Ridge tiles and flashing completed.

Three Usketeers.

Three of us on Friday, another supplementary day on the scaffolding. Our budgeted 2 month hire now runs out, so we need to get finished up there.

As we arrived, Dave and Paul were already up there, a mix made, and the first two ridge tiles in place.

They don't seem to sleep much at night....

The first ridge tile was quite a celebration, it marks the beginning of the end of the roof work.

This is actually Dave's picture, as yours truly was an hour late, on other business.

Your blogger's first picture is actually this one, with dave struggling up the ladder with a bucket of mix.

It took us a little while to work out a system how to move the ladder a long, ridge tile by ridge tile, esp as we moved away from the end. The ladder had to rest on a cushion to spread the load over the slates.

We ended up with a special cushion moving device - a long stick!

This shot, along the line of the ridge, shows Paul and Dave sharing the job. One from each side, with yours truly putting his eye to the ridge line to pronounce it straight (or not).

 

 

We had 9 ridges, with a partial tenth. This was made to fit by cutting the last two to be of equal length.

Here then is Paul trying out the 'closure ridge'.

The ladder is being supported on a big seat cushion we found in the skip. Always worth having a quick look what is in it. We really are a throw away society. Coffee cans and a glass fronted display cupboard went into the last one.

 

 

 

Taking a few steps back, we can see the little hut now almost complete from the Winchcombe signal box. Paul and Dave are looking at the flashing here. 

A thought has occurred to some that parking high sided vehicles along the new platform would rather obscure the view of what we built. A solution put forward might be to park the recently restored MACAW there, then the intended goods vans, a bit further along.

Second thought that occured as we wrote this - could the MACAW not have a suitable load on it, like an old tractor?

Meanwhile, back on the hut we can see Dave fitting a half ridge tile to the very end.

The verge still needs filling here, one of the minor fettling jobs that need doing, before we allow the scaffolding to go back again.

Paul, on the opposite side but without a ladder here, sponges down the mortar that squashes out when you push the ridge down on its seat.

And here is the finished product: One end ridge tile. The flashing on this side is all complete as well. (the back is still to be done though at this point)

Neat, or what?

 

Then back to the last two ridges on the main part of the roof.

 

Dave did the honours with the last tile.

Are you ready with the camera? Here we go.

Dave posed for us with the last tile, and a grin.

Notice the little piece of slate that goes under the joint. That is to stop the mortar in the joint falling all the way through.

 

A detail we thought you might find intersting is how the flashing is fixed to the chimney.

The mortar joint is chased out and the flashing inserted.

It is then held in with little plugs of leaad, and the mortar reapplied.

Everything overlaps, so that the water can't get in.

A last look here on Friday. You can now see the hut complete, if from a distance. The ridges and flashing are installed.

Still to do (what springs to mind)

- barge boards by the tree, paint all barge boards in topcoat. Repaint windows.

- Complete the verges

- Guttering

- Set up an electrical supply

- Fit the internal floor

- Landscaping / back filling

- Diamond pattern paver path from door to platform.

In other news at Winchcombe:

Plans to construct a proper S&T workshop, already years in the making, are finally going to be realised.

This area in the Winchcombe yard has been cleared. 

The workshop will be placed approximately where the dumper is parked.

 

 

 

To put the site into context, here is also a shot from the steps of the signal box.

Again the dumper marks the spot for the new workshop.

For those that don't know behind the scenes at the GWSR so well, the current S&T workshop is inside a very dilapidated Mk.1, and that temporary arrangement has been there for a very long time.

Saturday at Didbrook.

Our first running day this season! It seems strange - for months we had the railway line to ourselves on the PWay, and now we must share it again with real trains. But they do earn us money, it's why we are here.

 

 

So we're sitting in the mess coach, returned to its siding from Didbrook, and while chewing we hear a whistle.

It's the first train of the season - the ECS working to CRC, headed by Dinmore Manor.

Back to chewing doughnuts.

