The big shunt.

 

Monday in the yard.

This was the day scheduled for moving the loaded Warflat to Hayles, but unfortunately our driver had to cancel at the last minute.

Three of us had come down to do something, so it was agreed we would make ourselves useful by creating space for the movement of the mess coach to a new and better location, just short of the Usk hut. There's power and water there.

Earlier, on Friday, some goods wagons were moved into the Usk siding by the C&W shunter. Paul took these two pictures, which are rather nice.

 

A little branch line freight train.

 A TOAD, a MACAW and a LNWR goods van now stand in the Usk bay platform. The vans belong to the friends of Winchcombe station, who paid for the materials to build the platform. They needed somewhere to put their vehicles, hence the platform, and the Usk hut on top of it.

Unfortunately the TOAD now rather obscures any view of the Usk hut from P1 of the station. The low MACAW was intended for the stop block end, but on the day it worked out differently.

 

At the moment the Usk hut can still be seen across the MACAW from the side, from a passing train for example. But these are moveable vehicles, so perhaps another order could be negotiated, if all parties agree. (it subsequently was, so we should be OK, watch this space.)

As the Telehandler was out Walt very kindly agreed to move our half empty dumpy bags of sand and ballast over to the Heras fence line. We need to vacate the space in the foreground for some soil that is coming.

 

A half bag of white Cotswold stone chippings was the biggest load. These chippings could be useful to add to the Hayles platform surface, where a bit of consolidation has taken place.

 

There goes our bag of sharp sand.

We still have some weak mix to make for the diamond pattern paviour path.

Here is the cleared area, a few moments later.

We heard a nice suggestion today - how about a circular bench around the old oak tree? We could do that...

 

 

 

Then on to the actual work on Monday, in lieu of unloading concrete sleepers. We need to rationalise the site, and clear an area for the mess coach and its new access. The PWay mess coach is due to move to just short of the LNWR box van on the Usk siding. This will be a more reliable position than where it is now, where it is subject to repeated moves this way and that, which affect the water, electrics and stairway connections. By the Usk platform there is both water and power, and a negligible chance of random movement.

The first thing we tidied up was a pile of ex CRC platform slabs. These do not belong in the PWAY yard. Other piles of the same slabs are on the Winchcombe side of the yard, so we took these to join them. They may well be used when we lengthen P1 at Toddington.

 

We also moved a pile of rotten sleepers out of the way, then took a close look at a pile of concrete sleepers that looked life expired.

Here Walt has dug into the pile, and extracted from an awkward angle, a pair fitted with PAN base plates. These are rarely used.

Walt and Bob lift on rotten sleepers.

Next to the rotten sleepers piled up here, we also removed several pallets of large S1 chairs, which we took to where the other chairs are being stored.

At the end of the day, with the rain pretty much stopped, we had cleared this area.

This is not where the mess coach will stand, but the cleared area will allow us to relocate stuff that will be in the way of the mess coach and its steps.

This is the future site of the mess coach. You can just about see a corner of the LNWR box van in the top LH corner. What has to go now is that jumbled pile of rails. We have already started a neat pile elsewhere on the site, but as these here are all mixed up, we preferred to have more professional minds to guide us.

Tuesday on steels.

Just two of us today, but enough for two jobs. One was to start cutting steel to make up the purlins, the other was to give a second coat of primer to pairs of angles that had been tack welded together.

 

 

Last Friday Neal and John laid out 8 pairs of angles. These were then tack welded together.

The pairs will form the tops and bottoms of the purlins under the canopy. So assembly for the Broadway P2 canopy has definitively started.

Bacck in the loco shed Neal was cutting strip into short lengths.

These trips will run in a zig-zag pattern inside each purlin.

Here are some of the strips cut by Neal, near the end of the day.

He also cut similar pieces of angle. These have very particular angled cuts at each end, and if you get those wrong, they don't fit. We caught Neal with an angle under his arm, walking up to the Toddington canopy just to check he was doing it right... (of course he was)

 

 

At the end of the day, Neal could be spotted talking to 2807's smokebox. We didn't hear the conversation....

 

 

 

As the end of day diesel (the blue class 47) departed with the last Cheltenham train, 35006 could be seen manoeuvering its way backwards and forwards until it had reached the pit road on the left. Here it would be re-supplied with coal, always an interesting spectacle for our visitors, who can stand quite close really to watch the goings on.

 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Three of us today, sans Paul. It was very quiet! You get accustomed to his strong points of view, and miss them when they are not there (this week only, luckily). You're allowed to say what you think, if you are in your 70s.

 

Dave and yours truly back filled a couple of sections of our grassy verge that were not yet straight.

When we unveil the enamel sign (at the end of August?) we need people to be able to stand on grass, so this pile needs filling, and seeding.

 

Elsewhere on site, behind the oak tree, grass sods and soil were being brought from behind  P2 where a childrens' playground was being dug out.

This digging generated quite a bit of spare soil and turves, which we accepted for around the Usk area.

At first it was brought by wheelbarrow, but then the Cotton Sturdy was started up! Way to go!

The Cotton Sturdy was the ideal tool for the job. It was brought to the railway by Steve, our long standing volunteer, whose employer had one he didn't want anymore. We painted it in fake GWR (late style) livery.

 

 

Others then levelled the ground with the diggings of soil and turves.

Unfortunately they went a bit too far and levelled off what we had put as a backing for the diamond paver path to be.

Not unusual for a preserved railway.

 

Later, 78019 steamed past with one of two steam trains that were out today. Also out - three trains out and about! - was the DMU.  Quite well patronised too.

Standard 78019 steams past the Usk hut. Grass looking good.

A little later the earth and turves brought from the diggings a few 10s of yards away looked like this.

And round the front, the triangular patch of lawn had been completed by Dave and Yours Truly. It was later seeded, and the weather Gods kindly supplied some gentle rain to kickstart the germination process.

This area is now primed for the ceremony pencilled in to unveil the sign that we have for the end. (on the two battens that you can see)

Looking right a bit, you can see what it looks like with the goods wagons stabled in the new bay siding.

The picket fencing put on our site is sadly not very GWR.

We lent our barrow to the group digging out the new play area, and got it back bent. Is there insurance for this sort of thing....?

Dave has a go at bodywork. It involves a big hammer...

 

Back next week with a full complement.