Chimenee...

Friday with a lamp post.

We swapped out another lamp post at Winchcombe, a GWR original for a 1990s one of uncertain origin.

Here is the GWR original being brought from the workshop (where it was cleaned and part painted) on its way to the platform.

Ian and Neal hauling an original GWR lamp post.

The lamp post we planted today was donated by a supporter in Evesham, and is originally from Evesham station itself. As you can see, we are very appreciative of such gifts, and look after them well.

Here is the post we are going to replace. It's the little one under the holly tree.

Both the lamp post and the holly tree were planted in the 1990s when Winchcombe station was reopened, and the tree has grown to be so big that it overwhelms the little lamp post. We therefore agreed with the Friends of Winchcombe station that we would plant the replacement post a few feet further along.

'X' marks the spot for the new post, or rather this hole. We measured carefully, so that all the posts are the same distance from the platform edge. Neal cut a very neat square hole, and a new channel to the fence, where the mains cable runs. Each post here is fed separately, so it was a simple task to just re-route the corresponding cable to the new spot.

Digging out the hole was quite hard, and we looked longingly at the vast supplies of cakes that were brought up on Friday for the gala on the following weekend. The Sicilian lemon cake seems to find particular favour.

Fancy a piece of cake? Come to the gala! Or any other day...

Here is the new hole dug out, together with its channel for the supply. Then we looked at the old post, which had sunk a little, and sat in a hollow. Its power supply ran along a length of S&T channel, and this had completely silted up with a damp, gooey mess.

 

 

The new hole was fitted with a little concrete paving slab at the bottom, on which the new post could stand and be set upright.

As we were doing this, Neil from the FoWS was painting the other post that we planted a couple of weeks ago. It's going into chocolate and cream, to match the 1950s era that the station has adopted. Great efforts are being made to make the station more realistic. The signage for example is being changed from black & white to chocolate and cream. The timetable outside for the gala was headed 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' and signed 'Paddington, October 2022'. We liked that. It shows someone cared.

 

 

With the hole ready for filling, we decided that that was the signal for a lunch break, being about half way through our travails.

After consuming our sarnies we rallied some more members of the FoWS gang and planted the post. The GWR one is much heavier than the previous example!

Heave...... !

We tipped it straight off the trolley, with a towel on the edge to protect it from scratches. That way it dropped straight in, needing little lifting. Of course you can't change your mind now about the depth, once it's in. It's too darned heavy. But we had measured twice, and it fitted beautifully. The octagonal bit goes below ground (just under 2ft) but we always allow an inch or so to be visible, so that you can see the change of shape.

 

 

 

We made sure the slab undeneath was level, as this pretty much guaranteed an upright post. Then we backfilled with ballast and Postcrete.

John volunteered to reduce the old foundation block to rubble. The old, smaller post was not dug into the ground, but sat on a concrete base. We used the rubble to fill in the trench left behind when we removed the S&T troughing. You can see the new arrangement in the background, it's much neater.

 

Here we are in the process of site reinstatement:

The new post is backfilled but for the top inch, and so ready for Tarmac. Neal in the background is tamping down the infill for the old trench under the holly tree.

We then filled the new trench with Tarmac and tamped it down - job done, all very neat! The post can now receive its topcoat, and the decoration around the acanthus leaves.

This is the site at the end of the day. The new post has a brand new 16 inch copper top for it, and that remains to be fitted.

After some discussion with the FoWS team, we decided not to Tarmac the old trench yet. The wider area around it is in a hollow, and water has been seen to be pooling there. (leading to the old cable troughing filling up with black mud). Some thought needs to be given now whether we Tarmac the old trench and perpetuate the low level seen there, or whether a wider solution for the area is preferred, such as raising the surface over a bigger area, or installing a surface drain.

One more non-GWR post remains on P1 at Winchcombe. We are rather dependent on donations of posts for this, so if you have a GWR post in your garden, are moving house or just want the railway to look after it, then please get in touch via the conact page above. We have a good home for it, as you can see.

Tuesday at Broadway museum.

We're talking about the museum in Broadway itself, established in an old coaching inn at the top of the High Street.

Broadway museum.

It's a very pretty building, with an interesting regular exhibition of Broadway life inside, and upstairs on the second floor is a room for special exhibitions of various themes.

