Back in action

Wednesday with the Usketeers

We're back in action, after a 10 day trip to North Devon and Cornwall. A change of scene, but also the chance to 'look over the fence' at fellow preserved railways, more of which later. You always learn something new!

It was good to be back on Tuesday.

We had an unexpected offer of wood for the Usk (or any other GWSR) project. It came off a building being rebuilt in the Forest of Dean. Take as much as you like, they said! We did.

In the Forest, where there is - wood.

Back at Winchcombe, and unloaded.

Most of the pieces are 2 - 3m long, and 4x2ins in section. We will use some, but not all of it, so it is available to anyone on the railway. There are two very thick planks in the foreground.

On site on Wednesday were some tree surgeons, who came to prune the oak tree, which is getting very large.

They took about 2m off it, all the way round.

 

 

Jules was back today, and armed himself with an enormous pile of mortar. It went on his spot - through the open window! Well, that was the most direct way.

The outer wall here is finished, so Jules busied himself with the inner facade, which needs to come up to a level above the base plate that runs along the top. The relative heights of the two faces are governed by the slope of the roof - the wall is not flat on top.

 

 

Dave was on the opposite side.

As Foremarke Hall arrived with a train, Dave was working on the course of blocks above the arch. Again, because of the slope of the roof, the course is thin at the front, and thick at the back. As our replacement window frame is a little bigger than the old rotten one, and also has an arch over it which the old window didn't have, there is less room for courses on top.

 

 

 

 

The other two today were Paul and John. We had the building inspector round today, just to endorse the design of the trusses we are using. He declared himself happy, didn't really need to come back until the building needed sign off, so Paul resumed making trusses, here on No. 4 of the 13.

In this picture you can see how much Jules laid in half a day, he put two courses on at once. Well, backing up is in some ways simpler than laying dressed stone, as the fit is not so important. Note how thick the wall is above the window now. Our new galvanised steel lintel really comes into its own here.

On the other hand, Dave's work needed a lot more reflection and research into suitable blocks. He's working on a slope after all, one that slowly flattens out. It was tricky selecting stones for the slope, when really they are dressed to be square.

We also needed to pay attention that we did not put an unequal weight distribution on the arch, and must work from two sides.

Here is Dave working on the centre, where the course is quite thin, only about two inches at the front.

In the middle the stones need to be flat, then slope away increasingly.

Dave was a bit dubious about the stones, but we assured him they looked fine from below.

 

 

Leaving Paul to continue with the fourth truss, John began applying woodworm treatment to the second hand timbers.

Some have evidence of woodworm, but not badly so, and we want to make sure they won't return.

Both Jules and Dave had to leave early for personal reasons, so here are two overviews of their work today. (we also experienced some pretty heavy showers, which didn't help)

This is Jules' work today, pretty much two courses backed up on the Malvern side. The wall plate there is now buried in the stonework, which is how it was.

Dave's work today can best be appreciated in how the arch is now incorporated into the wall, and not arching over the top of it, as last time.

The wall plate on this side is still visible, suspended in the air. It still needs to be backed up from the inside - maybe a job for Jules next time. He did make a start in the corner on the right, where he put a couple of big, rough shaped blocks, just to use up some spare mortar. Dave's careful work today didn't use very much.

In other business.....

Today the roadworks crossing the bridge outside the station finally shifted from one side to the other. That means we can now reach the station again from the Greet direction, but conversely also that you can't get to the station directly from Winchcombe itself.

The new roadworks situation today - the bridge is free again.

And then this photograph is how we'd like the interior of the Usk hut to look one day. The inspiration is the lovely wooden coal office rebuilt by the Railway Archiving Trust off platform 2 at Toddington. You can visit it anytime! As it won't be a weighbridge hut as such, our building could be dressed to look like a coal office, or general merchant's office. Look at that lovely counter and the drawers. It's beautifully done.

Would anyone be interested in making it?

Meanwhile, at Broadway work on the footbridge steps has pretty much been completed.

In this picture, taken on Tuesday, the obligatory non slip treads have been fitted, and the hand rails have been varnished. Aren't they lovely!

These steps should be open for public use for the gala, which we are holding between 3rd and 5th June. We couldn't help noticing arrivals of beer barrels today, so it should be fun (next to having a magnificent 9 F back).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exmoor Associates - track walk.

Saturday 14th May saw a meeting for supporters of EA, to outline the latest track purchase opportunities, and to give donors the chance to visit the trackbed at Hunnacott (just south of the Wistlandpound reservoir) that was most recently purchased. It was certainly a most gratifying experience, to walk along the 700 yds of L&B trackbed, that supporters have clubbed together and bought for the project.

