Blockwork races ahead

Saturday out with the gang.

A fairly dire forecast, but we don't come for the weather, we come for the cameraderie, don't we?

9.04 am in the mess coach.

Four people at 9am, that looks a bit low. Will there be any more?

Actually we did get to normal strength of 8 or 9, but more slowly, with that weather. There was snow on Cleeve Hill.

There were lots of goodies too - chocolate filled doughnuts, rocky road, jam doughnuts, and a bucket of David's excellent lemon drizzle cake. He actually apologised that the extra chocolate buttons he had included had sunk to the bottom. Who cares! It was still chocolate....

While we munched all that and drank tea there was a whistle. The first train of the new season, Dinmore Manor with 8 on. The second train was a DMU, with a LIME Green timetable. A new colour - wonder what that means?

We set off with the Ranger and the Transit for Laverton, where a dip in the track had developed. Signage at the beginning of the lane pronounced it closed, could it be?

Yes indeed, someone had tried to drive under the flooded bridge, despite the clear signage giving you an exact measure of the depth of water. It was an expensive convertible BMW 3 litre. The depth gauge, on the bridge abutment, read '4ft'.

 

 

On the right is the Laverton entrance to our trackbed, but even with our 4x4 Ranger we felt that it was too risky, as we could not see the depth of the water at that particular spot.

A sideways view of the BMW with the Cotswolds Edge in the background.

You can also see our entrance, and the water we'd have to ford. Too dodgy, we thought.

 

Nick had a go at sounding the depth around the access road, but without success - it was too murky to see.

 

Dave in the Telehandler arrived a little later, and had no problems with the depth - it was in fact about 18 inches deep.

Alerted by our discovery of the drowned convertible, Paul came to have a look and took a shot of us greeting him from the top of the bridge:

10 years ago:

Early in 2014 another driver seriously overestimated the capabilities of his Discovery:

The same depth gauge was there, plus 'Road Closed' notices at the junction. Nonetheless this driver plunged in.

The Disco was in the water about 10 days, when some kind soul pulled it out.

There was a price extracted though - all 4 wheels !

In the distance, on the railway embankment, you can just make out the temporary running in board for the loop we had at this point. It was the jumping off point for the Broadway extension in 2015.

 

Today the track is single again (the two turnouts were used at Broadway instead).

Two members of the gang have walked a short distance away and are 'inspecting the embankment'.

 

 Then we really got going, under a surprising burst of sun.

Just beyond the reinstated bridge (in concrete) there is a persistent dip on the Malvern side. We've already spot tamped here several times, and now it's happened again, without any trains passing over it. In fact we're rather short of spare ballast here, having scraped it all together for previous repairs.

Bert Ferrule takes a good look at the dip, and instructs the 5 jack operators when to crank the handle.

 

Once the rail is level again we Robel it, now in groups of 4 as we have had two more machines supplied, some part sponsored (thank you !).

 

You can't really see it on the picture, but corrsponding with the area of the dip is a bulge in the side of the embankment, with in the middle two concrete patches. These possibly signpost a previous BR repair (further along the straight we found the tops of piles in the centre of the trackbed in 2015.)

We packed and Robelled this area. Then Bert checked the result, and to our dismay found that it had sagged again, so we had to repeat the exercise.

On checking for the second time Bert found that the rail had sagged once again, so we jacked and Robelled it for a third time. That was enough for us!

It was now starting to rain, so we had a somewhat early lunch in our respective vehicles.

After lunch and now in the rain at 3 degrees we unloaded two replacement sleepers that we had brought with us.

With that done (and operating trains running between Toddington and CRC) we decided that we had done enough. We returned to Winchcombe, now with big sleety flakes falling as well.

 

Sitting outside for our tea was not really an option, but luckily there was room inside.

Best discovery of the day was the return of real cakes - no more packets.

Fancy one of these? Come and pay us a visit!

Here we are inside. The hot tea is brewing, some left over treats from the morning on the table. Bliss !

 

Outside we took a shot of the S&T building going up. This is how far they have got on Saturday 2nd March. High internal walls are allowing the windows to go in.

Less pretty is this discovery on the platform:

Is the plywood penguin shed going to remain a permanent fixture on the platform? Trains are now running again - wither our 'living museum' now?

Monday at Broadway.

Three of us on site, and an icy start. But dry, which was good.

 

Down the front the site for another door has been marked out.

John was laying and consumed two mixes, an acceleration in demand due to the thick joints required at the northern end, where the concrete ring is an inch too low. That has to be made up with thicker joints.

John's job today was principally the addition of the third course along the front, in 4 inch blocks.

