. It's lovely up there in the sun, with its commanding view for miles, right down to Poole harbour too.

The access to this is up a steep set of steps just beyond the small road bridge over a lane, just west of the station.





Bratton Fleming

Just a little update, and admittedly from third party sources as we are enthusiastic supporters, but not management:

The fund has now reached its appeal target for the agreed price of the station itself, i.e. £325.000. That is amazing news, and such support for a little narrow gauge station lost in the hills of Devon. The confirmation is subject to the good receipt of one more, substantial, donation promised.

The appeal is still open, because the purchase price isn't everything of course. There are conveyancing costs to raise, nearly £10.000 in land tax (not the stamp duty) and a surprisingly expensive cost item to fund is a new septic tank that is required.

It looks as if the intention is to rent out the 'cottage', and this would make our donations doubly effective, as we wouldn't just be helping to buy a station, we'd also be facilitating a rental income stream into which EA could tap to buy bits of trackbed that come up.

In fact there is an exciting prospect of a piece of trackbed right next door that could be in the offing. We await to hear more news about that, it's not very firm yet. And of course the whole station purchase is still subject to contract, so do continue to help if you can.