Edging upwards.

Saturday - on the cushions.

We had visitors from way back, so treated them to a ride on the train. We started off from Broadway, which they had last seen when the foundations of the station had only just gone in. They were certainly impressed by the result.

 

It's not often we're on the cushions, so it was interesting what you could see from the train, such as this house being built not far from the edge of the deep Toddington cutting.

At Cheltenham our locomotive, Foremarke Hall, took the opportunity of adding a little water to the tender tank...

... before completing the run round.

On the way back we paused at Gotherington, where the Pway gang was waiting for permission to work on the track again. It was a long wait, we heard.

There was a slight pang of guilt, as our day on the cushions had reduced the gang from 6 to only 5. We also missed out on the bacon butties...

Back next Saturday, that's a promise!

The lovely countryside by the Greet tunnel mouth.

Further along, we stopped again at the outer home signal for Winchcombe, which is actually on the south side of Greet tunnel.

That was a bit unexpected, as the northbound train is usually the first into the station, and it's the southbound train that has to wait.

As we pulled into P2 at Winchcombe, the southbound train was indeed already there. Possibly we were a bit late due to the water stop at CRC.

Meanwhile, at Toddington Walt from the PWay gang has made a start on repainting our new RRV.

Picture by Walt, for which our thanks.

It needs a new coat of official yellow. You can see how faded it is on the right of the picture, while Walt has already done the side that will bear the new STEVIE name plate.

Tuesday at Toddington.

Some touch up painting at Broadway, followed by a visit to Toddington. However, the intended work was gently pushed aside by the considerable interest in our Deltic visitor 55019 Royal Highland Fusilier.

The Deltic engine was running as we entered the car park - you could hear it from quite a distance, and it was only idling. Although this was only part of a Fit To Run exam, hopes of the interested loco dept. bystanders were realised when it was decided that a test run would be useful.

Knowing now when it would pass by, we raced off to catch it by looking over the fence at Hayles Abbey Halt.

After its return from Winchcombe we were invited to visit the cab - no need to ask twice there, we're always interested in technology.

Second man side

The cab is quite high up, and from there it's down into the engine compartment, and down into the nose here, which contains the traction motor blower. It feels a bit like something for a bomb aimer crawling into his position in a Lancaster!

Driver's side.

The driver's side had a commanding view, unlike the class 20 that was being fired up alongside...

This is a noisy locomotive. If you stood close, the two engines made your chest throb with the vibrations. Note the two sets of ear defenders in the top right hand corner - they're not there for show.

The engine bay is lower then than the cab, and there is just enough room to squeeze by. Notice the grab rail on the left, you hold that to stop yourself leaning on the crank case, which one could imagine would get very hot.

Looking away from the camera, you have the blower, the gear box and then the upper left crankcase, one of three. You could hear the gears whirring away for several seconds after the engine was switched off. Then there is a second engine of course further along. The space between them was once filled with the steam heat boiler, removed on this loco.

 

Looking along the upper left crankcase, back towards the cab.

 

In this detail shot you can see the injectors for each of the 6 top combustion chambers served by the upper left crankshaft. That same crankshaft also had pistons for 6 more combustion chambers down the side, and another six were located on the other side. Two pistons always shared one combustion chamber, using 18 cylinders per engine, or 36 per loco.

The engines were two strokes, so had ports rather than valves. The large number of pistons and the timing of the ignitions gave the locomotive its characteristic drone.

Looking along the crankcase towards the cab, you can see a row of injectors on top, and can just about glimpse another row underneath. The circular casing in the middle contains a crankshaft. The lagging on the left is for the exhaust.

 

 

Stepping back a bit, the size of the exhaust becomes apparent.

Behind the camera is the second engine.

The black bin bag bottom left marks the spot where the steam heat boiler used to stand.

There were once 22 Deltics, of which 6 six survive, quite a high ratio.

 

There's also a short video of the locomotive passing Hayles Abbey Halt on its test run to Winchcombe:

https://youtu.be/mjjX9K4XogM

It was rather pleasing to hear the driver compliment the condition of our track (at least the bit to Winchcombe).

The Deltic will run during our gala this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Do pay us a visit.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A full complement of five again, so much progress, and on two fronts too.

The main block laying activity was transferred from the front to the back, now including Jules, who finished the Malvern side last week.

A couple of Wednesdays back we had already laid out a row of fat 9 inch blocks over the lintel of the door, and today was the day that they were going to be bedded down.

Jules worked from the far end towards the middle. 

At the same time Dave addressed the other corner, a tricky area as we saw last week.

