The Usk hut wins a shape

Thursday at Broadway

 A regular day for the canopy gang, but a busy one for the cafe:

There was actually a queue down the middle of the room! 

It's not a normal occurrence, but it does show how popular the cafe is, when the passengers are there. This time it was a coach load, which just managed to squeeze in between all the parked cars. We counted 15 parked cars in the spaces reserved for GWSR staff, but only 8 staff present - someone is abusing our spaces!

 

Neal has almost completed the first line of handrails, and has started on the second. You tape out the line you want to follow, and then start with the elbows on the brackets. At the end of the day, you hopefully have a perfectly smooth line of rails - not so easy in practice.

We're waiting for the signal to get out the varnish - that should be very satisfying.

 

 

John was on cutting the tread covers to size, a very slow and dusty process, and for that he hid at the far end of P2. Yours truly was on painting on the white stripes, a job that was completed on all 48 of them at the end of the day.

 

The train arriving at 15.10 was an hour late and headed by the Peak instead of the steamer we were expecting. This, we heard, had failed with poor steam at CRC. The Ovoids strike again.

Further delay occurred when the replacement diesel had difficulty creating vacuum, so the whole train ended up an hour late. The Broadway passengers remained in good humour, thanks to regular updates from the booking clerk and station master.

Instead of sitting at the back of the train and dragging the steamer with it on the last train, the Peak had to run round. Here it is at the front again, and ready to go.

The classic portrait with the BROADWAY running in board, and a lamp also lettered with the name of our station. 

That vac hose was still giving trouble... (above)

Before we leave Thursday, here's a little advertisement for our gala. Lots of big locos to see, so do drop in. We'd love to see you.

Saturday in Winchcombe yard.

A useful team of 6 turned up on Saturday for tea and doughnuts. Over them we discussed the needs of the day.

Without any urgent actions required on the main line, we decided to address the poor quality of the back siding, which happily is right by the tool van and mess coach.

This siding was laid back in the 1980s using the dregs of left over trackwork, so it really needs a refurb now. The sleepers in this area were pretty much rotten.

 

 

We decided to replace 10 of the sleepers in a row nearest to the turnout by removing both rails. in this way we could get easy access to the sleepers and be able to dig out the cribs quite freely.

Nick here took out all the keys, many of which were old oak keys, which had decayed so much that we will replace them with steel Mills keys. They came out very easily.

 

Once the keys were out, we tipped out the rails sideways.

Now the sleepers were free, and we were able to lift them out end over and drop them on the haul road alongside.

This area, it should be noted, is made up ground of clay deposited here in the early days, so much of it has now settled and there is a certain degree of cant on this back siding.

Some of the sleepers actually broke in half as we removed them, proof that our refurb here was timely.

Bert receives the mugs of tea from the kitchen window.

 

 

Mid morning Jim offered us some tea from the kitchen of the mess coach.

Rather than walk round the rest of the stabled PWay train, we decided to stay where we were, and Jim reached out the mugs with the precious brown liquid.

 

 

After the tea we threw out the remaining sleepers, revealing this picture:

The cribs were dug out, then dug out some more. In the background Dinmore Manor brought its train from Toddington into Winchcombe station.

After all the digging we felt a little exhausted, so another break was fitted in. We then had to hunt around for 10 replacement sleepers. We wanted better ones, but not too good, for this little used siding.

It was also getting pleasantly warm, then a bit too hot even. Coats came off, and Steve sat down for a rest as he watched 4270 in the distance, pulling away rather loudly across Chicken Curve.

After lunch we finished off the cribs, and then dropped in the 10 second hand sleepers we had found around the site. Of course the previous sleepers were also second hand when they went in, but this would have been around the end of the 1980s. At least one was fitted with GWR throughbolters, proof that it was second hand already when it went in.

We left the site with all the sleepers back in, and all the chairs on top, fitted with second hand ferrules. A few sleepers still need drilling, then they are ready for the chairs to be screwed down and the rail to be dropped back in. 

That'll be for next time then.

At the end of the day we had our traditional cups of tea in the Coffeepot. At 16.05 our class 20 came in, whistling away. We don't often see that one.

Earlier this year a second one arrived, in exchange for the class 73 which went to Oswestry. That way we can run the class 20s as a pair.

Lastly for Saturday, we were able to pick up this replica leaflet rack from C&W.

Alex did a lovely job on the gold lettering, don't you agree? It will go to Broadway, to replace a plastic leaflet rack that has appeared there.

Tuesday at Broadway.

Preparing the footbridge for opening in time for the gala. Neal has the two handrails up as a test fitting, but the final fitting still needs to be confirmed. Then they need to be varnished, and we also have the non slip covers for the treads to fit.

We made a start on clearing our 'workshop' on the centre span of all the accumulated bits and pieces.

The faded plastic leaflet rack removed from Broadway.

 

 

The replica leaflet rack was placed on the window cill of the booking office, and the modern one removed - fie, you modern plastic in our Edwardian station!

Business through Broadway has been very irregular of late. Some days very few passengers, but Tuesday for the first train there was a queue out of the door! That, of course, was the day when there was only one booking clerk, when usually there are two, with one doing a morning only.

Generally speaking, we seem to be a bit down on volunteers.  We've had last minute appeals for station staff, and for fish & chip trains. If you've been mulling coming to join us, we'd be very happy to see you! Covid seems to have knocked a hole into our numbers.

