Frosty wind made moan.

Saturday in the yard.

Rather than brave the minus 4.5 degrees outside in the country (Walt reported minus 7 degrees in the area of the M&SWJR) we decided to remain in easy reach of the mess coach, and so a modicum of warmth.

We decided to tidy up the yard a bit.

An ongoing activity is sorting out old rails, and this neat pile here has been growing on and off the last few days. Behind it is a jumble, from where the rails are taken. That's our bullhead pile, we also have a smaller flat bottomed one.

Before we could restart the job, the sleeper wagon needed moving.

 

After all the spot resleepering we did over the last few Saturdays, we have a pile of GWR throughbolters that we don't want. They either go for scrap, or if still intact, they go to the 2807 team for conversion into profitable boot scrapers. So a useful job on Saturday was to get the Citroen truck out, and move the accumulated throughbolters to Toddington.

We guessed that a chair would weigh about 25Kg, so for a truck that can take 1.2 tons, we reckoned that we could safely take 40 chairs at once.

Here they are, arrived at Toddington, about to be unloaded. In fact we went back with another 20 of them, so the 2807 team will have a big surprise when they next come to work. A pleasant one we hope. Well, each chair has quite a bit of work needed on it, until it becomes a saleable boot scraper. And now they 60 more!

Back at Winchcombe the sleeper wagon was being moved by the yard shunter. At the same time Walt in the Telehandler moved some equipment around, so that we are ready for the January resleepering excercise at Didbrook. Preparation is everything in this game.

 

While making the generator van ready, this Victorian safe was unearthed. It's the original safe from Broadway station, saved from a skip at the stationmaster's house a few years back. It raised a lot of interest, especially as it could be opened, and the keys were inside.

We took it over to the Usk hut, where it will form part of its interior as a coal office.

 

 

Lunch time soon came, and as soon as the decision to eat was announced, tools dropped with a clatter and people wandered back to the welcoming warmth of the mess coach.

Food!

After lunch the serious business of moving the rails started. This coincided with Foremarke Hall running round. It had a lovely golden plume in the low winter sun.

 

 

Serious business!

Bert Ferrule stacking rails.

 

Foremarke Hall has arrived with a train of happy children and is running round its train.

 

 

 

Walt photographed 7903 running round its train, with lovely colours.

You'd think we had snow that day, the ground is all white.

While it was pleasant to stand in the sun, the cold soon got to your feet wherever the sun hadn't been. 

 

Towards the end of the day we caught 7903 back at the head of its train, and by this time the sun had gone again. It was starting to get dark.

The first Mk1 seemed to have  a steam heating leak, in the same place as last week. It emitted great clouds of steam, provided by the loco only half a carriage length away.

Looking back, those leaks (or are they release valves letting out water?) made for a lovely steamy atmosphere.

In the last minutes before the sun dropped below the horizon, we saw the Usk hut bathed in orange light.

The oak tree behind still had its leaves, but they were orange too. Slowly the black shadow started to creep up the wall....

Tuesday - it's too cold.

No work on Tuesday, it was too cold and it was also the day of the PWay Christmas dinner. We're now entering the rather irregular Christmas period. There will be some work going on, but the usual 'when' may be disrupted.

Wednesday with some Usketeers.

It was minus 6 degrees overnight, but rocketed to an eye-rolling minus 1 during the day. John and Jules found it difficult to travel, but three hardy characters decided to give it a go. Dunkirk spirit etc. Did it freeze at Dunkirk then? No.... well, you know what we mean.

 

We found the yard covered in snow, and planned manoeuvres to move the sleeper wagon to Didbrook failed to get off the ground because points were frozen. 

This was the PWay side of the yard, seen from under the oak tree. Despite showering the Usketeers with acorns and leaves for several weeks, it still had most of its leaves attached. Strange. 

The Usk hut was surrounded by snow, and had icicles hanging from the edge of the roof. A lot more snow than on Saturday. A fellow PWay worker asked if we were going to work on the 'ice house'. 

Oh, nicely put!

Outside the hut was the third window, the one we failed to glaze last week and gave to Paul to repair. It didn't take him long at home, and he glazed it there for us as well, so today it was ready to go.

Don't lick that lock, Dave, you'll regret it.

 

It certainly wasn't warm in the house of ice. We skipped any early coffees, and decided to get some tools out. The lock was frozen. After trying the key this way and that, Dave eventually got it going by blowing hot breath on to it.

 

Work is the best way to keep warm, so we set about mounting the last of our 3 windows. Paul held it up, while Dave fiddled with the screws, while trying to keep everything straight.

