More GWR stuff found

An asset retrieval

The canopy team took a Transit to Somerset on Thursday to accept a very kind offer from a supporter to take over his two GWR lamp posts, a three legged bench, and a number of useful tools.

 

The two posts were originally recovered from Keynsham in the 1960s, when the cast iron GWR examples there were removed and replaced by more modern concrete ones. 

Here are Neal and John in the back garden of the donor, effecting a first inspection. The type of post is the GWR No.2 type, which is 8ft above ground, whereas a platform post is a shorter 6ft above ground. In view of the 2ft greater height, the No.2 posts were usually fitted with a ladder bar. They are attractive for us as they can suitably be placed along a driveway, and as such they are rather less common.

The other GWR donation was this 1930s roundel bench, with the slats still in quite good condition and ready for use, after a repaint. It is also from Keynsham.

Neal puts a spanner to the nuts - will they turn?

 

 

Removing the lamp posts was interesting, as they are not buried in the ground, but bolted to a concrete block. This made removal rather easier. It was a later modification, thought to be cast in Swindon itself. The style is the same, with the acanthus leaves, but the column is slightly thicker in view of the extra height.

 

Luckily the owner had taken the trouble to soak the threads in some oil a few hours beforehand, so the nuts came off OK without too much trouble.

We carefully rocked the post back and forth, while adding strips of wood underneath, so that it slowly rose over the ends of the threads. We then laid it down on to our trusty piano truck.

 

 

 

The second post, identical to the first and also from Keynsham, was in the front garden and slightly more tricky to remove. It had to be lowered precisely into the open gate, and then carried up a step and round the corner on to a narrow footpath beside a busy road.

The generous owner of the posts was a former Swindon apprentice and later loco fireman. Numerous little details evidenced his engineering skills around the house, most importantly in the form of this fabulous brass model of a GWR King (the front bogie and tender were indoors) which was also fitted with an electric motor for running on Gauge 1 track. 

We had to wait for a gap in the traffic, before swinging the post out into the road and then parallel to it along the little footpath. That led to the back, where our truck was parked.

 

Here you can see the Transit with the first post already on it. Three of us got in on without too much trouble, given that this Swindon design doesn't have the heavy end of the casting that goes underground.

We thanked the kind donor profusely for his generous gift to our heritage railway, then headed home to face the usual scattering of 'total road closures' that we get nowadays.

Here we are back at Winchcombe, where the truck was unloaded at various different places. The posts and bench have clear future purposes; the workshop items will need a bit of a sort through first, but were part of the 'donation package'.

Here are the 4 GWR lamp posts that we recovered recently. The two on the right are platform models, with a height of 6ft above ground. That enabled the exchange or refilling of the oil lamps without having to use a ladder.

The two new ones on the left are 8ft above ground, so are fitted with ladder bars for stability. The overall length is not much different from the platform post, as the 2ft casting underground has been left out.

As a result of these donations, we have a number of tools that we could pass on:

- A surface plate, a precision slab of cast iron on its own trolley

- Oxford welding machine

- Home made compressor, +/- 8 CFM, with its own trolley.

If there is any interest, drop us a line.

Saturday with the PWay gang.

A lovely sunny but ice cold day. And only 5 of us - maybe the others read what the plan was for Saturday...

Steve waits patiently for the doughnuts to be loaded.

That plan was to take a double trolley up to the viaduct, then back to the turnout for the north carriage siding, in between trains. You have to be quick therefore.

Second train of the day was headed by Foremarke Hall, 4270 having already left with the first one. We start earlier this season.

Out by the viaduct track walkers had reported two cracked fishplates, which we replaced PDQ, so that we could go and hide the trolley in the north carriage siding before the Cheltenham train came up.

On the way back from the job, we picked up these enormous pieces of polystyrene litter, which were scattered along the cutting. We suspect that their origin is the house building site at the top of the cutting.

Which items from this scene do not transport you back to the days of steam?

4270 then rolled in from CRC, giving a brief blast from the regulator once over the turnout into P1.

