New cast iron goods.

Saturday in the blazing sun.

Ten of us today, with 9 along the line and Steve by the Usk platform working on a new electrical distribution point for the stock that will be parked along there (when all is completed).

Boredom....

So 9 volunteers met in the mess coach and debated what to do without tea or doughnuts.

Eventually these did arrive, including custard and chocolate/orange flavoured ones. They were worth the wait.

We loaded up the tools from vans located in different areas of the yard, left there following the making up of the freight trains for the gala.

Then we went to the RDA crossing to wait for P&O to pass, so that we could inspect the track. This area had numerous issues of wet beds, dropped joints and tight joints. Which one to address first?

 

 

The area around Southem Lane bridge is wet, and has been for a long time. This causes the track to pump up and down, and spew out a white slush from ground up ballast.

It can't be a coincidence that Southam Lane bridge is the only one on the whole railway where water is pouring out of the abutment and wing wall. Rain or shine, there is a steady leakage of water across a broad front. Our drainage department has tried to cure the problem with a ditch filled with fresh ballast, but the leakage continues and it must be getting into the trackbed, as it is pumping all round here.

 

We also noticed how our new neighbours, who took over a corner of a field and pushed spoil over one of the bridge wing walls, have increased the size of their activity. A large caravan, machinery, lorries and a container have appeared along our boundary line.

 

Under the bridge there is evidence of trespass and nitrous oxide abuse.

 

Part of the team then further examined the track northwards, until it was felt that we were nearer to Bishops Cleeve than the RDA, so the other half of the team was asked to move the Transit and the Ranger north to the next entrance by the Bishops Cleeve foot crossing.

Again we had to wait for a gap between the trains to ask for a line blockage.

 

 

 

The train eventually appeared, being Pendennis Castle running tender first.

Bert Ferrule and Dave amused us by hiding in an old cattle creep. It's no longer required because the field on one side is now a sports ground.

 

Pendennis Castle soon returned from CRC again.

It was a challenge to get a decent photograph of our visitor, as there was a full sun and when the loco is running chimney first you are photographing almost directly into the sun.

 

 

 

We dug out three dipped joints, lifted them and packed around 4 sleepers with the Robels. The observed result was better, though still not perfect.

We are still after two more Robels, and have had a sponsor offer of £500 for one (they cost about £3000 each)

 

The first candidate to test the joints we packed was Bulleid Pacific 35006:

Here it is, heading directly into the sun. It had a young crew on board, which was very encouraging to see.

Every now and then we had a strong animal smell waft over to us. We can't complain about farming - we are the Cotswolds line after all - but the muck spreader involved was huge. The biggest we had ever seen.

It looked like one of those giant articulated dumpers used in motorway construction. It bellowed up and down the field and flung dung in all directions.

It wasn't hard to bear, but generated a lot of jokes among us.

Mid afternoon it was time to drive back to Winchcombe and put the tools back into their different wagon locations (we are considering more efficient storage in the form of two large grounded containers) but a large number of parked cars made exit from Bishops Cleeve rather difficult.

Once back 'home' in the yard we noticed that the explanatory brass plate has now been attached to 'STEVIE'.

It's just to explain that the name comes in fond memory of our most loyal and enthusiastic JCB driver, who sadly left us last year. He's still much missed.

Monday at Hayles Abbey halt.

Three of us. The job was to load the economy sleepers left in the cess after the Didbrook relay. We needed a non-running day for that, so a Monday was perfect.

We went to get one of the Transits, which proved to have a little gem on board - a custard doughnut left over from Saturday!

Good until Sunday 21st May. Monday was the 22nd - would we die if we ate it?

Well, it was tad stale but the custard filling was still good. We took the risk.

 

The 03 C&W shunter brought our bogie flat to Hayles Abbey halt. 

Dave from the Usketeers did the honours in the Telehandler. 

Yours truly was on top of the wagon, Paul prepped the sleeper piles below.

The first load of 8 economy sleepers went on. How high could we stack them, given that there were over 200 sleepers to recover?

The advice was that we could go 6 high, given that these economy sleepers were lighter and also shorter.

Dave went into the undergrowth to find groups of 8 sleepers to offer up to the wagon.

These first ones here are for the next relay and are full size and weight, so we left them where they were.

We loaded the taller piles that were ready to go, but some long low piles remained.

Paul had to spend a fair amount of time re-arranging these, so that they could be stacked in groups of 8.

After loading 96 sleepers we called a break for lunch, which was very welcome.

It was getting hot. So much so that one of us had to humbly request some water from one of the neighbours.

 

 

Mid afternoon we were almost done, when the 03 came back, ready to return the bogie flat to Winchcombe.

We strapped down 192 sleepers, with still another 100 or so to be loaded another time.

