The flying doughnut.

Friday 30th on the steels.

Visit your railway! It's always interesting.

You'll be reading this a fortnight after the last post, due to a friendly visit to Wales. So the news won't be that hot, but you might be interested in this delivery, as we found it on Friday morning (the 30th, that is).

 

A large diesel engine was about to be launched down the alleyway of the unloading road. What's it doing here?

It's for our forthcoming diesel gala. Read more about it here. That engine figures right at the top!

https://www.gwsr.com/events/diesel-gala

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moments later the eagle had landed, and a shunter moved in to pick it up.

 

It rolled past the window of the mess room, so we peeked out to catch sight of its number (that is important to some of you...)

It turns out to be the last Beyer Peacock built class 25. Read more about its life here, if interested:

https://www.derbysulzers.com/25309.html

It fits in rather well with our new goods shed style mess room, and those lovely copper lamps that we fitted along it.

We've got 6 copper lamps on order for Broadway P2. Made by a coppersmith, and he does a really good job. The early lamp tops at Broadway look right, but they're Chinese, and don't have the correct side opening doors. These new ones will.

We too a picture of the works plate too. Built in 1966, so quite late in the day. Beyer Peacock always was a sign of quality.

On to the cleaning of the angles for Broadway P2.

At the end of the day the tally stood at 30 angles cleaned. Four of them also had an undercoat applied, as there were some concerns about the waterproofing of a primer coat with streaks.

Saturday 1st July on the PWay

A special trip Saturday a week ago, with the mini digger on a trailer behind the Ranger to Gotherington Skew yard.

 

 

Here we are inspecting the arrival. What now?

Well, the anwer was to get the digger off the trailer, whereafter Dave gave it the once over, a bit of a clean around the moving parts, and a thorough greasing, ready for the day.

Black sheep of the family? What do you mean?

The view from Gotherington Skew is one of our favourites (you can't see any housing estates). This flock of sheep was grazing peacefully but seemed to wander off when we started work.

We got all our kit together - Telehandler, Ranger, trailer, mini digger and Transit. We then split into three groups:

- Dave and Mike filled dumpy bags with ballast. These 1 ton loads should make it more efficient to drop ballast along the line with the RRV. The alternative way was to use a Dogfish, but it will only discharge all of its 20 ton load at once.

- Bert Ferrule and Nick went off to Manor Lane to replace a broken fishplate

- The other 4 set out the site boards (1/4 mile each way) and started packing joints by the big bridge.

Dinmore Manor passed us with the second train of the day under a beautiful, full sun

 

 

As the site was a bit crowded we pushed the trailer into the weeds to get it out of the way.

Dave and Mike were filling Dumpy bags. Initially it was intended to use a frame to hold the sides of the bag up, but it was soon realised that we might as well hang the loops on the forks of the Telehandler straight away, as that was used to park the full bags over by the sleeper piles.

 

 

Those on the Robels by the Skew Bridge had to let an occasional train pass.

This area was disturbed when the track was lifted a few years ago to have the bridge repainted, and it is taking several years to settle down. The joint between lifted and remaining track needed packing again.

This is the one, an insulated joint too. Maybe with the efficient Robels it is now fixed for good. Let's hope so.

The next job concerned two wooden sleepers on Granna Lane bridge. It's a concrete sleeper stretch, but on bridges we use wood to dampen the blows. The sleepers here were already second hand (extra holes, but never plugged).

Here too a little wait while we let a southbound train go by. The slight cant and raised bed make for nice photographs.

This is one of the sleepers marked with an 'X'.

That 'X' is so easy to apply, and so hard to cure.

Digging out the sleeper was harder than usual here, as in the day larger diameter, but cheaper, ballast was used. It's very hard to insert a shovel into these boulders. Smaller diameter grey coloured ballast, recently dropped, can be seen on the left.

The replacement sleeper was a new one, pre drilled. Unfortunately the standard cast iron S1 chairs are not used on the bridge, but shallower PAN11 base plates. So the holes don't match.

If you want the sleeper to last you need to plug the old holes with wooden spiles.

'Newbie' Graham got the spile in so far, then obliterated the rest... we told him that meant a round of Magnums for the gang when we got back...

These 3 jobs kept us going all day, while Dave D and Mike steadily amassed an impressive number of 1 ton bags filled with ballast. 16 of them! That should keep us going.


Then we got ready to leave - we need to hit the Coffeepot back at Winchcombe before closure.

Just the time to let one more train go by. Here's P&O on that same curve, with its little cant. It makes this big Pacific look even bigger.

We then watched Dave drive the little digger back on to the trailer. No problems here, and Winchcombe was not far away. But it was several curves on the road away - on one of them the box of doughnuts on the dashboard slid from one side to the other, a doughnut fell out and shot out of the window!

 

So if you see a flat doughnut on the road with red round it, don't worry, it's not blood, it's raspberry.

At 16.10 we are well into our mugs of tea when the diesel hauled last train to CRC rumbles in. It's D5081, and nice to see them ring the changes. It's a different one nearly every week.

Monday with STEVIE.

