Gonna grass you up.

Friday on steels (again, and not for the last time)

Two and a half of us last Friday - Neal, John and yours truly, but John had to go ringing in the afternoon, leaving two at the end of the day.

We continued with our millscale removal, with now 3 angle grinders on the go at once.

That certainly tripled the productivity, and we made real progress on Friday.

Just to remind you what we are doing, here is a close up of an 'unequal angle'.

The shiny bit is clean and what we want, the orange bits are rust, and the grey bits are a layer of millscale that is very hard to grind off.

The purchase of flap disks helped a lot. For the first two angles we used rotating brushes, but they tended to polish, not remove. Now we have found our stride.

We did one angle each, each half of the day. It doesn't sound like much, but it's slow and steady work, and we just need to throw the man-hours at it.

We did 5 pieces last Friday, and primered them in special green primer. The total done is now 17, out of 44. Neal muttered darkly that there were more on the MACAW, up in the north headshunt.

We don't want to know that. Let's get these out of the way first.

Saturday out with the gang

It was only meant to be between 21 and 24 degrees, but boy, did it feel hot on Saturday. 11 of us turned out, which was pretty good we felt.

As we turned round the corner of the large C&W workshop, we were surprised to see that the oily black 'TAR' tank car had been replaced by a neat, shotblasted and primed example.

Instructions as to what to do next were left up against the headstocks, so there was no excuse for delay. Two members of the wagon team were already at work.

We set off for Hayles in a truck and the Ranger.

 

 

 

 

It was definitely a day for the ole factor 30 slapped on, liberally. Paul also arranged for a large supply of water bottles (yes, with water in them, silly) and they were priceless on a day like this.

Half way along the Defford straight we met P&O coming the other way, so a quick pulling over to one side and a nice shot of it framed by trees.

At Hayles we put out the site boards and inspected the long list of dipped joints reported here, both on the 4 panels relaid here in the winter, and further south. This rail had not been cropped and re-welded, so was giving trouble that jacking and packing alone would not cure.

In the foreground you can see a rusty patch on the rail. This is where the crippled rail end has dropped so much that the wheels take a short cut and hop straight on to the next rail, with a banging sound. That in turn not only shakes your beer, but also stresses the fishplate.

 

The first thing to do was to - wait.

If we work near Winchcombe then we always get two trains one after the other, as they cross at that station.

So having seen P&O go down we waited for the other train to come back up. Then we would have about an hour, before it came back down again.

Here it is: A nice picture of 7903 Foremarke Hall (unkind tongues prefer Skidmark Hall, but only because of the jokey rhyme) chugging through Hayles Abbey halt.

Then we got down to the serious work, which needed double lookouts here, as we are working on a long curve and you can't see very far.

A distant lookout (or 'advanced lookout') stands beyond the road bridge and communicates with the site lookout with a chequered flag. If he waves it, there's a train coming.

The chequered flag has no meaning for footplate crews, it is merely a means of communication between lookouts.

 

Below is the view of one of the lookouts:

Nothing to see, nothing to do, and it's hot with no shade. Just stand there and fry until something comes.

Lunch time. Now we get the chance to find somewhere cooler!

Half the team have sought the shade of this lineside tree, while the other half sits in the vehicles with the doors and windows open.

From within the vehicles you can still see the trains - here is P&O again, going south.

The Robelling of the joints slowly moves south - the shade of the overbridge beckons.

Just for extra extra security we have three site lookouts here. Or maybe they are waiting for a breeze?

The Hayles running in board and trespass signs are still in good condition, but the grass is much too long. Is there someone who would like to take that on with a mower? John, our 'spy' on the trains, gave the platform a good weeding earlier in the week, we could see that.

Steve on the right has just celebrated his 40th anniversary on the GWSR. We're a bit of a family to him.

 

One thing that cooled us down was an armful of Calyppos brought in by Paul, for which we were all very grateful.

We sucked at them thoughtfully.

Bert Ferrule seemed particularly pleased. Behind him Robel workers with ear defenders on were unaware of the cooling supplies and carried on in blissful ignorance.

We did an amazing 11 pairs of dipped joints on Saturday (i.e. 22 joints in total). As you can see, also over quite a distance from our starting point north of Hayles Abbey halt.

Our final job for the day was to replace a cracked fishplate, here in the foreground. It had been found by our track walkers, but another piece of evidence was found to be two lumps of coal in the cess. That's a sure sign of a big bump here.

We need to cut and shut this section.

