Work starts at Broadway.

Friday lifting a stop block.

A quickie at Winchcombe with Paul and Walt, then back to the 'grinding' canopy gang at Toddington.

 

Paul had pencilled in a half day for lifting the assembled stop block on to the Warflat, ready for transport to Toddington, where it is due to go on the end of the siding by the new yard lamp.

But as so often there was another little job first - we have acquired three sets of rails with insulated joints, which needed moving from delivery to the PWay yard, and later use on the viaduct for two of them.

The result was three very slow crawls through the yard and round the corner to the rail stockpile.

The 3 new rails are a bit ahrd to see, but they are recognisable by the fat fishplates in the middle.

This is the sort of work that we got 'STEVIE' for. Two days earlier he was on rails, collecting scrap rail from Dixton cutting.

This is the object of our desire - a bullhead stop block, made up out of materials laid around the yard. So we not only give the steam dept. what they want, we also lose some of the stuff that has blocked up the yard for many years.

The fully assembled stop block has had a test lift before, and was found to weigh 3 tons.

We have diagrams showing how much you can lift, and on what part of the circle. There is also an accoustic warning when you get near to the edge of your envelope.

Just to be sure, we gave the stop block another tug on Friday, and it came off the ground OK. The earlier test lift had already established the location of the centre of gravity.

 

Using a special low crawler gear, we took the stop block from its assembly point over to the Warflat.

There, we slued it round to face the right way on arrival at Toddington.

As space in the yard is tight, the Warflat was parked in a less than ideal spot, with a track in front that 'STEVIE' could not stand on. Measuring the distance needed to bridge that, we found that it should just work though.

In fact we ended up with a few inches to spare at the front wheel, so we were able to place it on top with no particular problems.  It fitted perfectly.

In this last picture you can see driver Walt tie the stop block down with straps.

Now we have to figure out how to get it into place at the other end. Here, there is less road space, but more rails - no problem for our road-railer 'STEVIE'.

 

During this time Neal and John were beavering away at Toddington at the Broadway P2 steels.

We're making a growing pile of ready to go stuff in the middle, which is the driest part.

On Friday the flat sections of the fascia boards were finally clean, primered and coated in undercoat. That was a long, slow job, mostly because of the very resistant millscale.

 

Yours truly cleaned and primered two more angles in the afternoon, and at the end of the day Neal and John lifted up the recently coated fascia panels and stacked them in the middle as well.

These panels still need lengths of angles riveted to them, one on each side.

During a brief walk to the mess room  we encountered the yard shunter propelling the bottom end of 3850 along the unloading road. Waiting outside were boiler, ash pan and a large crane - see their blog for shots of that.

Tuesday: Works starts at Broadway

The big day at last. All paperwork in order, permissions granted, digger hired. We're off!

This was the sight that greeted us at 9am - two empty wagons, waiting to be loaded with excavated spoil.  If all goes well the far side on P2 will also have a canopy overhang like this one, and a wonderful hexagonal lamp under it.

 

 

The very first thing to do was to take some record shots.

This one from the footbridge.

Dave has moved the camera a few feet towards the centre, so that you can see the build develop. While some were able to watch us, we, on a test, were unable to access the camera. We know that there have been internet difficulties.

Here is the view looking north from ground level.

The hump in the foreground has to go, for one thing.

The purpose of this week's activities is to arrange the site so that the foundation trenches can be dug from a level ground.

The actual trench excavations will be done in the new year.

Also at 9am our hired in 3 ton digger arrived. We couldn't wait to get started, after all this time.

Neal drove the digger down the platform and carefully over the barrow crosssing. The weather look disturbed though, as we were soon to find out.

 

 

Neal got started with the dig, and John and Yours Truly decided to go to Winchcombe to pick up the railway's mini dumper.

This will be involved at some point, either by moving material around the site, or loading the spoil into the wagons.

