A blast from the past.

Saturday with the PWay gang.

Eight of us on Saturday, a good gang. Six went out to do 'ballast regulating' while two stayed behind to service the Robels. They needed a first oil change, and we were stunned to learn a few days ago that the crankcase oil amount was just 60ml. How much???? Surely not? But it was true, the workshop manual confirmed it. So we had to drain some out. A dipstick is not provided, which didn't help. But we are determined to look after them, they are quite indispensable, and we could even do with a third.

Good news on Saturday, as we marveled at the quality of the brass name plate, Swindon style, that has been made for our recently acquired RRV.  It will be named in honour of our much loved Stevie (Wonder) Warren, our jovial JCB driver who helped to build a substantial part of our railway over 30 years, and who sadly died a few months ago of cancer at the early age of 57.

Stevie loved his doughnuts, so this picture is in memory of him.

 

 

 

The job for today was for a ballast regulator, but as we don't have one we had to resort to 6 mini manual ballast regulators, to wit, ourselves.

The site was where the slip in Winchcombe cutting had recently been repaired, and ballast had been dropped where the track had been covered.

Before starting, we paused to let the incoming train ex CRC drift by into Winchcombe station.

 

Ivatt 46521 in Winchcombe cutting, having come down from the tunnel.

Everyone loves that Ivatt. Because it is small it is economical, and also makes a good amount of noise when it starts off its train from Winchcombe towards the tunnel.

 

 

 

A second train was headed by Dinmore Manor, seen here from an unusual angle as it chugged out of Winchcombe.

Once both trains had gone we had an hour's peace, so got on with the job. The contractors had left a lot of broken bricks about, which we extracted from the clean ballast. Then we shoveled the excess into the voids - that's what a ballast regulator does, but with less effort.

 

 

After a while the voids were farther away, so Nick got a barrow and filled it with Steve. It was then pushed up the line to reinforce the shoulders further along.

 

 

Mid morning we got tired, and the draw of the Coffeepot was too strong to be resisted. There was a round of mugs of tea, as we watched the engine of the next train blow off before leaving.

The Coffeepot looked busy on Saturday. It has a lovely atmosphere under that canopy.

Our ballast regulator(s)...

 

The brave six were now 'strengthened' by a seventh, also a retiree, as are most of us.

On Saturdays we do have a few young'uns, as at least 4 of us today, for example, have a day job during the week.

 

 

 

 

 

At lunch time in the mess coach we had a surprise visitor. He came up to yours truly and demanded: 'Do you remember me?' 

We racked our brains. It is hard enough remembering where you left your keys, or why you went upstairs, but finally two synapses made a connection: It was Dave from the K&ESR track gang, last seen in the 1980s! Oh sweet memories, laying the K&ESR extension from a gigantic assembly depot at Wittersham, all the way to Northiam in just two weeks. Heady days.

Sharing knowledge with people from another railway - priceless.

We had a most useful professional exchange of views and industry sources, in particular on running and servicing our newly acquired RRV. There is a myriad of accessories available for it which would make the gang more productive. You can even attach the Robel hand tampers to it, and run them off the hydraulic system (if they are of the hydraulic type), or another option is to use a tamping pack of 4 tines. Useful addresses for servicing were exchanged, and critical components pointed out.

Thanks for your visit Dave. Much appreciated, and hope to see you again soon!

After lunch we put visitor Dave back on the train to Broadway (which he much admired) and continued regulating, until all the excess ballast had been used and all the nearby voids filled - job done! Now it was time for tea and an end of day ice cream.

 Of course we have to put all the tools back. Not too difficult this time, we put them all in the barrow and 'volunteered' our Dave to push it along the platform.

Returning to the car we had one more opportunity to catch the Ivatt, this time from an angle not often seen. That was dictated by the sun, which prevented the usual head-on shot. We hope you like this passing shot then. We love the tender, and the BR green. A lovely engine, that one.


On the way back, a quick stop in C&W to spend a few minutes watching Alex apply varnish to the DMU. It looks fantastic, good enough to eat.

We were also delighted to see that the last two poster boards for Broadway, those for the north end, were being expertly lettered by Pam.

'GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY' being applied by hand, expertly.

 

They will look great, together with the early 20th century railway posters that we have for them. It is so satisfying to see successful collaboration between departments, helping each other.

 

 

 

Tuesday on the canopy brackets

We have now selected a foundry to make two copies of the Winchcombe entrance canopy brackets, so that we can restore it to its full length.

Neal and Yours Truly spent Tuesday fettling up one of the original brackets (the build in 1989 was always 2 short) so that it would make a good pattern for the new ones.

