Movin' on up

Friday PWay special

A non-running day special, for we welcomed a group of contractors to replace a defective weld in a rail by the Bishop's Cleeve road bridge.

Four PWay volunteers accompanied the contractors, and helped with the logistics. The weld in question was a very old one, but was judged unsatisfactory following our recent ultrasonic vetting of all the rail along the line. In the picture it is clamped, as a precaution. That is standard procedure.

Can I have a doughnut too? No, get back to work!

After letting the contractors on to the site and showing them the spot, there wasn't that much for us to do, so the tasting of a doughnut was deemed appropriate.

The unsatisfactory weld was to be replaced by a short section of rail, which had been dropped off by us beforehand. In the picture you can see a similar length being cut out. This stretch is on that part of the line through Bishop's Cleeve that has CWR.

We offered to help with removing the old rail, but it had been pulled away before we could jump in to help.

They did accept our offer to help with dragging in the replacement rail though. It was slightly longer, and thus heavier than the first one.

With the new rail placed next to the gap, it was possible to measure it exactly prior to cutting.

As the contractors placed the mould for the welding pour, we wandered off towards Gotherington, where some of the loco crews had reported a rough ride. (see further down for the cure)

We detected a slight dip on the Cotswolds side which, dragging the whole section of track with it, also produced a slight displacement of the track. Nothing a go with the brilliant new Robels couldn't fix. It's now on our to do list.

The walk did us good. A bit of exercise should keep the effects of the doughnut at bay.

Back on site, the Contractors had placed the stressing machinery (this being CWR) and were readying the second pour.

The mould needed warming up, which always produces that nice 'Vee' of flames shooting out. Nothing to do but wait...

The pour itself was so quick that the camera missed it.

We sat on the bridge, as the rail grinder was used to equalise the profiles of the two rails. Afterwards it was impossible to see where the new rail actually was, the running surface was that smooth.

The sides of the rail also got a good grinding, so that the carriage wheel flanges get a smooth run.

Say: 'Ahhhhhh'

We weren't really that excited by all the goings on, and tucked into other goodies that some had brought along.

Job finished and the contractors back on the their way up north, we measured the level of the track and found that it would benefit from a little packing. It needs a proper job with the Robels though, another job for the list.

Monday on the PWay - (another 'special')....

As we come to the end of the season, PWay activities intensify. We have several rails to change, so on Monday, with a good gang of 8, we had a go at three of them.

The first two were in the Dixton cutting. The replacement rail is already in the four foot, and a van has brought some hired in Ironmen to do the swap.

Until recently we had never used Ironmen before, but they are a cheap and reliable way of transporting full rail lengths along (we're talking about a ton in weight here) without hiring in expensive lifting vehicles and their operators.

Here a replacement rail is being moved a few feet to its correct position.

The replacement rail is slightly longer than the worn one (see the little crater or 'squat' in PWay parlance in the bottom LH corner) so is cut to length on site.

The worn rail is then moved sideways out of the way, with the Ironmen off the track.

With the Ironmen in the same position (off the rails) the replacement rail can then be lifted into place.

Having been cut at this end, it now needs a new set of fishplate holes.

In the meantime, the Ironmen are rolled forward to the second of the three worksites, where the cycle starts again, even as half the crew are finishing off the first one.

Here's a quick view of the second rail being lifted to the right spot. They are not always dropped off at exactly the right place as factors such as lineside furniture or signal wires can hinder the Telehandler from reversing away with the load.

This is the location of the third worksite on Monday, just to the south of Gotherington Skew Bridge. The replacement rail is just being cut.

.... leaving a scrag end, which we took home for our scrap pile. Two of the three offcuts were heavier than the last, so lifting them on to the Landie proved increasingly harder, until we cracked and added another pair of hands.

It was a good but very tiring day's work for the 7 of us. We just about managed all 3 rail swaps, before the sun set, as it does increasingly early these days.

'Have you heard this one?'    'Yes, very funny, ha ha.'

 

Morale was high and the banter and good humour flowed in abundance. More next week, we were told, possibly involving a train, which would be interesting.

Tuesday at Broadway

Neal and John were busy on Monday, and in this opening shot you can see that they have nearly reached the bottom of the last side of the steps - one more panel to go.

Neal sets up his carpentry workshop first thing.

From the outside you can see that the Malvern side, the last one, has had almost all of its cladding. Of course it all has to come off again for final painting, and then refitting.

We were quite lucky with the weather on Tuesday. It was grey, windy but dry.

In order to give yours truly and John some painting to do, Neal started work on some of the roof timbers of the final part of the canopy, which will go up in the new year.

It was a mixed steam / DMU day today. Our 3 car set looks very smart, and we think we heard the heaters running too. We do spoil our passengers.

What Neal was doing with these roof timbers was to give them a chamfered edge. This equals the slope of the roof, and will allow the corrugated iron and glazing panels to sit on the squarely.

When the noon steamer came in, the station became very busy indeed. It's half term, so people are looking for something to do with those pesky kids.

The platform was very crowded for a brief period, as those arriving from CRC wanted to get off and walk to Broadway, while those who had booked at Broadway wanted to go on their round trip to CRC.

We even spotted a queue outside the Ladies' loo - never seen that before. It only lasted 5 minutes. We have 5 cubicles to deal with the rush.

In the distance people could be seen climbing the slippery slope on the grass to get a better view of the loco. This happens every time a loco comes in.

We once asked one of the climbers not to trample on our grass. His reply was that his ticket entitled him to do that. Ok......

