A window cill goes on

Friday - Paint your Wagon!

The open wagon in the loco shed is getting close to being ready. Yours truly was on Creosote, and Alex had his lettering kit with him.

The wagon was last restored 10 years ago, and the inside does not seem to have had any sort of protective coating at all.

As you can see, the new plank has been fitted, and painted on the outside.

Here's what it looked like an hour later, after the application of several coats of Creosote. The wood was so dry, it just gulped up whatever was applied to it.

 

 

 

Outside, Alex made a start on putting the letters back on. 10 years ago they were made of plastic, but this time we have an artist in the team!

Alex had a large 'G' and a large 'W' with him. These were cutouts in cardboard.

First thing you do is go round the shape with a piece of chalk, then you remove the cardboard shape again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then you paint in with white paint and a flat signwriter's brush. It all went rather quickly, and smoothly.

 

Inside, Greg was Creosoting the floor, which had some signs of decay (by his feet) but there is no money for new timbers here. The liberal application of the Creosote, we hope, will stop things getting worse.

Back round the side, and Alex had finished the 'G' and the 'W' , applied the number and tare weight, and was busy applying a 'Non Common User' notice to the side. He had lettered that earlier.

At the end of the day, the wagon was pretty much ready. Now which one next? It seems we have two potential candidates, and are waiting for a decision from the powers that allow.

Saturday out along the line.

Once again, just a small gang. There was a last minute report of an irregularity just north of the viaduct, so we got the tools out and went to have a look. We recognised the site immediately, it was a culvert, where the embankment seemed narrower than usual, an issue we have known about for many years. It means one side regularly needs tamping, as there is not enough support for the ballast on the Cotswolds side.

There was nothing we could do about it straight away, but, now that we know what the problem is, we may be able to address it next week.

It was late morning, so a cup of tea was called for. We decided to give the Broadway cafe a chance, Bert Ferrule offering to buy a round of tea and cakes.

 

 

Things looked good - 5 cups of tea, 5 cakes to go with them.

Pete seems to be in quite a hurry too.

On second thoughts, Jim and Pete contemplate the modest offering, while Andy checks on-line to see if something more luxurious is available. 

Maybe Deliveroo comes to Broadway?

 

 

After lunch we went back to Winchcombe, to accompany Dave, who was trying to get to the root of the technical issue with the Landie that we encountered last week.

It was Nick, who found the answer - water ingress and rust, probably due to standing still outdoors for too long during enforced absences from Covid.

After feeling a bit glum last week, we were on a high after that, having solved the problem, and achieved something.

We decided to celebrate with another cup of tea (and cake, for two of us) and do some people watching.

The trains looked quite well patronised, there was a coach at Broadway, and on Friday a fleet of vans at Toddington revealed the presence of a TV crew on the platform. Things are looking up!

Iron men at work

No, this is no self-agrandissement, the Iron Men refers to the two frames we hired in to transport two crossings at Toddington.

The gang? They're not iron men at all. We're more like wrinkled men, or pot-bellied ones. Sadly.

 

Here are the Iron Man frames. It's a fairly simple construction with a winch, enabling you to lift and transport rails from one place to another.

We checked them out, had a little demonstration, and got to work.

They have a handle on each corner, so 4 men (the wrinkly ones) can walk them to the track along which they are to roll.

You need the cooperation of the signalman of course, so the points need to be set right, and you need a line block.

Here we are where we want to be, the turnout to the Toddington North carriage siding. You may remember that we had a road-railer in here to swap one crossing for another, but we ran into a snag. Today was attempt No.2, but now without the road-railer. Hence the hire of the iron men.

We need to swap the dark brown crossing  installed for the tan coloured one in the four foot.

We had a little dry run, lifting the crossing a few inches. We reckon it weighed one ton.

We got the one ton lump up into the air, then put bars in underneath, and dropped the lump onto the bars. That felt quite solid, so we rolled it forward, until the new crossing was next to the old one.

