Chimney completed!

Friday with the Usketeers.

Just the three of us on Friday, but another item ticked off our list of jobs for the scaffolding - the chimney is finished!

 

In truth we only had one more course to do from Wednesday, but by the late time yours truly arrived on site (08.30 - gasp!) Dave and Paul were already all prepped up and ready to go.

Shortly after that the final course was on, with just pointing up to do.

Next on the list would be the ridge tiles.

Here is what we have rescued from Usk itself. As you can see those nearest the camera are not ideal. We found one or two elsewhere in the PWay yard, but in the end we have 8 good ones, and need two more. That means a trip down to the reclamation yard (and their high prices!)

Something for next time, and we shall enquire how much the diamond patterned pavers are. A little path from the door to the platform edge, or perhaps even to the new gate, would look very railway-like in diamond pavers.

 

 

We also took delivery of a mystery object, so here is a teaser of it. We won't say what it is until we are ready to unveil it, which might go with some sort of opening ceremony.

 

 

While Paul and David were up on the scaffolding, we got the last length of Ogee guttering out into the sun to strip down the old paint and give it a first coating of Hammerite.

This one is a bit battered at the far end, but we don't need a full length, so that should be OK.

At the end of the day all the old paint was off, and one coat of black was applied. It was a good day for it - windy and bright.

While we were working down below Paul and Dave topped out the chimney with a cap of mortar, and fitted the cowl that we bought on Amazon Smile. So a few pennies will go to the GWRT, but sadly Amazon have decided to halt this otherwise excellent charity system. It's a pity.

 

 

Here is the chimney cap that Paul and Dave made, with the old fashioned cowl fitted to it.

We didn't immediately fit such a cowl to the signal box at Broadway, and birds pretty soon filled the opening with nesting material. Lesson learned!

We made sure the cowl looked old.

 

Late afternoon the scaffolders came to remove the extra lift on the scaffolding that we had fitted a couple of weeks ago. We don't need it any more, the chimney is done. Now that lift is in the way if we want to fit the flashing and the barge boards on the end.

So this is our little Usk hut at the end of the day. Scaffolding back down to a single level, chimney finished and cowl fitted.

That cowl is pretty unobtrusive, we can hardly see it on this picture. It's actually precisely what we wanted.

You can also see clearly how we started the chimney a couple of courses down into the gable end, to give it a better footing.

A last look on Friday from the side. You can see the full proportions of the building now, except for the ridge.

Tarmaccing Broadway P2.

Last Tuesday the tarmaccers came to grade platform 2 at Broadway, and on Thursday they came to lay down the blacktop.

That certainly looks a lot better than the rubble strewn surface that there used to be. Anybody working in the signal box will now have a walk to work that is smooth as silk.

Looking north, you can see that the tarmac surface stops where the new building will be  - by the end of the fence.

At the southern end, the slope and the area opposite the barrow crossing still remained to be done. It shouldn't take them long.

Saturday at Didbrook.

Eleven on Saturday - we could have done with more, as the running season approaches (4th March) and there is still a lot to do.

Two panels remained to be completed at the Toddington end.

This is the team that was going to do the job, with the 4 rails in question in the foreground.

The rest of the team of 11 was at the other end of the Didbrook relay, near Didbrook 2 bridge. There were just 4 of us, and our job was to lift and hand pack all the track back to the mess coach.  It was a huge task.

Bert Ferrule and Graham did the lifting and packing, while yours truly and Tom in the JCB spread out the ballast, so that there was just enough for each sleeper.

Tom in the JCB ran up and down and brought the best of the previous ballast for the tamping job, which had been put to one side when the track was dismantled and levelled.

This took pretty much all day, with no pictures worth showing, as it was a very repetitive job. We got about half way, but only down the Cotswolds side. (which was the most uneven)

 

 

Towards the end of the day Bert Ferrule switched to aligning the track, as the other two packers collected the tools.

Tom in the JCB used his bucket to 'tweak' the track this way and that, under hand signals from Bert Ferrule.

In the background is the rail cutting, replacing and drilling team.

The track was pushed this way towards the Costwolds...

... but not too much.   S T O P !!! Whoa ! Enough already.

The wooden sleepers at the Toddington end were needed to ensure the complete insulation of the block, that second hand concrete sleepers might not achieve. We couldn't be sure, so for the avoidance of risk we did this section, near a signal, in wooden sleepers.

That also required an insulated fishplate.

Where? Read the instructions !

At the end of a very tiring day we were one pair of rails short of the end, to re-unite the track taken out a month ago. Every rail we re-used has been cropped, to remove the crippled ends. That meant a lot of slow drilling and cutting.

Here is the cutting and drilling gang, chewing the fat at the end of the day. An offcut lies at their feet. One more pair of rails to do, and 10 days in which to do it, and lift and pack the track.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A damp day, but good enough to start a job that's been on our list for a long time - the flashing round the new chimney.

First thing, yours truly went round to the reclamation yard down the road to pick up two more ridge tiles. Some of those that came from Usk were damaged, and we don't want any leaks. We took a sample, and then stood in front of a vast pile of all sorts of ridges. Wide angled, acute angled, with a right angle, long, short, blue, red, blue on red, rounded, overlapping.... which one was like ours? 