Neal advised that it would be best to delay loading the wagons with clay at the moment, given the wet weather.

 

When we got back with the mini dumper Neal was well into the job.

Here he is digging away at the hump mentioned above.

All the spoil is going into the middle in the first instance.

 

Neal was happy, like a pig in clover. We parked the dumper nearby, and went to fetch our lunch boxes.

Where to eat, given the wind and likely rain?

The signal box was the answer. A signalman always makes sure he has comfy chairs, and these did not disappoint. We heard that, sadly, Broadway box will not open in 2024 either.

Munching away at our sandwiches, we noticed the lighting (not fitted by the heritage team).

Those black cast iron vents we fitted when we built the box were intended to have oil lamps under them (or those converted to electric, like the one in the booking office) so this string of modern lamps is something of a disappointment.

Then the heavens opened, and we counted ourselves lucky to be indoors, just listening to the rain rattle down on the slate roof. It was certainly intense.

After lunch things brightened up - albeit briefly, as these days are now very short.

As you can see, Neal had almost reached the footbridge with his prepatory trench. After this picture was taken, he dug quite a deep hole next to the bottom of the steps, as that will be the site of a concrete base for one of the supporting pillars.

This picture shows the sort of stuff we were excavating. Ash on top, then a sort of gravel like clay, followed by pure, tenacious clay underneath.  

We found a lot of broken bricks, some of which clearly from the former waiting room as they were specials. But many commons too, most likely from the back of the original platform, which was knocked down in 1963. The ash is a mystery, but was probably dumped from Cheltenham St. James, as other ash found near the goods shed. A small number of GWR pottery shards were also found.

Here is one last overview of the site, near the end of the day. The plastic tape describes the circumference of the future building.

We will be on site most if not all of the week, then break for Christmas, and come back in the new year.

The work is being paid for by the Trust, without an appeal. This is because we already have the viaduct appeal running, and do not want to conflict with it. Either way, the Trust will be paying for both, so if you want to support us here at Broadway, the best thing to do would be to make a contribution to the viaduct appeal, which is still well short of its target.

https://www.gwrt.org.uk/donate/stanway-viaduct-appeal

Above is the link, if you want to support us. We'd be very grateful.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A cold, wet start today, but good cheer was present in the Usk hut.We had bacon butties and a Christmas cake to think about.

 

 

 

After coffee and ruminations about life Paul and Dave started fitting the latch to the gate. This job rose to the top of the to do list after the latest storm blew the gate wide open (even though we had propped it shut) and there was a risk of damaging the hinges.

 

 

 

 

 

John carried on with cleaning up the slope of the cutting side, while Yours Truly, looking suspiciously at the clouds racing in the sky, got out a few more dry lengths of wood to coat them in Creocote.

 

 

These will be ready for next time, today's wood used having been treated last week.

In the background 'STEVIE' was being readied for a trip to CRC, where two rails were due to be replaced by the RDA crossing. The replacement rail has been there for a good year, waiting for a suitable piece of machinery to lift in in, as it lay in a bit of a tricky place, close to a fence.

Now that STEVIE' is operational, we are fully equipped to deal with this sort of work.

The next photograph shows a general view of the gate area, and we are building the fence both left and right of it at the same time. Each time a post has to be set in concrete, and we wait for a week for it to go off.

Here Paul and Dave are drilling the fixing holes for the post on the left of the gate.

The post on the right was fitted last week, and today the top and bottom rails were added.

In order to achieve a consistent spacing thoughout Paul made up this clever little frame, which will position the rails precisely each time.

 

During the morning John came to look, taking a break from his tiring digging and weeding.

At the time Paul set a line from the gatepost to the edge of the platform, so that the fence would be nice and straight.

We're not very happy yet with the final ground levels here, and will boost them up a bit. At the same time we'll remove the last bits of the pile up against the side of the cutting, once the Telehandler is available and the ground is a little drier. It was very muddy indeed today.