We used one of those cross bars to act as a slide along which we could bar the new crossing.

The old one was first barred to the right, out of the way.

That all went quite easily. It's surprising how 6 men with bars can propel a ton of steel, if on a slippery sleeper in the ground.

Here is the new crossing in place, lined up with the through road, but not yet screwed down.

The sharp eyed among you might notice that there is an issue with the diverging road. In the foreground, the crossing does not meet the Malvern side rail of the siding.

The most likely reason is that the turnout was already second hand when we got it. We installed it at Toddington North, where the through road went through P2 and the loop road was the P1 one.

Later on, we decided to reverse this situation, making P1 the through road. The turnout was then repositioned, and had to fit the situation it met. Most likely it was pushed and pulled a bit, so that the crossing itself went out of shape.

When the brand new crossing was purchased, it wasn't appreciated that the old one was no longer standard, so the intended 'shoe-in' only worked for the through road.

 

 

This leaves us with a fair amount of additional work. There wasn't time on Monday to deal with all of it, but the diverging road needs to be part taken up, and some sleepers re-drilled or moved.

We also attempted to straighten the Malvern side stock rail (which wasn't quite straight), but without undoing a whole lot more that proved impossible to do. We needed to get the turnout back into service for the next day's commercial trains to pass. The carriage siding can wait a bit longer, so we will do that on a following day.

Having accepted that the stock rail was what it was, we screwed down the new crossing, as we knew that it was correct.

This is what the replacement crossing looked like at the end of the day. We have a 5mph TSR on it, which will stay in place until we are happy with the whole thing.

Three volunteers then left with the old crossing hanging in the Iron Men, while the remaining 5 packed the sleepers that we had moved to get the new crossing in, its base plates being several inches from some of the old holes.

The old crossing was dropped here by the fence, ready for collection by a specialist firm. Half a mile away at Toddington south, three volunteers were with the other crossing that we removed a few weeks ago, replacing it with a temporary plain line. That one will also be picked up by a specialist firm.

Proof of fun on the railway - happy as a pig in clover!

Tuesday at Broadway

It was a day of painting, painting painting. John was undercoating the tongue and groove boards for the sides, yours truly was top coating the joinery that holds it in place.

There aren't many pictures, it was boring stuff.

Here is one of Neal and John sorting out the boards. They have pencilled numbers on them, but with coats of paint that gets a bit faint.

Also, there are two sets, one for each side. They are particular to their own side.

'I've got 39 here, have you got a 39 for your side?' and so on...

 

 

 

Having painted all the boards, and also all the joinery on the left and the right, it may be possible to fit the boards next time. Unless another coat of paint is required...

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Four Usketeers today. Jules couldn't make it, yet we are so dependent on his backing up skills.

Heavy! Dave struggles with a large quoin, which we didn't even use, as it wasn't 10 inches thick, only 7 ins.

 

We decided to raise the front gable end to the level of the window cill, i.e. to 700mm. That meant two rows of blocks, totalling 10 inches. Say a row of 5s, then a row of 4s, with the mortar joints making up the missing inch.

 

 

 

To find out where we needed to be with the courses, we needed another quoin in place, and from that we could pull a line (or 'loine' as they say around here....)

To get a twin 10ins quoin (to partner the one on the other corner) we had to hunt around quite a bit, but that is the art of it.

We eventually managed to find a suitable example, and in this picture you can see Paul and Dave install it on the corner. The LH one, if you look at it from the station platform.

Once that 10ins quoin was on its corner, Paul tied it into place with the start of the two rows that would take us up to 700mm.

The gable end wall is slowly getting easier to work on - see how it is now waist high in this area. No more bending over right down to your toes - phew!

While Paul was working on tieing in the new quoin, Dave was at the other end, where a quoin already existed. Dave was also on the start of two rows that would reach up to the 10ins quoins, and get us to the 700mm level. A cill for the end window has already been located, and can be seen on the scaffolding boards, waiting to be installed once the right level is reached.

