Almost there.

Saturday at Didbrook.

A cold dark day, but an excellent turnout. We've got the bit between our teeth at Didbrook now, and progress is on or above target. Excellent!

 

On Wednesday the re-laying in of the replacement S1 concrete sleepers was completed, but for a three panels stretch at the Toddington end, where we need to have wooden sleepers for better track circuit insulation.

 

All the rails are back in the 4ft, so all we had to do on Saturday was to roll them into the chairs. No problem with a big gang like like ours, there were 14 of us, which must be a record. Morale is high again, after a dark period during Covid.

 

What we are also doing to improve this stretch of track is cutting and shutting the rails - removing the dipped joints on each end.

That means a lot of cutting and re-drilling, which went on all day long, but will give a much better ride and a lot less maintenance.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a joint that has been done, with the off cuts to one side

We've also inserted one pair of new bullhead rails, to compensate for all the bits we cut off.

 

 

 

 

 

These bolts are looking pear shaped, what do you think?

Extra fish plates and bolts were brought in by van. There are lots and lots of different types, it's easy to get wrong. And lots of Duff jacks, to lift the rail back in (and out, further along at Hayles).

As we mentioned last time, contractors are working on the Broadway extension where excess ballast is being reduced and the whole section re-stressed.

On Saturday they sent down a road-railer to pick up a spare rail.

We admired their vehicle, which is tracked and more modern than the one we could afford! It even has an air conditioning unit on the roof.

Well, we have a window that opens...

Here is the selected rail being put in the 6ft with the spreader beam that they borrowed from us.

 

As we had a large gang, and are doing quite well in terms of progress, we decided to address 4 panels of economy sleepers just north of Hayles Abbey halt.

Six of us went to the south end of the site and tipped out the rails from them.

Another group of 'economy' panels (9 if we recall correctly) remains between the two sections. Their removal is not so urgent, and will be done in another closed season. We mustn't lose sight of the replacement of the track at Prescott, before services resume.

 All the keys had been removed at the start of the day, so our little gang of 6 breezed along and tipped out the rails in a matter of minutes.

Paul, beaming at the camera with his gang of 6.

Just beyond the bridge at Hayles was another little job that we did while down there - a proper fishplate break. You don't see many like this, mostly they are just cracked, but this one is actually in two halves. We gave it a new plate, no probs.

Back at the main relay site, and now into the afternoon, we find that five pairs of rails have been laid in. The brand new ones can be recognised by their orange colour.

Pretty much in the middle of the picture, by the wires, is a drone. No, it's not scouting out for artillery targets, it is making films of various activities along the line, particularly on the extension.

Here's a little crop from the main picture. For some strange reason the camera has recorded it as two drones, but it's really only the one that was buzzing up and down. It wasn't near the wires, that's an error of perspective.

 

And then there's a picture of what it could see - your blogger taking a picture of it!

Paul's PWay drone being photographed from below, at Didbrook.

 

 

The last job of the day was clipping up. That is pretty slow work, it's very fiddley. The clips won't go in if the sleeper isn't perfectly aligned at 90 degrees. The clips like to shoot out and hit your shins in revenge.

At the end of the day we had 5 panels re-laid in rail, and three of them clipped up. The days are slowly lengthening now, so we work longer and get more tired, before we trudge back to the mess coach. Got all the tidying up still to do as well!

Here's a view south at the end of the day. Track clipped up as far as the trolley, no keys yet in the chairs in the foreground. Those sleepers need squaring up first. All tools back on the van.

More work here on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, back at the farm. Peasebrook Farm, that is:

The contractors have corrected the ballast level here, and are busy laying the sleepers back in a row. They have a set of steel spacer frames, just visible in yellow at the end of the row of sleepers.

 

 

We are a bit more make do and mend, and have made our own out of wood. That saves money.

We handed in the old worn out ones (at the end of their useful lives when we reached Broadway, having spaced 7000 sleepers) and Barry from C&M very kindly made us a new set that you can see here.

 

 

Meanwhile also, at Hayles the sun began to set.... 

.

Lovely sunset scene by Paul (and the two others). There's also a drone video in the offing, if time can be found.

Platform 2 at Broadway.

Good news here, the GWR Trust has kindly agreed to fund the tarmaccing of the platform. The area agreed is from the barrow crossing in the picture, past the signal box and as far as the site of the future P2 waiting room.

This tarmaccing will answer one of the hindrances to opening up Broadway signal box, thus giving the signalman a smooth path along which he can walk to work.

The tarmaccing will take place next week. 

With the tarmac down, now looks like a good time to organise the lamp tops for the 10 or 12 posts along here, before prices go up too much. A copper lamp top, with a proper side opening door and frog, could be had for £250 late last year. It may well be more now.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

The first of a two day session on the roof this week - use that scaffolding to a maximum! Three of us worked on the roof and two on the ground.

 

Last Wednesday we completed the Malvern side roof, and made a start on the Cotswolds side one.

In the background you can see Dave placing slates, while in the foreground Jules and Paul are setting out the battens. The spacing is criticical for this, and all the measurements we now know from the other side go out of the  window because on this side  we are using slates that are slightly smaller.

Once the bottom row was done, and half slates fitted up the sides, the rest went a lot quicker.

Soon after therefore we see Jules almost half way up.

We had to get some more slates for our stocks. They are a natural product, and have already spent a lifetime on a different roof, so we have to be fussy about which ones we use.

 

 

Yours truly spent the day cleaning the guttering. It was a good day for it, dry and with some wind to blow the dust away.

It took pretty much all day to do these two lengths of Ogee guttering, although we also spent some time on the PWay spacers made by Barry of our C&M department, and we were pleased to receive a visit from two heritage enthusiasts from Wallingford, who were interested to pick our brains for advice on various station items. It's good to make contact with like minded people on fellow preservation projects.

When we got back Jules, Dave and Paul had laid further slates, as you can see. Steady progress. We hauled some ridge tiles up on to the scaffolding, that process can't be far away now.

At the end of the day the roof was 75% slated on the Cotswolds side as well. Almost in the dry now. Well, the inside is already dry, as the roofing felt protects us now. We've been lucky with the weather - no rain, and no strong winds, so the roofing felt remains intact and is covered by slates so far now that it is unlikely to get damaged now, even if a storm does come.

Tomorrow we will be back as our second day this week. We've pencilled in the collection of the floor slabs from the reclamation yard round the corner. If we can get the Telehandler. It's being a bit elusive at the moment, often seen at Toddington, where it is helping the PWay relay the track at Didbrook. Then, last thing, it was seen proceeding at a stately 15mph down the B4632. Now where has it gone....?