We got there in the end, and left the reclamation yard with two additional ridges, and £27 poorer. We did ascertain that the diamond pattern pavers they had were £5 each. That didn't sound like very much, until we did a rough calculation about numbers. A 15ft path from the door to the edge of the platform, 8 pavers wide (i.e. 4ft) needs 240 pavers. That's, er £1200, plus VAT!

Our opening shot, the chimney without flashing. Dave cuts the roof sheet to size.

On Friday we got to the highest point on the Usk hut, so we thought we'd mark that achievement with a flag from where the Usk hut came from - Wales!

Mike, our liaison man in Wales, was kind enough to lend us a flag for the occasion.

Here is the flag, now on the highest point, sticking out of the end of the chimney. It proclaims the origin of the hut, it's very clear.

Paul and Dave then got to work with the flashing, which you can see as a roll on the left of the picture.

Behind them the Welsh dragon flew proudly in the wind.

We were allowed a look over Paul's shoulder, to see him prepare a length using the traditional tools of the trade. In his left hand is a dresser, which is used to shape the sheet, and the shaping is done with a special round, wooden hammer in his right hand.

Once you've more or less got the shape that you think you need, you try it out for size in situ.

With the dresser you give it a few extra whacks, to beat it into the exact shape around the corner of the chimney.

But what were the others doing?

Jules and John mixed up a batch of mortar - we left Maxie still in her winter sleep - and proceeded to fill in voids along the edge of the roof. These are called verges, and are formed by a second layer of slates underneath. Yours truly also slapped on extra protection for the bare wood here with some clear preservative solution.

While Paul spent the day on the flashing, he did ask that we lay out the stone slabs destined for the floor in a shape copying the inside of the hut.

 

 

In this way we can have a dry run with the slabs, and we will know in advance what goes where.

We had stakes for the 4 corners, and an offcut to mark the diagonal front of the fireplace.

 

The layout started to look quite good from above.

The quantity was just right (one pallet full) and we managed to lay all the slabs, bar a handful on the corner, which we still need to cut.

We then start at the back, and lay in reverse back towards the door.

We still need to clean the slabs with a pressure washer.

During our break for lunch Jules had the idea of trying out the fireplace with some cardboard litter that we had.

OK, it's quite warm now, but I hope this is not going to end up with smoking the place out....

The fire burned very brightly, and Paul even remarked on the warmth it was beginning to radiate to where he was sitting.

We ran outside to see if any smoke came out of the top.

 

It did too! You can see a little cloud issuing from the top of the chimney, as Dave and Paul discuss their next move on the flashing.

Alas....

 

We soon noticed that smoke was also coming out of the door, and rising up to the gable end. There was actually quite a lot of it.

 

Although not too clear in this picture, the inside got very smokey indeed. Smoke did rise up to the chimney, but just as much came out of the front and into the room. We had to open a window at the back to clear some of it, but more came as the cardboard smouldered in the grate.

That wasn't such a good idea....

 

At the end of the day we had about half of the flashing done. The ridge tiles are also ready to go on, and Jules finished filling in all of the hollow verges around the gable ends of the roof. More jobs ticked off the list then, and preparations made to fit the floor.

We are close to the end of our two month scaffolding hire period now. We'll be back next Wednesday, perhaps to finish off what we need to do up there.

 

 

In other news:

PWay correspondent Nigel passed by the Dartmouth Steam Railway to drop off a set of chains we borrowed.

75014 BRAVEHEART undergoing a steam test.

 Here he found 75014, the standard that is going to visit us. Here are some exclusive pictures.

Braveheart's cabside, proudly displaying its number.

 

 

 

A quick peep into the cab, made during the steam test, prior to moving to the GWSR for a spell.

Would the cab of 76077 be similar? Is this what we can expect to see?

Also on Wednesday there were two PWay teams out, one at Prescott on the bridge refurb, and one at Hayles.

The Hayles team (on the left) ballasted and packed the 4 panels that were re-sleepered, and a truly professional job they did too. Picture by Walt, with thanks.

The Prescott team went to reinstate the track over the bridge, which was refurbished by our infrastrucure team, using contractors. We had a panel and a half to re-lay (on the right) and as you can see those panels now back in.

Those panels too had to be lifted and packed, which is what you can see them do here.

Afterwards they decided to treat themselves to a group photograph:

... which you can see, thanks to Doug who was also there.

For the record, we can see Peter, Peter II, Jim, Peter III, Rob and Martin, with Doug behind the camera.

Neal has also been busy, but on something completely different:

This is the reconstruction and repair of the Winchcombe canopy, both sides.

The platform side suffered from water ingress from the valley gutter behind it. It was the intention to do a full rebuild of the end here, but due to the late arrival of the materials the full job will have to wait until the next non-running season.

On the front the canopy is currently stripped. This is also to be rebuilt, as well as reinstatement of the original full width, with the manufacture of two additional canopy brackets, now in store.

Neal took off these dagger boards, which have rotted due to water ingress. A temporary repair will reinstate these, until we can do the full job later in the autumn.