Definitely the last one this year.

Saturday, out with the gang.

Six of us on Saturday, rather fewer than normal. No doubt many will have had a hangover, saw the mizzly ice cold weather out of the bedroom window, and thought - Nah....

But we kinda enjoy what we are doing, so after tea and a chat we set about testing the combustion engined tools (blue smoke in the GUV) to make sure they ran, before we take them to the site.

Which wasn't far away - we went to finish off the move of the EE siding stop block.

More or less normal trains were back on Saturday, but with added mince pies. They looked well filled too (the trains, that is), which is a nice reward for our efforts.

But soon we are going to take out 300yds of track at Didbrook, so we're making hay while it's foggy (?)

The work site wasn't far then, just 7 coach lengths away.

But one volunteer drove there in the white Transit (OK, with all the tools in the back) and at the end of the day he had to fill in his vehicle report with the milage run : 1 mile.

When we prised the stopblock out of the ground last week, the second hand (in 1995) sleepers under it were so rotten that most just stayed behind.

So the first job was to dig out the leftovers, and prise off the cast iron chairs. Those for the plain track were 4 bolt LNWR 1903 and went on the scrap pile.

 

The special stop block chairs (which have double or even triple rail jaws) were stamped BR and cast in the 1980s, which was a surprise. But they still had the old throughbolter form, which meant that all the seized up sleeper bolts had to be cut off. Luckily we have battery disk cutters these days.

Then they have to be slid back under the rails.

Being much longer, these special chairs are very heavy, best handled with 2 pairs of hands.

With the chairs back under and to one side, it was time to fetch in replacement sleepers. This is still a manual job, but thanks to the age old nips not so hard, with 4 of us on hand.

Trains rumbled past as we did this. Here's one just setting off across Chicken Curve. Still at 10mph as in station limits, but once the loco gets to the far side they open up for the Defford straight, which is a sound that's nice to hear.

We got all the replacement sleepers in no probs, but then things got more difficult as i.a. the rail structure of the stop block made it very difficult / impossible to drill the holes, and do up the chair screws.

Two had to be done up by hand with a T spanner - when did we last do that? 1985?

Notice also how the vertical rail is bent, a detail specially allowed for so that the wheel flange has a slot to run in at rail level.

 

 

In this picture we got all the holes drilled OK, but now find that on the 3 rail section we can't get the Mills keys in. None at all - it can't be us then, there's something going on here.

Bert Ferrule here is trying to open the jaws of the chair further with wedges, but even the most squashed up Mills key won't go in. The others look on, they've all had a go and failed as well.

 

 

 

There were various theories as to why not, but this close up shows what is going on: the bottom of the rail is not fully home in the chair, as the web is being held back by the top of the jaws.

The chairs here are modern and ex BR, the plain track rail is Midland, while the rail in the stop block - the one that's an ill fit - is of unknown origin. Therein probably lies the cause. It's such a mixed bag that pieces don't fit.

We'll probably use shaved down oak keys for this short section immediately in front of the stop block.

The fog hung around all day long, but made the Mince Pie Specials very atmospheric.

Here's one of our black 2-8-0s coming off Chicken Curve.

At the end of the afternoon the stop block was pretty much done, except for fitting the trimmed down oak keys, and removal of the 4 lengths of scrap rail.

All 3 sidings here are on made up ground, which is settling and giving all three something of a lean. The original ground of 1905 is on the other side of the mile post.

As falling daylight added itself to the mist we put away the tools and had a cuppa in the nice warm Coffeepot.

Here you got a choice: Cake, or healthy apples?

Outside 3850 waited in the gloom, as the driver trudged over the crossing to the signal box, hands deep inside his pockets.

The green Growler then trundled in, with two happy drivers beaming at us from their nice warm cab. How the other half lives...

 

Another with a broad smile on his face was Alex in C&W.

He was very happy to be able to show us the first BR emblem on a carriage, in place of our former corporate fleet logos.

It's the famous 'Ferret & dartboard', and it looks brilliant.

All the chociolate & cream coaches wore these, whereas the blood & custard ones were unadorned, we heard.

Monday at Broadway

A storm is forecast for mid-week, and ice cold weather end of the week, so we are getting our hours in during the first half of the last week this year.

The full gang of three again on Monday. John on bricks, Neal on digging holes, and Yours Truly in support of both.

Here Neal is joining future down pipes from the building to the newly created pit in the middle of the platform.

A little test with some water revealed that all was working OK, the test quantity did arrive at the trackside centre drain.

Monday, unusually, was an operating day. The first visitor to the site was 3850, running round a Mince Pie Special.

A short while later Neal had completed the trench, installed the pipe and was already back filling.

The long conduit running in front of the building carries cables for the lamp posts.

An atmospheric shot of one of the black 2-8-0s arriving at Broadway.

 

John spent the day on the north end, then came round to the back.

We decided to lay out some pallets for him to stand on, as the fresh clay here is unbelievably sticky and tenacious. Nobody wants to work with boots twice normal size because of all the clay sticking to them.

In the middle of the day it became pleasantly sunny, and with everyone off the platform and on board the train, 3850 was able to set off for Cheltenham.

