Working below zero now.

Friday below zero

The canopy gang reported for duty last Friday despite the cold weather forecast. On the way out the thermometer showed minus 0.5 degrees; on the way home it was minus 1.5 degrees. Some sun was forecast, but we didn't see it until the sun went down. We managed some lovely sunsets shots to show for it though.

 

 

Meanwhile, in the shed our locos were being made ready for Santa Specials this weekend.

Here is visitor 5526, standing over the pit in the shed.

 

 

Elsewhere in the shed work advances on the other two 2-8-0s, after 2807 was outshopped. 2807 was also dressed for Santa, so you'll see her if you visit us now.

Here are two 2-8-0s side by side, both under heavy overhaul, and both doing well. But which one is which?

From the other end you can see - the cabsides were added for our autumn gala.

Despite the low temperatures the canopy gang continued work on Friday. Our work was still dry, and the sun was forecast to come out, albeit dimly.

The first thing to do, as always, was to re-arrange the steels. Here it's the fascia boards, so that the other side can be painted in undercoat. Then it was more stripping, and primering.

 

During the lunch break we took a quick shufty round the yard, as 5526 had moved out and might be in a more favourable photographic position (blue steps excepted).

 

Not perfect, this one, but not bad. The new yard lamp helps to offset some of the modernity. Maybe that wooden lighting pole can go now?

The concrete pad has been lenghtened by a few feet, and the new space used immediately to hang up the firebox cleaning tools.

A fire was being lit in both 2807 and 5526.

Here's 2807 with smoke curling out of the chimney. There was no steam as yet, so no blower to dispel the hanging smoke.

In fact the smoke was being blown forwards, and we had to wait patiently until there was a brief change in the wind before photographing 5526 against the sun.

Another plausible shot, having hidden the sun behind the cab. The pole remains intrusive.

On the way back to the 'greenhouse' the unloading road was blocked by the smokebox for the 3850 boiler, which was on a low loader outside in the car park. A ring was being fitted to the smokebox, to help unite it with the boiler.

After lunch, more grinding. Yours truly is doing the angles (for the trusses) while Neal is on the arches, recently arrived.

Here you can see the difference between the shotblasting result, and the area recently cleaning with a flap disk (on the right).

The shotblasting was a disappointment really, but it did help us towards our goal by taking some of the rust and mill scale off. The rest was reasonably straightforward.

We worked until sunset, even a bit beyond. The five green angles in the foreground are the result of today's grinding and primering by yours truly, while five curved pieces in the centre are by Neal. The shiny stuff at the rear is where John worked on the fascia boards.

There was a discussion on Broadway today, and it looks as if we might start clearing the site in two weeks, just before Christmas, with the actual excavations starting in the new year.

Out in the car park work was still going on with the 3850 boiler. Lights were starting to go on, and it was all very atmospheric.

The smokebox offered up by the Telehandler was just being bolted down at the end of the day.

A short while later we saw an opportunity to photograph the line stretching into the pink sky of the setting sun. On the right is our newly planted yard lamp, the first time we have seen it lit up and doing its job. You can see how much it contributes to the atmosphere of a heritage railway. It was worth all the trouble we took to dig it out, replace it with an 8ft GWR platform lamp, make a new ladder for it, source a replica lantern, and finally dig a hole and a supply trench for it by the ash pit at Toddington.

On Friday we saw that it was all worthwhile.

Saturday with the gang.

Minus 4.5 degrees in the morning, and minus 2 degrees when we went home! It was misty all day, and the sun promised by BBC weather never came. At least not where we worked.

 

We had two sets of fishplates to change, so got out the tools for that job.

We always test start the engines before we set off. Too often we got to our destination along our 14 mile railway, to find that the power tool wouldn't start.

And this morning they wouldn't either, when tested. Tim tried and tried and tried.

The only exception is the Robels, they are well behaved.

 

Before setting off, six of us shared in a massive cream cake that we cut into 8 slices.

5 slices soon went, but at the end of the day the three that were left over were gone as well. Mysterious...

The first broken fishplate was right outside the mess coach.

Although sunny for a short while, the frost did not go away.

The broken fishplate outside the mess coach proved to be tricky. In the cold the rails are extra short, and there is a fair risk that if you take a set of fishplates off, you will never get them on again.

With this one we had a suspiciously large gap due to the contraction in the cold.

We cured that by undoing two adjacent rails that had smaller gaps, then driving them along a bit with wedges. Then bolt everything back together again, and give back the possession within the hour. 

Professional, or what?

The Santa season is on, and here is the first train arrived at the 'North Pole'.

The sun started to play hide and seek, which eventually turned into a permanent 'hide'.

