Starting the chimney.

A second day with the Usketeers.

On Friday we had a second day up on the scaffolding.

It was an ice cold start, but the forecast was that it would warm up, so we had a go at brick laying.

Anything coming out yet?

 

Not everyone was aware that it was warmer - the water supply was part frozen, and we completely failed to wake up Maxie the mixer. She wanted to stay under her nice warm cover and would not be persuaded to get up out of bed, despite many minutes of pulling on her starter cord. Dave and Paul retired, sweating.

 

 

We still wanted to lay bricks and raise the chimney, so then it was plan B - make the mix by hand in a wheelbarrow.

We haven't made up any mortar now for several months, busy as we have been with the roof.

 

We got a goodly supply of imperial blues up on the scaffold tower, and a bucket of muck.

This was the starting position, with the chimney just inside the newly slated roof. To finish off the last bit of slating the chimney needs to be above it.

At last we could fix that pesky chimney liner in an upright position, instead of having it flop around and get in everyone's way.

Paul and Dave started on the chimney then.

According to the drawings recorded in situ at Usk, the chimney rises 12 courses above the ridge, and then corbels out for a further 3.

 

We have two sets of drawings, and they don't fully agree on the top of the chimney. We'll have to see what fits best.

We only have one of them to upload, so here it is.

The big window had collapsed of course, and it now has an arch over it.

 

To compare, below is a picture of the better side of the building, before demolition. Note that here too the lintel has failed.

Just look at the other side, here the big window has collapsed, for the same reason, the lintel failing:

The ruinous state wasn't helped by a lorry reversing into the RH corner.

You can also see why we couldn't use all the slates from Usk.

The pictures were taken in March 2018. 5 years already. That makes us think, what became of the original team that brought the Usk hut to Winchcombe?

Here they are!

Picture by Chris Bristow.

From left to right:

Jim - current PWay gang member.

Clive - PWay, now retired.

Bob - Current PWay gang member

Mike - our man in Wales, still supporting us.

Peter - current PWay gang member.

Doug (now known as 'Dog', after a riotous email typo...) - current PWay gang member.

Yours truly - Usketeer

Paul - Usketeer

Dave - Usketeer.

If it's not evident already, almost all of the gang are from the GWSR PWay. The Usk hut became their little bit extra, but we still have a day job on the railway.

Enough nostalgia, back to the 'now'. 2023, five years on, and the building is way up, it looks better than ever.

Dave checks the chimney with the level - is it straight?

Dave and Paul raised about half of the chimney last Friday, with yours truly below, making mortar, sending up loads of bricks, and painting cast iron guttering.

One or two of the topmost bricks needed another little tap.

Whenever someone said 'it could be a bit straighter', Paul would reply: 'But it's got to look old!' And so it does.

 

Dave had to leave at lunch time, and after ruminating over our sandwiches, Paul spent the remaining afternoon pointing up was was laid in the morning with Dave.

A tricky bit for pointing up is the side facing the ridge. We got at that by laying a ladder on the slates, supported by a sofa cushion we found in the skip to protect the slates.

This is our end of Friday shot. It shows the neat roof behind, and a half built chimney in front.

Seven courses were laid on Friday, which is just over half way to the corbel. The Usk hut chimney is relatively high for the building, but that is what it was like.

We have no proof of this, but our feeling is that the chimney of engineering blues is a replacement of an earlier one, which would have been made of stone. Certainly the area inside the walls is stone built, with some tricky shapes to achieve the 'S' bend in any chimney, which had a number of stone slabs in it when we took it apart. It is probable that the earlier chimney failed at some point, as the structure wasn't very stable, so was replaced with a brick built one, perhaps in GWR times.

An extra bit from last Wednesday

Thanks to Paul, who took the pictures. They came in just after the editorial cut off time.

Here are the wooden sleepers destined for Didbrook being picked up by the Telehandler.

 

 

Once loaded on to the bogie flat in the yard, the 03 picked them up, and we can see them here being propelled along the Defford straight, leading up to Hayles Abbey halt.

 

 

 

Then here is the short PWay train arrived at the halt.

Just beyond is the work site, where 4 additional panels were taken out.

But these sleepers are for the other end of the relay.

Late in the day we can see the 4 panel site at Hayles Abbey halt. Two panels of sleepers have been laid back in, and the bogie flat is parked up, ready to be unloaded for the Didbrook 1 end.

The bogie flat (and a PWay trolley) parked up at the end of the track at Hayles. This is what Bullhead track looks like, end on.

 

 

Paul also has a shot of the Didbrook relay, as at Wednesday. This is where Bert Ferrule was 'tweaking' the track with Tom in the JCB, back into a nice curve.

This shot is taken just beyond the halt, looking north. Concrete CS1 sleepers are being laid in, replacing the inferior 'economy' type used here since 1984.

