One gable end almost complete.

Saturday at Gretton

Gretton Halt, to be more specific. Remember that? Of all the halts along the Honeybourne line, this must have been the most successful one, as it was right in the middle of the village of Gretton. But it's no more. We'll show you a picture of what you can see there now at the end of this item.

Bert Ferrule and Ade load new softwood sleepers.

 

 

Our mission - 'should we accept it' - was to replace 4 sleepers at Gretton, an area of tired sleepers and second hand rail with crippled ends. It's also the area that produces all the broken fishplates that we get, for the same reasons above.

Digging out sleeper ends.

But once on the job other priorities surfaced. The drought has affected the straightness of the track here, and it was displaced both horizontally as well as laterally. Again, we noted trees in the vicinity which are the likely cause.

 

Once the sleeper ends we dug out we applied sluing jacks and a select team of strongmen, to try and push the track back into a straight line. A tamper would do this in minutes, but it took us all day. We never did change any sleepers.

We also noted a couple of track items marked in yellow by the track walkers that we were able to replace on the spot. They're not urgent, but need doing at some point.

In this picture we replaced a broken chair, and we thought we'd let new recruit David have a go at inserting a new Panlock into the new chair.

It was a bit of a wind up (the sort that you do with new recruits) as we knew it was almost impossible with a new Panlock. They're too stiff and springy. So yes, David failed to get it in, but to his delight our somewhat overconfident gang leader failed to get it in too! So out came the special tool, the Panlock puller, and with that the recalcitrant item went in easily.

Here's what we exchanged today - two broken chairs. One snapped down the middle, the other with its corners broken off. They go on our scrap pile.

We work in between trains, so here is the first one, Dinmore Manor. We couldn't see how busy it was, we were too far down to look in.

7820 Dinmore Manor on Gretton Skew Bridge.

We also came across this fork. Who is throwing our cutlery out of the window then?

After jacking and robelling several short stretches of track we stopped for a picnic lunch. The best place to do this on the PWay is by a bridge, because then you can sit down.

So here is the gang today: From L to R Dave, new recruit David, Nick, Jim, Bert Ferrule and Ade. Yours truly behind the camera. After lunch Ade left to do something else - but see below.

While sitting there we welcomed the other locomotive today, 35006 P&O. It's on the PINES EXPRESS here.

The afternoon saw us dig a lot more stuff. It is certainly tiring. It was either the sleeper ends to allow the track to be straightened, or holes to insert Pan jacks, or shovelling ballast into holes left by the robellers.

At the end of the afternoon, with the remnants of our tools scattered about the worksite, we climbed into the truck to take this picture. It's the up side of Gretton Halt. Between here and that tree in the distance the embankment is a little wider, and that was to allow the platform to be built there, and a path up to the top from the road. Today that bit of extra width still has a use - we can turn our trucks here, without disappearing helter skelter down the bank.

At the end of the afternoon we returned to base, put away the tools and treated ourselves to a round of teas and ice cream. The bellow of a diesel engine alerted us to the arrival of a class 37, and here we see Ade again, at the controls. No wonder he left a bit early! Ade still has a day job, and that is driving trains on the main line. So a bit of a busman's holiday then.

Tuesday and Wednesday at Toddington.

The big lamp post, formerly at Winchcombe, is now in the yard at Toddington. Well it is a 'Yard lamp' post after all.  It now needs cleaning up, as it was streaked with rust from above. Due to its height it could not be maintained, and it was also missing its ladder and platform. These are being made in parallel with the cleaning.

Here is where the lamp post is currently, by the coal pile and pit.

 

We've got everything we need - compressed air, needle gun, rust killer, paint and - a chair .

 

 

It was slow work, but it is coming up nice and clean, in stages. It looks like a three day job, and by the time you read this, we'll have done two of those. We will finish with a coat of primer. The top coat can wait until it's in position, and no longer likely to be scratched.

There were occasional interruptions by trains, and near the end of the day, this class 24 diesel loco. At least that didn't have to reverse back to the coal pile for a top up.

 

Dinmore Manor though had to come by for a top up.

By photographing it here, we can show you where the suggested place for the new yard lamp is - on the right by the tap. It will then illuminate the coal area and pit, and it will be visible from passing trains, which is nice.

 

Outside in the car park there was activity of a different kind. Remember those 70 redundant concrete sleepers that went off on that special train with the bubble car in it?

This is what they are for, and additional coal storage area. With supplies rather unpredictable at the moment, this extra storage area is very welcome.

The piles of redundant concrete sleepers can be seen on the left and on the right.

A day later a team from the loco dept. was fitting the sleepers into the grooves created by the RSJ uprights.

In the background RRV STEVIE is getting a new coat of yellow from PWay volunteer Walt.

