A journey up north.

Friday on the steels.

Dreadful weather - rain, and high winds.

We thought we were OK under the old greenhouse canopy, but the high wind had other ideas.

 

 

All the primered angle stored near the edges of the canopy was wet. That was not good.

Neal got the little forklift and we moved it all to higher ground, spreading it out a bit too, as it was soaked in between.

 

Here it is in its new storage location. That took half the morning, after which we resumed stripping off the mill scale and rust.

At the end of the day we had done all the angles, with about 10 plain strips left to do. The wind was now so strong that the rain was being blown in parallel to the ground, and everything under the canopy was getting wet. It's clearly not an ideal location for indoor steelwork, but it's all we have.

Sunday, a trip to the far north.

Clitheroe in fact. We went to pick up 6 replica platform lamp tops for Broadway. These are destined for that half of P2 that was recently tarmacced. The other half will be a building site for a while yet, so we're not yet putting any lamp tops there.

In Clitheroe there is a traditional coppersmith craftsman, Laurie Harrison. He can make you anything out of copper, he's got all the tools for that and more. Most people go to him for lamp tops, but he can do you a weather vane for example. He also makes the frogs that go under the tops, and hoop shaped corner brackets etc. Our loco dept went to him for the lovely replica lamp tops along the unloading road, and along the new goods shed mess room.

We liked his fast service, quality construction, good prices and warm Lancashire welcome.

Laurie Harrison's workshop.

Laurie's workshop is in Clitheroe, a little town overlooked by the looming peat covered Pendle hill, with the river Ribble below.

Due to the blogger's estate car being part demolished a month ago, we took a hire car, and accepted the risk that all six lamp tops might not be accommodated once we arrived.

But we got there. Three in the boot, and three on the back seat. As you can see there wasn't much room left over.

No, we can't shoe horn another one in there!

There was even a small risk that Mrs. Blogger might have to hold one on her lap on the way back, but she escaped and we smoothed things over with a nice lunch at a local hostelry.

Here are some lamp tops that Laurie made earlier. These are basic 16 inch Windsor tops, but he could make any shape you wanted really.

The correct size for a platform lamp is 16 inches, but smaller versions can be made for people's gates for example.

Some people bring in their cheap Chinese copies in for repair  - 'it fell apart a few months after fitting'...

Laurie has all the tools, and even made a plate folding machine all by himself - if you can't buy it big enough, then you have to build your own.

This is an antique example.

The dozens of mallets on the left each have their own special purpose, Laurie explained.

 

 

Going back, there was a lovely sign on the M6 motorway: MANCHESTER and THE SOUTH.

Of course, us former Londoners had HATFIELD and THE NORTH !

Three hours and a bit later we were back in the Vale of Evesham, and here are Broadway's 6 tops on arrival. They now need to be painted black, reassembled, and we will change the plain bolts for SS examples, as mild steel does tend to rust over time, even if painted.

The glass for the correct side opening doors also needs fitting. Laurie supplies that, so all you have to do is slide each of the panes into its frame and bend back the copper lugs. He felt that the use of silicone sealant was unnecessary.

We have also ordered a dozen 'BROADWAY' stickers, enough for the whole run along P2.

Laurie doesn't have a website, but he does have a Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/LaurieHarrisonCoppersmith/?locale=en_GB 

If you need something made of copper, give him a call - his wife Carol does front of house.

The last of the steels - Tuesday

Well, until we get access to the MACAW with the other half of it. It been put back into the Toddington North headshunt, so now no way to get at it.

We spent Tuesday on the last of the 44 angles, and then about a dozen strips. These will go on the purlins, in short pieces.

Here you can see several cleaned already, two in progress, and just three more to go.

 

 

 

At the end of Tuesday we had done the lot, and primered it too.

Phew!

Now what?

A little video from Walt from Monday.

STEVIE had his second outing, with Walt at the controls.

This time it was to the other end of the line. We have quite a bit of scrap along the line at the moment, mostly lengths of rail that were replaced following our ultrasonic scan. There are also 3 crossings to pick up.

On Monday STEVIE ventured to CRC, where the cube and some rail off cuts were recovered on the trolley.

That cube has been there for several years, for want of transport. At last we could go and get it.

Here is Walt's stop frame film of the journey back to Winchcombe:

It makes our line look so short. But it's actually one of the longer ones in the country.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Getting ready for site reinstatement! We spent a lot of the day making tough decisions about what we really need, and what we don't.

 

 

Scaffolding planks are no longer required. We looked through them, gave some back to our C&M dept, and gave some away to John for firewood.

Behind are some of the timbers we recovered from the garden centre to make trusses with. These are the rejects left. Two were saved, others passed on for firewood.

 

 

Our Welsh Usk contact Mike asked for an overall view of the building today, for a presentation to the chap who gave it to us.

So here is the building today, with a decent clump of grass appearing in front, thanks to our typical summer weather (sunshine and showers!). The grass just loved it.

We still need to complete the lawn. There's a bit missing on the left. Probably next time then. We want it all green for an unveiling of the enamel sign last week in August.

Back inside. Yours truly went on a buying spree for electrical goods for the interior. They need to look old. No white goods here.

 

We managed to find this superb enamel 'Coolie' type lamp, as well as a braided electrical connection. Now to find a 60W bulb for it. One that looks like an Edison bulb, but is LED.

Others erected a length of picket fence part way along our platform.

A GWR type cast iron post and some spearhead fencing would be more convincing for this 'railway museum'.

Looking towards Winchcombe P2 we can see some digging in the greenery behind the platform. This is for a childrens' play area. The idea is to tempt people along and up to the Usk hut.

Today the PWay gang dug out the shape of the play area, and the rest will be done by a visiting gang of railway professionals who are on a volunteer day out, for which of course we are very grateful.

 

 

Behind the Usk hut others were removing weeds and adding a small amount of earth provided by a volunteer.

 

As we had to psition the building part way under the oak tree it is likely to receive a large amout of leaves and acorns, even in the summer (OK, so not the acorns) and these could clog up our guttering and downpipes. We are testing something to prevent this, which could also be useful for Broadway.

It's a system of gutter netting, held in place by clips that attach to the Ogee cast iron gutters. Here is one side in place. Will it work? Will it stay in place during high winds? It is worth the financial punt to see, but we are optimistic.

Broadway is certainly plagued by large volumes of pine needles.

This is the stuff. So far we like it.

And here is that enamel lamp in place. Doesn't it look great! With a braided cord and brass fittings.

 

 

Finally a picture of ourselves, sadly without Jules. This at the request of Mike, our Welsh correspondent. 

We had the building inspector round today (we passed...) and he was kind enough to agree to take the picture of the team for us. So here we are, in the hut we built.

We're now thinking about an interior.