A careful eye has to be kept on the nearby truss, so that what you are building on the edge does not come out higher.

Then, when you have the corner down, no higher than the truss, you need to convert the level gable end into a slope, all the time incorporating the wall plate which runs through the area.

 

 

We made an early mix for Jules and Dave working away on the back gable end, while yours truly and Paul went off to buy another bag of sharp sand. We get through that stuff!

More sharp sand, Sir?

Here you see Dave bringing the bag the last few yards from the truck to under the oak tree. The other bag is just behind Paul and we could see the bottom - don't want to run out of sand, otherwise there's no more block laying!

The railway continues with its purple timetable - two steam hauled trains - and we were happy to note that now, with the start of the holidays, that the carriages were fairly well filled. That said, the train is one coach shorter this year than before Covid. Now is high season of course.

Our Ivatt visitor arrives panting at Winchcombe, with plenty of steam around the smokebox.

Still with plenty of steam around the smokebox, we are here a few seconds before departure again.

After this short bit of train spotting, we returned to the site to find Paul working on the southern gable end.

As last week's row had gone off, he decided to try another one above it, but not before infilling a bit behind, as some of the blocks had a tendency to tip backwards a little.

You see him here with the largest block we had left, an 8 inch block that was 18 inches long. We're working though all the large ones that are left, to finish with the smaller ones near the top of the gable. That's the plan.

Here he's got the block down on a bed of mortar, and before pointing it, Paul is checking it for level/ upright stance.

It seems that using just a level (without a plumb bob) you gradually introduce a curve to your work. This came up during a discussion about the tall fire brigade practice tower at Tewkesbury, which we admired from the builder's merchant. It was nice and straight, and a much younger Paul actually worked on this site, although not on the brick laying here.

 

 

Note the bit of timber above his head - that represents the tip of the gable, and lines spread out left and right to the corners of the building. The chimney will go right through it.

Later in the day this shot shows Dave and Jules on the rear again, and the whole row is now bedded in. The door frame is thus fully surrounded by stone. Both are now working on those tricky corners, making a start of the slope and through that bit of wall plate that sticks out (and gets in the way).

 

This picture shows how Paul has surrounded that big 8 inch block with others, and raised the slope here by another row.

As this area is now rather 'green' (mortar still wet) Paul moved to the other end to start the row from there.

This shot is kind of our 'end of the day' summary shot, although it's not yet the end of the day. It shows well how the gable end is starting to take shape, with the bottom needing the most work, but accelerating as we go up into the point.

In the foreground is most of the stone that we still have left. It's difficult to judge what we will have left at the end, if any, but there may be some stone to spare. The triple window is bigger than before, and on the foundations we have a row of concrete blocks (which will be below ground so not visible) and that should save some stone. On the other hand, on site at Usk we did not dig out every single block that was below ground. We left some behind. So it's not easy to be sure.

The sky in the background is very threatening. It rained at Toddington, but not at Winchcombe - phew!

In other news - a brief interlude here to show one of the 8ft lamp posts recently donated to us and recovered by the canopy gang.

It's being painted by the Friends of Winchcombe for a little job that we have scheduled, more of which in a fortnight.

Stay tuned !

And another little cameo (a hasty snapshot, so a little blurred).

What you have to do if your diesel roller won't start (can't find the starting handle).

They wisely waited for the train to depart, before risking the barrow crossing.

We think a strong cup of tea was deserved when they got back to base.

 

 

The last two pictures for today show Dave where he spent all day: the corner at the rear gable end. Besides bedding down the 8 inch blocks nearest to him (Jules having done all the others) Dave completed the corner, incorporating the wall plate and starting off the slope.

The height achieved near his brush is 9 inches, so we hope to dispose of here the rest of the 9 inch blocks that we still have. That'll be for next week, when it's all gone off.

This is the last shot for the day: The rear gable end, with a row of blocks laid over the door, and both corners completed, and a start made both sides of the slope.

Now to wash the tools, and spread out the Hessian over everything we did today. And weigh it down, its surprisingly windy and we often find that the Hessian got blown about while we were away.

A medical appeal:

Over the last 10 years several of your blogger's friends and acquaintances have been thunderstruck to be told that they had prostate cancer. Who knew? They had no obvious symptoms, just maybe finding it harder to pee, and maybe getting up at night a bit more often. But in retirement, who doesn't suffer from that? Certainly for yours truly. In fact 80% of men have prostate cancer cells at the time they leave this earth. But it often comes early as well. A well known case was the famous musician (and a favourite of yours truly) Frank Zappa. He died of prostate cancer at age 52. Yes, it can get you well before retirement. The average age for diagnosis is 66.