It was still cold enough to show lots of steam though.

The low sun, and a new mobile phone camera, made for fine pictures on Monday. These wintery sun pictures are only possible during a short time each year, between Christmas and the New year.

As the train accelerated past the goods shed, we noticed that the 'railway' car park below (council owned) was actually about 80% full, an unusual occurrence.

This could be acting as an overflow to the main village, something we noticed during the pre Christmas shopping days.

During the day John laid courses 8 and 9 on the north end. It's only a short bit, so progress looks faster here. He then carried on round the back.

Along the back John did an 8th course half way along, then the start of a 9th one as well, until the mortar ran out.

Days are short at the moment, and what with pointing up your work and as everything has to be securely covered at the end of each day, that was the end of brick laying for Monday.

Having done one trench, Neal started another. And why not?

This one will connect the second riser pit to the service ducts emerging from the future store room. We gave the trench a good working over with the mattock, after which Neal was able to shovel out the ash and bricks quite easily.

The service ducts connect the P1 store room with the P2 store room, and will contain electrics, data cables, alarm cables etc etc. The water pipe will also go into the same trench.

The penultimate train into Broadway, the one with the diesel on the other end, and a quick turnaround, saw quite a large crowd waiting for it. 

With our huge outgoings for coal and electricity etc. it is good to see that business is keeping up well this year, slowly recovering from the COVID effect.

Tuesday, last day of the year.

Just a quickie, to throw a few more bricks down before the bad weather hits. Two people on site today.

 

Trains still ran, although less busy than yesterday.

Mrs. Blogger reports supermarket less busy too. Are people staying at home for new year?

Today was a dry day, although increasingly windy as the next storm arrives. John worked along the back, laying headers all the way along.

It was meant to be a short day, but in the end we did two mixes as usual, and stayed almost to the end of daylight.

Yours truly produced 80 or so half bricks, which John immediately used up.

The result was one more row laid, all along the back. We then covered his work, battling against strong gusts, which tried to pull the plastic sheets from our hands before we had them weighed down with bricks. We got there in the end.

The two trucks filled with clay will be emptied on Thursday and brought back to Broadway for one more filling. We'll be back next week, depending on the weather.

 

 Well, that was it for 2024. Thank you for your interest, comments and support. It's very much appreciated.

On this last day of the year we had a look at the combined blog statistics, and think they might be of interest to you. There have been three main ones:

Name                          Since            Total views                                 

CRC Platform 2            2014               321.000       Single purpose blog, now inactive

Extension blog              2015            1.690.000       Single purpose blog, now inactive

Heritage Herald             2017               960.000       Ongoing

All time views                                   2.971.000

Two more blogs belong to this group: Civil Engineering, and Construction & Maintenance. We set these up for the relevant departments and blog post material is either sent to us for posting, or else posted direct. However both are currently inactive due to lack of material presented.

So, nearly 3 million views. That's a lot of interest in the GWSR. Well done, give yourselves a pat on the back, readers!

The last one this year.

Friday at Broadway.

The last few days before Christmas. Will we work? It's always a last minute decision, often weather dependent. Friday looked dry. - ish.

 

 

 

On arrival up the station approach, we saw the effect of the removal of 5 more pine trees.

Can a tree lined station drive still be called tree lined with only one tree on one side?

Well, some are leaning over a bit, and one neighbour seemed worried about it, as she started parking her car on our forecourt, instead of on her drive.

We've had some very wet days, and Neal's freshly dug pit for the third canopy support is now a sort of outdoor hot tub at the moment. This will hamper our intentions to pour the concrete for the base. It is surrounded by pure clay, the sort they use to waterproof canals.

 

The rain also washed a whole load of pine needles along the gutters and down one of the down pipes. We extracted about a football of needles from here. Luckily there was a drain cover underneath. However, the down pupes along the plaform lead straight underground, so fingers crossed they don't make a blockage where we can't get at it.

On to work. Our usual wheelbarrow suffered a puncture, so we had to borrow another from the Broadway maintenance team. Hope they repair it.

With heavy clay currently all along the back, John preferred to work on the northern end, which still had some clean rubble along it. He used two mixes during the day, until the rain came after lunch.

While we were away Neal dug the second riser pit and put the rings in. This one is for the service ducts that connect with the store room on P1. The top is hidden under that concrete block.

Readers may recall that we dug down on P1, punched through the platform wall, dug a trench under the tracks and punched a hole under the P2 wall. This riser will pick up on that conduit.

The water pipe still has to be dealt with.

During Friday Yours Truly rescued more blues and reds and stacked them on separate pallets. The picture shows the reuslt of several months' work - there are approximately 600 reclaimed bricks here. Most bricks we find are damaged, so the other job is to smash them up and use them as infill around the building and along the platform, where the previous infill has settled.

At the end of Friday - the rain came at 2pm - John had used his two barrows of muck to raise the end wall by two courses, nos 7 and 8. This wall will be blank, but will carry two large quad royal poster boards, which you will see when you come down the steps. We have already organised two of the posters for them, two more 1900s style to find.

 

 

 

Saturday, out with the gang.