Then there's another whistle, but nothing is due. Odd.

It's Foremarke Hall, out on a test run

 

Foremarke Hall drifted into P1 at Winchcombe, but didn't hang about.

It was soon back again, with a nice plume of exhaust steam, as it's cold outside.

Rumours were confirmed on Saturday that we had a new vehicle, to replace the two Landies we sold.

Ooh, a Ford Ranger, what's it like under the bonnet?

Jim, Steve, Dave D and Nick check out the engine. You have to, don't you?

 

 

The Ranger is a 5 seater crew cab, so that answers our needs to transport guys along the line, and it has a load space that is just big enough to take a couple of Robels end on.

It's got a GWSR logo too.

It's also 2 or 4 wheel drive, so it won't get stuck. The steel rims mean that it's the basic model, and it has an economical 2.2 Litre diesel engine. No DPF either - we do mostly short journeys - but an Ad Blue tank instead.

Enough of playing with motors, we load up and head for Didbrook to further fettle the track after the initial runs of trains over our packing.

On the way to Didbrook we meet another train - wasn't the line busy on Saturday?

This time it's the 3 car DMU heading south.

Bert Ferrule thrills with diesels - even the DMU gets him out of bed, or in this case, the cab. We are content to remain seated.

 

After the DMU passed, a neighbour stopped to talk to us. He had an aerial photograph of his house taken after closure, with a bit of our line on it. Would we like to see it?

So here it is. And indeed, the trackbed is empty. That dates the picture to... between 1979, when the track was lifted, and the summer of 1984, when it was put back again. Just 5 years of the empty trackbed.

A nice smooth track at Didbrook - GWSR volunteers laid that.

 

Here's pretty much the same spot today. The neighbour's house is behind the tree by the JCB.

Didbrook 2 bridge (foreground) was the limit of operation of our first trains, with Cadbury No.1 in its bright red and gold colour scheme. We liked that. It's very striking, and people recognise the corporate name.

 

 

We had hardly climbed back over the garden fence when there was another whistle.

 

This time it was P&O out for a canter.

It spent quite some time at Winchcombe, before returning to base at Toddington.

 

 

The gang of 8 set up camp by Didbrook 1, with the mission of reinforcing the ballast by the transition point between the old and new tracks.

When I blows my whistle, you all clears orf.....

The beginning of the new track was quite hollow underneath, and the 6 ins or so of ballast we put under initially had every chance of compressing a bit, so we robelled this area thoroughly.

More trains later in the day saw this interesting double header, unfortunately coupled smokebox to smokebox.

Have they no regard at all for the poor lineside photographer?

The two volunteers on Robels Bill and Ben worked their way along the first two panels, inside and out. Quite slow, but thorough.

You'll also notice that the sleepers are all covered in ballast, so shovelling that away was the other job on Saturday. First of all, the tamper operator needs to see the sleepers, and secondly wooden sleepers need to be fully cleared so that they can dry out after rain. Ballast on top keeps them damp and accelerates the decay.

David keeps his eye on the DMU as it enters the work site.

With two service trains, and lots of little test runs on Saturday, we had to step to one side quite a few times.

The double header came back from CRC, still coupled nose-to-nose. Dinmore Manor was the service engine, while Foremarke Hall was being tested.

That train left a slightly unpleasant souvenir for us, as someone emptied the toilet exactly onto the new ballast. Luckily we had just done that bit. It was particularly graphic this time! 

Speaking as a PW volunteer we are not overly concerned by this phenomenon, as it occurs fairly rarely like this. The mess is soon washed away by the rain, and within a few days there is no trace of it. For the comfort of this volunteer the (not inconsiderable) money spent on retention tanks would not be worth the benefit.

After dealing with the transition at Didbrook 1, we moved on to the transition at Didbrook 2. Here a slight twist had developed, so we lifted a couple of lengths to get everything back on an even keel.

This end of the works on Saturday delivered a couple of nice snaps, which we share with you below:

Dinmore Manor accelerates the service train away from the Didbrook works site.