Here the railway has been able to place an exhibition during the period 4th November - 7th May 2023. It's a display of railway artifacts, generously lent for the occasion by a number of our supporters. It's arranged in themes, including tickets, signals, branding, staff, engines, PWay and enthusiasts, mostly with artifacts from our (former GWR) region.

Why not drop in some time? There's an electronic donation facility at the end, if you liked it, so it'll do the railway some good. We humped a lot of heavy stuff up the stairs!

Wednesday with the Usketeers

Yes, yes, we know we said we'd work and post on Thursday this week, but personal circumstances changed once again, and here we are, back again on Wednesday. Keep up at the back there!

So here we were today, a fine autumnal day but with high winds promised for the afternoon.

This is the situation at the second gable end, now with the Hessian taken off. 

 

 

 

 

 

We have started the bottom of the chimney - three courses at the front, none round the sides or back yet. That area is complicated due to the proximity of the first truss, and the entry of the flue.

The original chimney stack started right on top, but we feel it is better to start a few courses down, and build the gable end around it for better stability. 

 

The first job therefore was to continue the first course all the way round, and this picture shows what that looked like from the inside.

Taking this very seriously indeed...

Jules was up there, later with Paul, while Dave came and went, also helping out the PWay gang, who were short of a Telehandler driver. The Pway gang were working at Winchcombe in the yard, so that was just a short walk away.

There were two PWay activities today - changing defective sleepers in the foreground, and sorting out the rail dotted about the yard, for a bit of a scrap drive. Under the lifting beam are the old components from the turnout renewed at Toddington last winter.

Back on the Usk hut, Paul asked for a number of specials, as he built the first and second courses around the entering chimney flue. The first was for a queen closure, which meant splitting an engineering brick lengthways.

This needs to be done on sand, which absorbs the impact of the bolster and reduces the stress on the brick.

Grrrrrrr....

It didn't work for us though... you can make out the line from L to R down the middle of the brick, but despite tapping it all the way round, the brick decided to part down the middle the opposite way.

We tried a second, with the same result. Curses!

Basic brick cleaning was a better option, making enough clean bricks for Paul and Julian to raise the chimney.

Our bricks are ex Usk (for a part) but also from the platform demolition and recovery at Verney Junction. You can see how useful these recovery operations are, even if you don't know immediately what you are going to use some of the materials for. For example, we now have the material for a platform extension somewhere, should we want one.

John made himself useful by cleaning up two barge boards that we will be using on the gable ends. They come out of a house near Lydney that was being rebuilt.

Underneath are the slates that we will be using.

 

 

Dave, back from driving the Telehandler in the yard, tidied up the inside face of the chimney stack.

 

It's a bit hard to show you what was happening outside, as we are now working in a narrow area, and the build is mostly obscured by Paul and Jules.

Here they are, having a natter, so you can see the chimney in the middle. Still not that clear though.

It's probably best shown from the inside, where the stack is now 5 courses high, and complete all the way round. Paul made his own Queen closure, he has 50 years of experience.

Jules, Paul and John get ready to divvy up the cakes.

By mid-day the wind was really starting to rise. Jules and Yours Truly tried to throw a tarpaulin over the building to dry it out for next time, but it was just impossible in that wind. In fact we had to resort to sitting inside the building to be out of it, at least a bit. This must be the first time the building has been used for something!

After lunch we decided to continue with the chimney stack, and use up the remining mortar, as the wind was getting stronger.

The shoulders of the stack will have the last blocks built up against them. We didn't do that today, as a length of timber to support the barge boards is still to go through there. Next time then, and that should be the end of working with stone.

We have quite a few stones left (as explained last week) and it was agreed with the guys from C&M that they would use them to build a wall at the northern end of the site. That seems like a good use for them.

Room is a bit tight at the top (you can hardly step back for that wider view) so rather than show you the whole gable end at the end of the day, we offer you this one of Jules pointing up the day's work.

The little pile of mortar on the left hides the flue pipe, which is emerging from the wall there and is entering the chimney stack. 

It's all been done very neatly.

The last shot of the day is from the outside, looking up. The 6 courses of chimney are rather hidden by the Hessian we need to apply each time. The Hessian protects the mortar and ensures a more even temperature underneath.

We then went home to shelter from the storm. We wondered what would happen if the oak tree ever fell over, but decided that our sixteen inch walls will hold anything up. We even had a chap suggesting a use as a nuclear bunker. Sounds like a compliment there.