Two weeks in one.

Saturday in the cutting.

One of the first warm Saturdays of the year - great ! Eleven of us turned up, a goodly sized gang which enabled us to do several small jobs at once.

 

The first job was to answer a request from the steam dept. for 4 reasonable quality second hand sleepers.

Thanks to the yard tidying on Wednesday there was already a stack of reasonable sleepers, so we were able to take 4 off the top of that.

Tony and Nick carry the selection over to the Transit, which has already been loaded with tools for a list of jobs in the cutting at Toddington.

 

One of these jobs is to replace an insulated fishplate.

These are getting scarce, so we took one off some scrap rail that we had.

Being scrap, the fishplate had been on there some time, so was not keen to come off. Adam rattled away at it until finally the last bolt came off.

While we waited to get our kit together the first passenger train out of CRC came by. If only we didn't have that traffic cone, it really sticks out.

Let's try again without the traffic cone... isn't that much better? Thank you, Mr. Photoshop!

With the train gone, we were able to get into the Transit and the Ranger and follow it up the line.

Here we are going up the Defford straight, as the service train is just disappearing round the curve to Hayles Abbey halt. Doughnuts within easy reach.

 

 

Once at Toddington we unloaded the 4 sleepers and stacked them by the coal pile.

It seems they are to be cut to 4'8 1/2'' long, and laid across this end of the pit.

 

 

Then we unloaded the rest of the kit, including a large trolley, so that we could get it up to the worksite in the cutting, which is inaccessible by road.

The trolley was loaded up with the kit, not forgetting the picnic lunches of 11 people. After getting a line block from the signalman we pushed it up to the P1 banner repeater to await the arrival of a down train, after which we would be permitted to continue.

And here is that down train, hauled by Foremarke Hall, tender first. We all sat on a wall by the road bridge in the sun, which was very pleasant.

Of course we were 'forced' to wait here, it's not that we are work shy. We had to wait for the signalman's permission to continue with the trolley into the next section, and why not sit in the sun?

From the puff of steam at the far end you can see that the train is just moving off now. The trolley is waiting under the bridge.

We split up here. One group addressed the first job immediately beyond the bridge, the other continued on with the trolley.  One of the wooden sleepers here was out of alignment, so we dug it free and then Tony gave it a few well aimed whacks to get it sitting square. Then we keyed it up again, back filled and off to the next job.

Saturday's location in the north Toddington cutting permitted a couple of tasty lineside photographs. Here is 75014 slowly accelerating away towards the viaduct. Cornishman headboard too.

Train gone, we addressed the next fault, a loose but seized bolt on the turnout at the north end of the loop. Given how the bolt was rusted into position, it must have been loose like this for a long time. (but certainly not going anywhere, it took a lot of ingenuity to get off.)

An hour later the other steamer of Saturday's purple timetable chugged through the cutting. This time it was Foremarke Hall accelerating away and towards the viaduct.

Speaking of viaduct, have you helped the appeal yet? Many hands make light work, don't leave it for someone else.  Unfortunately another appeal is also running with another railway, so we really need you. Don't let Stanway viaduct crumble!

Then back to work. The last job of the day was to start stacking the smaller pieces from the turnout replacements here a couple of years back. We have quite a bit of scrap rail and components by the lineside, left there for want of a special train to pick them up.

At least if the stuff is on pallets it will be easier to pick up, and look neater too.

 

 

Most of the base plates were heavy, but some were so heavy that they needed two people to lift them

This pile must weigh a couple of tons. Hope it's not too heavy to recover....

With the site tidy,  and some litter picked up (insulation panels blown on to our property from the housing construction next door) we called the signalman again, and got permission to load up the trolley and push it back to the ash pit. Then it was time for tea in the coffeepot, for some the highlight of the day.

 

 

 

 

On a walk through Winchcombe yard we noticed these neat piles of fishplates. Organisation at last.

Notice that each stack is identified with a label. So if someone asks you to get a Bullhead fishplate with pear shaped holes, no more standing by the jumbled pile and going 'Errrrrrr'.

 

 

 

In the Coffeepot we are now selling sandwiches encased in a stiff plastic box.

This is sadly not a good development for the environment.