STEVIE's first day out along the rails. Finally he's being used for what he was designed, heavy lifting along the trackside.

Stevie went to Toddington for his first outing, to pick up some of the track components that were replaced last winter. Walt made an excellent stop frame video, which he kindly agreed we could post here, so enjoy.

And here he is back home, on the siding at Winchcombe, having brought back a crossing from Toddington.

More outings are pencilled in.

Last Wednesday on the Usk project.

We spent 4 days in Wales, but thanks to Dave we can have a peep behind the scenes and see what they did back in Winchcombe. Here are his pictures of the day.

Much of the day was spent on cabling for an overhead light. Steve brought a length of cable that not only reached to the central truss, but also enough to fill a conduit under the floor to the opposite side of the building. It's a conduit that we put in, just in case, since we had the opportunity.

 

 

 

 

 The cable run started by the consumer unit by the door, where the underfloor conduit also comes out.

As we explained in the previous post, this consumer unit and its associated power socket will be hidden by a lectern that Paul is making.

 

 

 The cable was routed over the door...

...and then through the corner rock and up to the roof.

We would have liked to have hidden it even more, but there was no obvious way.

 

 

 

Here you can also see the cable that was sent undergound inside the conduit, to emerge inside the front wall on the far side of the floor.

We're going to hide all this obligatory modern stuff with Paul's specially made lectern.

 

Finally Paul ran it along the top of the truss and let it emerge underneath.

We still need to think of some sort of period lamp shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diesel gala - Saturday 8th July.

A few impressions. It was a PWay working day, but that didn't happen. We couldn't work along the line because of the intensive rail traffic, and the alternative yard work was rained out by heavy showers all day.

So we decided to afford ourselves a trip on the cushions to see what the ride was actually like, from the inside as it were. 

While still drinking tea and mulling opportunities on what was a very showery day the class 20 whistled by.

That whistling is handy. When you hear it, you have time to get up and get the camera out.

 

 

 

The passing of the class 20 was followed by the DMU. But it didn't go to Toddington as expected, but it came to hide in the C&W approach road.

That made for an interesting move, and this picture of it off the main line for once.

This stabling move was repeated throughout the day, so we were able to photograph the DMU again from the other side, but now with the class 20 on the main line.

 

Four of the 8 assembled today decided to test the ride to CRC. It was surprisingly good, which was nice. So our repeated robelling in various places was working. We didn't notice any particular bumps or wobbles, just a gentle trundle through the Gloucestershire countryside.

The ostensible reason for a trip to CRC was to test the ride, but perhaps the real reason was to score a few bacon butties from the griddle, which had been relocated from Winchcombe to CRC.

Cheltenham too has its B&Q shed, as now in Broadway....

Back at Winchcombe we caught D5081 on quite a full train. The second man looked quite delirious at the experience!

 

D5081 was waiting for the green Growler to clear the line. 

 

Some (over-) enthusiasts stood in the way of the picture, but they were kind enough to move to one side so that we could all get an uninterupted picture. People are nice.

 

Last picture of the Diesel gala - the grey class 47 rumbles in to Winchcombe.



 

Tuesday 11th July - on steels (again).

Back from Wales, and back on there grind (as it were).

We are still grinding off mill scale and rust, but are doing well. Neal and John got quite a bit done while we were away (two sessions) and at the end of today we were almost there. With the first load, anyway. 

First thing, we had a bit of a walk around to see what we have missed. Curiosity was also piqued, when we saw a low loader disappear back up the drive. Empty. Eh?

The first thing of note was Peckett JOHN, one of the original little locos that pulled our trains in the very early days.

It is currently being restored, with significant boiler works ongoing.

For once it was out in the open.

 

 

Our visiting clas 25 D7659 was at rest in the yard, after a busy weekend doing the gala over 3 days.

Here is a little portrait shot of it, with our parachute tank water tower.

 

 

Then there were two newly delivered vehicles, both vans for storage by the DMU group.

This is one of them, we missed the other (said to be brown)  This one is metal skinned, relatively modern (roller bearings and Oleo buffers) but without a works plate.

The canopy gang got back to work - fittingly under a canopy, albeit an ugly one - and during the day we cleaned up another 8 lengths of angle.

In the foreground is what we have achieved so far, quite a pile. Neal reports that we have done 51 angles so far (out of 44, how does that work, Neal?)  and we counted another 6 left to do, and about 10 lengths of strip.

Then there is more on the MACAW, which has been shunted back up the north headshunt and two rakes of carriages placed in its way. That is going to be tricky to recover!

Mid afternoon we had a tremendous downpour. Below are two pictures of the same thing, the Cotswolds edge above Hayles abbey, from our work site.

Now you see it, now you don't !

 

 

 

It came absolutely bucketing down - can you see it bouncing on the open foundations next to us?

We stayed dry, or almost. Due to wind some rain did get driven underneath our roof, but as the air was warm it soon evaporated again. Phew!

 

Wednesday (today) on the Usk project.

Three of us today, but lots of curious visitors. That's quite flattering really! We even had a spare doughnut for one, which was devoured immediately. Well, it was a luxury one...

