Scaffolding goes up.

Unloading - and loading.

The big relay at Didbrook is gearing up. Two wagon loads of 128 concrete bullhead sleepers have already gone out to the site, and on Thursday last week a third was unloaded, and a fourth prepared. The plan was to unload that too (making two drops in a day) but the short day (shortest of the year in fact) and a slight delay at the start made the unloading again just out of reach.

Dave brought the Telehandler up from Winchcombe, while banksmen Nigel and yours truly waited at Toddington.

This wagon load consisted of a complement of sleepers ordered, in addition to those we had at Winchcombe. 128 were now on the wagon; another 80 remained in the car park and the target was to clear and drop all of them during the day.

Due to a water leak discovered at Winchcombe our sleeper train left slightly late, and can be seen here trundling cautiously along the unloading road at Toddington.

The intended dropping site was at the southern end of the relay stretch, and you can see the Hayles Abbey halt cottages in the distance here. The shunter went back to Toddington, promising to return on a phone call when we were ready to reload.

Getting the first few packets of sleepers off is always tricky. You need to be up there to guide forks in, and correct any sleepers that have shifted position in their stacks.

Another lot of 8 sleepers is lifted off.

The relay stretch ends mid-way into the distance here, and as the site is (as always) somewhat restricted it was decided to make one big pile where we could, rather than drop the sleepers off in one long line.

There are two wooden sleepers in the foreground. These appear under every set of fishplates, for extra support, as the 'economy' concrete sleepers are very short. Beyond that you can make out the sleepers with their holes in the middle. There are about 650 of them in the stretch.

Here's a detail of two of these 'economy' sleepers. Note the two holes then, and also the spalling of the concrete in the foreground, exposing the rebar structure inside.

They are life expired, at least for main line running. No doubt we will pick the best ones to relay our sidings with, esp at Winchcombe.

From the top of the bogie flat you can also get a good view of the 1/4 mile that we are going to relay. In the middle distance is Didbrook 2 underbridge, that you will have seen in the 1984 pictures in the previous blogpost. It all looks pretty neat, but as you now know, those sleepers need to be replaced.

It's quite a slow and delicate task, unloading 128 wobbly concrete sleepers from piles that are not always perfectly upright or square on to the Telehandler, but by lunch time we had got there.

You can see Dave here dropping off the last group of 8, guided by Nigel on the ground.

We then then informed our driver that the wagon was ready, which coincided with our mutual lunch breaks, a bit of luck. 

We walked back to Toddington for lunch in the nice warm mess room and its tea making facilities.

On the way we passed a group of tie bars, which were put there as an extra precaution to stabilise the gauge until the stretch could be relaid, i.e. now ! So that relay is very much necessary.

 

We had lunch and mugs of tea in a nice warm mess room by the Toddington goods shed, then set about reloading the empty bogie flat, which had arrived back in the car park, from Didbrook.

80 odd sleepers remained, less than a full load, plus all the bearers and various sleepers left on the tarmac.

The loading wasn't too difficult, but time was of the essence, as therre wasn't much daylight left now.

With the last hour of daylight left we cleared all the sleepers on to the wagon, then swept up these remaining sleepers to leave a clear and tidy site. 

We also learned that for the first time the site will have a Portaloo! It will be placed on a PWay trolley and rolled out there. Hope it will be securely chocked once there, so that it doesn't roll with someone in it...

The Didbrook site will also be protected by new stop boards.

These were very kindly donated by the manufacturer, MC Electronics, and we are very grateful for their kind donation, which is greatly appreciated.

Saturday - Pulling it all apart.  

The start of the  PWay winter works 2023! It was typical PWay winter works weather too, with a BBC weather storm warning for 7am and 'heavy rain' announced for the morning. Before we could even have our cup of tea and briefing we had a half mile walk in high winds and rain from Toddington to Didbrook, where the PWay train is now stabled.

We couldn't get in! The key was nowhere to be found. (It turned out later that the key was inside, and that the coach had been locked with a different key)

How to get in? Step forward cat burglar Tony.

'You got previous for burglary then, Tony?' 'None of your business, and hand me that big screwdriver, mate'

At last we got out of the rain and sat inside. The doughnuts brought by David lessened the pain a little, but not the damp feeling.

After a while 13 volunteers had assembled - a good turnout - as well as a Transit and a Telehandler.