The cracked fishplate that we replaced on Saturday. The crack is surrounded by yellow paint.

The amazing thing about this fish plate is that it is an extra reinforced one, to wit: Deep Skirted. And yet it snapped.

When we laid the track here in 1984 there was no money for terram or a base layer of ballast, so when we robelled today we often brought up mud, the main reason the joints are pumping in this area.

7903 Foremarke Hall trundles into Winchcombe.

Not to forget: A small gang also walked the track between Toddington and Winchcombe, in the unrelenting sun, and did 2.5 miles of fishplate greasing using Interflon. 

With only a handful of minutes to spare at the end of the afternoon we screeched to a halt outside the Coffeepot to claim 12 cups of tea. Get that in us first, then we can see about emptying the vehicles and putting everything back into the various areas of storage.

Accident sequel.

The insurance company passed the file to a claims management company (CMC), which arranged to have the blogger car recovered.

We then received the offer of a hire car while it was being repaired. A hire contract soon arrived by email for electronic signature. On reading the small print however, we were somewhat disturbed to see that 'this is not a courtesy car, but a credit hire' and our name was on the bottom for signature. A small paragraph at the bottom authorised the CMC to bill the at fault insurers for the cost, OK, but our name was down as prinicpal. We then saw the price - £350 per day. That was outrageous. A quick check with a random car hire firm at Birmingham airport showed a walk in cost (i.e. not a corporate rate) of £117 for a similar car, i.e. only one third of the price. What's going on here then?

Google led us to a car enthusiasts forum, where all was revealed. The CMC makes most of its money from the car hire, and has an interest in dragging out the repairs for as long as possible, as this lengthens the hire period. They also get a kickback from the repair shop. The outrageous daily rate is simply billed to the at fault insurance company, and this is why our premiums go up so much. If the at fault company baulks, disputes, or there is in fact no at fault cover, then the whole bill goes to the principal who naiively agreed to sign, i.e. muggins.

The credit hire was for a maximum term of 90 days, so a quick calculation shows the potential total bill if the repairs are not executed swiftly: £31.500! And we were expected to sign for that.

We called the CMC to say we were not happy with the contract. The call handler assured us not to worry, as the at fault insurance company would pay. Really?

We're now in a hire car proveded by the at fault insurers. This they rent from a nearby company for - £73 a day. One fifth. And they would certainly have refused to reimburse the excessive hire fee first proposed by the CMC. They made that very clear indeed.

This sounds like a legal scam. Someone needs to be told what is going on.

Much cheaper car provided by the at fault insurers.

Tuesday on steels.

All three of us on stripping mill scale and rust again. A tedious occupation, but much faster now with three of us on the job.

The pile on the right is getting smaller, the finished one on the left is getting bigger. There's another pile out of sight. And about the same again still on the MACAW.

The day's tally: 7 angles done, the total has gone up from 17 to 24. Over half way now.

Wednesday:

A talk on the Broadway rebuild given to a local Probus club - Usk day deferred to Thursday. 

And next week: No blog report, having a week off in Wales. Yes, that's a holiday destination ! So you'll have to be patient.

Thursday on the Usk hut.

Here's that Wednesday Usk report then, on a Thursday. Sorry if you clicked yesterday and there was no update (yet).

Posting regularly every Wednesday evening makes a rod for your own back...

So, this week...

We continue to fettle our little hut. We even had a chat about it - wouldn't it make a great little Santa's grotto, with all those stones inside?

Although not original, we do think we need a source of power and a light. The trouble is that regulations mean modern consumer units and powerpoints.

Steve was very kind to fit all this for us and connect it up, and we are already using power from here. But we are not happy with the blatant modernity of it, so Paul offered to make us a box to fit over it. The power point will be moved underneath, instead of on top.

We had two GWR engines on today: 7903 and 7820. Some trains were quite well patronised, others rather less so. Coach bookings are currently the backbone of the passenger figures.

 

Last week Peter helped us distribute the earth that Dave had brought (Dave being away this week) and today we had the benefit of John (our spy in the evacuee experiences) for half a day, before he went to give Hayles Abbey Halt some tlc.

John and Paul had a nice chat together - a problem shared is a problem halved.

John attacked the triangle in front of the hut with vigour, pausing only to watch the trains go by. We were very glad for his assistance with digging.

On our way to the skip we were charmed by the sight of the swallows making use of the overnight rain to pick up mud from puddles for their nests.