Thursday with the Usketeers.

Four stalwarts today, and a bit of a slower day, consumed by logistics occupations. We had to move our trestle inside, with all its security arrangements, round to the other end. It felt a bit like the conundrum about the man crossing a river in a boat with a goat, a cabbage and a fox, but he could only take two at a time. How to move it all round inside the 5m2 box?

 

Dave set himself up inside the gable end by the oak tree and completed the backing up as far as he could reach. That should then release the trestles for the same work at the other end

Here Paul was spending time on the infill above the fireplace (which is just filled with rubble, as it doesn't serve a purpose) and then he built this short stretch of outside wall in front of it.

Somewhere along here we will need to start the base of the brick chimney.

 

As there wasn't much mortar being used, yours truly spent quite a bit of time looking through our pile of chimney blues, to see how many were ready for use.

In fact most needed some sort of work on them, with many still having remains of mortar stuck on. This we steadily chopped off over several hours (interrupted by coffee and cake) until we had a little supply of chimney blues with which we can make a start.

The cake today was particularly good. It always is when Dave's wife makes it for us to share.

Today was not the often appreciated fruit cake with extra brandy, but a delicious lemon cake with extra icing.

 

Go on, have a slice!

Meanwhile Paul had gone as far as he could by the fireplace, as quite a bit of backing up is needed further along. Well, as mentioned, we did move the trestle along to do just that.

You can see several 5 inch blocks along the top on the left, with another angular piece fitted to mark the next course above that. We will need to guide the chimney liner so that it climbs diagonally, to come out vertically under the middle.

 

 

From Paul's position we could look along the trusses and see the result of Dave's backing up at the other end. 

See how little more is required to reach the top! We're nearly there.

 

 

A bit later we had the opportunity to stand next to Dave and see from closer up. The fresh mortar shows the two rows he put on.

In the picture he is putting back the third side of the truss, known as the collar, that we had removed temporarily to allow us to work here. Soon we will be able to put back the truss we took out, and today we took out a similar truss to make room at the other end.

John spent the day with the wheelbarrow getting extra slates from the other side of Winchcombe yard. We have two stillages with slates there, probably enough for us to finish the job, if they are good enough. So far, so good.

Here we have about 200 original slates from Usk on the right, and on the left a new box started by John with slates from the other side of the yard. The GWSR has two abandoned recovery projects, Exminster box (recovered, but never rebuilt) and a small station building (also recovered in the early days, but never used) so these slates will be from one of those we think. It was quite a long time ago.

After many shuttlings from one side of the yard to the other with barrows of slates, John took a breather and is seen here looking through the window at Paul and Dave.

Paul and Dave are seen here taking off the collar at the other end, so that they will have room to work next time.

At the end of the afternoon Dave also made a modest start on the planned backing up here, with the remaining mortar. The backing up needed here is as much as two courses in some places, so we know what we have to do next week.

Kharkiv region 

It's been a week of amazing news about the Ukranian counter attack in the Kharkiv region. It made us look at our old photographs from 1998, which was just 7 years after Ukraine declared independence from the old Soviet Union. We did a 14 day rail tour right across the new country, from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east. It was so far east that we didn't realise how close we were to the Russian border - just 20 miles! There was a degree of blissful ignorance, as our train rumbled through the night to new destinations, some in the middle of a forest, others in huge concrete stations that had been completely rebuilt after the ravages of WW2. Some of us had no idea where we really were, but the strategic reserves were fascinating.

A trolleybus heads out of town in Kharkiv, near the railway station.

One bright sunny morning saw us in Kharkiv, photographing a huge FD20 2-10-2 freight engine on a pedestal. This was a Soviet locomotive, named after one of its favourite people, Felix Dzerzhinsky, head of the secret police. Between 1931 and 1942 no fewer than 3213 of these giants were built.

We wonder if, 31 years after independence, this reminder of 'Iron Felix' is still there. Maybe they just innocently refer to it as an 'FD', without explaining the meaning of the initials. It's still quite a remarkable monument. There was another next to Kiev loco depot, but the communist inscription to rally the workers had mysteriously disappeared when we went back in 2003.

 

 

 

On the bridge above the Kharkiv trolleybus is a series of place names which are now getting to be familiar: Sumy, to the north (liberated from the Russians on April 8th 2022), the central capital Kiev, 490km to the west, Dnipropetrovsk (aka Dnipro now) to the southwest, and interestingly, Rostov, which is to the south east and in Russia itself.

This is the entrance to Kharkiv, looking all green and peaceful, but if you look carefully you can see some concrete monoliths on the horizon. This is all post WW2 Soviet reconstruction, as the city was devastated during the war, when no fewer than 4 battles were fought over it.

