The last stone goes on.

Saturday in the Dixton cutting.

Twelve of us on Saturday, out on the road to Gotherington along the line, with a list of interesting faults to address. The size of the team is growing at the moment, which is excellent. Morale was good, boosted by two packets of Pain Chocolat and strong tea in the mess coach.

To pick up our tools this time we had to go to the C&W 'barn', where our tool van had been taken for a little refurb, in particular two new doors, which had been falling to pieces.

We're very grateful for the attention it's getting.

 

 

 

A minor news item is that our blue road-railer Landie has been sold, so we are a vehicle down at the moment. On top of that the gang is larger now (we were down to only 4 once, not so long ago), so transport along the line is currently an issue.

Bert Ferrule lies down to scope the rail, while the others unpack.

Ad interim we are using the two crew cab Transits that the railway has. These are used by C&M and by Drainage, but not on Saturdays, so are available for us. We had 5 gang members in each Transit, and two in the white Landie, itself showing signs of age.

 

 

The first port of call was MP14.I, where a badly dipped joint was reported.

Robelling in the Cotswolds.

With a decent sized gang like Saturday, these jobs are a doddle, and we soon had the first joint packed, and back filled by several shovellers.

Another dipped joint presented itself a little further along, in the curve by the Prescott Road bridge.

Prescott was busy today, as we worked all day long to the sound of racing engines climbing their hill. They looked busy, when we drove past last thing, good for them.

Singing in the rain....

The weather forecast was for rain on Saturday morning, so we dressed for that. Mostly the weather left us alone, thank God, but at one point it poured and it looked pretty wet out there, from in here...

The next job was the grinding off of a bit of a lip that had formed on the end of a rail. This reinstated the necessary expansion joint here.

 

Round the curve at Prescott and into the Dixton cutting we had a number of fishplate issues to address.

In this picture we took out a small lifter which proved to be too high, and replaced it with a plain fishplate. Things were smooth again after that. Of course there are no trains to interupt us, which made us more productive. There are no trains in November, except for some Race Course Specials, and then the start of the Santa trains.

 

 

By lunch time the weather was a little more bearable, so while a number of us retreated to the warmth of the crew cabs, a few hardy gang members sat outside. The loading platform on the Transit was converted into a seat, with power adjustable height.

David always brings his own seat. We never really did this, preferring to find seating hapazardly, wherever we could find it. Sometimes that saw us sit on wet ballast. Tony found that the toolbox on the back of the Transit was a good seat too.

The next issue was under Three Arch bridge, where there was a tight (closed up) joint.

Bert Ferrule marks the spot - this one's too tight.

 

On the other hand, there is almost always an open joint nearby, one that has too much room. Originally the rails were laid with a standard spacing between them, but over time they can move around.

This here is the tight joint, which we opened out using wedges. At the other end of the rail people would call out the decreasing gap, until the two were +/- equal.

The other end, as it happens, was an insulated joint. With one of these the fishplate is dressed in an insulating sleeve of plastic, to stop the low current in the rails from reaching the next. That jacket was fractured, and so doing it becomes a likely site for a track curcuit failure. Our answer to that, after adjusting the gap, was a new set of sleeves, and job done.

 

 

 

Then it started to get dark, and it was only 2.30! We had reached Gotherington Skew bridge though, which was our target for the day, so we chalked this up as a successful day. Our new recruits admitted to enjoying themselves, and the best proof of that is when they come back.

Back home at Winchcombe we put away the tools and then our transport. Time for a chat with Alex, our signwriter, wagon restoration team member and now new director of our Trust.

Alex was doing what he does best - signwriting. Here a Mk1 is being named after the two daughters of the owner, one on each side. You may recall 'ABIGAIL' on the other side already, and now it's 'CHARLOTTE'.

Wonder if the girls argue about who gets to have the corridor side, and who the compartment?

 

 

Friday at Broadway museum.

Friday saw the launch event for our railway exhibition at the Broadway village museum, at the top of the High Street. Do go and see it, it's open on the second floor, right up to March next year.

We took a few snapshots of the exhibits for you, perhaps they will entice you to go?

Some local totems.

A stationmaster's desk.

Possibility of watching a film about the railway.

A track diagram of CRC from Cheltenham Race Course signal box.

A book of original 1907 drawings of the line.

The exhibition is divided into sections with different themes.

The opening speech by the chairman of the GWSR.

Items were supplied by a wide variety of well wishers, including Yours Truly.

Even the PWay had some items on display.

 

 

 A time line for the Honeybourne line, done in a rather attractive wheel of events.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

 A fine autumn day, and our gang of 4 was complete again. Today the winds were quieter, so the first thing we did was to put the tarpaulins on the roof.

 

Jules in fact spent a large part of the day attending to this, making sure that everything was covered, and that the sheet was well battened down, as we are sure to get some winter storms.

