Getting wintery now

Monday at Broadway

Ice cold on Monday morning, and as last week, all our woodwork covered in millions of fine droplets. However, the sun soon came out and dried it, and we were able to resume painting.

For more space, and a more reliably dry area, John set up shop under the canopy. We did this last year as well.

There are no trains at Broadway until after the Santa season, during which they are topped and tailed between Toddington and Winchcombe. They can't run round at Winchcombe, due to the contractors doing the slip repair in the cutting. Their haul road is right on the turnout.

 

Yours truly did daggerboards (for the final part of the canopy) up on the centre span, and then these bits of boarding underneath. They are from the trackside part of the P2 steps.

 

 

 

As we painted, Neal stripped the rest of the boarding off the Malvern side. The P2 steps now look very bare. Neal was up on the centre span trimming the boarding, another big painting job for us.

We hope the weather will remain kind to us until the new year, so that we can conclude the painting and final fitting of the boarding. If it's wet, we can't.

The scaffolding for the final part of the canopy goes up immediately after the last post Christmas trains, some time after January 4th. That will be interesting. We'll have 2 months to put it all up, fingers crossed. That includes the dagger boards, guttering, drain pipes, riveting, repainting everything in topcoat.... did we mention putting up the steelwork and the glazing?

Dinmore Manor on the SDR

Thanks to a correspondent, we can show you a couple of nice pictures of their Polar Express train. These were taken last Sunday, and thanks to John Leonard we are able to show the involvement of GWSR permanent resident Dinmore Manor.

Ol' Dinmore looks a bit strange here, she's been disguised with a big headlight, and a cow catcher - maybe they need that, down there in Devon... The cowcatcher is designed to allow normal coupling on.

Dinmore's whistle has also been replaced (for the duration, we hasten to add) with an American style hooter, which has certainly surprised the locals.

 

The second picture shows GWSR visitor 5542 on the other end. The Polar Express trains on the SDR are topped and tailed, with 5542 taking the train to the 'North Pole' (aka Totnes) and 7820 hauling it back again.

Instructions to the crew are to make a spectacular entrance when returning to Buckfastleigh! We should emulate that at Toddington, but perhaps difficult at the moment with the speed limit over the loop turnout. We hope to replace that with a new turnout there soon.

 

Tuesday in the Dixton cutting.

A grey, murky day, on which 8 volunteers turned up at Gotherington Skew bridge to swap out some more rails in the Dixton cutting.

We split into two teams.

One to clip up the rails swapped out on Saturday (3 pairs out, 2 pairs back in).

The other team to lift out and then back in, a panel further along.

We're still pretty much at the northern end of the cutting. The Landie is parked a little distance away, as the Telehandler with that huge beam takes up a lot of space when it manoeuvres around. Best to stay out of its way.

Once the Telehandler had parked itself in the right place, the next pair of rails could be lifted in.

Parking was slow, as you had to arrive in exactly the right spot opposite the centre of the rails, and then the rails had to be pushed sideways a couple of feet this way or that, each time by loosening the Camlocks and pushing them along the rail a bit, before lifting again.

In this picture you can see the rail laid out that has to be swapped for the existing, which has too many squats in it.

Note that the lighter coloured replacement rail has its joints in a completely different position. This is because the existing rail is generally shorter, so the joints move up when the new rail is laid in.

 

This causes problems with the new joints, as they are often as not poorly located for the original sleeper spacing. So each new joint means moving one or two sleepers along, and lots of digging, barring, lifting. That's very slow work.

 

 

Another issue we had on Tuesday was the inevitable discovery of one or two broken sleepers. You can see from this one that the break was hard to see, being located under the rail, and then travelling sideways.

On returning to the yard at Winchcombe it became clear that we have no spares at the moment. All the good ones were laid on the Broadway extension, leaving only damaged ones back in the yard. We might have to buy a few more, to have a source of spares.

Another rail about to be lifted out.

