A busy week, and Exmoor.

Monday on a PWay special.

Four of us went out to Gotherington Skew, to unload the Warflat wagon that we loaded with 200 economy sleepers a few weeks back. They have to go somewhere, so Gotherington Skew it is. That is, after all, where we stored 7000 heavy duty sleepers for the Broadway extension.

 

It was a hot, muggy day. Although the sun was not so direct, it felt reaally heavy in the air. Thunderstorms were announced for the afternoon, but didn't come while we worked.

We felt lucky that we werent wearing woolly jumpers, like these chaps!

 

 

 

 

We took the Ranger and a truck. Walt in the Telehandler would meet us on site, and a shunter with the wagon would arrive separately.

Oh and, erm, by the way, would we pick up some sleepers by the roadside, left over from the overhaul of the Prescot Road bridge during the winter?

Sure, no probs. There they are, in the grass, they must be very light as they are old?

 

 

Big mistake! Those old sleepers, tossed aside because of the bridge works, not because they were worn out, still had their cast iron baseplates attached to them, and they were like lead!

Simon and yours truly really struggled to get them on to the truck. 

We could have done with a bit of help really. An extra couple of hands maybe?

 

 

 

Ah, here comes the train with the warflat.

The driver and shunter will surely lend us a hand.

Alas. They trundled by without slowing. Then came a phone call, had we loaded them all yet? Er, no.....

We got 9 sleepers with baseplates on, then were asked to leave the rest for later.

 

With 9 of the heavy sleepers on board we drove up to Skew bridge yard, where the train with the Warflat was waiting for us.

Walt, already there with the Telehandler, photographed it for us as the train arrived.

It was getting crowded here. The train was shunted over the crossing, while Ranger, truck with wooden sleepers and Telehandler shared the remaining space.

 

 

The 9 sleeepers we brought were needed to serve as base bearers for the packets of economy sleepers we were to unload.

Walt in the Telehandler made a good start.

 

 

Here are the big piles on the Warflat, being transferred to the ground, where 7000 heavy duty sleepers for the Broadway extension used to be stored (in a rather more jumbled fashion).

At the end of the afternoon, with thunderstorms approaching, the Warflat was cleared, and similar piles were on the ground. Resting on the ex-Prescott sleepers we brought up as bearers.

Another 100 or so remain to be fetched from near Hayles. Then, we've got another resleepering session due next winter, to replace the second half of the economy sleepers with standard concrete, chaired ones. So it will get busy here.

 

 

At the end of the day Walt very kindly offered to help us load the remaining heavy Prescott sleepers with the Telehandler.

He also photographed the empty train, next to the large stack of just under 200 economy sleepers.

At Prescott, the Telehandler dug into the pile.

That's more like it, we thought.

We only wanted him to scoop them up, so that we could slide them across onto the bed of the Transit.

But Walt manoeuvered a bit, and gave us more than that.

Walt scooped up all 7 base plated sleepers at once, went back and forth a bit, and then turned through 90 degrees, and load all the sleepers at once.

Boy, were we relieved.

 

 

 

 

Back home at Winchcombe we unloaded the Transit again. Other departments use it too, you know, so we need to keep it neat.

It was interesting to find a little display of groove rail in the yard. This is original Cheltenham tramrail, found during roadworks on Cleeve Hill. Yes, that's where the Cheltenham tram went! Hard to believe, but true.

One tram body has been preserved, and is in store near Cheltenham. What could you do with it? Its curators are hoping for suggestions, as it is currently not on display (and in fact never has been, since it was recovered from a farm in the 1960s!)

 

 

 

Tuesday on steelwork.

What a hot day!

The sky was cloudless all day long.

There were those who were able to work in a cool shed, cutting and welding steel angle into lengths suitable for the purlins for the P2 building at Broadway.

Others spent the day outside in half a greenhouse on the site of the former garden centre, cleaning steel angle of rust and millscale. Two more 6m long angles were cleaned on Tuesday to almost a mirror polish, using flap disks instead of, as last week, rotating brushes. The disks seemed to deal better with the millscale.