It looks rather good from the inside, wouldn't you agree?

That said, looking upwards we could see lots of pinholes, a bit like looking at the stars on a clear evening. The sheets are not new, they were last in use at Hayles Abbey halt, on top of the leaky container we had there. But they should still keep the worst of the rain off the trusses, which is the idea.

With a sort of roof over our heads now, we couldn't resist the temptation to try it out. What's it like inside? A bit darker, is the answer, and kind of snug. The windows were still open of course, and the door is not yet fitted. Window glass is now on order, and should be with us in a week or so. Maybe next time then.

Our friends from C&M offered their services to use up the spare stones that we didn't need. It was felt that a dry stone wall at the northern end of the site would be a good alternative use for them.

Here they are, making a start.

Some interesting planes then flew over, and we were called out in a hurry to look:

Our air force experts will no doubt correct this, but isn't that a Hercules behind a C17? It looks quite close.

 

Dave helping Paul saw the 4x2 to length.

 

 

 

Back to work then. Before we can lay any more blocks we first need to attach two lengths of 4x2 to the end truss. These will stick out a little bit, and allow the barge board on the gable end to be attached. 

While this was going on we prepared a mix, and then took a look at what the PWay gang was doing in the yard.

The answer is that they are sorting a tangled pile of second hand rails into useable lengths, and then stacking them neatly. This is where Stevie comes in on his own. You see him here in rail mode.

The other members of the gang loaded up some trolleys with tools, 6 sleepers, a generator and some lights, and headed off to the tunnel.

It was a bit ironic that today was the day for that, as it has been really wet recently, and the first dry day happened to be the one they needed to work in the tunnnel.

Oh well.

 

 

With the two extension pieces fitted, Dave went up the tower scaffold to complete the blockwork to the right and left of the chimney bottom, started last week.

There was an amusing moment here, which sadly we failed to record for your delectation as it happend quite unexpectedly. Before going up the tower scaffold to lay blocks, Dave reached up a bucket of water, which is part of the block laying process. Unfortunately he hadn't noticed that he had placed the bucket on the trapdoor, through which you have to climb to get to the top. As Dave opened the trapdoor from underneath, the bucket full of cold water upended. We couldn't believe it, we were bent double with laughter. Sadly for us, and luckily for Dave, the gallon of water in the bucket only hit his sleeve, and didn't go down his neck, which would have been so much more fun.

Aren't we awful!

Here is Dave at the top now, with the extension piece just to the side of the chimney. That triangular area, on both sides of the chimney, is what remains to be filled.

Then it was lunch time, and during the morning Paul had already improved our new indoor refectory, by taking two planks and placing them across a pair of milk bottle crates. That made a splendid table. Paul treated us to a treacle tart. Very sugary, but delicious, was the verdict.

Note the coat rack (really a pair of nails) at the back - very homely. John also spent some time covering the windows with plastic sheets, just in case we don't get the glass for next week.

 

Another look at the PWay yard towards the end of the day shows how they have stacked those spare lengths of rail very neatly.

It's a slow job though. No doubt they will be back next week.

The yard shunter was busy re-arranging the rakes, ready for winter maintenance.

 

 

Walt was the driver of the RRV. He's getting really quite proficient at it.

We were charmed by this set of chocks, made specially for STEVIE.

Isn't that nice !

The C&M gang made good progress with the dry stone wall during the day, and took our stone away at breathtaking speed. We wanted just a couple more to finish the gable end around the chimney, and had to guard what was left until Dave had finished.

Here's what they did at the end of the day. The wall marks the end of the area around the Usk hut, the platform and the oak tree, after which it is lower.

Then it was back to the southern gable end and Dave. How was he getting on?

Well, Dave had finished! How about that. All the stone we need to lay has now gone into the building. No more block laying from now on. 

You can see the extension pieces sticking out next to the chimney, and the stone Dave laid around them. Now we will concentrate on the chimney, but for that we need scaffolding.

A contractor came round today to prepare a quote for us. Hope it's not too expensive!

At the end of the day Jules decided to hose down the tower scaffold. We may well have finished with it now, but we'll leave it up for one more week, you never know.

Jules and John step back to admire the scene, which is all changed now. The stone has gone!

At the end of the day we took this picture, which shows the gable end completed, and the last of the stone in. All the remaining blocks were removed by the lads from C&M and used in the dry stone wall they are building.

This area is now ready for back filling, to raise the ground level to the height of the platform. Next spring it can then be seeded with grass.

The Usk hut built to its full height all round, except for the chimney.

Next week offers us several options, depending on weather and supplies:

- fit the window glass

- back fill to platform height

- start slating the roof

- finish the chimney

- start on the floor inside.

Looking further ahead, can we finish the build in time to start with Broadway P2? Lots of interdependencies there, but it might be possible...

Fingers crossed !