The second broken fishplate was reported by Hayles bridge. No stresses here, it came off, was replaced, and move on. We're getting quite good at this.

This is the haul from the morning's work. Even the deep skirted fishplate cracked... but note that we detect them at this stage, rarely after they actually break.

 

We went back to Winchcombe with the promise of a bacon roll. We found a train waiting, but it seems hard to leave on time when the passengers have to be rounded up from the site. Mysteriously one, with a baby, turned up in a car, and as the forecourt was almost completely covered in tents went to park on the approach road, then hurried into the station. Maybe missed the train at CRC?

While the gang angled for a bacon bap, we set up post on the road bridge to capture the departing train in the mist. However, departure did not take place, and instead we saw the driver get off the footplate and enter the first carriage. Probably warmer in there... Not going to leave anytime soon then.

We abandoned the departure photograph, and went to score a bacon bap.

Nick, Jim, Dave, and Bert Ferrule.

With the train finally gone we were allowed into the griddle tent, where an atmosphere of jolity ensued. We built up forces for the afternoon's work, which would be quite demanding.

By this time the singing penguins had gone to sleep. The notice by the blue button warned us sternly not to set them off while they were still singing! Well, that would annoy them, wouldn't it.

Stomachs filled, we set off for Little Buckland, where a long dip had re-occurred. We could deal with this at our leisure, as there is no traffic on the Broadway section due to the work on the viaduct.

The mist was quite thick, and stayed like that for the rest of the day. Luckily the ground frost was not too hard to impede our work.

We got out all the Duff jacks that we had - seven of them in a row - and raised the Malvern side back to the desired level. That meant 40 sleepers that needed packing down one side. With the old method of digging out the cribs and using hand beaters we would have only achieved perhaps three or four, but with the Robels we are doing much more. Not sure if that was the desired effecct when we bought them. Instead of making life easier, we are still working equally hard, but doing much more. Productivity is certainly up.

The mist seems to have thickened slightly in this picture...

 

We were then caught in a huddle by Paul, who called this picture 'Gorillas in the mist'.

Er, thanks, Paul...

 

After doing the 40 sleepers, we promptly moved everything over to the Cotswolds side, and did 40 more. It was a tough day.

Towards the end we took this shot looking south, as proof that there was a sun up there, it just never quite managed to get through to us.

This is the curve leading into Little Buckland. It looks good though.

Finally, back at Winchcombe (where the sun had broken through) we took this shot of 2807, rods down, thank you driver, running past the Usk hut oak tree to the other end of the Santa train waiting in platform 1.

Must say, there is something attractive about a locomotive like this, with such simple, clean lines. The fireman gave us a cheery wave too.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Still below zero - minus 2.5 on arrival, plus 2.5 on departure. But it felt very cold, and fingers went numb.

But this one is a picture from Friday, which we saved for the Usk section. That day we had morning sun, isn't it brilliant!

The Usk hut oozes atmosphere...

On our way to the PWay mess coach we had a suspicion that there might be a nice picture out there, so we passed by the Usk hut for a look-see. Here it is!

But back to today. Here is a picture that we took first thing this morning. It's a bit different, isn't it?

That's a big frozen puddle out there, a sun trying to rise but 08.15 is a bit too early for it to get out of bed, and in the foreground is a lonely gate post, with its concrete now set (we hope).

Paul was late in coming, so two of us made a start on fitting the wooden post for the actual fence to the grandfather post also planted last week.

We ho-ed and hummed quite a bit over the height, and finally settled on having a brick underneath it, which happened to correspond with the top of the wooden post matching the height of the steel gate post.

We drilled three holes, and soon Dave was able to tap through the bolts and to screw them down. At the same time we decided to profit from the dry day we that we had to slap on some of the Creocote (Creosote with all the useful bits taken out, as our supplier called it) so that the rails would be dry when we first try them out next week.

With Paul's (late) arrival it was worth hanging the gate, which you can see them do here. It fitted perfectly, a compliment to Paul, who moved one of the hinges on the gate to suit the post.

Mid morning the sun came out, and Paul and Dave can now work out where to plant the receiver post, now that the gate is hung. The ice in the foreground has melted, and the whole site is now very sticky indeed.

 

 

A sodden ground does make it slightly easier to dig out the holes for our posts, so the receiver post is already in its hole here, while Paul and Dave make a mix with which to fix it into position.

John made himself useful again with the weed clearance of the cutting side, which we will seed with grass in the spring.

There are a lot of bramble, ivy and nettle roots in there.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the receiver post in its place, and married, as on the opposite side, to a grandfather post which will hold the wooden fence post.