 

 

Paul and John kicked off with more painting. Our windows are going to be well protected. It was nice and cool inside, whereas outside it was hot and muggy, although the temperature was in the low twenties today.

 

John also managed to change the day, and had a relaxing time painting the inside of the big window. You can stay seated for the job.

We had several trips to the skip, and also to Churchward house to collect a cheque from a kind supporter.

On our way we passed this lovely little roadster, paired with the GWR Toad in the background. Only the Bradstone and fake arch spoil it for us.

Another interesting discovery was this member of the C&W team giving the S&T coach a little refresh. We are planning to build permanent premises for the S&T department, and this coach will then become available. We heard that there are actually plans to return it to service. It's in reasonable condition, and an interesting 2+1 SO, although the interior seating is no longer there. The partition doors are though.

Later we took this shot overlooking the front of the hut, to show what still needs to be filled. We need one or two more buckets of earth here, and the weighing machine needs moving.

The road surface will be raised and covered with fill currently on the other side of the tracks.

This is the back. The road on the left needs raising to something like the level of the soil around the hut, which itself is one course below the DPC. We have already built up the corner to indicate where the levels will be.

To cover the modern electrical units Paul made a sort of cupboard with lectern on top. The power point will be moved nearer to floor level, and the whole thing painted dark brown. It should then look unobtrusive.

In the picture Paul is shaping the back so that it will marry the inside wall of stone, which is of course uneven.

We also had an unexpected but very welcome visit from the drainage gang.

Men looking down a hole, you might say.

This drain is one of the main ones draining the whole of the Winchcombe site, which, as you may recall, was dug out with Steam Navvies. It's surprisingly deep.

It needs finishing off though. These loose concrete covers are not adequate, and the whole area has a temporary feel about it.

They are going to do a proper job, with a decent cover. Then the ugly Heras fencing around it can be removed.

Here's a little find from today: A 3 1/2 ton army lorry, by Dinky Toys, it says undeneath. It's had a rough time though (army lorries do) and we wonder what to do with it.

This is what Peter last week and John today achieved: A nice level earthen triangle in front of the hut, ready for seeding. The road in the foreground will pass behind the hut, serving as a secondary exit for the PWay yard.

Mid afternoon, after some complementary barrow loads of soil to fill in low spots, we were finally in a position to use the lawn seed we had brought with us.

The white pile behind is a test. We have access to some free ballast and want to see how it would perform to level the site of the diamond paver path. We ran out of time to bring any more.

This is the Usk hut at the end of the day, with lawn seed all the way round, and a good watering from the hose. It soon dried out again though. We'll go back for the next couple of days to hose it some more.

Paul's advice about seed quantities: One handful for the birds, one for the rabbits, and one for yourself. Pigeons certainly live in the tree above, so we raked the seed in well, to make sure at least some of it survives. They're probably feasting on it as you read this....

Last but not least, a quick chat with Alex at the end of the day. He was doing what he likes to do best: Lettering. He does it so well.

We managed to squeeze out of him (Alex now sits on the board of the trust) that the viaduct appeal is still well short. At the moment we haven't even raised enough to waterproof it, let alone repair the brickwork.

So if you haven't helped yet, or maybe you are able to help again, do please consider it. Many hands make light work.

https://www.gwrt.org.uk/donate/stanway-viaduct-appeal

We'd be very grateful for your help.

A sudden meeting

Friday at Toddington on steel.

The work to fabricate elements of the canopy for Broadway P2 continues.

 

Neal and John have been lengthening steel angle from 6m to 7m25, ready for the purlins to be made. These link the trusses, characterised by a zig-zag pattern of steel strip.

What they lengthened they decided to bring up to our 'greenhouse', which was a bit depressing and it just piled pain upon agony. We have donne 4 lengths so far, and Neal and John added another 10 to do.

We'll never get there at this rate!

 

But, guess what, they have now finished the lengthening stage, so came to join Yours Truly to help with the mill scale and rust removal.

Here is Neal at Work with the angle grinder.

 

Stepping back a bit from the 'greenhouse' you can see two work sites now, and much faster progress.

The number of steels coated is now 9, out of 44 to do.

 

 

 

At the end of the afternoon we treated ourselves to a box of 3 Magnums. Just the right number, and much cheaper if bought from the corner shop.

They went down particularly well.

 

Elsewhere on the Toddington site the Real Ale festival was in full swing.

As volunteers while signed on we are not allowed any beer, so we only took a peep of what there was to see in the beer tent. It looked great! Lucky customers....