 

 

The rain became showery, and the start of actual work could no longer be denied. We ventured back outside to discuss the way forward.

We split into four teams. 

One removed the fishplates with the impact wrench.

A second knocked out the keys from the chairs to release the rails.

A third removed a number of tie bars (the only ones along our line, now no longer required).

Dave bringing another load of 8 sleepers.

 

 

The fourth 'team' was Dave in the Telehandler, who shuttled back and forth from the bogie flat parked by the cottages. This is the one loaded with 80 concrete sleepers (see above) that was moved there from the car park at Toddington.

It now has to be loaded (again) with sleepers still at Winchcombe, something like 650 in all.

The stretch on the curve at Didbrook that is being resleepered, during a brief break in the rain.

The keys knocked out were collected in a stillage on a PWay trolley, the fishplates on a second trolley, which could be rolled along as we collected - very handy.

Once all they keys were off and collected we could move on to the second phase of the job, which was to remove the rails from their chairs.

This got off to a bad start - the first rail would not come out, much as we lifted it with Duff jacks.

A brief moment of puzzlement, then the realisation that there was a stone stuck in a chair.

 

After that the rails popped out quite easily.

People sometimes wonder how we get round curves with steel rails, but as you can see in this picture they are quite flexible really, bullhead more so than flat bottomed.

 

 

We got to the third panel and then the heavens opened up in a really dramatic way. We are not afraid of a bit of rain, but this amount of water was relentless, and, by mutual consent, intolerable.

Bedraggled volunteers trudge back to the mess coach.

Without a word of command the whole gang turned and slop-slopped their way back to the coach for an early lunch. Even the insides of the boots were full of water.

Let's eat while the cloudburst passes over.

That was a good idea, because an hour later the sun came out and we were able to resume dropping the rail out.

 

The after effects of the cloudburst could be heard below us in this culvert - luckily kept well maintained by our drainage gang - with a big rush of muddy water that came off the Cotswolds edge.  

The Honeybourne line stood in its way, but we have culverts in place for this.

 

Once we had done the first two or three lengths of rail, the others came out quite quickly, and we were soon at Didbrook 2 where we planned to stop for the day.

More views of the economy sleepers with those holes in the middle.

David ponders the empty trackbed at the end of the day.

At the end of the day we had removed all the rails between the mess coach and Didbrook 2 bridge. The next step will be to remove the embedded economy sleepers and stack them, ready for loading and longer term storage. They are likely to be re-used in sidings somewhere.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

The day of the scaffolders - long awaited, but here at last.

They brought their lorry right round, next to the building, didn't want to have to carry their stuff too far.

We got out of bed bright and early (well not bright actually, it was still dark) to catch them, and beat their arrival by a few minutes. But once under the tree they - ate breakfast in their cab. Oh.

We were forced to do the same, eating a number of doughnuts while we waited.

The pressure was soon on, because then Fairview - old friends from the Broadway build - came with our order of supplies, now made possible by the small grant from our trust.

We had two bags of ballast, six of cement and a damp proof membrane for the floor.

 

 

 

 

 

It was all in two bags, which were quickly and neatly deposited under the tree.

 Meanwhile the scaffolders lurched into life.

You know when scaffolders are working, because their radio goes on. Turn it off, and they stop. There must be some sort of cause & effect here...

They are a rough bunch (Paul's advice: Never mess with a scaffolder!') but we did ask them if their radio was tuned to Classic FM. It wasn't, they said, they liked Michael Buble...

So here they are, hard at work. The scaffolding went up pretty quickly, they are about half way in this picture.

Meanwhile, we cleaned some more of the gutters outside, as the weather forecast showed a sudden deterioration at around 11 o'clock, as you can see from the dark sky in the background. Doing that inside is too dusty.

Paul and Dave bought two rolls of roofing felt, but on closer inspection this morning we were not happy with the colour (too bright and modern) so they decided to take it back and buy a black version that they managed to find in the meantime. That'll be for next week then.

We took it in turns with the rotating brush, as it's pretty dirty work.

Here is Dave at work. We're painting the outside black, and the inside in red primer.

 

Jules managed to photograph this man from Mars, who seemed quite pleased with himself as he'd just finished stripping one length of guttering.

That's going inside for painting, while the angle grinder is being handed over to the next person to have a go.