EA have produced a very handy outline (in 4 parts) showing who owns what in the section in which they are seeking to assemble pieces of trackbed. That is the section between Wistlandpound reservoir, and Pilton yard, Barnstaple. The latest section to be secured is marked in green below:

The numbers refer to each of the trackbed sections sold off in 1935, and note that the sections are not to scale, just representative. Bratton Fleming station is section 31, just below the bottom of this sheet.

Interestingly, the section just below the recent purchase at Hunnacott has actually been turned into a little public road, and as you will see further down, we were actually able to drive along it and take a few pictures. It's all fascinating.

So here is a walk through the Hunnacott section just acquired:

This is the northern end of Twitchen Lane (the red bit in the diagram), which describes a loop to the right and a straight section, passing below the farm buildings in the distance. The new section now in EA ownership starts on the right.

EA supporters gather at the start of the Hunnacott section. There were many more, but we included just a few to keep the photographs unencumbered.

After a short curve to the right, the trackbed proceeds steadily uphill towards the reservoir.

A curve to the left, and another straight section.

Looking back, in the same place, down the valley towards Bratton Fleming station.

The trackbed has been in farming use, and will no doubt continue so for quite some time.

Passing into one of the many wooded areas on the slopes of Exmoor.

Here the trackbed widens - possibly a useful area for the future - and an agricultural building has been erected.

The end of the new purchase, by the gate.

Looking through this gate you can see the remains of a concrete aqueduct that takes a stream over the cutting. This is defunct, and the water has taken a shortcut through the trackbed and out under the gate. A replacement of the aqueduct should not be too difficult - this was successfully done by the GWSR at Stanton, using a large steel box section.

We returned to our cars, and proceeded down Twitchen Lane, which also forms part of the trackbed from 1935.

The curve leading away from the start of the Hunnacott section.

Passing through the woods below the farm visible in the first picture, with the remains of an overbridge.

Twitchen Lane, heading downhill towards Bratton Fleming station.

The end of Twitchen Lane, with an overbridge intact as the trackbed continues towards Bratton Fleming. One for the future, if there is enough support.

During the meeting for the supporters, we were shown the recreated finials for the roof of Bratton Fleming station. They have been recreated using old photographs, and a few remains found in the garden behind the building. Didn't they do well!

The next stage:

These little bits of trackbed are like London buses - you wait for ages, then three come along at once. And indeed EA suddenly have the opportunity to purchase three further bits of trackbed. Because negotiations are always delicate, details are confidential until the sale is definite. But we do know that if you string them together, together with a piece of trackbed already owned, they will result in over two continuous miles, with the exception of a very short piece and a few bridges. Wow! It just goes to show that patience pays off.

If you want to help you can become a shareholder of EA, or alternatively you can make a donation to the Yeo Valley Trust. Further details are available in their newsletter Trackbed Trails No. 32, which can be downloaded here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14JqzaU1yAcncU8yuuZM6ek6BGLeW-C8N

 

Free stuff.

Friday at Broadway

We're on the home straight with the steps, but still not finished. Those handrails are proving very fiddly.

Neal has test fitted both handrails, and now came the more difficult part, the full assembly with bolts hidden inside the structure.

In the picture Neal is trying to do up a nut inside a narrow slot - too narrow to insert fingers.

The short piece from the middle could be done on the workbench below, but to assemble the rest, Neal had to lie on his back on the stairs and try to insert the nut into the slot, and get it to accept the thread.

It was extremely fiddly. At intervals yours truly would be summoned to give the end at the bottom a thump with a piece of wood and a hammer.

With apologies for the lack of focus, but this is one of the slots, with a nut successfully encouraged on to the thread. You can't get your fingers down there, it was done with a small spanner and a thin pair of pliers, and a lot of patience.

Only 6 more to go, then the other side!

This end-one shot shows both the hole (under the 'X') through which the threaded bar passes, and the slot further down, into which the nut has to be wriggled.

When, at last, the nut is on the thread, it can be tightened in order to pull the two handrail sections together, with some glue in between.

Notice also the mushroom shaped cross section of the handrail. This is authentic (we had a short piece to copy) but as found at Henley in Arden, most of the handrails had been replaced with a cheaper 'D' shaped section. Not so nice.

This is an original staircase, after dismemberment. If you zoom in on the left had hand rail you can make out the cheaper 'D' section.

We still have the 4 original cast iron columns, but they cannot be used at Broadway as those were taller to support a truss (the bit we just completed) whereas at HIA the end of the stairs stood in the open air (and consequently suffered so much rust damage that we had to scrap the steps)

Now, what to do with the original cast iron columns?

Saturday with the PWay gang.

A fine day, the best we've had so far! It's starting to get hot, so outdoor work is the way to go.