Passing along the Toddington platform - Toddington being our only original station building - we were dismayed to see that further holes had been drilled into it.

In fact in this case two sets of holes, as the first try didn't work, witness the brick dust underneath. This is an ugly metal box, with a very modern combination lock underneath.

A similar thing has been done to the rear of the building, where the original brickwork was punched through for a modern plastic cable.

Is it alright to damage your primary historical asset in this way, without prior reference to any sort of curator of our 'living museum'?

A very un - 1904 concrete flowerbox has been put in front to boot.

There is currently nothing to prevent anyone at all to damage or alter our historic buildings on the railway in whatever way they please. You can do what you like. That is wrong.

The Real Ale festival had a lovely DMU shuttle that went up and down to link the beer tents at Toddington and Winchcombe with Broadway. They were well used, and it made the timetable interesting.

But in this picture modern additions also spoil the historical effect. Here it is some sort of internet relay station, one of several attached to historic buildings at Toddington and indeed on the original stone Monmouth Troy building at Winchcombe as well.

 

Sadly we do not seem to care for our historic fabric. Operational requirements come first. Surely there must be ways of achieving what we need in a more discreet or original way?

Saturday out with the gang.

While it was the (Three day) Real Ale event the gang pressed ahead with improvements and repairs to the track as usual.

On the menu on Saturday: Fit ballast retaining boards at Gretton, then (if we are still corpus mentis) change a (or several) rotten sleepers near mp 13.1.

Go! 

Two less than new concrete sleepers were retrieved from the yard and put on the Transit by Dave. Concrete sleepers are long lasting, but what do you do with them if they become damaged?

Find an alternative use. We have quite a few, and it costs money to take them away, so internal use is best.

Then we were off, in convoi, through Greet and then up Working Lane to the trackside.

Slowest vehicle first, natch, and emergency doughnuts ready within reach. Dave threads his way through the village in the Telehandler, pursued by an angry young man in a supermini.

 

Here we have arrived at a farmer's underbridge a bit beyond Gretton halt. Ballast has been slipping away here.

As we tamp the line and add ballast, the height creeps up here and there, so more ballast retention boards are needed. Also, when the line was relaid with minimal means, there was very little ballast available.

Here is Dave lifting off the two 'second hand' concrete sleepers, ready for swinging round (for which we need a line block).

We can't use the economy sleepers from Didbrook, because 'economy' means that they have big holes in them. They won't retain any ballast then.

 

 

Also, before dropping off the sleepers we need to drive in two long stakes.

You there, stand still and hold the pole while I hit it with a hammer!

Who, me? Graham looks a trifle worried. Yeah, go on, says Tim from a safe distance.

Now Graham looks a tad more comfortable, as it's Tim's turn to hold absolutely still. If he can.

Then we had to wait for a line block.

We waited.

And waited.

And waited.

No line block, but also no trains, due to a grass fire somewhere down south.

 

 

We only needed 20 minutes to swing the sleepers in, and pack them with spare ballast.

Here we are, job done, another one ticked off the list. Dave disked off the protruding bits of stake. We do a neat job.

Next, we moved back up the line a bit, to near the outer home signal where a rotten sleeper had been reported. Actually, closer inspection revealed 4 bad sleepers, which was just as well as we had brought 4 spares with us.

P&O is a bit further away than the cameraman would like, as at this precise point the (camera-) phone rang. Dang.

It was the insurance company, to talk about the accident your blogger had the previous evening. 

Yes, sadly it was so. Coming into Weston Subedge we were suddenly faced by a Polo that came round the corner much too fast, and ended up precisely on the wrong side of the road. Boom!

That was certainly unexpected! We managed to pretty much stop, but the Polo did not and there was a loud bang. We were uninjured - worry not, blog reports will continue - but the other driver, who passed her test only 3 weeks earlier, suffered a bash on the nose.

The blogger car was recovered to a yard in... Droitwich! We await news. But it's going to be messy, and you don't get compensated for that. If it's written off you never get all the money you need to buy a replacement, and if it's repaired, there will be questions about the accident when it's sold on at some point.

 

Back to Saturday with the gang.

Here we are digging out one of the old sleepers, with that lovely view to Breedon Hill in the background.

The chairs in this area are all economy S2s. What's one of those then?

In order to save on the cast iron raw material during the war the S2 chair (R) was produced, as a replacement for the normally used S1 (L).

You can see that it is thinner, but the holes are still the same distance apart. We replace the S2s systematically whenever we find them, as they have less surface area on the sleeper underneath and tend to dig in.

