Gala-ctic

Friday at the Gala

It was really good! Congratulations to Mike and his team. Lots of interesting moves, combinations, things to must see, and photograph.

Here are some impressions of interesting trains at Winchcombe and Broadway:

Sentinel 'JOYCE' whispers in and out of Winchcombe. Can we go through the tunnel? No !!!

2-6-2 Ivatt 41312 with the freight train takes on some of that Winchcombe water.

7903 Foremarke Hall blowing off at Broadway....

One of those interesting trains, headed by the Ivatt, runs into Broadway, seen from the footbridge, which is now open to all.

Crewe built Ivatt 41312 and Swindon built Ivatt 46521 ready to double head away from Broadway.

West Country Pacific 34028 EDDYSTONE at Broadway, with the 9F at the rear.

9F 92203 BLACK PRINCE runs round the train at Broadway, here side by side with EDDYSTONE.

92203 BLACK PRINCE on Station Road bridge, backing on to its train with 34028.

A highlight on Friday was the first GWR freight train into Broadway GWSR. We were greeted by 'On Ilkla Moor baht at' played on two GWR whistles.

4270 on arrival at Broadway with the GWR freight train.

 

 

Chris (Driver): Did I do alright there?

Alex: Erm, so-so, next time bring the 9F...

Our pioneer Broadway freight train, seen from above.

Your blogger got a footplate ride - what a nice driver !

 

Interestingly, Chris the driver of 4270 was a fireman on the Honeybourne banker, and among the turns he did was this one on the top of his notepad: Honeybourne West Loop to Gloucester Central, part of the journey of an iron ore train from Banbury to Newport, Wales. That would have thundered through Broadway, and shaken the lamps of the local residents.

Note the number of the 9F - 92203 ! That's Black Prince today.

Below is the journey he would have made:

Here it's sister locomotive 92224 hammering through Broadway in the 1960s (Photograph by John Diston, date not recorded though)

We came close to it on Friday, with this picture:

Someone would have to let us borrow the Windcutter rake to get any closer to re-running the 92224 picture....

Saturday with the gang.

Still the gala (over 3 days in fact) but work has to go on, and on Saturday the Pway gang was in the yard to attend to two disintegrating point timbers by the siding, part re-sleepered last week.

 

 

 

Our first thought was to have a look at the Ivatt tank, which was parked along P2 at Winchcombe.

Jim had already cabbed it! We were too slow.

We then went for our traditional tea with doughnuts before work, but were interrupted by the arrival of the Sentinel, main line, from Toddington with a short rake.

Measuring the length of the replacement timbers required.

And here is Saturday's work site. The issue concerned the two timbers holding the gauge plate and the point lever. In fact they weren't timbers at all, but normal sleepers with an extension bolted on using fishplates. That was all they had in the late 1980s, to which Steve (left) could attest, because he was there! We learned that this whole siding sits on clay imported at the time, to widen the embankment for additional sidings. 30 odd years later the material has settled, and there is quite a lean to the left along this siding. The sidings were also laid on clay, and there is no ballast here to speak of.

Faster, Dave, faster. MOVE !!!

 

A new toy was discovered in the yard. As you may have read elsewhere, the railway has acquired a mini digger, and a mini dumper.

A number of us are qualified to operate the digger, so Dave (being the fastest) went to get it, to help with digging out the clay from between the timbers.

 

 

The small bucket was ideal in digging the tightly packed clay from in between the timbers. What a marvellous acquisition for us all.

Leigh and Nick set about removing the chair screws from the two sleepers to be replaced. For this we selected two 13ft examples, still reasonably serviceable from the Toddington crossover relay last winter.

From our work site we had a good view of Chicken Curve, and could see what was coming. To our delight, it was the two Bulleids mid morning, here led by EDDYSTONE as they pass the Sentinel waiting in the C&W yard.

Bulleids went back and forth as Dave scooped out the clay from in between the sleepers.

Finally the hole was deep and wide enough to accept a replacement, this time a proper timber. A fair number of the timbers formerly under the turnout replaced by contractors at Toddington still have some life left in them, if used on non essential track like this.

And here they are - two 'new' timbers in position. It took six men on nips to shift each one.

The Ivatt tank made a lovely sight as it trundled by our work site. All for free, if you become a PWay volunteer. Why not come and join us?

 

In order to deal with the connection between the blades and the point lever, we called in our turnout expert Steve.

Steve confessed to having helped to put in the arrangement of ordinary sleepers, lengthened with extra bits, in the 1980s. He's been with the railway almost since the beginning. He explained: 'It was all we had in those days'.

To complete the job we did not put back the clay, but found some pink ballast infill, which we packed using the beaters. The stones were slightly oversize, but they did the job - hold the track, and drain it.

Job completed!

Most of the gang then took a train to Broadway, while yours truly attended a BBQ in his local village hall to celebrate the jubilee. Our village now has a family from Ukraine - father, mother, three children, and the grandmother. Father is a website designer; mother a biology/chemistry teacher. They lived on the 19th floor of a block of flats in Kyiv, and showed us a video a neighbour took of what happened to the block of flats across the road. A Russian cruise missile ploughed straight into the middle of it. The huge explosion wrote off every single flat within it. 