 

 

 

 

The window fitted OK, but needed fine adjustment, which we achieved with the traditional method of strips of cigarette packet, packed under the hinges.

As none of us smoke, we had to make do with strips of other cardboard packaging.

So we got the window on, it closes OK, so now we are wind tight, except for the door (and the roof of course, but that will be early next year).

 

What next then? How about the door?

The door was manoeuvered into the frame, a tricky thing to do as it will want to squash your fingers as you hold it. 

We got it in, but could see that it needed a few mm taking off the outer edge. Paul was prepared for this , and had his electric plane out. 

The door is the original one - it has lots of holes in it from various ancient locks and keys - but the frame was too far gone, so the carpenter that fettled our door (there was a bit of rot in one corner) made us a new frame, or rather two new sides. The top is original.

 

 

If the door fits the frame perfectly, you haven't allowed any room for the hinges, so Paul made a rebate for each of them. We could see that the original hinges had been replaced at some point, as there were 4 live holes under each hinge, and 4 plugs, representing a previous form of hinge.

Remember that this building is from 1853, so it's had a long and varied life.

Hinges have male and female halves, and it's the female half that goes on the frame. Two 'fs', see.

Get the door, Baldrick...

Hinges mounted, Paul then held the door in place, and Dave screwed the hinges to the frame, then off again for adjustment, ansd insertion of the obligatory strips of cardboard. 

Then the door was on! We added a big sliding bolt that we had from Usk, but that would have been the last of several locking arrangements the door would have had. A big fixed brass doorknob would work well here, so that we can pull the door open and closed with it.

We then had some visitors from just a few yards away - Derek and Geoff from the woodworking shop in the C&W shed. Always interested in what the other lot are up to. They gave us some friendly advice about protecting the windows from rain. Currently they are how they were, but they could be better.

They came just as we were pushing the door shut to test it - not a great welcome. It kind of closed in their faces, but they forgave us.

We also thought about the sash window locks that we have.

From L to Right we have  - a brand new lock, an original from Usk which is rather oxidised, a bent receiver plate, and the second lock, which is also bent and has no receiver plate.

This is a blow up of the good original lock. You can just about make out the letters 'GWR' at the top - the company stamped everything they could to mark their property.

We have a stationmaster's desk at home, and every lock in every drawer is stamped 'GWR'.

At the end of the day we took this to the Railway Archiving Trust (Aka the RATS) at Toddington. They have a little workshop there in which they can clean up this original item.

 

 

 

It really was very cold in that hut, although admittedly wind free. Paul had foreseen this, and brought a kettle and some Cupasoups.

 

 

You can imagine how well that soup went down. It warmed the body OK, but alas not the fingers or feet. But we felt like kings in there.

After lunch we fitted the runner underneath the sliding windows. It's new, we had the old one copied. That one had suffered in the rain, and was full of rust craters. Because of the craters, the little brass wheels under the sliding windows had locked up and developed flat spots, and then they wouldn't turn any more. Our friends in the machine shop at Toddington turned us new ones. Wasn't that kind of them? Several departments around the railway have helped us here and there with little acts of kindness like that. People seem to like the project. 

Now the windows slide up and down with gusto.

That said, the original issue with rain getting in and sitting on the runner remains. We might well put some sealant on the aperture at the bottom of the window, it's not as if this window will ever be very busy. It's for people to look through and see a coal office inside.

We had pencilled in a visit to a reclamation yard next door, to see if we can source some more stone slabs for the floor there. Many of the originals  are split into several pieces, and some, we think, are not even original, as they are a different colour - industrial grey, not pink. However, it dawned on us that the whole yard would probably be white, covered in snow. Not ideal for window shopping. Maybe next week then.

With the windows and door just about done, we felt that we could call it a day. There was still a bit of daylight left, useful if driving home in that frost and left over snow.

 

Yours truly went to visit the RATS to drop off the sash locks. With a bit of luck we might have them back for next week.

Toddington was also covered in snow, and some lovely mist, but undeterred work was going on to unload a complementary laod of bullhead sleepers for the Didbrook relay.

Here Walt is just lifting off the last ones, making a stack on the left.

 

 

A walk over the footbridge in the direction of the RATS gave this lovely sunset view of a frosty Toddington yard.

 

 

 

In the RATS yard we found the lovingly restored little booking office from Boxford.

On the closure of the Lambourne branch the little building was transported to the village, where it served as a waiting room by a bus stop.

After many years there, and looking somewhat worse for wear now, it was offered to the RATS, who as you can see restored it most beautifully.

What could they do with it?

Then, back home for a warming shower and...

A bottle of 11 percent proof Kasteel Tripel, and a bag of crisps.

Heaven !