Back in the workshop....

We have at last succeeded in assembling three identical ex GWR fire bucket brackets. The two on the right are believed to come from Banbury Junction signal box, so will have a worthy new home at Broadway. The plan is to fit three fire buckets between the posters that are being prepared for the north end of the building.

White plastic camera before...

That white plastic security camera.... it has proved difficult to find an agreed way forward to hide this camera on the end of the building. As a compromise, we have painted it in light stone undercoat on Tuesday.

Plastic camera afterwards.

It still seems a little light, looking from above, perhaps a topcoat of light stone will help that.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

We got wet a couple of times today, but boy, what progress! The two end trusses are up, and the hut now has its full and final outline. Except for the chimney of course.

You can see how big it is now.

 

It was a grey morning when we started, as Dinmore Manor chugged by our sorted piles of stones. We still have a fair few left, and wonder what the result will be when we have finished. Will any be left over? We think maybe a few. After all, the replacement window is bigger, and below one row of stones has been replaced by a row of concrete blocks.

Dave was the only block layer today. Paul was getting trusses ready, and Jules had a day off.

The first thing we did was to put the quoin centre right in place. It will be the last one on that corner, so its size was critical. Unusually for a quoin, it was only 5 ins thick, and that is what made it attractive, as we needed exactly 5 ins to get to the wall plate level.

Dave settled down the quoin, then carried on along the same size with 4 ins blocks, with the aim of meeting the quoin on the other corner and having a full run through here.

This row of blocks will be the last outside row on the Malvern side.

Two members of the Pway gang spent the whole day transferring more of the several hundred concrete sleepers into the PWay yard.

At the end of the day we saw that only a couple more loads were left to do, and they were still at it.

With the wall plate in front of him - still on temporary blocks - Dave motored on down the side.

Yours truly selected the 4 inch blocks, and took measurements from time to time to ensure that this top row (on the outside) was the same height all the way along.

As the trusses are sloping, the inside of the walls will be higher than the outsides, so there is more work to go on the backing up all round.

 

 

There were a number of showers today, and that gave us the opportunity to sit in our tin 'Welfare Facility'.

Here we were treated to a slice each of Mrs. Dave's special moist fruit cake with extra brandy. That goes down so well with the coffee, while the rain is rattling away outside on the tin roof.

 

After the sun came back out, Dave finished off the row.

You can see it here, running from the new quoin (nearest corner) all the way to the other end of the side.

 

 

During one of the intervals, one of our little gang of 4 produced a photograph of himself in younger days.

Here he is, in front of a Valiant V bomber. In the Air Force he had been an armourer, and these Valiants were loaded up in Malta (where the picture was taken) and flown to a bombing range in Libya, not far away. Which one of us was it?

Answer at the bottom of the page.

After lunch - taken outside now, but still a bit chilly if we're honest - Paul had an important job for us: to erect the first two trusses.

In the picture he's placed one at each end of the building.

The trusses were slid over the wall, then manhandled onto the two wall plates.

Dave looks pretty excited. Well, we all were.

And here is the first one, up. It sits with a cut on the wall plate (the 4x2 running L-R) and is held in place with two temporary battens.

 A fair bit of time was spent getting it exactly into place, just inside the end wall.

The picture also illustrates how the truss sits on the wall plate, and why the outside wall has to be lower than the inside one.

 Doug took a break from the Telehandler and took this picture for us:

Here are all four of us juggling away with the first truss. Is it in the right place? Is it vertical? Is it level? In fact we know it isn't level, and that is because the Cotswolds side wall plate still needs to be lifted a little into its final position. When that is known, we will know what thickness of stone we can lay over the arch.

With the first truss nailed down, we got the second one out, destined for the opposite gable.

Doug is just walking past, on his way to the Coffeepot, with a curiously determined gait...

 

We then manhandled the second truss over the wall, after which Yours Truly had to hurry to the other end inside the hut to receive the truss being passed over.

From that viewpoint we could see Dave and Paul, with gritted teeth, trying to nail down the truss to the wall plate.

We got there!

 

 

Paul then cut off the unwanted length of timber on the outside.

It is likely that we will fix a gutter to the cut off ends. We've had an offer of some second hand cast iron gutter and drain pipe, and need to see it first.

Originally the hut did not have a gutter, but it is not a good idea to let the rainwater drop directly down off the roof, as the splash back against the stonework is not good for it.

 

 

With both trusses up at the two gable ends, here's a shot of what that looks like:

Suddenly the Usk hut has its definitive shape! The roof gives it a better proportion.

Next to us we had the brick laying team from Construction & Maintenance again. Only Rob was able to lay bricks today, supported by Paul, his man on the mixer.

Those blues certainly look nice.

A problem they're having is that the courses from opposite sides do not quite meet, so they're going to have to have a break +/- where Rob's hand is.

And then a last picture of our gang today, a shot of the northern gable end, showing both trusses through the doorway.

 

And who was the mystery armourer with the Valiant bomber?

It was our John! This would have been about 60 years ago, and he's still going strong, with us every week. Currently, John is removing hundreds of nails from the 4x2s that we recovered a couple of weeks ago, ready for Paul to turn them into trusses. Gotta keep active.