Seconds later the regulator was closed and the plume of steam was gone.

Ooooooh - doughnuts, yes!

We had an early start today, so doughnuts and tea were still owing to us. We had them on the balcony outside the mess room. When it was sunny it was lovely and balmy. But minutes later a cloud would come over, and then you remembered the outside temperature - 3 degrees of frost at night, and 5 degrees in the morning.

Walking back to the job, we checked the building site where several new houses were going up. The nearest is just 8 paces from the edge of a deep cutting. The cutting is into clay and is known to slip. Indeed, BR already built reinforcement walls along parts of the bottom, and a slip is currently active a little further along.

Job No.2 was to correct a twist which arose after the turnout on the left was rebuilt last year. Nothing major, and thanks to the Robels sponsored by our kind supporters we were able to pack the jacked up sleepers in just a few minutes.

 

Then it was the turn of Foremarke Hall to return from CRC, and accelerate up the cutting where we were working.

On the wide angle the big steam loco seems to be made of rubber and a bit distorted.

Here are the Robels in noisy action. They have ear protectors as permanent accessories attached. We like them so much we could even use some more.

With the twist sorted out, and a nod from the signalman, we pushed the trolley back down the P1 road to the coaling stage, where our Landie was parked.

This was the site of Job No.3 today. It was the same job as last week, but it needed perfecting. Once again we dug it out, and installed the Duff jacks up against the concrete apron for maximum resistance.

As last week, the Parlour Road was well dug in, with several sleeper ends disappearing under the concrete deck, so maximum heave was required on the jacks. Jim and Nick did their best, while Steve gave moral support.

As we did this, we had the chance to snap another passing train, chimney first.  In the distance is the Peak, idling away while waiting for the signal to join the back of this train, the usual pattern for the last one of the day.

Here are two more colourful shots of Foremarke hall entering Toddington, with a brief burst of steam after slowing to return the token to the signal box.

Our last shot is nothing railway related , but something amusing we came across on Friday:

It's where gentlemen go to relieve themselves, if they visit a local brewery. And why not, it's all in stainless steel after all. Flushed with rainwater too, very admirable.

It's a shame that even with these all enveloping cut open barrels that some people can still not aim properly. The same happens at Broadway with the modern wall mounted urinals we have there. Initially we planned original type slab urinals there, but were prevented from doing so by the concrete floor which was planned at a very early stage, without making allowance for anything else.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A damp start, with rain forecast over lunch. We thought we'd give it a go, and were rewarded with a good day, with the exception of lunch, when we were driven into the corrugated iron hut by a violent shower. Nasty!

But the first few hours were great, and we decided for once not to linger with coffee and cake, but to use the dry period and get to work straight away.

First of all a leftover from last week, when we ran out of mix at the end of the day - there were 4 bricks left to place in the top of the arch.

Paul put those in, and now we can say the arch is finished. Advice is to wait several weeks before removing the formers.

On the opposite side was Dave, who wanted to re-seat the block next to the last window. Next week we want to place the last lintel, and this window isn't ready for it yet.

Finally, there was Jules, who shared a trestle and mortar with Paul. Jules was backing up in the corner here, he's good at that.

With the arch over the window now complete, we thought we'd take a picture of it. We have placed a six inch block on top, and this indicates the final wall plate level, i.e. the wall here will be this high when it's finished. We also wanted to see how a block would sit on the curvature, but that hardly made a difference, we saw.

Here's the same shot but from the inside, with the formers in place. We would be tempted to argue that you could take the former away immediately, as the arch is supported at both ends and would stay up even without mortar. What do readers think?

Then again, remember Stanway viaduct, where an arch collapsed due to the former being removed before the mortar had properly gone off. And parking a heavy crane on top. But that arch was only supported on one end, and its failing triggered a chain reaction, with two more collapses behind it.

Jules then changed sides and back up by the fireplace, while Dave started laying blocks away from the last window. These will go to meet an 11 inch quoin we parked on the corner earlier (no picture, sorry, hands full)

Dave casts a very critical eye over Jules' handiwork....