An excellent, pre-Christmas turnout of nine of us, and a promise of something different.

Our first shot of the railway was even before we got there - a roadside shot of 3850 with the ECS crossing Chicken Curve in the winter solstice gloom. It was the shortest day of the year.

We kept the morning's munchies brief, not only because David and his legendary box of Brownies was delayed by a nasty puncture from a big nail.

That 'something different' turned out to be moving this stop block. We walked to work - not an everyday opportunity on the 15 mile GWSR - and as we looked at the stop block (on the left) 7903 FOREMARKE HALL came by as the second Santa engine, ready to pick up the rake stabled along Winchcombe P2.

 

This is the stop block to be moved then. We were tasked to move it two panels nearer the end of the rake on the right. That will align it with the ends of the other two sidings here.

 

The first job was to knock out all the Mills keys, and cut the rails right behind where the rake was stabled.

Chris had a terrible time here - the disk cutter was ancient, and it took forever to cut the rails. It lacked power, and when pressed against the steel, it seemed to lose interest altogether. Put it down for a breather, and it would stall.

Then it was all hands on bars, to tip out the rails and lever them away from the sleeper ends.

The siding here was laid in about 1990, and two of those who did that were still with us today - Dave and Leigh.  

They confirmed that the material was already second hand and well worn back in the day, being of Midland origin as well. Typical siding stuff.

Leigh drilled new fishbolt holes, taking the time to instruct a new apprentice - Steve, one of our more recent recruits.

The LMS chairs, as you can see, had 4 chairbolt holes and an awkward jaw which somehow made it difficult to knock out the keys.

Will LMS chairs be made into 2807 boot scrapers? Or only GWR?

 

 

The sleepers with their ancient chairs were lifted out and taken away by the Telehandler.

The remaining cribs were then cleaned out, ready to accept the sleepers under the stop block.

We then made a sliding pathway out of the rails, along which the stop block could be pushed.

That worked pretty well. Soon the stop block was two panels further along, and bumped up against the newly cut rails behind the carriage.

The stop block pushed along to its new position, and dropped into the sleeper cribs.

The rail ends on the stop block were not originally the same length, so we allowed for that when cutting.

But still a gap - caused by the stop block not standing quite square.

Another shove cured that, and then we got the bolts in.

Result !

This was the scene as the light began to fade. The truck is standing on the former up line, the sidings are on made up ground, which has tended to settle during the 40 years since it was dumped there by the pioneers.

This shot was made to compare with the starting position (see a few pictures further up). As we tidy up the tools, Leigh reflects on what still needs to be done: re-sleepering the stop block, and removal of the four scrap rails.

As we put the tools back, Foremarke Hall reversed to a stop beside us.

It was running round its Santa train. These carry on into dark, which adds to the appeal for our customers.

Are you lonely tonight?

In the mess room a solitary doughnut remained. Was nobody then prepared to rescue it from a lonely Christmas?

Steve was. You're a hero Steve !

While we are at Winchcombe, here is a blast from the past, in a seasonal snowy scene:

It's class 14 D 9539 with the Elegant Excursions train. The date is actually in May (!) 2005, and after a hailstorm. More snow than we're having this winter. (Photo by Paul Fuller)

Monday at Broadway.

Two of us on the job. Three degrees all day long, just about bearable, if you kept moving (we did).

 

At the moment we're completing the services that we laid under the track a few months back.

This inspection pit is made up out of riser rings that go down to the apperture made in the platform wall, where two pipes from the centre drain arrive.

The pit will receive the stormwater from the gutter downpipes of the building, and the footbridge.

 

We then mixed up several loads of concrete with which to stabilise the risers, and make a sort of vessel at the bottom that will channel the rainwater into the pipes to the centre drain.

Here it is completed. Inside the bottom riser ring the pipes have been opened by cutting the top half off. Some old cement bags have been stuffed in the ends to make sure nothing untoward goes down them while we work.

 

We then back filled about half the pit. Only half, because then we have to connect the stormwater drains.

Neal then started to dig out the ends of some of the conduits under the platform surface that he had laid earlier.

There is an astonishing maze of pipes, and conduits leading to what is a simple waiting room.

Water, electric supply, possibly gas, lighting cables, rainwater drainage. It's lucky that Neal knows where all this is going.

We're going to take a little Christmas rest now, and will be back in the new year.  The next job that we know about for sure is on Jan 2nd, when we will be assisting the grab lorry with emptying the two wagons of clay, which were taken to Toddington on Saturday. Once empty, they will come straight back, as the Broadway extension will be closed to traffic to allow for the repair of a wing wall. In January the digger will come back, and we will complete the landscaping around the back of the building. The wagons will be filled one more time. The level of the land behind the building, and next to the footbridge, has changed due to all the demolition rubble and infill that was pushed up there in 1963. We will hold a site meeting and scratch our heads about that, also in the new year. There's a spearhead fence to place between the end of the building, and around the footbridge tower.

So, see you all in 2025, and have a merry Christmas. Thank you for your generous support during the past year, we really appreciated your backing. It's good to know the support is out there.

Merry Christmas from the Broadway P2 waiting room team !