Here is the bogie flat back at Winchcombe. The intention is to unload this at our Stanton yard, part of another mission to ballast a small part of the extension, all to be done the same day.

The economy sleepers will be used to relay the C&W yard, and any surplus ones will be offered for sale. The economy sleepers are fine for sidings, but not for main line use (as we have been doing since the 1980s).

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Cast iron day! We have so far mounted Ogee shaped cast iron gutters and brackets, donated second hand by the RAT Trust. At some point we had to pay out money for those pieces that we did not have - essentially the downpipes, those from the RAT being damaged.

 

 

Today was the unboxing. We had three boxes - two containing a 6ft cast iron downpipe each, and a smaller box with accessories.

As you can see we couldn't wait to try them out. You can see from Paul and Dave's smiles how happy they were.

Not every day is Christmas,  but today sure felt like it.

Then we opened up the box with the accessories, and after counting everything we realised that the offset pipes from gutter to downpipe were missing. 

Once home, this turned out to be a transcription error from online shopping basket to company Purchase Order. We can only blame ourselves, but no money was lost, we simply placed a complementary order, so should have those offset pipes next week.

The next job on the list was to move and repaint the Pooley weighing machine that has been sitting, seemingly abandoned, next to the signal box for a large number of years.

We had the idea of killing two birds with one stone - clear that site, and place the weighing machine next to the Usk hut, a plausible asset for a coal merchant.

 

The weighing machine was very heavy, but we managed to get the Telehandler forks under it, and it was soon on its way across the barrow crossing.

Not long afterwards it arrived at the gable end of the hut, ready for a bit of rust treatment (streaks could be seen appearing from under the old dumpy bag that was draped over the top of it).

It shouldn't take too long...

 

Meanwhile, our friends from Construction & Maintenance continued with their project of laying one, then two rows of patio slabs along the platform edge.

This crew has slabbed (albeit in larger 3x2s) all of the platform outside Broadway station building, so they are well experienced.

In the background the PWay tool van was being shunted back to its usual position after the gala and its freight trains.

We then took off the faded and tattered dumpy bag, to see how much we'd have to restore.

The answer was, much more than we imagined !

It turned out that the weighing machine is not that old (we guess late 1940s) and unlike older machines has quite a bit of sheet metal incorporated in its upper part. It is this sheet metal that has rusted badly.

The worst piece is this ring (L). It is 'U' shaped, and sits over a rubber retaining ring that holds on the glass over the dial. The bottom third is completely eaten away, probably because that is where the dumpy bag (which is not waterproof) was tied against it. How do we get a new ring like that? It would have been a pressing originally.

The back is one large sheet, less rusty but still affected around the edges. Ideally that should be replaced too, because water has penetrated through the screw holes.

On the back is a plate marked BR (LM). Presumably that dates it fairly exactly?

The mechanism is also seized.

At this point we are somewhat non-plussed, and not sure what to do next.

Life goes on of course. The C&M gang got several more slabs down - maybe one more big push next week?

Behind them the little Standard 78019 ran into the station, sounding its unusual whistle.

 

Paul spent some time plugging the hole in the door where there were several keyholes in one. In the end a new piece of wood was better than lots of filler here, we felt.

 

John spent the day applying topcoat to the outside of the windows.

Then the Standard came round for the second time. A bit into the sun, but presumably photo opportunities must be seized before it goes home again.

The little engine is popular, so one day we will have 76077 as our own little Standard.

The other loco out today was Pendennis Castle. With its 4 cylinder exhaust it always sounds as if it's travelling much faster than it really is.

Mid afternoon a mystery pair of boots was detected over the door...

In unrelated work Paul was filling in screw and nail holes in the barge boards and window boards. Once that has gone off we can apply topcoat here too, to make the outside woodwork really weatherproof.

Quite a bit of slabbing progress is visible in the foreground.

The PWay gang today.

Well, several days actually.

Remember when it was wet?

This rather striking image was taken 2 weeks ago by Paul.

Just look at that dark cloud over Winchcombe!

 

And that poor gang that was out along the track during those same cloudbursts.

Where to shelter....? How about under this bridge?

 

 

 

 

During their work they came across this axlebox cover.

L N E - D

London North Eastern ... er?

And what to do with it? Our C&W people have no need for it, it seems.

Today, Wednesday was a bright and sunny day of course. For the gang it start off with a training session in the mess coach.

 

 

 Then they were off packing joints on top of an underbridge on the approaches to Bishop's Cleeve.

Here is Martin with the Telehandler bringing in a load of ballast to pep up the levels. 

We have track walkers, reports from enginemen, and at intervals our PWay manager takes a ride on the footplate to see for himself.

Here is the underbridge in question. It used to be for farm access, but it now links up with a new housing estate.

Elsewhere along the line Martin was bringing our lifting beam in to be annually inspected.