 

There was a site discussion about the occupation of the siding, for which we built the 30m long goods platform wall.

Three wagons will be stabled here: A MACAW (nice and low, so as not to obscure the view of the hut from the platforms opposite), a box van and a TOAD, the latter two being used by the Friends of Winchcombe, who funded the platform build.

Two steam trains were out today, and reasonably well filled too. We love the little Standard 78019, and you can hear it from a long way away, which we also like.

It came back later from the other direction. 

Isn't our grass doing well! We popped down last week to water it from time to time, and since then the weather of sun with showers helped the growth as well. We are planning a little unveiling ceremony for the enamel sign (to go on the battens to the left) while the weather is still kind, although the site won't be quite finished yet for the greater public as the levels are not yet right, and a fence and a gate are still due to be erected on the PWay yard side.

Dave and Paul worked inside today, mostly on the electrics. Dave has chased a path for the cable for the overhead light, and was filling the gap with mortar to hide the plastic. The light switch is not the one we are going to use, we have just ordered a little replica Bakelite one. The two sockets we are placing at opposite ends will also be Bakelite coloured.

We accepted a chance offering of a steel frame for a barrel, which we think would be appropriate for a coal merchant.

Consequently on our list was finding an actual metal drum, which we managed to source from the Loco Department's metal skip. They usually just crush them. 

Next question is - what colour should we paint it, and how do we get hold of a largeish old transfer of an oil company's name, eg Pratt's. A quick look through Google didn't come up with anything obvious.

P&O blew off with a load roar....

... and that continued right round to Chicken Curve.

Another load roar came overhead. We rushed out of the hut and away from the tree, to find a B52 inspecting Winchcombe. In the bigger picture its in the patch of blue just above the centre, but in case you can't see it, we have enlarged for you. There !

Last but not least we had to evict a squatter from the hut today. Well, it wasn't actually inside, OK, it was in the gravel ditch outside, which we were back filling last thing.

Toadie has been moved to the long grass a bit further away. Don't want to step on him.

A look over the fence: Old Station House Inn (former L&B station)

This is the former Blackmoor Gate station of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. It's one of three on the line that was built in the Swiss Chalet style, the others being Woody Bay and Lynton. All three survive. Lynton is private. Woody Bay is operational, Blackmoor Gate was converted to a pub and enlarged.

The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust created a special purpose company called L&B Blackmoor Company Ltd with the objective of acquiring this key site. After  in principle terms were agreed with the vendors a share issue was launched, to which Yours Truly subscribed. 

Discussions were complicated and dragged on for several years, but the good news is that they got there in the end, and on 17th April this year the ownership was transferred to the new company, part of the L&B group. According to the invitation to invest (which we received in 2018) the acquisition was for the existing pub and restaurant busines with 200 seats, the adjacent 6 bedroom house and about 8 acres of surrounding land.

In the picture above you can see the original Swiss Chalet style station building with its two windows, peeping out over extensions added to house the restaurant. It is not intended to demolish these, but rather to keep the pub and restaurant going, and run the rebuilt railway line around it.

 

 

 

 

 

This old postcard is from the invitation to invest, and shows the station building from the south, looking towards Woody Bay and under the road bridge. This is now of course filled in.

So, having become part owner (for a small part we must admit) of the restaurant, we thought we'd give it a try under new ownership. This was helped by a 10% voucher that was available at Woody Bay. But to be honest, the main purpose of the visit was to see the layout of the site, and look at the original station building.

 

The interior is quite cosy, and the natives, under new management, were friendly. We had spare ribs and a beer, but the interesting bit was trying to spot the original station building, hidden inside the extension.

This picture is looking at the original building from the platform side. The stone wall at the rear, behind the TV screen, is the former outside of the building. The room with the red walls is inside the old building (see next picture).

This then is the inside, heavily modified. Really the only identifiable original feature is the angle of the stairs leading upstairs, in the corner.

 

 

Up against some very nice picture windows are bench seats and tables, which give great view over the gardens and the valleys beyond.

If the weather is kind you can sit outside. There's plenty of space for kids to run around too.

In the distant future the current idea is to run the new railway line down this flat area, in front of the tree. It's not intended to remove the restaurant extensions, but rather to keep the business going.

This is outside, looking back in. The windows of the original station building peep over the top.

Then, walking along the flat outside area to the end, you can see by looking downhill and in a south easterly direction, the trackbed continuing towards Wistlandpound, not far away.

Between the two, the garden seating area, and a house behind a fence. Also looking south east.

The rear of the station building (or the front if you like, where the entrance would have been) has a road leading to some more buildings.

Closer inspection of the original fabric showed that at least the hanging tiles need some tlc here and there, for example around the chimney area.

The L&B Blackmoor company said, post acquisition:

“As the new landlords, the L&BBCo is not planning any radical change to the premises. However, a programme of investment is planned which will respect the heritage of the building and its setting, retaining and enhancing the character of the building.”

So if you are in the area this summer, give the old station your custom and in this way help to fund the acquisition, and keep the busines going for the benefit of the L&B railway.