Unfortunately it had a large hole in it, dating back to 1989. That hole had been plugged with plastic bags and car repair filler on top. 

We replaced the plastic bags with a bent length of 3/4 inch pipe. In the picture you can see Neal cutting off the excess, after which we spent some time with rotating brushes removing any remaining rust and bits of paint.

The hole was then plugged once again with filler, as well as several little punctures and general unevenness. When the filler had gone off Neal shaped the filler back to size, so that this side of the triangular structure looked like new, and will give us good looking copies.

The bracket will go up to the chosen foundry in a week's time.

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Good progress on the Usk hut today, but we ran out of cement after lunch, which was just as well, as a farewell party was planned in the 14.48 train, which we couldn't miss.

Given the clement weather we're having currently the team members are getting up earlier and earlier.

 

When we got there at 08.30 Jules and Dave were already well into the job.

They had gotten all the tools out, made themselves a mix and helped themselves to several shovel fulls for their spots. Laying stones around the trusses was going at full tilt first thing.

Jules, with great concentration.

Dave was on the outside, as last week, while Jules built up the rather higher inside, in between the trusses.

We also found out why Paul was wrapping the ends of two trusses in DPC material. This, he explained, was to stop the mortar from sticking to the legs. The legs need to be free as the intention is to remove the two end trusses so that it is easier to build up the gable ends.

Next, Paul decided to cut all the ends of the trusses that stuck out beyond the walls to the same length. Quite a lot of sawing here!

 

 

Around us, the Construction & Maintenance team were busy too.

Rob here is on the home straight with the topping off of the buffer stop wall with diamond pattern edging blocks. It's been a challenge to get the horseshoe shape fitted with the blocks in such a way that the pattern of diamonds looks logical.

 

 

The rest of the C&M team started tidying their site of left over blocks, offcuts and spare sand.

Meanwhile the lovely little Ivatt 46521 shuttled by, enabling this profile shot, although rather into the light. Well, we are a bit stuck for choice of camera position, being tied to the Usk hut site.

 

 

The C&M gang also started clearing the start of the platform wall of weeds, which made the site look a lot neater.

 

 

At the other end of the wall the Telehandler had been taken to organise the random spoil we have been receiving into something a little more level.

Another opportunity to photograph the little Ivatt presented itself mid afternoon, as it left Winchcombe for Broadway.

The job of filling in between the legs of the trusses - and so completing the two sides of the building - is almost done on the Cotswolds side, so we spent some time positioning chunky 8 inch blocks (groan...) over the door as a start to the gable end here. They still need bedding down though, as you can see.

We made three mixes today, and that left us high and dry for cement - dang! We'll get some more for next week. In the picture you can see where it all went, and it looks very neat and tidy - all Dave's work here.

You can also see one of the legs wrapped up - so that one is intended for temporary removal when we build up the gable end.

We had to go and catch that train at 14.48, so left the guys still on finishing the Cotswolds side wall, but with some of the protective Hessian already up. It gets hot in the sun, and the mortar will crack if we don't cover it.

Good bye to our PWay Manager.

That farewell party in the 14.48 train was for Andrew, our PWay manager these last 2 years. It was a happy parting, as the only reason he is leaving is the long 2 hour commute, which is starting to take its toll. It was, sadly, unrealistic to expect Andrew to suffer this for very much longer, and we are at this moment recruiting another candidate.

Andrew did a lot for our PWay teams, for which we are all unreservedly grateful.

We passed round the hat and were able to present him with a print of Dinmore Manor entering Winchcombe, a GWR loo roll holder and some GWR cufflinks. We hope Mrs. Andrew will approve their placing somewhere in the house.

Andrew commented that everything was GWR, but we are a GWR line after all!

Here's a shot of that print. Wonder if we sell that in the shop. It's rather good, would that be attractive to our customers?

Afterwards we did a return journey to Broadway, and reminisced about he good times we had.

On our return to Winchcombe there was just time for a group photograph.

Our gang is actually larger than this, but those coming on Saturday are mostly still of working age and have jobs to go to, so couldn't make the ceremony on a Wednesday. But their hearts were with us.

Andrew will be much missed.

And then it was time to go home, with another quick look at the Ivatt, as it steamed out of Winchcombe for the last time today.

Blast from the past - K&ESR: 'Operation Longstraight'

Seeing Dave from the K&ESR PWay gang after all these years brought back happy memories of the track relay between Wittersham Road and Northiam. This took place over two weeks in May 1989 and was a massive volunteer effort with 4 cranes and a track panel assembly depot at Wittersham Road.

Track panel assembly at Wittersham.

