More diamond pavers.

Saturday at Pry Lane

A good gang of 9, and plenty of cake (from David, with extra chocolate) and five packets of Doughnuts. Not all got eaten, and one member of the gang very kindly offered to take the rest home for private consumption.

 

 

The first job was to load a spare concrete sleeper.

Now normally these don't really wear out, but the one we were due to replace was cracked, probably laid like that.

 

The location was Broadway, by the goods shed.

Here we are, digging out the old one.

 

We tried to lever it out, but these jobbies are really heavy, so we waited for Dave to arrive with the Telehandler.

He pulled the old sleeper out, no problem.

 

Then we had to insert the replacement.

It needed several new attachment points, and then it was in.

 

The next job was not far short of Pry Lane Bridge, so before starting the job Yours Truly walked down to the bridge itself, to see what all the construction going on there was about.

The rumours we had heard were true, the contractors had lowered the road under our bridge... It seems their articulated delivery lorries had trouble passing under the bridge, which is a skew one... 

Here is their 360, levelling the verge.

This is the view from our trackbed. Big works going on. The crane jib has been on the horizon for quite a while now. It looks like one more circular settlement tank is being built, together with ancillary buildings.

The reason why makes us suspect that there may be big housebuilding projects at Broadway...

Back to GWSR PWay.

We came to Pry Lane to fit rubber crossing pads to a ballast working crossing laid in by our dear friend Stevie back in 2017. He of the RRV. Yours Truly helped by bringing in Broadway demolition spoil with the big hired in dumper.

But the crossing remained a very temporary one, so the job for the day was to fit official rubber pads, to make it easier to use.

 

The rubber pads to be fitted had been delivered to the site at some prior point, so all we had to do was slip them in.

The first one goes in. It's a bit tricky, as an edge has to be pushed into the web of the rail, and because it's made of rubber, it's very reluctant. You can hit it with a keying hammer, but it just bounces back at you.

We got one side it by using the Duff jacks on their sides, then the second half was dropped in by Dave with the Telehandler.

The pads were put in on the skew. We are on a high embankment here, and it's not possible to cross over at right angles.

Here they are, 4 pads laid in. Two more were earmarked to be laid in, but on the day that proved to be impossible, because these rubber pads are too thick to be laid on concrete sleepers, and the necessary wooden sleepers with base plates had only been envisaged for 4 pads when we laid the track here.

Not far away was this distant signal post.

Notice the cross, it is not in use, and hasn't been for years, since it was erected. What a shame.

 

The first vehicle over the crossing, with new pads, was the Transit.

A slow approach was not possible, as the rear wheels spun on the loose ballast as soon as you let the clutch in. So we hopped up with gusto, and came to a stop on top, with the bonnet on the edge of the embankment. Here Dave loaded the two spare pads on the back.

Dave loading the two remaining rubber crossing pads.

This picture shows, by means of a faint trace of dust on the pads, that the outer rear wheel was in the air when it crossed here. The other side was the same, so this crossing needs to be lengthened to allow a much more diagonal approach.

The next stop was a mile away at Laverton.

Here the flood has receded and the drains were clear. However, water continued to flow into the area from what looked like a broken pipe inside the bank, bubbling out of the hole bottom left of the picture.

 

Also of interst was the fact that someone had opened the gate to the line by taking it off its hinges. That's not how you are meant to do it!

Clearly we need to chain the hinge end to the post, but how?

 

Dave had a brainwave (it does happen...). The original access to the old Laverton Halt on the opposite side of the road is no longer in use, as we prefer the one in the picture above. It is completely overgrown with brambles now, and on top of that there is a 12 inch concrete ridge built along the road verge that makes any vehicular access impossible.

Can you see Dave? We promise you, he is in the picture...

So if there is a chain and padlock on the old gate, perhaps we could use that?

And so it was.

Monday at Broadway.

A surprise visit back to the site, following the availability of a bag of ballast with which to make concrete infill.

 

 

First of all, given that trains will return here at the end of next week, we decided to tidy the site a bit by moving our mixer to under the footbridge.

The water butt should come too, but - it was full of water.

Now, some of you would have overturned that water butt and carried it away empty, but not Neal. Waste not, want not...

 

 

 

 

So here is the new mortar (or indeed concrete, as on Monday) production site.

The big orange bag is a fresh bag of ballast, as on Monday we would be making concrete to part fill the void between the two rows of concrete blocks.

During the day we got rid of the whole bag (about a tonne of content) and shovelled it into the mixer. That was quite tough.

 

 

We produced round about 15 barrows of concrete, which were all carted by Neal to the building.

 Here John was waiting to shovel it into the void, which needed to be about half full all the way round.

 

 

 

The heavy rain that we have seen these last days also left its stamp on the site, with standing water esp at the north end.