The aborted excursion to Winchcombe delayed progress, as we didn't want to lift in more rail, without having replaced the broken sleeper. It's much harder to do when the rail is back in position.

The picture above again shows the overlap between the old and the new rail joints.

At least we made some progress on Tuesday, but it would have been nice to have done more. The gang will be back on Wednesday. (When they actually laid in three more pairs of rails, having found a small and mostly forgotten cache of spare sleepers at Stanton)

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A good day for us, with 3 block layers at work. It's now almost too cold for us to work with the mortar, we must avoid any frost. We should just about scrape by this week, with 0 degrees forecast Thursday night.

 

 

Our opening shot shows three new blocks laid on the southern corner. Jules helped with lifting the big 9 inch quoin up. That should be bedded down next week (if it's not too cold).

 

 

 

And our very own Paul is back! He felt unwell a couple of weeks ago, and had a little holiday. Nothing serious, luckily.

He's back here on the start of the chimney, working on a way to get a square exit to the fireplace into a round shape for the liner we plan to use.

We had a little exploratory trip to the slip site in the cutting currently being repaired (see further below). On the way back we snapped the team working on the station side wall of the hut. The wall doesn't look so tall there, but this is because they are standing on some boxes we re-employed. The number of courses now laid, not counting up to the damp course, is 10. It's a bit hard to be exact, as some courses start with 9 inch blocks, and then divide into two a bit further along. That's how it was built originally.

 

 

Jules started backing up in this corner. He did so well, that we had to bring in more stones from the crates outside to keep the 'ready to use' pile in the middle up to a usable size.

As a result, we were able to empty the next crate. We are getting through them, slowly but surely.

 

In the distance we heard the sound of hammering - what was that all about?

It's the 'Toad with a hole' - more in the C&W blog about this great project.

 

 

On Tuesday, while on the way to Gotherington Skew, we saw signs of a large crane at the Winchcombe slip site.

 

We waited for a suitable moment to take a picture, and that came today. It's moved down the access road and positioned itself by the bottom of the slip.

 

 

From the track side you can see the extent of the slip. The fencing, placed right on the edge of the cutting, has gone awry as the ground has slipped away, lubricated by the run off from the downpipes of the new houses.

The crane was used today to install a hydraulic pump. This will be used to insert the first 4 of the sheet pilings visible in the foreground.

On Friday the actual piling machine will arrive. This will drive in the rest of the piles.

The 'Lego' blocks will not be removed, but they will end up moved a few feet further back. Our contact on site was unable to say whether this left enough room for us to lay a longer loop on the up line trackbed. We jolly well hope so; the insurance settlement should put us back in the position we were before the slip.

On our return to the Usk construction site, we found the team had broken for lunch. Due to the cold (6 degrees max today) it was decided to eat indoors, that is to say, in our 'welfare facility' (without polluting diesel generator) which is the lamp hut. It was very cosy in there.

Why is Jules excluded? It's self imposed; to protect someone vulnerable back home. You can't be too careful.

What did the fireplace look like above the arch?

After a lunch, involving Mrs. Dave's excellent fruit cake with brandy, it was back to work, and here we see Paul examining the drawings that we have. Just how did they do, it back in 1853?

 

While the chaps beefed up the inside in several places, we had a stalk around the piles of blocks, and found these 4 for the NE corner.

Just two more courses then to the top of the door frame.

Jules was backing up the southern wall behind those big blocks Dave laid last week, while Paul has started on the chimney (inside) and back filled the corner at last. That will enable us to start another course in the foreground.

 

 

Mid afternoon Paul, Jules and John had to leave, so at the end of the day there were just the two of us on site. Dave reckons we did five mixes (which would be a record, so we'll have to go and buy more mortar), and looking at the area around the chimney in the previous picture, most of that mix ended up in there!

The last block layer on site today, Dave worked on the NW corner, setting down the row of little blocks we laid out for him last week.

And this is the result of his work half an hour later. A nice level course, making life easy for the next one. It's so hard when the underneath isn't level, the course you are trying to put down goes up and down and all over the place.