Mid morning (we start at 8am, so it's an early mid morning) we stop for coffee and a doughnut or two. Only, no doughnuts today, so we had jam roll instead. That went very well indeed with the coffee.

Owing to what the French call 'un erreur de manoeuvre' the coffee filled vacuum flask in the picture fell, without its top on, directly and upside down into your blogger's picnic bag. This produced all round hilarity. Not everyone agreed with the roars of laughter though..... 'Schadenfreude' seems to be the best word for this. (it's our European side, all these foreign phrases). Rotten lot.

Moving swiftly on....

Lots of people wander over to come and see us during the day. We are tempted to charge for the privilege, to raise funds for our supplies of mortar etc, which we are paying for entirely out of our own pockets, the company being a bit careful with its money in these COVID times. Understandable of course. If only we could monetise this curiosity. Some people even turned up more than once !

A couple of friendly figures from the C&W dept, across the tracks, left a payment in kind, which was very much appreciated: Four brickies' hammers, spare blades, and a set of brand new brickies' lines. Brilliant!

That was very kind, we thank you, gentlemen!

During the day we saw P&O and Dinmore Manor chug by. We always wave, sometimes we seemed to be filmed as the train goes by. Are we interesting, or what is it?

After lunch, on our own patio chairs under the shady oak tree, we finished off the second of two courses today on the front gable end.

John was backing up from the inside, to give us a 16ins bed.

He then laid the mortar bed for the cill, which is waiting patiently below.

We lifted the heavy cill in stages, bit by bit, on rising towers of bricks, until we felt OK to lift it one final time straight onto its bed.

Did it stick out, or not? Time to consult the bible with the photographs.

It did stick out, so we gave it an inch at the front.

Once the cill was on, Paul checked it for level in both directions, We have given it a slight slope towards the front, to make sure the rain can run off.

Here is our end of the day picture then.

Result: Two courses added to the front gable end, a 5inch one, and a 4 inch one. Backing up done on the inside, but not yet behind the fireplace, currently a big void. If only Jules were here!

Finally, a cill for an 80cm window was placed. This window allowed the weighbridge operator to look sideways. It is off centre on the facade, as a chimney will eventually go up the middle.

Steve Bucknall

Sad news from the Broadway gang, Steve Bucknall has passed away.

Steve was a very regular member of the Broadway construction gang for about 10 years, before which he worked with the Pway gang. Strangely, he was known as Steve at Broadway, but wore a jacket with the name 'Tony' on it. Steve explained to your truly that he was known as Tony on the PWay, and his actual name was indeed Anthony. He lived locally at Badsey, but in his younger days he lived with his parents in one of the 4 grouped railway cottages at Broadway, so he knew a few of the old stories. We also recall that he worked for Watsonian, the sidecar and Royal Enfield distributor at Northwick Park.

At Broadway Steve was most commonly seen on the little dumper, which he drove very professionally. He often teamed up with yours truly, giving rise to quite a few photographs with him on it. At some point he hurt his ankle, and in the latter days Steve was more often seen in Auntie Wainwright's fund raising shop on the platform.

In the early days we had a crawler-loader on site (which we knew as a Drott) and Steve always drove that. Here is a video of him digging into the toe of the embankment in what is now the bottom of the car park:

https://youtu.be/8KnOdyWag2w

Below are some of the pictures with Steve at work:

Digging out clogged drains.

A strange object found at Broadway, believed to be a paste bowl.

Most commonly seen on our little dumper.

Taking lessons on the mini digger.

With the soda water bottle he found with the Drott.

Installing lamp tops along platform two.

Mortar making partnership.

 

Thanks for your help in making Broadway station what it is today - may you rest in peace.

Derek's steam pictures.

Continuing with last week's scene from Poole ...