Later in the afternoon, when Neal had finished chamfering the roof timbers, and your truly and John had given them all a going over with the knotting solution, and a coat of wood primer, Neal reverted to the cladding.

Here he is measuring up for the very last panel.

This is our end of the day shot. One panel to go. Then it was done.

We're going to leave the cladding on for the gala, find something else that needs doing next week. But after the gala it will all come off again for final painting.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Another productive day, with yours truly back on site, finding blocks, Jules backing up, Dave placing blocks, John cleaning blocks, and Paul on building the fireplace. And fun was had, the most important of all.

Today also saw us finally place the time capsule, kindly sponsored by a blog reader. It's a quality item, stainless steel, domed nuts, a waterproof gasket and an engraved text. Will it ever be opened again? Not in our lifetime anyway, but it's good to leave a trace of our generation.

The first thing Paul did was attach a pair of brackets to the last window fitted, now that the blocks to the side have bedded down.

The scaffolding board holding the window up is still there and in the way - maybe next week then.

Here's a view of the inside. After 3 weeks of absence, what struck yours truly on entering was that it felt more enclosed inside, more claustrophobic. The walls have clearly risen higher, and the piles outside are smaller now.

 

Once the time capsule had been covered with mortar, Jules was seen scribbling something something in it.

Can you see what it is? Sadly the amusing text will disappear under the next layer, but we do like a little joke between us.

Yours truly got busy straight away, placing loose blocks for Dave. And here is Dave with the first row of the day completed. He looks very pleased with himself, and so he should be.

This is the opposite corner. We've just loosely placed two quoins, one on the corner, and one by the door.

Dave then bedded them down, and filled in the gap in between.

Meanwhile, Jules was backing up the adjacent row from the inside. Every row of dressed stone needs a second row on the inside, made up out of largely undressed stone, so a bit rougher and a bit harder to achieve a flat surface. Jules manages that very well.

Paul continued with the arch over the fireplace, started last week. Underneath you can see the plywood former.

Trains continued to run, but will soon pause for November (with some exceptions). 4270 pulls away from P2 at Winchcombe here, watched by the signalman.

We often get visitors who want to see what's going on, and what progress we have made. Everyone we speak to is very complimentary, how kind they are.

Today we had the pleasure of a visit by stationmaster Mike. He declined politely an offer of a hearty embrace by a very dusty blogger.

Then it's back to work, now on filling in between the quoin placed last week, and the window on the Malvern side.

All in all, we raised the walls by one block today, pretty much al the way round.

Here's the other corner of the inside, the walls are now so high that we can hardly see each other over the top.

Another quoin was then heaved on to this corner, together with a row of 8 inch blocks to reach the big window. They will be bedded down next week.

Two four inch blocks make up a 9 inch gap in the middle, for which an 8 inch block could not be found. The number of dressed blocks left behind is slowly declining...

We stood Dave next to this corner, so that you can see for yourself how high the wall is here now. It goes to the top of his head. Bedded blocks are on the left, loose ones ready for bedding on the right.

This is a view of our sorted piles of dressed stone. They've gone down quite a bit over the last 3 weeks.

We do have a few more behind the camera, but they have not yet been sorted by size. That makes it much easier to hunt for that elusive block you need to close a particular row.

On completing the arch over the fireplace Paul cut some pieces of slate with semi circular cutouts. These, when paired, will form the gap for the circular flue. The pipe in the picture is a plastic one, and was only used as a dummy to get the size right.

This is the closing shot of the day, before we draped all the work in hessian. You can see that the windows are now well bedded in.

 

 

Our PWay correspondent reports:

While the Usketeers were laying blocks, the regular PWay gang was out on the line, dealing with various dips and dropped joints.

Covid has thrown a bit of a spanner in our regular track maintenance (as it has in so many other activities) in that we haven't had a tamper for several years, and are now dealing with track irregularities manually. The sponsored Robels have been absolutely brilliant here, your blogger has seen spontaneous praise in writing from a section head on the subject.

At Gotherington a deflection arising over two panels was recently detected, and this was caused by i.a. a certain insufficiency of ballast there.

As we don't have the money for a large pile of ballast and Dogfish wagons filled to the top, we used the white Landie to tip in a small quantity from a pile found beside the line.

It was amazing how accurately we could tip a little here and a little there.

You may wonder how we filled the Landie with the ballast - the answer is: by hand!

The Landie pictures were taken near Manor Lane, Gotherington.

More Robel packing took place at Peasebrook - another problem dealt with - and then the team moved on to Gretton, where two sleepers were changed from a small stock of about a dozen that we still have in stock.

Once the sleepers were in, they were packed using the two Robels that we now have.

Here you can see Doug and Bob working as a pair, while Peter feeds the operators with shovels of extra ballast.

 

 

Meanwhile, back at Toddington, we took delivery of a rail lifting beam.

This is brand new, an essential acquisition made to make our material handling of rails more professional and safe. Formerly we used a single Camlock grab to lift a rail, and now we will have this spreader bar to stabilise the rail (which can otherwise twist unpredictably), and the lift will be done with two Camlocks.

In the middle are two openings for the forks of the Telehandler. All good progress, to make us a better railway.

A bit of Heritage

We have been gifted a 40,- Trespass notice, the one on the left.

As it happens, we had another one which we were using to swap a rusty one at Hayles, so had it shotblasted and repainted. On the right it's the painting, w.i.p.

It struck us that the gifted one is actually not identical to the repainted one. It has a longer text, and the 'NOTICE' is between the lines, while the other has the line underneath.

Can anyone say why there is a difference, and which is the older one? Is one rarer than the other?