 

At the end off Wednesday afternoon the sleeper relay looked like this. A bit more than half of the 4 panels are done.

Paul also had a look on the Broadway extension, where contractors have lowered some of the ballast levels. On completion of that, the track was being re-stressed.

 

In preparation, the track was put on rollers all the way alonmg.

Quite an onerous job, requiring many hands, but apparently the contractors had those.

 

Where the track is on a curve a side roller is applied. This is to prevent the track from taking a short cut across the curve when it is being pulled.

This picture shows the track after stressing. A little telltale sign of that is the grubby bit on the nearest rail. That started off exactly opposite the sleeper, but due to the track being stretched has clearly moved along a bit.

Bet you didn't know you could pull a steel track and make it longer!

After stressing, all the little rollers have to be removed again and the track clipped back up. Our Pway gang has experience of that.... we didn't want to have to do it again. It takes ages, and is very back breaking.

 

 

 

Finally, this last picture from Wednesday last week shows the hydraulic clamps that pull the track.

It's very slow, a bit like watching paint dry.

But if you're interested, we took this video of it in March 2017 when the Broadway extension was laid:

https://youtu.be/I8EZ6pEAyLc

 

 

When we uploaded the video onto our YouTube channel we took a bit of a risk. We thought people might find it a bit too much like 'slow TV' and vote it down. 

 

But it's had 64.000 views (!) and 250 likes. Who could have guessed....

Thursday - dumper refresher course for 3 of us.

This took place on Smith's farm near Nympsfield. We ragged a 6 ton dumper round a field, and got a new dumper ticket after completing a searching test.

One happy Neal.

 

 

 

No oil drums were hurt in the completion of our test...

 

Getting there was quite interesting. After leaving the M5 we headed towards the Cotswolds escarpment, which was shrouded in heavy black clouds. It was freezing cold when we got to our destination at the top too.

On the way we passed through a settlement called Frocester. An unusual name, ending as it does for the Roman name for a castle. We also passed a huge, stunning tithe barn, very close to the road. We enquired with Wikipedia, and learned that the tithe barn was 13th century and grade 1 listed, while the name Frocester came not from a Roman castle, but from 'Roman town on the Frome', as recorded in the Domesday book. And there are remains of a Roman villa nearby. So quite a bit of history there, and interesting geography.

The road to Nympsfield then shot up the escarpment at a dizzying rate, with a hairpin bend in the middle. Wow!

All 3 of us passed our tickets, so we are now ready for new adventures.

Three new ticket holders, and a 6 ton dumper.

Saturday at Didbrook.

A much reduced gang - only 11, after 19 last week. One phoned in with Covid, another two were track walking. Yet the weather was kind, and doughnuts were plentiful. We even had some left from Wednesday - chocolate and orange, a new flavour, but highly recommended. But we were enough to do the job.

 

 

First job of the day was to give these new spacer boards a coating of wood preservative.

They also lacked the washers on each corner, which prolongs their life. Unfortunately our bolts were 5mm too short, and we trudged back to the loco shed in a quest for 16 longer bolts.

Lots of people very friendly and helpful, but - no metric bolts in a GWR steam shed! Should have thought of that....

 

At Didbrook we are now working on two sites. One with 4 panels at Hayles Abbey halt, the other between Didbrook 1 and 2 bridges, with 15 panels to replace.

This was the state of play at Didbrook 1. You may recall that we started the relay at Didbrook 2, and worked back in this direction. Three panels are left to do, and these all with wooden sleepers, which only arrived earlier in the week.

All the volunteers but three set off for Hayles, while Nick and Dave pored over the owner's manual of the Robels.

Why-oh-why won't it work....?

 

 

 

 

 

The Robels needed a service after 80 hours, and also weren't running properly. They choked when the throttle was opened fully and wouldn't give power. We suspected a fuel problem, as one of the reservoirs had traces of dirt in the bottom.

 

Dave effected two oil changes, with the result on the left.

Pretty dirty oil, we thought, after 80 hours of running. 

The main gang was at the Hayles end, where the afternoon was spent plating up the rail laid in during the morning

The trolley with all the bits on was getting lighter and lighter - when it's empty, we will have finished the job. And we are pleased with the progress so far, it's all going very smoothly.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are Simon and David plating up the newly relaid 4 panels at Hayles Abbey halt.

 

 

Also of interest at Hayles Abbey halt was the bogie flat with all the wooden sleepers for the Didbrook 1 end.

Here they are being freed from their straps, ready for Dave to ferry them towards the mess coach end.

In this picture, taken from the platform and showing the original trespass notice that was welded up after being found in the grass, they are just fitting the last fishplate on the 4 panel section. It can then be keyed up next time.

To give the tamper a good start, Bert Ferrule and Graham in the JCB already started 'tweaking' the curve into a nice line.