A personal anecdote: while living in Belgium as an expat 20 years ago, we had occasion to undergo a test of the prostate for a urinary issue (rather than for cancer). It's a simple procedure, albeit (for some) a little embarrassing: A DRE, or Digital Rectal Examination. It costs the medical system virtually nothing, just the time of the doctor that does it. If it's small and smooth that's fine; if it's large and wrinkly, you need to take steps. Following the first check we were encouraged to go yearly, so we did that, except one year, when we thought, heck, let's skip a year, I feel fine.

When we returned for the next check, the Belgian GP said: If you don't come every year for your check, you are wasting my time!  

We never forgot those words.

On returning to the UK 10 years ago we sought to continue the annual checks, but the UK GP said: We don't do that. Yet Google tells us that 1 in 9 men will be diagnosed in their lifetime, and 1 in 39 will die of it. So what to do?

It seems that your GP might agree to a test if you ask outright. This could be the DRE, or a blood test (PSA count). If you have it in your family, then that is more persuasive. Alternatively, you can just make a private appointment, where (currently) a DRE, PSA test and a consultation costs £150. 

And now the appeal: Get yourself checked guys.

A Fusilier arrives.

Saturday in the yard.

The first real hot day of our heat wave, and as a result, only 6 workers.

We started the day with a quick drop off at Broadway:

Three fire buckets, beautifully lettered by C&W, came in Neal's van. They are filled with sand - or are they?

Because the walls of the station are only one brick thick, we don't want to hang anything heavy on them, like a fire bucket filled with water or sand. It could pull the wall down. So, to achieve the look, Neal made 3 plywood disks that fit inside the top part of the bucket, and then put an inch of sand on top of that.

Here they are in place. Not ideal light at 8am, too much light & shade, but you get the idea.

The posters and the fire buckets pretty much complete our construction of the main building. Let's hope it stays as authentic as this.

 

On to Winchcombe then.

 

 

Here we were asked to replace a number of broken chairs on the main turnout into the yard, the last one still controlled by the signal box.

We had to be careful not to damage the bonding wires and insulated fishplates here.

Adam in the picture is removing the chair bolts from the affected chairs.

The timber in the foreground was clearly second, third or even fourth hand when it went in in 1989 - just look at all those leftover holes. We're going to replace it.

 

 

 

As the ground was dry and hard, Dave went to get the mini digger. That's twice now we've used it - it is really a useful tool for our kind of jobs, esp. with the narrow bucket to go in between sleepers.

Not far from where we were working there was Alex from C&W, readying the MACAW for a coat of primer.

The new idea - not yet confirmed, but in discussion - is to park this lower vehicle along the new goods platform, so that the Usk hut can still be seen from the two main platforms. The goods van initially intended for here could go into the bay, for example.

We'll see what develops.

Fitting the replacement sleeper - also second hand, but fresher.

Big GWR tank 4270 was out on Saturday, and passed our worksite here.

 

This hard to find cast iron double chair was also unserviceable, so had to be changed with the last one we still had in stock.

It's a bullhead one, so not so freely available (and if we could afford it).

 

During the renewal activities we came across a number of well worn items.

Ever seen a Mills key like the one on the right? It takes a special force to bend it to that shape.

 

 

Lunch was taken in the nearby mess coach, but not before ordering a tray of bacon butties from a passing train. We have connections on board....

The tray came complete with sauces and napkins. That's service for you.

Pudding was left over doughnuts from breakfast.

 

 

As the day was rather hot - and this was before the 38 degrees that our region saw on Monday and Tuesday - we called it a day when the job was done, half way through the afternoon.

Dave made a very tidy job of site reinstatement here. And all the bonding wires were still intact. Great work there, chaps!

Tuesday with ...

Shucks, it got cancelled, too hot! Time to write an article for the magazine then.

Wednesday with the Usketeers

A productive day, with 5 of us, and of those, three were laying stone. You can't get better than that with a small team like ours.

First thing found us staring at the 'Bubble Car' DMU, which had been parked right opposite the site. It made a very pleasant change from the usual motley collection of goods vehicles, and it gave a splash of colour to the scene.

This is today's opening scene. It's a shot taken from the end of P1 at the station, to give an idea of how much of the building will be visible.

The original idea of the goods platform was to use it to park 2 vans there, but a recent suggestion is to park the MACAW there (being repainted) as it is lower and won't hide the new building. The jury is out at the moment.

 

 

 

The three block layers we had today were Jules, Dave and Paul.

Jules was on the Malvern side, to finish off infilling between the ends of the trusses.