 

 

Or maybe we all decided to break for lunch. At one point our weather app said 'rain in 23 minutes' so that led to a burst of angle grinding outside, until the rain really did come down, and from then on it never stopped.

Jules tell us about the time he went fishing.

Our team managed to sit inside the hut we built, but what about the poor PWay gang, which was out at Didbrook again?

Soup for you, sir?

 

For lunch we had those Cup-a-Soup thingies again. They are brilliant - really warming, and they gave you a feeling of luxury as you sat there in the dry while the rain hammered down above.

The scaffolders were still at it, but not for much longer, as they decided to come back for the small raised area around the chimney. They had finished for the day, and left for another job in the afternoon.

 

 

During a brief lull in the rain we decided to inspect the scaffolding as built.

We liked what we saw. Plenty of room up there, and easy access to the roof. We'll start on that next Wednesday, and it may be that we will double up and come back on some additional days. We will see next week what our availabilities are.

Around the chimney - this area will get a second lift.

So waddaya think of it then?

Having inspected the works thoroughly, we decided on a brief demonstration of the slating technique. Paul (former builder) has done this many times before, but the other team members are former bank and BT employees, and see this for the first time.

So at the top you put this half slate on here....

We thought we might prep the works by putting one or two slates up on the scaffold, but soon we were handing up lots of them, with Julian at the top.

We made two stacks of slates, one in each corner at the chimney end.

But next week will start with the roofing felt, and it has to go on in strips from left to right, starting at the bottom. If the weather permits. Obviously high wind could interfere with floppy stuff like rolls of membrane.

 

 

Before we go, a last look inside where painting was going on intermittently during the day. Two 6ft OG gutters are clean and mostly painted up, with two coats of Hammerite on the outside. The middle one is half stripped, but then the rain came.

Wednesday at Didbrook.

Despite the pretty foul weather for half of the day, work continued at Didbrook with dismantling the track.

Thankls to Paul and Bob we can show you some of what they did, without being able to shelter in their self build hut...

 

The most important item first thing was the arrival at Toddington of a Portaloo.

This was due to be rolled down on a trolley to the work site.

We do of course have a first class mess room at Toddington, but it's half a mile away, or one mile for the round trip.

By the time you get back, thoughts are already developing for another return trip.

 

 

 

This was the site on Tuesday, when a small team started removing the first of the sleepers.

So what do you think of it so far?

 

One team member was Chris here, who developed a revolutionary way of scooping up the sleepers very easily, but he was not prepared to reveal his secret on line, so we will need to use our imagination.

The concept of a 'Schienenwolf' springs to mind. Possibly without the automatic insertion of hand grenades, as a sop to H&S today though.

The appearance of Telehandler tines just into the picture gives a hint of how it was done.

 

Moments later a growing pile of 'economy' sleepers was appearing on the bogie flat, ready for transporting back to Winchcombe.

The 'economy' holes are very evident in this picture too.

Here the gang today is preparing the sleepers for lifting in groups, under the watchful eye of Jim as Person in Charge.

On the left we can see the piles of sleepers that are due to replace the 'economy' ones. These are much beefier, longer, and without any concrete saving holes in the middle.

 

 

Temporary storage was also effected at the Hayles Abbey end, as the old sleepers are coming out faster than we can take them away on the bogie flat.

 

What is striking in this picture is that one of the sleepers has already snapped in half. Proof of their need for replacement.

The quarter mile of interest is being done in two sections, with the stretch between the two Didbrook bridges done on Saturday being the first. That represents 15 panels.

The site will then be graded and rolled, the track put back roughly with the replacement sleepers, the train moved up, and then the second half can be addressed, a shorter stretch down to near Hayles.

'Economy' sleepers being stacked on the bogie flat from the first 15 panels.

Moving the rails tipped out on Saturday from the 4ft to the cess, for removal by Telehandler.

These pictures are from Bob:

 

 

 

This shot by Bob shows how all the remaining rails have been levered into the cess, and the old sleepers loosened out of their cribs.

 

Under Jim's supervision a gang of 7 with bars levers each rail over the chairs and into the cess, ready for removal to storage further down the site.

The Telehandler then took the 'economy' sleepers down the track to the bogie flat, or storage to one side.

Afterwards just a row of loose sleepers remained, ready for removal. Then the rain came, big time! But a good job done today, and we remain on target.

More this coming Saturday!