With the line in place Dave was able to determine where the next grandfather post would go, and start digging the hole. That wasn't too hard, as with all the rain that we have had the ground is pretty soft now.

Then it was time for lunch, and the official cutting of the Christmas cake the FoWS offered us last week. It proved to be very good indeed, not bad for a shop product.

Enough was left for the same again next week, but with worries about mice we wondered whether the safe could make itself useful as a reliable storage place? You have to think outside the box (but inside the safe...)

 

In the afternoon the first set of rails was fitted.

Continuing in line, you can also see the next grandfather post, that has been stood near the edge of the cutting. That's for next week, when the concrete has gone off.

Looking the other way, you can see another grandfather post (described earlier) and beyond that one last one lying on the ground. That's also for next week. Enough wood was creocoted to make all this possible next time, so we are good to go.

Sunset pictures from our PWay gang.

We saw 'STEVIE' prepare to leave, and here is a last minute report of his activities at Cheltenham. Pictures by Walt and Paul, with thanks.

Two rails earmarked after our ultrasonic report were swapped out. 'STEVIE' was there to do the heavy lifting.

 

 

 

These show the operator's view of the rails being changed.

Orange is the new rail (which has been in the cess for quite a while now) and brown with silver on top is the rail that was taken out.

 

This is the swap going on in the straight leading up to CRC station.

The old rail has been removed, and the new, more orange coloured one, is on site, and ready for insertion.

As we go further south from Toddington (and later further north) our rail infrastructure gets newer and more modern. Initially we used second hand BH rail and wooden sleepers, and that is now coming to the end of its useful life.

From Dixton onwards we started to use concrete sleepers and FB rail, but both second hand. As you can see this is the case here in these pictures. As this rail was also second hand, imperfections show up on ultrasonic equipment that you might not normally see. New rail was used on the Broadway extension.

 

 

 

Here is a shot, in the failing light, of the second rail inserted. This one is in the curve near Kayre Lane.

From the colour you can see that the job has already been done.

The rails taken out are likely to be still servicable in sidings.

Looking the other way to the previous shot, we see 'STEVIE' making his way home under the last rays of the sun.

The sunset was particularly golden today, as the next pictures captured by Paul show.

Sunset at Cheltenham.

The last picture, as the sun sinks below the horizon, is looking under Southam bridge. The 'SW' is for the RDA crossing.

It is here that a car once flew off the bridge, and landed right in front of one of our trains! The things that you experience on the railway.... (it was several years ago).

Absent Friends

This absent friend is a class 31 diesel loco. Did you know we once had one on site?

It's class 31 D5541, or later 31 123. It was built by Brush at Loughborough, and entered service at Ipswich in July 1959. There followed a long list of different allocations, until it became stored at Bescot in the early 1990s.

Here it is at Easter 1995, outside the shed at Toddington.                              Picture by JR

The loco was purchased privately, brought to the GWSR in 1994, and repainted in BR green (from blue with yellow ends and snowploughs) and made operational.

Unfortunately, during the August 1996 diesel gala, it failed with a 'major electrical malfunction'. (also reported as a 'major engine failure') This was considered to be too expensive to repair, and the loco was laid aside. It was during this period of storage that the 4 pictures below were taken.

On the Toddington headshunt on 20 03 2004.   Picture: Paul Fuller

 At Toddington being shunted on 12 11 2005   Picture: Paul Fuller

The same day at Toddington, on 12 11 2005     Picture: Paul Fuller

At Toddington on 18 11 2005.        Picture: Paul Fuller

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see parts have started to be removed, such as the end doors and the windows. When nothing useful was left the remains were sent to C.F. Booth in Rotherham in December 2005, a month after these last pictures. There it was scrapped in February 2006.

A picture of the loco in BR blue can be seen here:

https://flic.kr/p/2jqJ3nb

and thanks to the attached comments were were able to complete part of the puzzle.