Paul spent all day on the front, and bedded down the blocks put there loosely last week. In that way another row of 7 inch blocks was completed today.

 

Dave was inside and addressed the urgent backing up that was needed on the front. The last couple of working days saw us put stone on the outer side, and nothing to back it up. You can't keep going like that, the layers need to interlock.

When he had finished to infill on the Malvern side, Jules joined Dave inside and worked in the area of the fireplace, where a large amount of infill is needed in the corner. 

 

 

In the picture you can see all three of the likely suspects working on the same wall. That is where most of the progress was made today. Three block layers certainly kept yours truly and Maxie going, we could hardly keep up. There were constant demands for more mix.

Nice melon there, Paul !

We had a mid morning break, and instead of cake Paul produced a large melon, which he very kindly shared with all of us. He had a sharp knife, and four of us had our eyes glued on that melon being stabbed and sliced downwards - would Paul stab himself in the groin? An attempt was made, but the Tupperware box saved him.

An unusual activity took place today at the end of the up carriage siding. This area was back filled with builder's excavation material back in 1990 or so, in fact some of the more venerable PWayers can remember exactly what went in.

As the material filled in there settled over the years, the siding has settled with it, and at the far end the stock there is leaning to a certain degree. A firm of ground investigators took 5m core samples to confirm what was down there, before conceiving a plan to build the made up ground back to its original intended level.

 

 

Behind the platform the chaps from Construction and Maintenance continued with the infilling.

The Telehandler rumbled by the building on a number of occasions to deposit old bricks and general fill material.

At the end of the day the back of the platform was level all the way along, but still 6 ins below the top of the blocks.

We envisage a grassed area around the hut and along the platform, which will enable the FoWS supporters to mow the area easily with their sit on mower. Grass will also keep the area free of weeds.

 

 

Below is a little snapshot of the laying activity at the front of the building today.

Paul was preparing a thin sneck to bring the gap there to the same level as the other blocks, while Jules was backing up diligently from behind. Jules also dropped a lot of fill in around the flue pipe. Broken bricks are ideal for this, as we didn't manage to bring many smaller stones over from Usk.

 

Dave helped with one of the mixes, and when Maxie wouldn't spit out all of the mortar in the drum, he got quite cross with her, and hit her numerous times with a shovel.

Dave! This is a family blog!

 

 

 

Paul did well on the front, and was two blocks short of completing the 7 inch row when he stopped for lunch.

We took the opportunity of an empty trestle to measure up, and provide the last two blocks which just about fitted the gap. In that way Paul could complete the row after lunch (and which he duly did).

Trains came by every hour as usual, hauled by the Ivatt and Dinmore Manor.

We wondered if passengers would frequent the trains today, or stay away to recover from the heat, but they pretty much came as normal.

Generally speaking though we are seeing fewer heads than before, a phenomenon experienced by other railways as well.

After lunch the spoil dropped off by the Telehandler was shovelled out and about, and was then compacted with the diesel roller.

There are 9 spectators in the picture!

 

More spoil was brought in and dropped under the tree, with the idea of providing a gentle slope down to the road (as it were) on the other side.

This shot through the doorway shows 6 of the C&M gang levelling another load of spoil.

We had several showers today, and got somewhat wet at one point. However as there was a slight wind it was noticeable that some areas inside the hut were now quite dry, even though it hasn't got a roof yet. It's starting to look like a real building.

So at the end of the day we had the Malvern side wall completed and the trestles moved inside, a row of 7 inch blocks completed along the front, and the inside wall backed up for the equivalent of two courses.

Very well done, that team!

On the way back home we stopped at Toddington to drop off a cotton double sheet into the loco dept. textile wheelie bin. The steam boys are steady users of cotton waste, so if you have any cotton items, do please think of them. The bin is by the gate to the shed.

Just as we dropped off the cotton sheets the last train of the day - diesel hauled by 5081 - chugged out of Toddington. That old Sulzer has a very slow, plodding sound, there is something about it that is captivating.

 

 

A post on the PWay social media account suggested that the Deltic had arrived. We had to go and see that. It's 55019 ROYAL HIGHLAND FUSILIER.

Here it is. What a lovely name plate it has.

Here's the majestic Deltic at rest outside our diesel shed. Behind it you can glimpse a class 47 and a Growler.

Our diesel gala takes place at the end of the month, over three days from July 29th to 31st. There will be extra trains, with a 45 minute timetable, and lots of different diesel locos. The Deltic of course has never run on the Honeybourne line before, so do come and take a look.

More information is available on our website:

https://www.gwsr.com/Diesel_Gala.html