John just about managed to keep his feet dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We managed three sides of the building before lunch. The orange bag full turned out to be insufficient, but fortunately we had a pile of ballast that we shovelled out of the Mermaid wagon a couple of months ago, and that happened to be within easy reach of the mixer, under the bridge. 

After lunch we finished off the last side, and a strip by the 'Gents' end from one side to the other.

Now we are waiting for a shunter to be arranged to take away the three loaded spoil wagons.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

An excellent day, with lots of digging, and a delivery of diamond pavers.

 

 

 

On arrival at Winchcombe we spotted the B&R tamper by the signal box.

Shortly afterwards it started its engine and drove south, through the tunnel.

 

 

 

 

 

Nearby we also spotted a rake of interesting goods vehicles. No doubt they will feature in the next gala.

All of these have recently been restored, so well done, that C&W team!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the tamper left for its next job on the southern part of the line the PWay crew set off for its own job for the day - work in Greet tunnel. 

This is an opportunity not to be missed, while trains only run at weekends for a short time.

 

 

 

The Usketeers continued with the sizeable job of landscaping around the hut, while at the same time tidying up the PWay yard for use by the department. There's actually a lot of space under those piles of spoil and bramble entanglements.

Dave and Paul started by spreading out the spoil dropped last week on the spot where the compost bins used to stand.

Dave dropping another load of spent ballast to lengthen the road.

Once the PWay gang had finished loading their replacement sleepers the Telehandler became available, and we used it to fetch more spent ballast for the road past the hut.

 

 

 

Digging the spent ballast out of the pile wasn't easy, as the pile was peppered with reduntant concrete sleepers. These are of a design that we don't use, so we promoted them to the scrap concrete pile.

 

 

Paul raked the ballast level, while John cleaned up the spoil we brought last week (many rocks in it).

 

With what was available in spent ballast we almost got to the gate, as you can see here.

There was a bit more left, but it was no longer possible to scoop it up without including large quantities of clay.

 

 

 

Dave therefore volunteered to fill the Telehandler bucket by hand, which was a pretty tough job.

 

 

 

 

 

Yours Truly went round to your friendly reclamation yard to get 44 12x6 inch diamond pavers. We still had a bit of money in the kitty to make that possible.

The thing is, we noticed that while we have a nice diamond paver path from the platform to the door, a lot of footfall was taking place between the door and the road. This crossed over a 6ft stretch of lawn, and was wearing it down. Hence came the idea of lengthening the diamond paver path.

 

So it was that your blogger's car was the first vehicle to use the newly raised spent ballast road alongside the hut.

The pavers were stacked outside the door, ready for installation, perhaps next week. That depends on the weather, and what else we are doing. Our list of potential jobs increased today, it's not just at Broadway where the Usketeers will be helping out.

More details of that later when it all firms up.



 

 

PWay through the tunnel today.

 

 

 

 

 

A closer picture of the gang setting off for the tunnel. These pictures were taken by Paul, who was with them.

 

Here they are emerging at the other end of Greet tunnel, where we have been spot resleepering for a while now.

One day we will replace these with concrete sleepers.

If the sleeper is not too bad, but the chair is loose, it is also possible to fit a coil spring, and then drive the chair screw back home. That fixes it.

 

The trolleys that were pushed up had a generator on board and lights, for resleepering inside the tunnel. 

Yes, there too, even though it's dry. Everything has a finite life.

This one for example has a finite life. It's pretty much gone, so is about to be pulled out.

 

 

 

 

This little beauty was found inside a concrete cable trough.

They are common enough in S France, but in the UK we don't see them very often.

 

On the way back through the tunnel the generator was on and the big lights were working.

That makes for a lovely, atmospheric photograph.

Notice that while many people are pushing, one gang member has found hinmself a comfy little seat.

That's much better !

 

We can also benefit from Paul's drone.

Here is a shot of Winchcombe yard, looking south.

The siding with the carriage in Carmine and Cream paint is still known as the 'EE' siding. That's an echo from the past - it stands for 'Elegant Excursions'. Sadly these stopped running a few years back now.

Paul also took some pictures of the tamper earlier, while it was north of Winchcombe (it went south today). It was working in the area of the Defford straight here.

 

 



An update on Byfield No. 2

A contact at the Plym Valley Railway at Marsh Mills saw last week's 'Absent Friends' item on Byfield No.2 and sent us a couple of pictures taken in February this year.

The boiler looks nice in its red primer, but work on an overhaul has stopped.

Here are the frames, with a Polish TKh49 behind them.

We understand that this 1942 Bagnall is now actually for sale, so if you are interested we can put you in touch. Send a message via the contact option top right on the blog.

A few details about its history can be read here:

https://preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com/w-g-bagnall-works-no-2655-byfield-0-6-0st/