 

We had quite a bit of stuff to take, so used both Landies. One was loaded with two sleepers and work site boards, the other with all the tools that you might need. You never know.

The destination was MP13, which is at the beginning of the long straight embankment through Gretton.

Here we had two sleepers to change, and this is them being dug out. It's a long, wooden sleepered section, until concrete sleepers take over near Dixton cutting.

Trains looked reasonably busy on Saturday, helped by a coach booking that filled a carriage. Two GWR locos were out today 4270, and Dinmore Manor.

Here is Dinmore Manor, chugging round the bend after emerging from the tunnel. We have a video of this, taken mid afternoon as we were returning back to base:

https://youtu.be/wzhYVJJUNl8

Here is Dinmore with its 7 coach train, with steam shut off after reaching the summit. From here on it's a long straight over the embankment through Gretton, so not much need for steam here.

After the train had passed we pulled out the defective sleepers, and pulled in the two new ones.

Dave on the right is doing something completely different: an on site repair of the white Landie's windows, which won't wind up. It seems that the glass hops out of the lifting clip at the bottom. The solution was simple: sticky tape! Let's hope that stops the glass from coming out of its sleeve.

After replacing the two sleepers we gave them a good going over with the Robels. We also fitted a set of wider chairs, to give this dipping joint more stability. We noted several 'S2' chairs used in the area. These are rather narrower, and were a wartime economy measure that saved on cast iron. We replaced several with standard 'S1' chairs that we had with us.

During our lunch break a train passed, and three chunky foil wrapped packages were thrown at us. These contained bacon baps. As there were 6 of us, and only 3 baps, there was a bit of an unseemly scramble when they landed, and two of the three winners can be seen here, munching victoriously.

We packed another dipped joint and replaced another S2 with an S1, then it was time to return.

Here are the Landies parked up at the top of the haul road from Working Lane. It was likely a very busy area when Greet tunnel was built, and the southern tunnel approach carved out to make up the Gretton embankment. Now it's peaceful, and arguably the prettiest place along the line. The view is across the vale to Breedon hill in the distance.

Once all the tools had been returned to storage, we went to the Coffeepot for several pots of tea, and a few ice creams, if we're pushed to confess.

The dialogue is between Adam and the the wife of one of our PWay volunteers. It's great when both husband and wife become involved. There are quite a few instances on the railway, not least Mr. and Mrs. Blogger, who finally cracked after just 40 years. There's no need to know about trains, she just likes to become involved with the public, and there's plenty of opportunity to do that.

Monday on ballast

Some interesting photographs by PWay member Walt, who helped with a special ballasting train from Gotherington Skew to CRC.

The ballast was delivered to our triangular PWay site at Gotherington (which was used to store the 7000 sleepers used on the Broadway extension), where the Telehandler was waiting for the train of empty Dogfish to arrive.

 

It was a big pile... that meant a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with the Telehandler.

Luckily there were only 2 Dogfish involved. On the Broadway extension poor old Stevie 'Wonder' used to have to fill 6 of them, and then often again! It took him 2-3 hours per half dozen Dogfish.

 

 

 

The drops were intended for those sites where we worked over the winter shut down, such as here at CRC.

 

 

 

On the way there Walt had the opportunity of a cab ride in the class 47, and was able to photograph Gotherington station looking magnificent. The site is private of course, it doesn't form part of the GWSR plc.

Bryan, the owner, looks after it really well. You can see exactly where BR cut the end of the canopy off.

At the end of the drop the Dogfish were returned to the Parlour Road at Toddington, and the class 47 went back on shed.

Hope you like our yard lamps. You can just make out the third and latest acquisition by the tender of Foremarke Hall, still without its hexagonal top. This is on order (but see update at the end), and a ladder and platform are being made for it. The third is from a garden in Frome, the one nearest to the camera from a car park in nearby Dumbleton, possibly ex Honeybourne, where there were several once.

Tuesday on the Broadway footbridge

It's a race to the finish, as we try to get the footbridge open in time for the gala on 3rd June. We've set ourselves that deadline, and hope to allow you up on the centre span, although not down the other side as the platform isn't ready yet.

The footbridge was initially used to convey temporary site cabling to P2, and like so many temporary things this cabling has become somewhat more permanent. We are looking at ways of re-routing it.

One of the things to remove is this junction box. That went on Monday, as no longer required.

The second thing was the camera that points at P1. That too was temporary, a facility for those that supported us from a distance while we built the station. It was attached to the edge of the centre span, where nobody went. Until 3rd June....

 

On Monday Dave took it off and placed it a couple of feet away, underneath. It is much more discreet now, and out of public reach.

Neal helped with the little panel to which it is attached.

 

 

We're now getting into a holiday season, so on Tuesday there were just the two of us, and next week, please note, there won't be a blog post.