While we were happily laying blocks, the PWay gang was moving the vast pile of concrete sleepers stored 'temporarily' in the yard on the other side of the tracks. Where on earth will they all go, there are several hundreds of them?

This is where they are coming from, with the stack on the left part removed.

We thought you might like this overview of the site, taken from the edge of the cutting. 4270 is just leaving, with a train not overly well filled. Was it the bad weather forecast perhaps?

 

Dave completed the outside run of blocks here, not an easy selection nowadays, as we are seeing fewer of them and that limits the choice. You can see the new quoin on the corner here. One more on top of it, and that's the wall plate level here too.

Then a view over the new lintel on the first window, with 4270 just setting off (on a different train).

For the rest of the day Dave finished off the morning's block run (interrupted by a fierce rain storm round lunch time, which battered our tin hut with 4 of us inside) by backing up the inside. Those bits of gauze we hear are to hold down the trusses, and will be used as they are invisible, whereas the normal straps are not.

At the end of the day this part of the wall had been built up and filled in to a point where it is ready to accept the last lintel. That'll be for next week.

As we put the tools away we noticed the return of 4270, but this time with a freight train attached.

This was a service movement, not for the amusement of passengers, and it was to collect two bogie flats from Toddington filled with the debris of the replacement of the crossing done by the contractors. We've now pretty much cleared the site - car parking is always at a premium, and only the RRV remains to be brought home.

With the bogie flats deposited in the siding, 4270 returned to Toddington while pushing this van. Just then the sun came out. It's pretty, isn't it?

Tim Bazeley.

As a sad conclusion to this blog post we have to report the death of Tim Bazeley.

Tim in 2017 at Hailes Fruit Farm.

Many readers may know that Tim was one of the original group who founded the railway in 1980, and he was then elected the first chairman of GWSR Plc. He was also the director of operations in the fledgling outfit. Tim negotiated the purchase of the trackbed from British Railways Property Board in the early 1980s, and was instrumental in establishing the structure of the railway as we now have it.

Tim was for many years a volunteer member of the Steam Locomotive Department, and only retired from volunteering recently due to ill health. He was one of those who received their 40 year volunteering award a few months ago.

Tim has been with our railway for all of its 41 year life, whereas yours truly has managed only a quarter of that, so we must leave it for others to write a fuller obituary. What we can say is that Tim was a thinker, he was a member of MENSA and could think outside the box. He had imagination to spare. It was Tim who proposed the reconstruction of Hayles Abbey halt, and it was there that yours truly got to spend most of his time with him, and where the pictures below were made. Indeed, he figures on the left side of the cover photograph of every Heritage Herald blog post.

Tim not only proposed the reconstruction of Hayles Abbey Halt, but he also got his hands dirty. He joined in almost every working day, and this despite the fact that by that time he had already suffered a mini stroke. He carried on regardless, not only on site but also in the steam department until quite recently. As he was by then unsteady on his feet, he would rely on you for support - literally - by leaning unexpectedly on your shoulder. That could be quite disconcerting, if you didn't know him!

Tim on the right, after the corrugated iron hut from Usk was successfully placed.

We were a happy band of brothers, and still are, as many of that original team have moved on to the next heritage project, the rebuilding of the weighbridge hut, also from Usk.

One day we decided to treat ourselves and went a mile up the road to Hailes Fruit Farm for a meal. The picture above shows part of the gang afterwards, with Tim beaming on the left.

Much regretted Stevie Warren, centre, by the way, will be honoured by naming our newly acquired RRV after him: +S T E V I E+ . We have passed the hat around for a collection to have a brass name plate made. That way we can continue the tradition of 'getting Stevie to do that', and he will be there in spirit.

Tim in the centre, propping up the company Transit as a mixer, water tank, and most importantly, patio chairs arrive on site.

Tim during the opening ceremony by the new name board.

Happier days, with Jim, munching on Paul's bacon or sausage rolls and of course tea, with the lovely Cotswolds Edge in the background.

Cheers, Tim, may you rest in peace.