Maxie drops a belt.

Friday at Toddington.

More work on the yard lamp recovered from Winchcombe. It took 3 days to get the whole 16ft of it needle gunned, but it was worth it. There was rust under the old paint.

Neal bashing though some of the fang bolts.

On arrival we found Steve and Neal cleaning up the redundant PWay concrete sleepers, now that they are in the wall of the new bunker.

Many had cast iron chairs on them, and they were redundant because in every case one of the chairs was broken in one form or another.

Neal took off 41 chairs he reports. The good ones will go to the 2807 boot scraper initiative.

 

 

Then on to the yard lamp post. We're needle gunning it, then applying Kurrust to stop any rot, and then a coat of primer, with a sealing undercoat still to come.

During needle gunning we came across two interesting marks on it. GWR posts were identified by their size, and this yard lamp is the biggest, known as a No.4 post.

The other bit of interest is the foundry mark. The GWR used several foundries, and this one is S. Griffith of Reading. There's a No.1 platform post at Broadway with the same mark.

Samuel Griffith was one of a number of ironworks which operated around Reading's Vastern Road near the Great Western Railway sidings. The company was actually located withing the premises of the GWR, with 2 other additional foundries nearby: Henry Lewis and Robert Court, both across the Vastern Road. But Griffiths had the priveleged position of actually being located inside the GWR yard boundary.

Here is the 16ft yard lamp post, finally stripped of old paint and rust, and in green primer.

The ladder brackets are both bent, and need a kind soul with a warming burner and a length of scaffolding tube to straighten them. The top of the ladder and platform that we are making attach to them, so they need to be straight.

As there's no loco dept blog at the moment, and we see stuff when walking though the shed, you might like these snapshots of what (amongst many other things) is going on.

Here we have the 2807 tender frames laid out. The coal and water from the footplate play havoc with the metal that is underneath (remember the rear dragbox of 2874 for example) and the front of the tender gets it in the neck as well. In the picture the frames are part primered, and we understand that those areas not in primer are due for replacement.

This wheelset is a bit of a mystery, we couldn't figure out what the owning loco was. Possibly 3850? That has had an awful lot of work done on it, it's marvelous.

In any case the wheels do not come off a 2-6-0... one set is elsewhere.

Finally, a rare shot of a diesel in the jacks. It's 6948, off its bogies. These have been rolled out in front. It's taken a long time for the loco to find a place in the jacks, they are much in demand. 

Work is going on underneath the loco to repair an air leak, while the opportunity to get at the bogies is being taken to do some minor maintenance on them while they are out in the open.

Of course we've got no fewer than 3 GWR heavy freight locos under overhaul here in the Toddington shed - 2807, 2874 and 3850. The latter is off camera on the right, the other two are in the centre at the rear. All have separate owner groups. Also there's 76077, which is being restored from Barry condition at Loughborough. When the picture was taken stalwarts Dinmore and Foremarke were out with trains, while P&O had a day off. Time for a little maintenance.

Saturday at Stanley Pontlarge.

A bright and sunny day, and a new volunteer, Simon. This is great news, we have had several dropouts due to advancing years, and in recent months we have welcomed three new faces, all somewhat younger than the average.

All report the same issue - it takes months to join the gang, with all the certificates that are now enforced upon us. The process is very slow. How can it be accelerated?

After mutual introductions we set off in two vehicles to Stanley Pontlarge, where we set out the site boards and waited for the ECS working to CRC to come back with passengers.

And here it is, with 7903 looking a little grotesque, when the camera shutter decided to have a little think about things first, after being pressed.

Oh well, it least it's all in the frame.

 

 

 

The first job was to straighten the line (again....) next to a tree. We dug out the sleeper ends, in anticipation of the crossing train from Winchcombe.

This was hauled by Dinmore Manor.

Seen from the back of the truck - climbed to extract some jacks, as the other side is nowadays quite inaccessible due to encroaching brambles - you can see the work site by the tree on the right. It was a pear tree, near the top of the embankment. To add to the mystery, there was another one just like it a bit further along, and also the site of a misalignment.

7903 Foremarke hall on its second journey south on Saturday.

We had a strong gang on Saturday, with 11 of us, of which three were members who joined within the last 12 months. If you are thinking of joining our gang you are very welcome, but it needs a bit of patience and determination it would seem. More hands are still needed. Being 11 on Saturday, we split into two units at one point, thus doubling the productivity.

We had a nice break in the sun, with most sitting on the bare ground, but one privileged gang member got to sit in Steve's second camping chair (the first being reserved for, er, Steve). In the picture is Steve's famous VW camper van, which supplied logistical support to some early trackwalks from Honeybourne back in the 1980s. It's still going strong, and so is Steve!