Unlike the Broadway extension, which was achieved with a small crew assembling track brought in pieces to the rail head, the K&ESR decided to lay all of the track at once, in fully assembled panels, over the almost 2 mile straight line to the next village Northiam. Its code name was 'Operation Longstraight'.

We started at 7am each morning, supported by a 'burger van' in a Southern PMV in Wittersham yard.

The first train about to leave Wittersham Road, propelled by a P class.

Safety valve stuck open? Hit it with a shovel!

The P class then shoved the bogie flat with 3 or four track panels over the top of the hill out of the station and down the other side, where the rail head was.

The long straight of 'Operation Longstraight' over Romney Marsh.

Approaching the new bridge over the Hexden channel.

The bridge of two steel girders over the Hexden channel had to be replaced. It was life expired, and 3ft high dykes had been built all along the channel to halt the periodic flooding. The track had to be raised for that, a bit like at Laverton bridge.

At the rail head, a crawler crane slowly reversing along would pick each panel off the wagon and place it on the trackbed.

Fishplates were bolted on quickly, thanks to air tools powered by a portable compressor.

On to the next one!

The Hexden channel is a tributary of the river Rother, and that is crossed here by a somewhat larger bridge which was refurbished. The far end still had concrete blocks dating to WW2 defenses built to block the line in case of need (a railway gun was based on the K&ESR)

The panel in the picture was assembled on site due to the presence of overhead cables, which meant the crawler crane had to lower its jib to get underneath.

A proud moment - the railway becomes the Kent AND EAST SUSSEX again, crossing the county boundary at the river Rother.

The first panel is laid in East Sussex.

Beyond the Rother bridge whole panels were laid again.

Many of the faces on this extension gang are still volunteering on the K&SR today.

The hired in crawler crane reversed with its panels for about a mile and a half before finally reaching the A28 level crossing before Northiam station.

Back at Wittersham Road track depot the assembly of panels continued. They were loaded with the railway's resident Taylor Hubbard 10 ton steam crane, and shunted by a class 14.

Dave, who came to the GWSR mess coach, is sitting on the ground, second from the right, in this picture.

Beyond the rail head was a trackbed that had been graded, but not ballasted. Ballast was dropped later by Dogfish and the track panels lifted through.

In another similarity with the GWSR, and earlier effort to relay track here with 75lb military track foundered due to its light weight (as on our Defford straight) and all had to be lifted again.

The trackbed sits only a few feet above the Rother levels, raised there by means of borrow ditches left and right. In Roman times this area was part of the sea, and Bodiam castle, many miles inland, was built in 1380 to defend against French raiders who came - by boat.

Another of the propelling locomotives was the K&ESR's famous Ford diesel, then newly outshopped. Unfortunately one bogie derailed on the undulating track due to poorly adjusted springs.

This modern looking ancestor of all main line diesels today was built in 1932 and worked at the Dagenham car factory. The diesel engine is by W.H. Allen, with electrics by BTH.

If you are interested in what it sounds and runs like, we took two videos during a track relay a few years back. The BTH Ford is a dearly loved ancestor, but used only sparingly as it is fragile.

Starting the engine:

https://youtu.be/UUbt-j3K8IQ

Pushing a train up the slippery track below Tenterden:

https://youtu.be/Nb4yNmxcEIU

Back to the relay. Now it's the 'P' with a fresh train of panels just setting off from Wittersham Road.

P class ready to push at Wittersham.

On arrival, now at Northiam, the last few panels are unloaded by the crawler crane. The A28 level crossing is just off the picture on the right, and then immediately after it's Northiam station.

Northiam - a building site.

The last shot is of Northiam station site itself. Both track and platforms are being rebuilt, but the original corrugated iron station building is still there. They even replanted the box hedge, which softened the newness. The yellow crawler crane has arrived at the level crossing.

When the KESR first took over in the early 1960s they were not permitted to buy the whole line back to Robertsbridge (a bit like the GWSR being limited to Broadway instead of Stratford racecourse) but only got the 10 miles to Bodiam. All the track to Bodiam was still down, but it needed complete re-sleepering, and after Hexden bridge, replacement rails as well.

The final 2 1/2 mile section lay dormant for many years, as the operating company concentrated on the 10 mile stretch that was re-instated. A separate entity Rother Valley Railway is now taking on the negotiation, risks and funding of the missing link to the main line. So far Robertsbridge (K&ESR) has been rebuilt, sidings and half a mile of track laid, a turntable is being installed, and 4 underbridges have been refurbished. To operate the much longer line 4 GWR tank engines have been purchased over the years, including the large 2-8-0 tank 4253, which is nearing completion. We're a shareholder! If you want to know more about this lovely loco, you can find out here:

https://www.4253.co.uk/

They're also going to do 5668, currently just boiler and wheels.