1941: The Germans captured the town

1942: Big German counteroffensive, just outside the town

1943: February, Recapture of the town by the Germans

1943: August, Recapture of the town by the Russians

So you can imagine the sort of damage to the city's interior after all that.

Here's a shot of the interior of Kharkiv in 1998, which gives you an idea of the sort of 1950s Soviet architecture. By then cars were getting quite numerous - although still mostly Ladas - and starting to get in the way of the trusty Tatra trams.

The architecture is not unlike that of Le Havre, which was also razed to the ground during the war, but this time - by the RAF.

Kharkiv wasn't really the destination - although we did check out the old MPD for rusty steam engines, finding several. We headed further east, stopping at an important railway junction that you will now recognise: Kupyansk. At the time of writing this, the town had just been liberated by Ukranian troops, a remarkable achievement.

 

VL80 double electric locomotive arriving with a train at Kupyansk.

For us the station was just a modern staging point where we changed from electric traction to diesel - one of those gigantic 2TE116 units, with two stroke diesel units and horizontally opposed pistons. Where have we heard that description before? Oh yes, that's right, the Deltics....

The Russian monster churned out 6000HP (OK, it was a double unit) and was of course broad gauge 1520mm.

Kupyansk did have some lovely local colour. Just look how the ladies returning from the market on that incoming VL80 walked along the narrow platform in a line with their bags filled, to cross over right under the nose of the loco as soon as they could. The EMU on the right waited patiently for them to clear the decks before leaving, and we got a lovely wave from three ladies that were squashed into its cab. The EMU shows quite well how much bigger these trains are than ours, on that broader gauge.

Freshly diesel oiled steam locomotives.

The diesel 2TE116 locos were needed as behind Kupyansk we were in the forest, on an unelectrified minor line. Our target was the strategic reserve of Svatove, seen above. At the end of steam the Soviets set them aside, ready for WW3 that never came. There are quite a few scattered around the Ukraine (we saw one reserve in Brest on the Polish border) and by 1998 they were something of an anachronism. Set up by the Soviets, now in the hands of the Ukranians. What to do?

The guardian of the reserve in the forest was set up in an old EMU trailer, with stovepipe chimney and a TV arial. Well, that was him sorted out.

Outside there were rows of 2-10-0 broad gauge L class locomotives, interspersed with E class 0-10-0s.

After trying to find out the numbers of some - many were freshly covered in engine oil, to coincide with our visit, but those at the rear were overgrown with trees - we moved on to the next reserve a bit further along. This was in Starobilsk, a few miles further east, and a name which will no doubt soon appear in the news.

That had a different atmosphere from the forest collection. While Svatove had at least 24 locos, Staroblisk had only 9, with a more active crew of collection keepers. They happily posed for a souvenir picture, complete with pet dog.

A row of 2-10-0 E class freight locomotives, ready for WW3.

 

 

The Starobislk reserve was adjacent to the depot, which you can just make out on the left, so it's probably no surprise that there were more human beings around. 

In general terms, all the locos formerly in strategic reserves such as Svatove and Starobilsk have now been scrapped, at least as far as those in Ukraine are concerned. Those on plinths as monuments have generally survived so far.

Then, back to our mighty 2TE116s and on to the next big town, Voroshilovgrad. This turned out to be another item which was named after an old Soviet favourite, Marshall Kliment Voroshilov, an early Bolshevik, friend of Stalin and later member of the politburo. According to Wikipedia, he personally signed over a hundred execution lists in a great purge in 1937. When Ukraine became independent, it was no surprise that the town was quickly given back its old name of Luhansk. That's another name of which we hope to hear more very shortly, as it's currently occupied by the aggressive neighbour.

 

Luhansk had a very industrial air about it. In the former communist states it was the practice to concentrate production of things in single centres right across the Soviet Union, and in Luhansk it was the production of steam and then diesel locomotives, including the might 2TE116 that brought us here. We visited the enormous locomotive works, but were saddened to see it still, with all production halted. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union the individual states did not order anything centrally any more, at least for a while.

This SO class is on top of a plinth. How did it get there, you have to ask. It's not the only one in an impossible place either. The FD in Kyiv is also on a remnant of girder bridge which looks quite impossible. You can see all of the 1998 pictures here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/73536293@N02/albums/72157660959544482

Finally there was a souvenir picture by one of those ubiquitous old Soviet murals (are they still there in modern day Ukraine?) which had some railway workers with a little machine gun, as you do.

From L to R:

Yours Truly, Galina our translator, and an armed guard that was very friendly, and accompanied us everywhere. But there was no fear, we were always welcome and very much at ease in Ukraine. Lovely people, they were.