The door pocket of the Citroen truck we used on Saturday had an unusual object in it: an old glass bottle, and a local one too. These are always interesting.

 

Rather than have it float around in a truck, we will give this to the RAT trust, who are good at restoring and displaying old local objects. (They now have a blog: https://ratstrust.blogspot.com/ ) Before doing so, we had a little hunt around Google for the name on the front: *** LETT & Co. Finally we found the name for the missing letters: Charles Niblett. He was a manufacturer of aerated water and ginger beer, as well as a grocer. He founded his company in Stroud (as marked on the bottom) in 1845 and moved to Swindon in 1912. There's more here: http://www.swindonbottles.co.uk/niblett.html 
Codd bottles were used, but this one had a screw top with a rubber seal, and as per inscription was made by Kilner Bros of London. This it turns out was only a sales office, and the bottle was really made in Yorkshire. We're not sure of the exact date, but it could be in the early 1900s. Kilner's as a bottle maker went out of business in 1936, leaving the famous jars being made by someone else.

So the intertwined C and N stand for Charles Niblett.

 

Given that the company moved to Swindon in 1912 it is quite possible that this bottle was used during the construction of our railway in, say, 1905. Wonder where it was found?

 

Lunch was taken in the same spot, with Tony the lucky user to rest his rear in a comfy chair. 7903 approaches in the distance, and we always get a friendly wave from the spouse of one gang member on board. There are indeed many couples working on the railway. The wife of the blogger worked on a Fish & Chip special the same evening, and returned very contented, having helped the railway and made many new friends.

 

New recruit David does a little lineside photography, one of the bonuses we get on the PWay.

We picnicced until the crossing train from Winchcombe had come past again, and that then gives us an hour to work on the live line, by means of a line block. Then we have to stop again.

 

 

 After lunch we moved down to that second pear tree, where another misalignment had taken place. This one was a bit shorter, and with 7 men on bars and 4 on the sluing jacks (no picture, as we were otherwise engaged) we soon squeezed that one back into place. It did need lifting too, then filling with ballast scraped from the trackside.

 

 

 

It was at this point that the team split into two. With half of us filling the realigned stretch with extra ballast, others moved on to replace 4 sleepers a little further along.

That didn't take very long, and thanks to the Robels, the packing of the new sleeper afterwards is so much better, and the sleeper no longer moves when the trains run over it.

 

 

The rotten sleepers, dating back to the 1990s, were fitted with a mixed bunch of chairs, and we always take the opportunity of replacing wartime economy ones with standard examples.

 

This then leads to these narrower 'S2' chairs being removed. They are marked 'S2' but the experienced eye can just see that from their narrower size.

 

They are of course quite old too. This one is dated 1939, so they must have gone into economy manufacturing shortly after the start of WW2.

 

The site of the sleeper replacement is quite beautiful - just look at the Cotswolds Edge behind. We watched a Muntjac deer trot across that field. 

We treated ourselves to tea at the Coffeepot afterwards, and a good shakedown chat. What will be our winter works project? The covers are still on that one, but it will be a welcome break from the routine of sleeper replacement and track alignment, which is our daily bread at the moment.

Sad news on the way home though: 

 

This is the field next to Toddington depot, which is just behind those trees. A developer is proposing to build 29 houses here. At the moment houses are being built round the clock at Toddington, on three of the four corners of the roundabout. What will the new residents say about the noises and smells that go with a steam and diesel depot?

The same company is advertising a similar development at Broadway along Station Road. Houses being built everywhere, yet never enough.

Sunday at Toddington.

Walt has been repainting RRV STEVIE over the last few weeks, quite a large job.

In the picture, taken by Bert Ferrule, you can see that the jib and cab have largely been completed. Just in time, as on Sunday it was moved out of the car park at Toddington, where it was using up too much space.

'STEVIE' being painted by Walt at Toddington.

The Road-Railer moved from road to rail, and was taken down the unloading road between the loco and goods sheds.

 

 

From the unloading road STEVIE was taken across the yard, leading to this rather nice picture:

Pictures here by Walt.

Here is our new RRV framed by a GWR yard lamp, and the mighty Deltic ROYAL HIGHLAND FUSILIER.

This last picture shows STEVIE in its new home, Winchcombe yard, in the stub with the PWay trolleys on it. From here it can easily leave as a road, or as a rail vehicle. Let's get it into use soon!

Tuesday at Toddington

 

It was a quiet day, the day after the funeral. Few people on the trains, and few volunteers.

