Leaky finders

Thursday with the Usketeers.

Another Thursday, not a Wednesday. Apologies to those who clicked in vain last night (and yes, we've had comments!) but sometimes personal circumstances dictate a different day. Back to normal Wednesday posting next time (we think...).

 

Hello from Dave, and his commanding position. Be respectful of him, as he is holding a powerful hosepipe!

The job today was to find out what exactly was causing two leaks we've been having on our gutters. They are of course second hand, and that comes with the downside that they don't necessarily fit together very well.

In this case here it was the brand new stop end that was leaking. An easy fix would be a squirt of jollop, or so we thought, but it kept on leaking.

 

 

On the other, platform side, the cause of the leak was clear. We had two female joints, and the union inside was of a slightly different profile.

The result was wetness underneath, and some splashback against the stone as well.

Paul spent an hour or so on this one, basically squirting it liberally with more jollop. We'll know next time if that worked.

On the stop end side we eventually found the surprising cause - it wasn't the stop end with a different profile at all, but a crack of about 5 inches running along the gutter from the bolt hole in the middle.

We had to chew the fat over this one. We didn't have a spare gutter for this, as they are an unusual profile and the source is exhausted. A new one wouldn't fit the rest of the gutter line.

 

 

Eventually we decided to take it down and try our luck with our friends at the C&W shed on the other side of the tracks. 

Would they be willing to help the Usketeers?

 

They would, phew! Brian very kindly agreed to cut off the area with the crack in it. As the crack looked new and came from the fixing bolt hole, we concluded that the crack had started either when we drilled the bolt hole, or when/if we had tightened it up too much.

You can see the crack in this picture.

To avert the risk of a second crack we decided not to use a bolt to fix the stop end, but to use plenty of mastic to hold it in place.

On and off at the same time we were also clearing  the corner site by the yellow shed. We had cleared it once before; but it had been filled again, this time with a lot of old pallets and some second hand timbers. These all went on the Telehandler and got transported down to the PWay yard, where, we ascertained, they were very welcome.

On the way down to the PWay yard Dave stopped by the gutter job so that the pile of pallets could be used as a workbench.

At the end of the day both gutter leaks had been fixed (we hope).

There were two trains today, and at least three coach parties with school children. Sirens wailed, spies tiptoed furtively.

We could hear the screaming children from inside the hut.

Inside the building John was completing the staining and waxing of the new counter.

It really feels wonderful, and when you rub your hand along it, it's very silky.

We've acquired another office item for the coal merchant, a Bakelite dial up telephone, thanks to Dave, who used to work for BT. We're still on the lookout for other office items, like blotters, ink wells, an in tray, clips for holding paperwork, and some chunky old fashioned coat hooks for the wall. (We're currently using a rusty nail)

There was a moment when the counter top was free of the usual debris that we leave on it, so we took the opportunity for a quick photograph to show you how beautiful it is.

 

Outside behind the grassed area the drainage gang had arrived with the definitive top for the catch pit that they raised last week.

This took all three of them to lift into place, and it's a fine quality product, purchased by the railway at considerable expense for this deep pit below.

We now need some topsoil and a scattering of grass seed to finish this area off. The ground level is still a tad low.

In the distance over Sudeley Castle we became aware of a noise, and caught this A400 that roared right over the top of us at minimum height.

The roar was quite spine chilling!

That was the end of the day for us. With a bit of time still to spare we went to Toddington for a couple of odd jobs.

One was to record the entrance and station building as it looks today. Look out for an article 'From the Archives' in the next Cornishman, where we compare the scene with that from 1959. Did you know that the original entrance to the station site (with its fat square cast iron posts and wooden gates) was actually half way down the building? And what is wrong with the chimneys in this picture?

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Then it was a quick visit to the canopy gang site under the 'greenhouse'

More steel has been brought in from the Macaw, before that vehicle is sent back up the north carriage siding where it will be out of reach.

This is a pile of angle. In the distance are the fascia boards, ready for removal of the millscale.

Just outside the 'greenhouse' is the pile of RSJs that will become the uprights for the P2 building, hidden inside the cavity wall.

Funding has now been released for the gusset plates for these, as well as for other elements of the canopy structure.

And here are the purlins that we have made, quite a bunch of them. If we get the opportunity it would be an idea to protect the primer with an undercoat, given that wet weather is now before us.