They were very sad. 

While uploading today's pictures we had a thought: we will offer them our shareholder's free tickets, for a ride on our trains.

Tuesday at Broadway.

Back to normal running. A nice sunny day, and still a few passengers about. We were treated to the spectacle of a passenger service with two Bulleid locomotives.

The first one up was visitor EDDYSTONE.

A portrait of 34 028, while running round at Broadway north.

EDDYSTONE heads off down the loop.

EDDYSTONE heaves the 7 coach train out of Broadway station.

In between trains we had a couple of visitors, who used our replica 1904 station for a photo shoot.

Going the extra mile for a heritage atmosphere is clearly worthwhile.

Once we have completed P2 the station will be worthwhile for film companies too. At the moment most shots would show the hole in the ground on the other side.

 

Then it was back to a bit of necessary drudgery: painting the boarding of the steps leading to P2 ( - to be).

Although the footbridge is now open as far as the centre span, the P2 steps are not quite signed off yet.

The undercoat applied here is to cover up the filler in the nail holes remaining in the boarding. Then there's a top coat to be put on as well.

 

Meanwhile, P&O had come in, and after running round, was blowing off at the head of its train.

35006 P&O blowing off excess steam.

Neal was also busy with the P2 steps, and is seen here with a router making joints in the elbows of the second set of handrails. They will permit the insertion of bolts to draw the sections of handrail together.

 

The handrails for the P2 steps are in storage in the container.

With them is a second huge hexagonal lamp, like the one under the end of the canopy on P1. We have several items like this, ready for use on the P2 building, as soon as we get the green light to build it. We are ready to go.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Back to full strength, with Jules laying today, and with a more regular appearance looking likely. This is good news for Jules, and for us.

We had three very serious looking Usketeers straight away, first thing.

We are building up, up against the wall plate from underneath. We started from both ends inside.

Dave here can be seen filling in his bit. We're bringing the stone up, so that next week we can take away the brick supports, and the new stones will take the weight of the wall plate, and later the whole roof structure.

Paul was taking measurements for the positions of the trusses.

 

 

 

Not far away Rob from C&M could be seen cutting diamond pattern edging blocks, while Keith and Rod were laying some slabs to complete a path.

Laying the edging blocks around a stop block requires a lot of thought if you want them to look right.

Rob had put the complete layout to paper. Note the red line running to the corner. This is where several stones have to be cut into segments, so that the round edge continues right around the corner. Clever stuff, hats off to Rob!

Then there was a roar overhead, and we were just in time to capture the Hercules tuning sharply from a North/South direction to an East/West one, and flying up the valley past Sudeley castle.

We often see military planes appear out of this valley, flying very low. Is it perhaps some sort of training route for them, hugging the hillsides?

We need to lift the facade until it meets the underside of the roof, but 11 trusses still have to be lifted into place. So, how to gauge whether the stone at the front is at the right height?

We got Paul to make a mini truss, an end with a 'birds mouth' cut out that Dave can apply as a guide when bedding down stone.

Meanwhile, the number of trusses completed by Paul continues to rise, and John here can be seen applying the woodworm treatment just next to our picnic area.

At the end of the day, Paul had assembled all but the last of 13 trusses.

We had a coffee break mid-morning, when the air was a little warmer than first thing.

The day's breaks need careful planning. First off was John, offering us slices of cake that one could hardly refuse - that would be impolite.

But out of an unexpected corner came Dave, with his wife's famous fruit cake laced with brandy (see knee). Tasting that was an offer that no one could refuse.

The Paul threatened us with coconut macaroons. What to do?

We accepted one for later, but not before Jules came in with a late score of a Wagon Wheel.

Didn't they used to be bigger? Seemed more of a trolley wheel to us.

 

 

 

Then, fully fortified, we went back to the job. Here is Jules, now working on his own, as Dave has transferred to the outside. You can see here how the wall plate is disappearing behind the new stones laid.

Our brick arch is increasingly integrated into the wall of the building.

Dave had moved to the outside to do the same job - building up to the wall plate from underneath.

It was harder for him, as he has to deal with the ends of each truss appearing in between blocks.

Paul had by now marked the position of each truss end, so the idea was to fill in each gap. That wasn't as easy as it sounds, as each stone had to be small, not deep, and 4 inches high. And not longer than 13 inches.

We don't have very many of those. The realisation grew that we are going to have to cut stone at some point.

Leaving Dave and Jules to fill in below the wall plate, Paul was concentrating on building the last of the 13 trusses.

John added his weight to the business.

Here's a nice overview of the Usk hut, as it stands today, under the recently trimmed oak tree.

During the day, both Pacifics came and went. In the picture it's our of 35006, now fitted with a nostalgic LCGB headboard.

Been on any LCGB tours? We went to China with one - what an experience!

Our last picture today is to show the third yard lamp now planted in Toddington loco yard.

It's the nearest one. The steps still need a coat of black. The other two can be seen in the background.

What really charmed us was the sight of several atmospheric pictures on social media, which had locos parked next to these yard lamps for extra atmosphere. The yard lamps give you the GWR railway yard atmosphere, but from an operational point of view we also heard that they really work, lighting up the space that used to be dark.