On  our travels we noticed quite a few outlets are now using plant based Vegware packaging. This is fully compostable, and so much better.

Here is a link: https://www.vegware.com/uk-en/catalogue/sandwich_and_wrap_boxes/

 

 

 

Finally a request:

Above is a sash lock, of which we need the plate on the left. It measures 3ins by 1 inch. We have the plate with the arm on the right, but not the one on the left. We have a number of spares, where the arched item is short and fat. We need one that is long and thin, as in the picture. Or maybe a complete set, if 3 x 1 inches? Can anyone help?

 

 

 

Last Wednesday, without 2 Usketeers.

Yours truly was in Scotland, while Dave had car repairs to do. Paul, Jules and John soldiered on without us, but we do have some pictures for you of their day, taken by Jules:

 

 

 

 

Firstly, they looked at the front of building gutter, and instigated a simple temporary fix to stop the rain dripping, until we know all of the additional gutter kit to bulk order. We repurposed or even recycled once again some of our old blue plastic covering, and fixed it in place with waterproof gutter sealant! Hopefully it’ll do the job for a couple of weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This gap needs filling with a union plate that is available to buy. That will go on our list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main job of the day for two of them was fitting the guttering to the rear elevation. Once two lengths had been measured and roughly positioned, the final section was cut to size. (see last picture)

Wednesday was a running day, with Foremarke Hall calling at P2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working beside the Usketeers others were back filling the platform edge to lay a row of 2x2 patio slabs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fill for this was taken from the PWay yard nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, John cracked on with painting the window frames - here he’s working on the inside of the large front facing window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another task last Wednesday:  Some glass ordered for the new Toddingon yard lamp needed a little finessing to fit, so Paul brought his trusty glass cutter and we retired to the Construction & Maintenance workshop to carefully cut a few millimetres off 4 panes - no (unplanned) breakages, so a success!

 

Cutting just a few mm off  was certainly not easy, but Paul managed it perfectly! 

Across the tracks:

There were several visits from the P-Way team throughout this sunny day, as they were working around the Winchcombe track bed, even being granted a possession between our two trains so they could sort numerous small issues, including some packing and fishplate greasing.

 

Finally, a shot of the newly hung guttering. The rear elevation is more complete than the front, but we will probably be able to place an order next week to complete all of the gutters soon.

Malvern side guttering in place, no downpipes yet.

Your blogger's absence was caused by a week in West Scotland, where the Jacobite was filmed leaving Fort William:

https://youtu.be/d3wFDTtEJbE

Later, we caught the same train arriving at Mallaig:

The west of Scotland can be a desolate place, but colourful pictures are possible - if it's not raining:

This shot is from below Dunvegan castle. Sadly the castle is a rather ugly, rendered Victorian recreation, but the gardens and loch below it are pretty.

 

It does have a redeeming feature:

 

A locomotive name plate! Dunvegan is the ancestral home of Clan MacLeod. The loco was a Gresley K4 numbered 61998, built in 1939 and scrapped in 1962. It only did 650.000 miles.

 

Interestingly, it was first named LORD of DUNVEGAN, but the name was changed just 3 months later. Wonder what went on there behind the scenes?
 

 

Eilann donan - now that's more like it!

Rannoch Moor, from the A82. Desolation left behind by a glacier.

The famous Horseshoe viaduct near Bridge of Orchy. Your blogger travelled over it in the Pathfinder 'Spring Highlander' 2 weeks earlier!

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Four of us today - Dave was away - and it was sunny with heavy showers. We darted around, but got jobs done.

Things are gearing up for the gala this weekend (your truly will be at the EA meeting in Devon though) and Pendennis Castle is already in traffic. What a noisy engine! But we like that.

 

Special visitor as one of two service engines today was 6999 CAPEL DEWI HALL. What a great idea to rename one of our locos for a weekend! They did a jolly good job with the replica name plate, made of wood by our C&W department. One's been sold to an enthusiast afterwards, the other is still available (we believe)

 

 

We always stand and wave when passenger trains come past (we don't wave at freight trains, unless we know someone on board). The passengers seem to enjoy that, they always wave back when they notice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John was particularly busy today, as he painted the windows pretty much non stop.

 

At least until the rain came in the afternoon. 