Neal now has one of the handrails up definitely, so after some sanding down we decided to give it a first coat of diluted varnish.

It immediately looked fantastic, very luxurious.

Neal kicked off the varnishing, yours truly did the rest while Neal applied his special skills to completing the second handrail.

For one handrail we have something like 5 longer pieces, and two elbows where the level changes. These all have to be connected up together with a hidden set of bolts. It was very fiddley, and took Neal almost the whole of the day.

We have also now pretty much cleared out the centre span, moving most of the kit to P2 and storage with the leftovers from P1. You should be able to walk around up to the far end.

Here's Neal trying to fit the bits all together.

Mid afternoon he was finished at last! We gave the second handrail a quick sanding down, and then a coat of varnish, together with a second coat for the first handrail.

Neal really enjoying putting on a coat of yacht varnish.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A wet day today, but no matter. In the hope things might clear up after a while (Paul had an adage: 'Rain at 7, gone by 11') we headed straight for the corrugated iron 'Welfare Facility' and had some coffee, and, thanks to Martin on the PWay gang, half a dozen Sainsbury's doughnuts to celebrate his birthday. We certainly celebrated that! Here's to you, Martin.

While sheltering from the rain, we rummaged through two big bags of left over building supplies that have been donated to us from a completed job elsewhere.

I've got a Hawk - have you got one?

Dave was thrilled to find a completely new set of trowels and pointing tools in a cardboard box. Also this Hawk, a tool used by plasterers - did you know? We picked out what we could use, then offered the rest to our Construction & Maintenance team, so that in the end all we had left over was a hardened bag of plaster, which we put in the skip. Pretty good recycling, we thought.

 

Unfortunately Jules couldn't come today, so Dave was our sole block layer, while Paul spent the day adjusting the height and level of the roof we are putting up.

Here is Dave working on the inside, whereas the front nearest the camera bottom left is now complete.

 

Also at work in our area was the team from Construction & Maintenance, working on the wall around the buffer stop.

Much of the brickwork has been completed, and as the big yard on the other side of the tracks was being cleared for some new storage containers, a small quantity of spent ballast became available, which was duly dropped into the big void here.

 

 

A crew of nine dealt with the shovelling and levelling, and a vibrator was also run over the infill to get it to settle down a bit.

The general idea is to get a road through here, one that doesn't involve the risk of tipping into the old void around the buffer stop. Now we have a sympathetic wall in the old style, and the hole back filled.

This was the state of play near the end of the day.

The blocks you see on top are for the inside, which still needs to be done.

Meanwhile, Paul busied himself with the correct positioning of the roof trusses. Were they level? Not yet. The left hand side needs jacking up a bit more. As you can see from the wood in the foreground, everything is wet at this stage, but the rain was steady rather than heavy, so we braved it out.

Dave was filling in the inside, to try and get that up to wall plate level. Funny term, wall plate. It's not a plate or a wall, but a length of 4x2 wood.

And don't try to mention that piece of string they use to get the bricks straight. It's a LINE, a L I N E !!!

 

 

 

Here's a shot from one side to the other, showing how the wall plate on the opposite side is supported on little towers of bricks, until we build up to it from underneath. That's what Dave was doing on the stretch behind the camera.

Once Paul was satisfied with the height of the wall plate, he cut off the ends to size. Down below, creaking and hammering revealed John pulling out nails from the wood we recovered from Toddington.

Dave spent all day on the same inner stretch of wall, laying irregular stones to get up to that wooden wall plate.

Our oak tree is now in full leaf, and reveals itself to be pretty large. We thought we'd take a picture of the site. Mrs. Blogger spontaneously commented that it was quite pretty.

We thought so too.

Mid afternoon, Dave was busy with three quite large blocks, which we helped him heave into position. Gotta use 'em up!

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day, Dave had laid one row from L to R, which you can just about make out by the darker colour of the still wet mortar. A new row was started from the right, after some discussion with Paul about the definitive height of the wall plate.

 

 

 

 

 

That was it for the day - further progress. We also slapped on some anti woodworm treatment, but discovered to our dismay that a £35 five litre can doesn't go very far on rough sawn timber. That slurps it up.

On the way back we dropped in at Toddington, where we found the new hexagonal top for the third yard lamp, the one from a garden in Frome. Work on the ladder and platform is pending at the moment, as the canopy team have put all their efforts into finishing off the footbridge steps in time for the gala.

 

That lamp is a magnificent beast, it's huge! But worth every penny. We heard from a member of the steam department that the first two lamps have proved very useful. Despite their old fashioned design, they do actually provide very useful light, in the area around the water tower. This third one will light up the path to the lighting up storage container.