Our ultimate plan for this wooden sleepered section (the Gretton straight) is to replace them all with concrete. That will save on maintenance in the long term. The next bit, the Dixton cutting, is already in concrete.

 

We also heard some interesting aircraft noise.

This turned out to be a flight of three Hercules, we believe returning from a fly past in London. We won't see those again, now it's the A400s. Still interesting though.

This is the full resleepering site, stretched out over about 20 yards.

The annoying thing is that we have been spot resleepering in this area already, and now we've had to go back and do some more. Roll on the replacement in concrete!

With 4 new wooden sleepers in (actually, three were good second hand woods) the last job is to pack them well, not such a chore with the Robels now. 

We could still do with 2 more. Only 2 out of the gang of 9 were occupied there.

After changing the 4 sleepers and given the heat that day we were all out, and decided to return and see the Ale festival at Winchcombe.

 

Here the griddle tent was selling rather good looking curly sausage burgers, improved yet more by the liberal application of free ketchup. Oh yes.

That sausage bap was munched behind the Coffeepot, together with a big mug of tea.

Slightly out of the way of the madding crowd, we can observe the goings on at Winchcombe, which is always busier, what with the trains crossing here.

Saturday's item of interest was the DMU shuttle to Broadway not quite making it to Broadway. Or even all of the way out of the platform....

It stranded on the barrow crossing with a gear selector problem. Luckily among the crowd of C&W workers by the signal box (they have their own bench there) there were experts in DMU gear selection systems, and the DMU was swiftly helped on its way, to the sound of rousing cheers from within.

Broadway P2 build.

As you will have already seen we are preparing stuff in the background. We bought the steel just before the year end, and saved a bundle on the cost. Now we have started cleaning, primering and cutting it.

Also going on in the background is the application for a planning amendment for the P2 building. We have planning permission for it dating back to the original start, but it was for the self design P2 building by the former builder, which wasn't very realistic.

This amendment has now gone in, and you can read it here:

https://plan.wychavon.gov.uk/Planning/Display/W/23/01026/FUL

As the submission says, 'The updated drawing allows for a more historically accurate building with corrected clearance to the running line and increased public space.' We hope you will approve. It's going to be as good as the P1 building, indeed, slightly better still.

There are numerous improvements to the design. Basically the building will be almost identical to the P1 building, with the same brick detail and the same canopy. However, it will be longer than before by one bay between the trusses, to be in keeping with the main building, which is also longer. We have also added the little flat roofed 'toilet block' on the end, which will in fact become a store for maintenance. 

If you would like to leave a positive supporting comment on our application then please do. Planning approval isn't automatic, so we'd be grateful for any support given.

Monday in the yard.

An extra day. Just 3 of us, loading the Warflat with concrete sleepers. These are destined for Didbrook 2, where we will undertake the second and final session of 'economy' sleeper replacement during the next non-running season.

In view of the accident described above we are now on the Guzzi V85TT 'Tutti Terrani', which just about describes the rough volunteer car park at Winchcombe.

A hire car offered by our own insurers was declined, in view of the onorous contract conditions, and usurous daily hire rate (which is supposed to be paid by the at fault insurers). No wonder our premiums are so high.

 

So there we were, Walt the birthday boy (thanks for the walnut cake), new boy Bob and yours truly. Just 3 of us.

The warflat was emptied at Gotherington Skew, and today it was refilled with normal S1 concretes. As these are considerably heavier we could not stack them so high, and loading was slower because we reached the limit of what our Telehandler could lift.

 

 

Here's Walt with another load of 8 on. He could probably manage 12, but not be able to put them on the rear of the two piles. There are limits, you know!

 

Ad interim we spotted these traditional keys made of oak. They are brand new. You'd think we'd have abandoned this old fashioned way of securing bullhead rail into chairs by now, replacing them with Mills clips and Panlocks.

But no. For one role they are still used today.

Test question: Anyone know where we still use them?

It took most of the day (not counting the first hour eating Walt's cake) but here we are, one loaded Warflat. 160 concrete and chaired sleepers stacked and secured. Job done.

Next it has to go to Didbrook to be unloaded, on a non-running day. And come back with the 100 or so remaining economy sleepers that are still there.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

No Jules today. In a surprise message he told us that he needed to withdraw from what he felt was two very enjoyable builds - Hayles Abbey Halt, and the Usk hut. Family reasons are behind this, and while we will miss his contribution and humour immensely, we wish Jules well. We hope to see him though on the event of the official opening of our little project.