As we are now keeping a clean house inside, we laid out those old rubber mats around the entrance, to try and limit the amount of mud being carried in.

 

We had a discussion with Construction & Maintenance about levels, and agreed where we were going.

 

 

 

 

 

 The C&M team was also working on our site. At the request of the Friends of Winchcombe Station a line of (patio...) slabs will be laid along the platform, with a double line from the hut onwards. This is to permit the FoWS people to get to their storage vans - to be parked along this platform - without having to walk over the grass that is planned for the rest of the site. 

 

To this end the Telehandler brought round some spare ballast from the other side of the yard, and rumbled across our site.

We then fitted some wooden battens to the gable end of the hut. These will support a specially commissioned sign, the nature of which will be revealed when the hut is officially opened. Today was a test fitting...

 

 ...in great secrecy between trains, so that no-one would see. Except the Usketeers, and of course Alex, who designed the item in question. So you know it's going to be good.

 

Here's an overview of the site today, with the oak tree in almost full leaf. You can see that it overhangs the hut quite a bit, so we have bought some gutter netting to field the leaves and acorns that will be raining down come the winter. We also did a walk around with Paul to determine what exactly is now required to finish the guttering and down pipes. Quite a bit is second hand, but we knew that some additional pieces would have to be bought new. Luckily new supply is not at all an issue, many shops sell cast iron guttering still, as it is very durable, and better for the environment than plastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The C&M team discuss how the rear of the platform will be brought up to height, and how that will work with the damp course around the hut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the day John moved round to the big window, and also did the window board inside, which Paul had screwed down earlier in the day. The window boards in off white make the room look brighter inside.

The Telehandler was very busy landscaping the area where excess spoil had been dumped in previous years.

During the moring the green Growler appeared light engine, and then reversed into the C&W sidings.

It's mission was to retrieve four GWR goods wagons - beautifully painted - and take them to Toddington for the gala.

With the 4 wagons hooked up, the Growler theen reversed them into P1 and the second man went to get the token for the section back to Toddington.

It then left. We were ready to take a video (and in fact did) but the Growler wouldn't growl. It did on the way in though... so no video for you to watch, it was too mild and unexciting, better as a still photograph.

 

Here our ops manager is looking back to see if all the wagons are following. They were.

From the same spot we took this picture of the Usk hut on its little island site.

 

You can see how the surplus stone blocks were used to finish off the slope at the northern end, and that a gate is planned at that end of the site.

Paul and Jules then decided to use the largest of the original flags that were still intact from the inside, and place it as a doorstep outside the front door.

Here it is in situ. It's height will just about cover the row of concrete blocks on the foundations of the hut, and leave the row of blue bricks exposed, together with the damp course.

 

We placed a couple of diamond pavers around to see how that would work.

Our work by the door was interupted by the Telehandler again, which was bringing in more ballast to augment the level of the platform, ready for the slabs.

The ballast was then spread out over the broken bricks laid last week.

 

In the background our slab expert Terry is already doing quite well with the patio slabs in a row.

Then the rain came down, and pretty much killed off the rest of the afternoon. It was so heavy that the C&M guys eventually were forced to shelter inside the hut, and so appreciate the waterproofing offered by our newly finished roof.

Paul remained outside.He seemed quite unconcerned by the water gushing out of the end of the gutter. That needs a stop end, it's on our list of things to buy new.

During a brief lull they had another crack at it, just as P&O came by, bathed in a cloud of steam due to the sudden cold.

 

But then it came down heavy again, and we called it a day. 

 

 

Hot news from the RVR!

Congratulations to the Rother Valley Railway! The Transport & Works Order has just been agreed for the missing link to Robertsbridge.

Map showing existing and future track.                     Source: RVR

Junction Road platform in 1930. This is the end of the reconstructed K&ESR today.

Junction Road platform as it looks today, with the site of the future level crossing in the foreground. The next section, to Austen's bridge over the Rother, is also in RVR hands, but not yet relaid.

Yours truly became a (modest) shareholder in GWR heavy 2-8-0 tank 4253, which was purchased with the Robertsbridge extension in mind. Its restoration from Barry condition is now very far advanced at Rolvenden. Now it should be able to show its longer range and pulling power!