A day with the Usketeers.

A day with the Usketeers.

Cold and wet today, but things were moving on several levels.

First thing the C&W shunter came up to P1 in Winchcombe station and removed the rake parked there that was blocking any movement south.

Looking the other way, the tamper could be seen waiting patiently for some signal that the obstruction at the slip site had been removed.

At the slip site itself, a giant vacuum cleaner had been hired in to clean up the trackbed. It had done about three quarters of the job, when the tamper was finally allowed through on its way south.

Here it is passing through the clean part of the site. It was thought that the rest could be finished within the day, as the vacuum cleaner lorry was an expensive hire (for the contractor).

After negotiating a short stretch which still had some infill on it, the tamper accelerated away towards Greet tunnel.

 

The Usketeers marked the start of the day with an early cup of coffee. This was principally because it was raining, but also because Dave had to make a detour and was an hour late. We greeted him with a mix made by Maxie, which was ready to go (the mix; sadly Maxie played up all day long, cutting out as soon as your back was turned. Various positions and angles were tried, some of which lasted a bit longer than others, but in the end it was Maxie who decided when the mix was ready, and not us.)

 

 

Our first job was a quickie fill in next to the top of the little window.

With this done, this window is now the first to be ready for a lintel. All three of these are currently being painted at home and are waiting for the signal that they can be placed.

Not long afterwards Dave had plugged that gap, and there is now a level stretch of stone across from one side to the other.

Half an hour after the passage of the tamper the ballast train trundled through, to follow it south to, we think, CRC. A subsidiary ballast loading point was established at Gotherington Skew bridge, from which the train replenished itself during the day.

 

After admiring the class 47 hauled ballast train, we moved the trestle round by one facade, wrapping it round the next corner. This was to be our main workplace today.

Last week we placed this quoin near the corner, and today was the day that it would be finally settled on its spot.

While Dave was fettling the quoin, Paul was backing up inside, with the intention of making good progress on this corner to try and get the stonework round the door and big window ready for their lintels.

With the quoin on the corner, after much to-ing and fro-ing with wedges and indecisions about whether it was truly vertical - we are dealing with rough natural stone here - Dave could move on to the gap between the quoin and the big window.

This gap was an awkward one, as the two big stones had a height difference of an inch, and it's also getting harder to find a stone that is exactly to your liking from our clearly shrinking piles.

Having filled that gap with a number of smaller pieces and one large one, we but a big block by the top of the window. This will serve as buttress to the arch that we will build there.

This outside view shows you how the facade by the little window is now at lintel level all the way along, while the facade with the big window is almost there.

The walls are now way above your head. Wonder how many tons of stone are in there now...

Having done the short stretch at the bottom of the picture, Dave started on an 11 inch high quoin by the door frame.

At the same time, Paul had already part backfilled this new stretch.

We placed one more 11 inch block next to it, then ran out of mortar and called it a day for today.

Here is our end of the day shot, just before the hessian and plastic sheet went over the stretches we did today. There is a fair bit of rain around and we don't want that to wash away our mortar.

As we were tidying up, we noticed how full the yard was with rakes of coaches, all being got ready for the new season. Gas bottles were being checked in buffet cars, so that you can have your bacon sandwiches!

At the end of the afternoon the ballast train came back. Unable to run round, it propelled back to Winchcombe. The signalman explained that they were permitted to pass the signal here at danger, once he held out his green flag. Yes, this one.

And here they come, very cautiously over the foot crossing and past the green flag.

Behind was the big blue class 47. We were a bit jealous, as it must have been nice and warm in that cab by now, with a big engine idling away all day, while we stood in an elevated position in a northerly wind and fine rain. But we still left in high spirits.

Finally, back in time to....

Tuesday on the PWay.

While the tamper is temporarily out of service pending an on board computer repair, a small number of PWayers have been loading and distributing ballast.

Here are a few photographs by Walt, who loaded the train with the Telehandler, and also helped to unload it again. 

One takes so long, the other is so quick....

Our blue Class 47 just up from Stanway viaduct.

On board the class 47

A full Dogfish on the point of being unloaded at Stanway

Since Walt took a couple of mobile phone videos and a direct upload on Blogger is an option, we thought we'd have a go:

Here is the train being loaded at Stanton, a job formerly done by our much missed friend Stevie.

Not long after, the train is discharged on the approaches to Stanway viaduct, where the shoulders need reinforcement.

Heading south to CRC was not possible on Tuesday until the contractors at Winchcombe had released the trackbed. (but see above)