...here is the Merchant Navy 35007 leaving the station with a train bound for Waterloo on 23rd February 1967. [A15.36] 

It's ABERDEEN COMMONWEALTH again. It's dirty, the number barely legible, and no nameplates. The Pacific was withdrawn 5 months after Derek took the picture.

In the foreground is the pride of the British Motoring Industry - a Mini, a Morris 1100 (incidentally both designed by Sir Alec Issigonis) and, with a bored driver with his elbow on the windowsill, a Morris Oxford, series V. All early 1960s cars.

Not having been to Poole, using Google earth it looks like the whole scene here has been swept away and replaced by a flyover carrying the B3068. Nothing left at all.

A scene at Basingstoke on 6th March 1967 with Battle of Britain 34071 and train. I didn't record any other detail but looking at the two station canopies above the cab I am deducing that the train is Waterloo bound. [A16.03] 

Bulleid Pacific 34071 was 601 SQUADRON. This loco looks well cared for, with the BR green showing up well, but the name plates have already gone. At the end of the following month this loco too was withdrawn, and later scrapped by Cashmore's.

In the foreground an older signal post seems to be being replaced by a newer one. Colour lights are already in evidence on the right.

The double concrete lamp standard is a nice period piece from SR days.

Still at Basingstoke on the same day and Standard Class 4 2-6-4T 80139 is heading westbound with a freight. [A16.04] 

This is a lovely passing shot of a Standard 4 tank. It was built not far away at Brighton in 1956. Here it is at the end of its days, just 11 years later. The loco is pretty filthy, but someone has gone to the trouble of painting the smokebox door hinges white. It's trundling through the station and about to pass under the footbridge, with the repeater signal 'off'. Both enginemen are looking out of the cab on the same side, possibly at the yellow 'Caution' signal just ahead. Perhaps there is some track renewal going on at the station, as the bogie flat this side of the loco looks to have been used for carrying sleepers, and the track on the right was recently relaid in concrete, while that on the left and the centre road is still in wood.

Using free time from the course I was attending in Bournemouth I took the opportunity of some more exploring of the railway scene. Here is Merchant Navy 35007 again. This time between Branksome and Bournemouth on a Waterloo bound train on 14th March 1967. [A16.05] 

 

Then on the next day 15th March 1967, 35007 is seen approaching Branksome with a Waterloo bound train. [A16.07] 

Here is dirty ABERDEEN COMMONWEALTH again, and this time the cabside has had a perfunctory wipe, so that we can see the number more clearly. 

What is nostalgic for Yours Truly is the National Benzole pump on the left. This was a brand that started in 1919 after the war ended, selling motor fuel from excess stocks of Benzole. It's brand logo was a black and chrome 'Mr. Mercury' which, in latter days, was reduced to a sleek yellow and white winged head, on a blue background. You can see that on the picture. The company was bought by BP in 1957 and although it continued to trade separately BP slowly ran it down in favour of is own branding, and in the early 1990 the National brand was phased out.

On the forecourt, once again, are examples of the height of the British Motoring industry - Morris Oxford series III, a Wolseley, and a Mini.

The brick bridge with a skewed arch is lovely, and so clean. It's height is given as 11ft, which is rather low. Searching a bit on Google Street view, this looks like N Lodge Road and the motoring site is still there, but no longer sells petrol. It's now an MOT test centre, and a business called Poole Bay Motors. So some continuity there. The bridge remains equally small, even reduced in height to 10'6''.

Finally on 16th March 1967, Merchant Navy 35013 is seen on its way to Bournemouth with a Waterloo bound train. [A16.08]

MN 35013 was BLUE FUNNEL. It had a 22 year service life, ending with a withdrawal in February 1967, a month before the picture was taken. Strange, the more so as its last move to a new shed was to Nine Elms, in April 1967. It must have been used a couple more times due to failures elsewhere.

Remember that you can order full sized scans (+/- 5Mb) of any of these pictures from breva2011 (at) hotmail.co.uk.