A small but vital step was undertaken though in the rehabilitation of the yard lamp post. Both ladder brackets were bent, and on Tuesday John and Neal heated up the brackets and using a length of pipe, bent them straight again. (if you can bend something straight)

The replica platform that we are making relies on these brackets being straight.

The new coal bunker is now finished, and just in time too, as a large lorry arrived on Tuesday with the first delivery of coal.

Out in the yard we admired the signwriting skills of Alex on the two coal wagons:

Aren't they fabulous!

Finally, a bit of sun peeked out in the afternoon, and we took this nice one of Dinmore Manor steaming out of Toddington.

The driver has just shut off steam, ready to pick up the token from the signalman.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Four of us today. Dave made an early start as he had to leave at lunch time. Maxie was herd to mutter in an irregular way which didn't sound right at all. Dave was getting very concerned, but did get the first mix out of her.

 

Early on, this is where we left off last time, with a lot of backing up to do behind the front gable end.

Prior to our arrival Dave already laid out some loose stones, but got interrupted by Maxie not sounding very well.

 

Then the ECS train heading south appeared, and we saw a large red flag being held out of the signal box.

Ah, that should be interesting, what's going on?

Dinmore Manor slowed to a stop, right on the barrow crossing, where the bobby was able to talk to the engine crew.

It seems that they were unable to open the box at CRC due to some minor technical issue. Ten minutes later this was fixed, and the train was able to continue. And let us cross over the lines at last.

Paul had now arrived, and they set up shop together on the inside of the front gable, taking an end each. We gave them both a supply of large, undressed stones.

They all have to be used...but we seem to have motored through all of our small and medium sized rocks for the inside, so it's getting a bit more difficult now to make some things fit.

With the return of a pleasingly well filled train from CRC we saw the DMU (Blue timetable now, one steam, one diesel) pull into Winchcombe, in front of the S&T Drewry, which was being loaded and fired up.

Once the northbound steamer had vacated the section to Toddington, the Drewry was released, received its token, and was allowed to set off northwards as well.

While filling Maxie with a second mix, Dave noticed that the belt driving the drum from the crankshaft was being seriously nibbled, and was also twisted.

Further invetsigation revealed that the two drive polleys were misaligned, and the drive belt was getting chewed up as a result. C&W were kind enough to lend us a set of Allen keys to get the engine side pulley moved back into line, but all attempts resulted in failure, the key would not budge.

All we could do then was mix by hand, which is not a good alternative.

The resulting mix is not as good (the mix should turn for 15 minutes in the drum, an impossible task if done by hand) and it is also very tiring.

The two misaligned pulleys, and Maxie's twisted belt.

 

 

We had a go by hand and that got us out of trouble for the second mix of the day, but we don't want to keep on doing this.

What now?

Next week BTW there won't be an Usk day, as both Dave and Yours Truly are absent - see you in a  fortnight. 

Down in the yard STEVIE was busy being tried out by two of our candidate driver-operators, and they seemed to be doing well.

Here is STEVIE manipulating the big spreader bar that we use for lifting rail.

Back inside the Usk hut Paul is now the only block layer today, as Dave had to go home as announced. You can see what Paul has been laying on the right, above the fireplace. We're close to the trusses here, so that area won't go much higher.

 

 

In this picture you can see how the chimney liner will fit inside the gable, up to the point somewhere near John's head when we will encase it inside the brick chimney that goes on top. We will start that somewhere under the top of the gable.

 

What will the chimney look like?

We had a little play around with some of the bricks. It could be square, leaving ju.u.u.u.u.st enough space for the liner (L), or rectangular, with a bit more room inside (R). We shall see on the day, what fits best when we start the first course.

This is the original chimney, in situ at Usk. It does look rectangular, so we might go for that option.

During the afternoon we sorted out part of the next outer course, given that Dave and Paul had done enough backing up to support it from behind.

Loose blocks for the next course in the foreground.

Then we had a look inside to see how far Paul had got with that final mix for the day. If you look carefully, you can see the wet mortar, and it looks like he did two courses, including the near completion of the wall above the fireplace.

We covered Paul's work in hessian, and then retired to the Coffeepot for a mug of tea.

Today we had the visit of a blog reader and supporter, who handed us a box of jam tarts and a cheque.

Which one did we like better? Hmmmm.... jam tarts.....

We're very grateful for the donation, joking apart!

This final little cameo shows the token exchange with our signalman today.

We would like to record how impressed we were with his signalman's uniform, entirely self assembled. Waistcoat and jacket with GWR brass buttons, and the jacket also had sew on embroidered lapels with the early style GWR logo. The jacket was in a thick sort of felt-like material and is an original off Ebay.

Well done that man - we are indeed a 'living museum'.