This is what the steels look like, half covered in light rust, and half in millscale.

Although we have now done 4 lengths of angle, of about 30 on site, 10 more were brought over last week from the loco shed.

At least some of these are strips, so should be faster to deal with.

In all there will be 44 pieces, Neal told us yesterday.

The yard was busy too, with 28 tons of coal being delivered. 

After the coal lorry had left, the haulage firm came to pick up the tender for Pendennis Castle.

Interesting to see how the tender can set itself at an angle to provide a continuous slope.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A hot sunny day. The Usketeers had the benefit of the shady oak tree above them, but not so the PWay gang, which was out at Little Buckland. They were shovelling ballast, and being fried while they did it.

Paul recorded the scene, as well as Dinmore Manor passing by. 

The footplate won't have been much fun either...

Dinmore Manor sweeps round the curve at Little Buckland.

 

So here we are at Winchcombe, still at work on the Usk hut. The themes for the day were guttering and site reinstatement.

Paul and Dave spent a lot of time trying to make the union we bought fit the older Ogee guttering that we have. There is Ogee, legacy Ogee, and the gutters that we got second hand... they are a bit deeper than the legacy Ogee. We'll just have to plug the 1/2 inch gap at the bottom with sealant.

On looking at the guttering from various angles we also realised that the fall on the track side was in the wrong direction.

We adjusted the brackets somewhat, and in a few case we put a wedge underneath - that's what Paul is cutting here.

Then Dave, back from hols but without the negative drilling experience on the Malvern side that we had last week, tried to drill a hole in the gutter for the new stop end.

Here are both Paul and Dave putting their not inconsiderable weight behind the heavier of our two drills, trying to bore a hole through the bottom of the old Victorian gutter.

They got the same result as last week - nothing. That old cast iron guttering is tough! We took it to the pillar drill in C&W but even there they struggled, getting through 5 drill bits

 

With the help of C&W we did get there in the end.

Here is Dave with a large bit, reaming out the hole to make it fit better.

With a wider hole the new stop end finally fitted, so here is Paul applying a liberal dose of mastic to get it watertight.

 

The rest of the gang spent the day shifting the three Telehandler buckets of earth brought by Dave 2 weeks ago.

In this picture we have shrunk the pile somewhat already, mostly destined for round the front, but some to beef up the platform side. We need to get that ready so that we can sow some grass, in preparation for an opening ceremony.

With the stop end fitted and the union on the platform side sorted out, paul and Dave addressed the slightly negative fall here.

Some was addressd by moving the brackets, but where only a small movement was needed Paul applied the old homespun cure of a little wedge underneath. That works.

After lunch the sun moved round and we were no longer in the shade. We quickly tired, and decided to move to the Coffeepot for a Magnum and some mugs of tea, sharing these with visitor Mike.

Afterwards, and now in the full glare of the sun, Paul and Dave finished off the fall of the gutter, while the others used up the complete pile of earth. bringing the back filling round to the front. We need a whole lot more, so possibly we can borrow the Telehandler first thing next week to dump a few more bucketfuls of soil around.

 

A look over the fence - Exmoor Associates track walk. 

On May 13th EA held the next in its six monthly update meetings, followed by a walk for all interested along the latest stretch of L&B trackbed acquired.

 

After the update meeting in Goodleigh village hall, members and supporters gathered at Chelfham station for the start of the walk, which goes uphill from here.

Chelfham viaduct, the largest NG viaduct in the UK, is immediately behind the camera.

Chelfham station is fully restored, and only needs rails to be complete.

 

 

 

Below is No.2 of 4 maps available on the Yeo Valley Trust website (  https://yvt.org.uk/about/route-map/ )

which illustrate the sections of trackbed of the L&B from Pilton Yard in Barnstaple to Wistlandpound.

Map courtesy of Exmoor Associates, updated March 2023. (The blocks are uniform and do not represent the size of the length involved)

The new stretch acquired by EA is between blocks 19 and 21.

We set off on the level, but then an immediate and unrelenting climb began. The first 321m form part of the Chelfham station site.