He's coming to the end in this picture.

 

Neal helped him get round the corner, to meet the 4 inch blocks laid by Paul and Dave.

 

For Yours Truly and Neal much of the day was spent on logistics, a fancy word for moving heavy blocks around.

We trundled all but one of the pallets of blocks along the platform edge up to the building, and then emptied each one, by storing the blocks in the centre. We won't be able to have anything on the platform edge once trains come back to Broadway at Easter.

Here you can see growing piles of blocks in the middlel and inn the foreground John finishing off the 4 inch blocks along the front. An internal row of blocks on their edges is still to come.

Here's John's newly finished wall from the inside.

After lunch and with little mortar left John started off the rear wall in the NW corner.

And then our end of the day shot - the wall is now three courses high around 3 out of the 4 sides of the building.

PWay news:

The track over the viaduct is now reinstated, and work is going on to line and level it. Note the Robels in use - we are very much at the frontier of science with ours, as you can see.

The stainless steel ropes and attachment points along the parapets are very visible in this picture.

Alex in a comment on the previous blog very well outlined the choice of repair like this. We won't be able to have double track here, but as far as we know no one has ever suggested double track on the Broadway extension anyway. Something nearer the centre of our line would be more conceivable, but there are no plans for such an expensive venture.

In other news the contractors dealt with a slow landslip in the Toddington cutting, Malvern side. This has been going on for a while, but is starting to encroach on the track. The bottom was dug away, and the slip steadied by means of corrugated piles sunk into the ground.

The opposite (Cotswolds ) side clearly also slipped in the past, as there is now a very substantial stone wall along it.

Developers recently built a house 10yds from the top edge of this cutting. Would you buy that?

Tuesday on blocks again.

It's going to be a fine week, sunny every day, so we are putting in the hours to make progress.

 

 

John set out straight away laying blocks on the rear of the site,  and Neal started cutting blocks to shape to fit around the stanchions.

There were quite a few blocks to be cut for several stanchions, but that made it easier not only for John, but also for the Usketeers when they come again on Wednesday.

A moment for reflection...

The blocks are heavy, and after a good morning's work there was a pause and a moment for reflection. It was established that we are still a few of the big blocks short to complete around the building, so some additional ones will be collected on Wednesday.

John laid a whole row of big blocks down the back to the half way point. Just before that he met the stormwater drain from the back to the front.

Neal, in cutting mood, cut him a 6 inch block with a 'V' shape in it, which Neal placed himself on the bed of mortar. That signified the end of that run of blocks.

After lunch John finished off the 4 inch blocks around the south end fireplace. It was a row of blocks cut and placed, dry, by Neal on Monday, so setting these to mortar was a simple task. Job done!

Here's our end of the day shot for Tuesday. Lots of block progress around the front, and a good start made along the back. Only one pallet of blocks left on the platform, the rest has been cleared and the blocks stacked in the middle.

Wednesday, with Usketeers.

A bright, sunny day, and six volunteers on site. Now double, with extra Usketeers.

 

John B was put to work on breaking up the old foundations. He's 85 years old, but we are merciless!

Looks cruel, but in fact the lumps were put together with a weak mix, so it sufficed to tap the lump and it came apart. We're not really that nasty...

 

 

 

Yesterday Neal and John S had a counting of the remaining six inch blocks, and found that we were 12 short.

That meant a quick trip to Evesham in Neal's van, and here they are, 27Kg each.

Help yourself.

Dave and Paul were also there, and as was our wont at Winchcombe, they broke for coffee and a delicacy at 10am, after laying their first blocks.

'Hey, this is not a picnic!' 'Well, it's not the Burma Railroad either'.

John S starting the internal 4 inch blocks at the footbridge end.

There were two laying teams, Paul and Dave, and at the other end of the building, John on his own. John was on internal blocks, and Paul and Dave on the big six inch blocks along the rear wall.

Paul on the bottom six inch block course along the rear.

 

 

John B soon had that big block broken down into little bits, and was here loading it into a barrow, which he tipped into the middle of the site.

So during a very successful day we built the end internal wall, and in six inch blocks, all the way along the rear. Remaining to be done on blocks is the internal wall along the front and back, in two courses.

Activities near the end of the day were paused by the appearance over Broadway of this large grey helicopter. What is it?

We then climbed up on the footbridge to take our usual end of the day site shot. Neal is being interrogated by Peter K from the Broadway maintenance group.

As you can perhaps see the 6 inch blocks are complete all the way round. The piles left in the middle are all 4 inch blocks, and these are for the internal course. The gap in between will be filled with concrete (this being below ground).