A Broadway bound 3 car DMU slows down to enter the relay site at Didbrook 2.

At the end of the day we treated ourselves to a group tea in the Coffeepot, also the first time this year. We reflected on how well the PWay department had performed during this year's winter works programme. Fifteen panels relaid at Didbrook, four more at Hayles, all ballasted and hand tamped, the Broadway extension had its ballast regraded and was fully re-stressed by contractors, and three panels of track at Prescott were taken up and subsequently put back in place to allow the bridge refurbishment to take place.

The PWay gang can feel proud of these achievements. Our morale was so high that we even worked on a Sunday to get the job done in time.

Saturday's trains also looked quite well filled, so we are looking at this year with some optimism. Another big job is planned for the next closed season, so wait for an anouncement on that.

Wednesday (well, some of) with the Usketeers.

A brief visit today. No, not because it was cold and sleeting, we had an appointment at home end of the morning with a contractor, one we had been waiting for, for a year! Blame China and Covid... but there he was, so never lose faith.

The air in the Usk hut was cold, but the welcome was warm.

This time Mrs. Jules had baked a cake for us to enjoy. It was a chocolate one, but two segments had been put to one side for a filling with jam.

That interested Paul...

 

 

The temperature was around freezing, and thick flakes of snow were falling outside. Inside we sat completely in the dry, thanks to completion of the roof.

 

The snow didn't settle, so we continued working as normal.

Today was the day for fitting the last two barge boards.

Here they are propped up against the scaffolding, ready for cutting to size.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

The wood was square ended, so the top had to be cut to fit, and the lower ends cut twice to look right.

 

While putting away our rubbish -

  - BTW who put all this polystyrene computer packaging in the cardboard recycling bin? Even the silicone gel and the leads for the screen were still in it!  - 

- we ran into Neal, and had a good look at the metal skip, as one does.

Due to go to scrap are the two broken columns that we unearthed at Broadway a few years back. They are from the bottom of the P2 footbridge, but unfortunately they were bulldozed off and snapped at ground level in 1963. We have learned from them as we made replicas out of steel, but now they can be turned into cash at least.

Reserved for future use are the 4 similar columns from Henley in Arden. We couldn't use them at Broadway, as they are shorter and made for use by a free standing footbridge, not the one that also supports the roof as at Broadway.

They could still work in a new GWR style footbridge, for example if we built one at CRC.

The old Broadway ones snapped off at the level of the inspection hatch on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For record purposes we also took a picture of the top end of the scrap ones. This is where the canopy attached (gas axed off here) and also where the downpipe entered the column. So the rainwater actually ran down the inside of the column. The inspection hatch at the bottom, a weak point in the design, allowed you to fish out any debris that had accumulated inside.

With the replicas at Broadway we ran the downpipe down along the side of the columns.

Back to the Usk hut.

We found Jules up on the scaffolding with what he described as a Heath Robinson device that he had cobbled up. It was a steel brush on the end of a long batten, which Jules was using to clean up any mortar stains off the side of the chimney.

It's our last day of scaffolding - we rang it off hire today, to stop the ongoing hire charge.

The barge boards are now all up.

These two were fitted today. They give the gable end a certain 'je ne sais quoi', don't you think?

A few minor jobs remain. We can do these easily from a ladder.

The last thing we saw was Dave driving in a few screws into the first two barge boards.

 

With a bit of luck we should be able to show you a 'clean' Usk hut next week, with the scaffiolding removed. Then it's time to move on to the floor.

We'll end this report today with a fine shot by Paul of our latest arrival:

Believe it or not, this is a former Barry wreck. Doesn't it look good!

BR Standard 4 MT engine 75014 was built in 1951, and was dumped at Barry 15 years later in 1966. It's currently operated by the Paignton - Kingswear line.

We have it for 3 months, and it will be one of the stars in our Cotswolds Festival of Steam which runs from 12th to 14th May this year.

We hope to see you there!