We met especially early today, in order to get a couple of hours on the Telehandler before the PWay gang sets off. They would be needing it for a job at Didbrook.

So at 08.30am we see Dave in the Telehandler with the bucket on, bringing a load of earth from further down the yard. It's not really wanted there, the PWay yard was being used as a dump, so by spreading the earth around the hut we are doing two good jobs.

The whole site needs to rise by between 6 and 12 inches. Earth around the hut for seeding with grass, and some sort of infill material along the road round the back.

We had an unexpected visitor today - Peter K, who made all the GWR type spearhead fencing at Broadway, as well as a couple of replica gates. Aren't they great?

His expected C&M mates did not come, so he offered to spread some of the earth around.

Thank you, Peter!

Later he was called to Broadway, and he left the shovel stuck in the pile, but not before having shifted a significant amount.

We are very grateful.

The triangular area in front will be seeded as well, leaving space for the road on the left. This is a sort of escape road for the PWay yard, in case the crossing is ever blocked.

 

We offered Peter the chance to sit with us and drink coffee, and there was time for that. He went to get his lunch bag with the flask, and walked around Dave's several piles and into the atmospheric little building where cake was being shared inside.

 

We had two steamers on duty today:

35006 P&O, and...

Dinmore Manor, going the opposite way.

Loadings were a bit of a curate's egg, good if there was a party, not so good for individual passengers.

Paul was on his knees to see to that big old hole we had in the door. It's had so many locks over the last 150 years that the keyhole was enormous, so rather than block it with filler Paul cut out a square shape and glued a new piece of wood in its place.

He did a really nice job. Paul even replicated the grooves in the planks in front. Once that's painted you'll never know the difference.

 

 

In the afternoon we felt thirsty. Although the temperature was a modest 20 degrees C it was muggy, and it felt hot.

Coming back from the Coffeepot we took this snapshot of our Usk hut in the sun under the big oak tree.

John can be seen painting the big window, while Dave has started shovelling the big piles of earth into a flatter profile.

We have had a representation to allow the stabling of the intended vehicles here, but in fact we are not ready as the track needs more ballast. How we get this still has to be determined. There's a big pile of spent ballast at Hayles and this might do for this little siding. But how to get it back?

Lunch was graced by Mrs. Dave's excellent moist fruitcake, this time individually wrapped and in a Tupperware box. What had we done to merit such generosity?

After lunch and some discussion about the route Dave got the big drill out and drilled a hole diagonally through the corner of the door. This is to allow the routing of a power cable to the roof for a light, and we want to keep that hidden as much as possible.

Mid afternoon we got another delegation come to see us. It was the PWay gang, back from Didbrook and on its way to Mrs. Miggins Tea Shoppe, aka The Coffeepot.

Dave has moved over to the other corner, and here the ground level has to come up quite a bit. The area where the PWay chaps are walking needs to come up by about a foot, and this will be achieved by fill dumped in the other car park, on the other side of the track. It's another case of killing two birds with one stone, as that fill too is not wanted.

This is what the area looked like after Dave had levelled what was dumped there first thing. We had to guess the quantities, and indeed some more is required on the right, and by the pallet of diamond pattern pavers. But we have made an excellent start, which will be finished next week (Thursday in fact, not Wednesday that time) as we got Dave to bring plenty for both days.

Here is the view down the side. We have earth all the way round the hut now, basically to hold in place the boards for the gravel trough, but more is needed here before we bring the infill for the track.

Out in front the 4 - 5 big piles have been considerably flattened, thanks to Peter. We will finish this job next time, then we should be in a position to sow the grass seed.

 

During the day we had an A400 fly over us (with a very distinctive moan), and John sent us this picture of the platform at Hayles, which needs some tlc after 5 years. He could do with some gardening help here, so if anyone wants to help John, get in touch through the blog

Due to the blogger car being towed away for repair we came with the Winchcombe stationmaster today. This meant a car share, and a long wait in the evening as the last CRC bound train (hauled by a class 47) had a technical issue between Toddington and Broadway, and everything was delayed by about an hour, even this blog. Yes, you can't imagine the consequences!

 

Last but not least, a last minute quickie that came in just before the blog went live.

It's a picture by Paul of the Transit back from Didbrook, full of stuff left there after the relay. They also spent a long time replacing Mills keys with Panlocks, as the Mills keys were seen to be jumping out in large numbers. Strange! But we dealt with it.