Dave the moved round the corner, and with the remains of the last mix bedded down the two larger blocks just left of the window, followed by a row of smaller 4 inch ones up to the corner.

Job done! Now we could go home, as the light began to fail.

This is what the building - for we can call it that now - looked like near the end of the day, and before we put the hessian down to protect against frost.

Post Scriptum:

A picture by Jules has just rolled in. He was able to take this from outside the tin hut, where he was sitting in splendid isolation, as you saw above.

Here we all are, in our 'Welfare unit'. 

From L to R: Paul, John, Self, Dave (the better half of)

See you all next week!

Walls getting higher

Monday at Broadway

 A dull, misty November day. The air was heavy with moisture.

We came to Broadway, to find that two more of the original Scots Pines had been taken down. It seems that they are life expired. More trees were cut down at Toddington, we saw.

 

Up on the footbridge, in our 'workshop' as it were, everything was covered in millions of tiny droplets. Impossible to resume painting therefore.

We decided to drink a mug of tea over this. Afterwards a going over with a towel helped, and in the afternoon we managed to do some painting of dagger boards (far end) and timbers for the final part of the P1 canopy (foreground).

 

 

Although trains have stopped now, we still had quite a few spectators who wandered up to have a look.

 

 

Neal has taken all the boarding off the forecourt side of the P2 steps, and this received a coat of primer along the cut edges, left behind after his fitting work.

Here is Neal making up some pieces that will fill in gaps in the upper timber frame holding the boarding, where the timbers change direction.

 

 

We had to break up at 4pm, as it was getting dark, but at least we had made more progress, and left lots of boarding scattered about, with paint going off.

Tuesday on the PWay

Just three of us reported for duty! What happened? 

We are preparing for the work at Dixton to change a number of rails with squats, and for this a welfare unit and a 'cube' site safe have been arranged.

Before we went to Dixton to receive the above, we stopped at Didbrook to change a reported broken fishplate.

As you can see from the foreground, it was indeed well and truly broken, so it was easily replaced with a new one, and this time with a 1/16th lift to ease the passage of the trains.

We met the Walt with the Telehandler at Gotherington Skew bridge, where we set out two Permaquip trucks, our solution to getting the 7.5m lifting beam down to the work site. That beam is not easy to move around, as it is carried at right angles to the Telehandler.

Once the beam was on the trolleys the 'cube' arrived, all the way from Wales. Our previous site safe, used on the Broadway extension, is admittedly rather small, so there is a lot more room in here. It can be carried around by a forklift, so it will be used at CRC too, when we go there to replace a turnout, as part of our winter works.

 

 

The beam then set off for the work site, about half way down the cutting. (it is rather a long cutting, it's true)

Remaining safely in the Landie cab to receive the welfare unit due imminently, we observed the beam being pushed a few hundred yards, and then stop under three arch bridge. Reason: Tiredness, we ascertained.

The beam then set off again, only to stop a few hundred yards further along.

Was there a connection with the absence of doughnuts this morning? The beam was abandoned about 3/4 way to its destination near the Prescott Road.

The welfare unit was now 2 hrs late, so we decided to take the 'cube' down to the work site as well.

Crossing the line made the Telehandler wobble a bit, but we got there, where Walt turned it round through 180 degrees, and planted it by the trackside.

 

 

We then got a phone call to say that the welfare unit had finally arrived, so we hastened back to Skew Bridge.

And there it was. Now just to receive instructions in how to use it.

We have to move with the times, it seems.

Previous arrangements: (under which the Broadway extension was built)

Bring your own food

Wrap up well. Flask of coffee, waterproof gear

Toilet requirements: Walk a few paces away, turn back towards gang.

Larger toilet requirements: find a tree to lean against ( this happened once, to your blogger, in 50 years of volunteering!).

Modern, with the times arrangements: The Welfare unit.