The catch on the gate is not yet fitted (we had to buy that new, as the second hand gate had a different closure mechanism) as the receiver post is in wet concrete at the moment. That can happen next week.

With the receiver post going off, Paul and Dave went to the opposite side and prepared the next grandfather post 3m away. Another will be located by the fence, to conclude the Malvern side of the fence.

The site was becoming a sea of mud and water, and the forecast for Thursday is similar. It's that time of year again, but it is discouraging if you want to finish off the earthworks on the left here, and it's just too muddy for that.

Instead we started prepping the rails for next week, when the first ones should go up. They need a coat of Creocote, and a week to dry out again.

At about 2 o'clock the sun went in, and it suddenly became very cold again. With two grandfather posts going off, and fingers too cold to carry on painting we called it a day.

We lingered around the foot crossing a little, in the hope of catching 'STEVIE' coming back from Manor Lane with a second hand rail, but no luck.

A look over the fence at the S&T site revealed no one present, and little change visible from last week, so no picture of that.

But on returning home we did get two shots of 'STEVIE' at work at Manor Lane from Paul, which we give below.

Here the area of the footpath crossing was short of ballast on the shoulders, so a couple of bags of ballast were picked up from Skew Bridge yard and dropped here. 

This is the season to do it, when there are no trains running. We have Santa trains of course, but that is a weekend activity, so we're in the clear.

Absent friends

We thought we'd do a couple of posts about vehicles the railway has had, but which left us again. A railway is a dynamic thing after all.

Let's kick off with one the PWay lads know very well: the mess coach.

The absent one is of course not the Mk1 we are using today, but a GWR type Hawksworth third! Above is a picture which makes a nice heading for this section, after it was refurbished in chocolate. (-paint, should we add...)

While we were rebuilding our line completely from scratch we got further and further from the base at Toddington, and a PWay train began to evolve, which was pushed out to the railhead every working morning. The train carried the material for extending the track, all the tools, and most important for some, a rudimentary catering facility.

Well, rudimentary to start with, as the first catering vehicle was a Toad brake van. Here it is at Gretton.

While seats inside were few in number, and part of the inside was needed for cooking, there was a large veranda outside, which was used if the weather was kind. Check out the comfy cushions!

Here you can see Mike Townsend (former department leader) and Jim Wooldridge enjoying a typical meal - hamburger and chips. The year is 1992.

The menu (in our own 8 year experience) rarely varied - Hamburger and chips, or completely different, sausage and chips. It was one or the other, depending on the humour of the chef. 

In later days (2015 - 2018) chef Paul would occasionally dare to cook chicken Kiev, but that met with derisory comments from the top table about 'foreign food'. 

A long serving chef was Evelyn Tucker, seen here in her element in 1985. She was reputed to be a tough cookie, so there was no argument about what you ate.

 

 

L to R John Tucker, the late Bernard Dudfield, Malcolm Hill, and Chris Howl (?)

The Hawksworth was divided into three sections, with the kitchen in the brake, then two compartments, and the rest was a larger 'dining room'.

Here a number of hungry candidates are waiting for what would come round the corner. Note that it is already dark outside.

In the middle of the table is a collecting pot for a new catering building, with very little in it so far.

 

 

The upgrade from brake van and veranda to dining room with tables and chairs happened with the arrival of a Hawksworth Brake Third Corridor, numbered 2232 originally, and then DW150397. This was built post nationalisation in 1950 and came out of departmental service.

This coach was a fixed part of the PWay extension train, and went out with the yard shunter every PWay working day. Here it is on May 22nd 2005, not long before it was repainted.

Things did not always go smoothly, as the next two images will show.

Here the train was being propelled back home to Winchcombe on 9th June 2001.

 

 

On the southern end of the loop at Gotherington the bogie derailed. At the time the points were manually operated, and it may be that there was a small gap by the blade which allowed a flange to take a different path.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the winter of 2005-2006 the Hawksworth coach was refurbished and painted chococlate, with the logo above. That suited it rather well. A large old Lister diesel generator in the adjacent goods van provided the electric current. We still have that today.

In May 2007 the coach was seen at Stanton, on the notable occasion when track was laid under the B4632 road bridge. That push on the track took the line to Laverton. Some time after that the Hawksworth was replaced by the Mk1 vehicle that we now use. Sadly, that almost never went to the Broadway railhead, and the Broadway extension team had to eat outdoors for 3 years in all sorts of weathers. 

The Hawksworth BTK was taken on by the Didcot railway centre, with the intention of a restoration back to passenger service. Since then we have been an all Mk1 railway.

* Historic photographs by Paul Fuller and John Lees, with thanks.