 

Dave then came along with the Telehandler and started unloading the sleepers and bringing them to Didbrook in lots of 8.

All the gang then returned to Didbrook to lay in the last 3 panels of sleepers. Dave dropped them on to 2 bearers, went off to get another load, and by the time he returned, we were ready for him.

Almost there - the last few sleepers are lifted in.

This is the last shot of the day. All the sleepers are back along the 15 panels we took out, so the job next time will be lifting in the rails and keying them up.

Tuesday at Broadway.

The first day for the tarmaccers at Broadway.

More than one day's worth as it turns out, first they have to level the backfill, and add a layer of type 1 ballast.

To do this they had quite a large dumper on the go, whose width was the same as the barrow crossing, making that tricky to negotiate.

 

They gradually worked their way along the platform, here at the level of thee signal box.

In order to minimise using the barrow crossing, Neal suggested putting some of the ash and ballast that was being scraped off under the footbridge steps, where there is an area with a lot of clay on the surface. That seemed to work quite well.

Once the platform - to the current end of the fence - had been scraped down, the ash and ballast infill was replaced with new type 1, seen here negotiating the barrow crossing.

It was then tipped along the platform, and levelled out using the mini digger. 

After lunch a tamper arrived at the bracket signal, after a measuring run of the Broadway extension.

This was a hired in Beaver lightweight tamper, one of those that can unload itself from a trailer by the use of stilts, rather than a rail ramp. Now that the ballast has been regraded and the rails re-stressed, this machine will tamp the Broadway extension this week.

A second tamper will handle the Didbrook relay at a future date.

Mid afternoon the contractors on the P2 job were nearing the southern end of the platform with their infill. This was also being rolled, as the machine outside the signal box shows.

Wednesday on a slinging course, with a quick peep at the Usketeers.

We all have to have tickets for this and that these days, so last week dumper refresher, this week slinging. It meant leaving the Usketeers making their own mortar, but luckily John jumped into the gap for them.

 

 

 

 

The course had an early 8am start, but Dave and Paul were even earlier! Haven't they got a nice warm bed to lie in? But the weather would be good this morning, and we must press on with the use of our hired in scaffolding.

We managed one snap of them peering down at the photographer, as they made a start on the chimney. Would they finish it today? The afternoon was forecast to be wet.

 

The 5 would be slingers were ensconced in the top of the Bradstone building, but as we made ourselves a cup of coffee, there was an opportunity for a quick shot out of the attic window.

There are the lads, two little orange dots next to the oak tree.

When we looked again at 10am, they had vanished (sitting inside for a coffee break, it transpired)

Dave took some pictures for us during the first part of the day, so these two are thanks to him.

Last time we did 8 courses, and at the time of the picture, they were up to the twelfth, one under the corbel.

 

Dave took this shot to show that we didn't actually fill the chimney with rubble (originally it didn't have a liner in it) but rather kept the liner pinned to the middle with the use of this steel gauze.

As Paul put it defiantly, 'Santa won't be going down this chimney!'

Back to slinging. Part of the course - the practical after the theoretical - was outdoors, so we got another shot of the lads as we walked down to the RRV for the manual side of things.

Oi, you! No skiving off!

The practice object to be lifted was our site safe, so Gareth the lecturer showed us how to use straps on it, if they proved to be slightly too short. We learned a lot about straps, which was just as well, as we have just bought a big box full of them.

After a late lunch the course was deemed completed, and we were able to join the gang on the upper part of the scaffold.

Dave and Paul were in a bit of a rush, as the rainy afternoon forecast looked increasingly likely, as the sky clouded up and got darker and darker.

You can see that they cut off the excess Copex, which wasn't much too long after all. Remember how it used to flop down to the ground?

The top of the Copex now marks the top of the chimney, the highest point on the Usk hut.

Here they are laying the two course corbel. It's very pretty.

 

Changing the width was a bit awkward, necessitating several split bricks as we want to avoid any overlapping joints.

Here Dave is splitting a brick, not an easy thing if its a hard baked engineering blue.

It was at this 14th course out of 15 that they ran out of mortar, and there was a complaint about a raindrop felt on the back of the neck.

Although the 14th course wasn't quite complete, Paul decided to place one last brick on the level of the 15th, the topmost.

So this marks to highest point. 

What does one celebrate that with?

Note also that the courses laid today have been pointed up. A neat and professional job.

 

As the rain began to increase beyond those few opening drops we called it a day, leaving the last course for our next working day, which will be Friday.

As we left we turned back in the rain to show the state of play for today. The chimney has been wrapped in Hessian and plastic to protect the green mortar.

Finally for today, we thought you'd like this advertisement from a 1930s GWR magazine. Our weighbridge was of course once part of the Pooley empire.

And Pooley was a Brummingham company, almost local to us. They pretty much had the market cornered.