Hot water, kettle, lights, microwave, clothes hooks to dry out kit, chemical toilet. The whole thing driven by a diesel engine with a 55 litre fuel tank. It emits exhaust fumes as you sit in comfort.

In your blogger's view, the pollution we cause is not worth the marginal increase in comfort, it's too high a price. There must be a better way.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

One down, one up - Paul had a day off, and Jules was able to put in a day, which was very welcome.

Jules is our chief 'backer upper' and there was plenty for him to do. Every one of the four walls was built up with dressed stone from the front, with nothing behind.

Jules first attacked the wall in the foreground, which you can see evidenced by the wet mortar there.

Dave finished off a short stretch of front wall on the station side, while John fetched more or less rectangular stones for him for the inside, from a vast pile of undressed stone.

To the right of the Malvern side window you can see here how Jules backed up the inside at this point to the height of the outside wall.

When Dave had finished the short stretch mentioned above, he moved round to the south facade, where we had laid out some large blocks the week before.

In the picture he has tipped them back, so that he can put a bed of mortar underneath. Shorter, 5 inch blocks complete the run to the nearest corner, at a constant level. This will permit us to put the next quoin in here.

 

 

The 1 + 2 + 1 stones here constitute the short run Dave did first thing, now ready for your viewing.

When they have gone off next week, we can also put a quoin on this corner.

 

 

After topping up the two spot boards, we had a quick wander up on to the road bridge, to see how far the contractors got with the cutting slip repair. Now that trains have stopped running they can get on with it at last.

S&T have removed the point motor from the south turnout, so that a roadway can be laid over the track. In the picture you can see the Terram spread out over our track, and two diggers and a dumper spreading out material. Work in the actual slip itself has not yet started.

 

Now that there are no more trains running (until the Santa season) there is not much going past the platform, with the exception of our 03 carriage shunter, drawing out a long rake of Mk1s.

 

 

 

Whatever, having temporarily run out of mortar and it being round lunch time, we decided to pull the chairs into the thin sun that we had, and share out some cake left over from last week. It was packet cake and wasn't of the highest quality, but it was still cake!

Here you see John, Dave and Jules enjoying the sun. It was nearly warm! The empty seat is yours truly's, with the packaging from the overly sweet packet cake abandoned on the ground.

Looking back over our shoulders, we could see the big blocks, tipped back by Dave in an earlier picture, now in place on the far side of the window.

That's another 9 inches higher. A quoin has been picked out to go on the end, but that'll be for next week, when the mortar is hard.

After lunch Jules moved from the bit behind him to the bit of backing up by the door frame.

In anticipation of next week, the next 9 inch block has been placed by the window on the left.

One needs to be careful not to disturb recently laid stones while the mortar is 'still green'.

Here's a shot through the doorway into the interior. The new 9 inch blocks stand out in front of the corrugated iron hut. Dave has manoeuvered a barrow of 'muck' through the doorway and round to the left, so that he can back up the corner at the back.

It looks a bit dark inside now, principally because of the green tarp - not really big enough, but it's all we've got - trying to keep the triple window dry. The other reason of course is that the walls keep getting higher...

Having polished off the other corner by the door, Jules moved over to the nearer corner, where you can see some loose stones trial laid into a big void. If we want to raise the wall next week we need to fill voids such as these.

The last thing Dave did today was use up the mortar still remaining on this corner here, the one nearest to the station. The days end quite suddenly now, as the dark comes early and earlier and the light disappears quite quickly. So three mixes, as we did today, can be considered quite good.

Here is our end of the day shot. Standing on those boards, Dave makes the wall look a little lower than it really is, but he's a foot off the ground there, and certainly at the back, the wall is now as high as yours truly (6ft 1 inch when last measured.)

Once again we had numerous visitors, but today, sadly, no further donations. At least they are showing interest, and looking is free, which is attractive.

Note also the nearest pallet of dressed stone, which is the 10+ inch pile. It's looking quite empty, and this is because we have prioritised the heaviest blocks as far as possible.