Then there was a short 23m stretch, still privately owned. It looked the same as the rest, but had some garden benches on it.

Then back on to a stretch owned by the L&B CIC (which also owns Chelfham station).

 

The trackbed slowly climbs out of the Yeo valley, and the views begin to open out.

The trackbed clings to the eastern hillside, mostly following the contours and continuously on the rise.

Suddenly we see the road to Bratton Flemming way below us, and a turning to the hamlet of Loxhore.

This is the start of the long Loxhore bank, a stretch owned by EA and as with many of the other sections, still used peacefully by the previous owner. We need to keep the gates carefully closed.

Midway up Loxhore bank we get a view of the top of Exmoor - is the line really going all the way up there?

Every now and then there are remnants of former railway owneship, such as these Southern fenceposts.

Here we are nearing the end of Loxhore bank, and the start of the newly acquired section.

This section of 55m consists of a quarry with an access from the Bratton Fleminmg road under a missing stone bridge. You can see the remaining abutments in the picture. The little quarry is on the right. It was used by the builders of the line for materials.

As the bridge is missing (perhaps blown up by the army, as Lancey Brook viaduct was?) we climb down a slippery slope and back up the other side.

We resumed on the other side of the demolished stone bridge to the quarry.

To our surprise we then passed under the Bratton Fleming Road, despite the continuous climb. This bridge is stone built and in excellent condition. From above, you'd never know it's there. Passed over it several times now, without realising.

Still on the recently acquired stretch of trackbed, we start to round a bend with a missing underbridge at the start of it.

The crowd of walkers starts to bunch up in front of the missing underbridge. Now what?

Looking beyond it, the line is visible for a fair bit, making a big reverse curve, first right, then back left.

 

But the guys at EA have thought ahead, and made us a lovely little footbridge to cross over the missing girders.

This was the site of a famous accident, which occurred in February 1913. A group of 4 workers rolled down the line in a 4 wheeled wagon from Bratton Fleming, but the wagon ran away with them.

In the curve immediately in front of the chap in the picture the wagon toppled over and rolled down a steep embankment. Two of the 4 workmen were killed.

No more accidents on the actual operating railway after that though.

Courtesy of Exmoor Associates.

 

This is an internet sourced picture of the time, showing the bridge in question and the wagon that ran away.

We then set out over that long, sweeping S curve of an embankment. It goes right round to the centre left of the picture, having come from 90 degrees to the right of the camera.

Just look to our left and see how far down those barns are! The sides of the embankment are really steep too, much more than we have on the GWSR. But those of the L&B are made of rocks, and ours are made of clay.

Looking back from this point you can see the start of the reverse curve on the embankment. The sharp curve to the left, by the tall light green tree, marks the spot where the runaway wagon derailed down the slope to the right.

Looking forward again the reverse curves end by a shallow cutting. This all forms part of the newly acquired sections.

Inside the cutting is a little stone overbridge. It marks another division with a gate, which we were allowed to open.

We walked under the bridge and through the gate.

Here the cutting starts to peter out again, as we near the end of the newly acquired section.

 

This is the end of the EA owned section, at Chumhill. The next, 506m long section is owned by the occupant of the house that can be seen dimly through the trees on the left.

Map courtesy of Exmoor Associates.

 

 

 

 

 

The last view above is into section 22, and as you can see on the map this is followed by quite a few private owner sections not yet acquired, before we reach Bratton Fleming station.

 

 

 

Time to return to the start. We have walked just over 2km since the end of the viaduct, all owned by supporters of the railway in one form or another, with the exception of 23m near Chelfham.

A couple more views of the sections, now looking downhill.

This shows the place where the derailment happened, with the little underbridge marked by the three walkers in the distance.

By the underbridge there is a sharp curve to the left, which proved to be too much for the runaway wagon.

The last shot shows the Bratton road well below us. What great views these will be once the train chugs up this valley!

We also took photographs of the Barnstaple end of the line, and made a visit, strictly for professional research reasons (...), to the Blackmoor Gate inn, now in L&B group ownership following a successful fund raising. We'll do a report on those two items in a future blog post.