The finishing touch.

Saturday out with a small gang.

Holidays are starting to make an impact, and on Saturday we had just six in the crew.

 

 

Our chief doughnut supplier was on holiday, leaving an immediate impact - no doughnuts!

Well, just tea is better for the waistline, but still...

We repaired to Toddington to finish off the siding and stop block. The ash was a bit lumpy for walking over, and there were many rocks and bits of concrete lying about. Now all is smooth.

 

 

 

In the distance the Telehandler was seen loading an extra pallet of bricks on to one of the Broadway supply wagons.

Cleaning up the siding was fairly leisurely, but satisfying. It looks great now. 

After that we moved on to the more serious matter of packing the centre of the south end crossing, which was seen to move a bit under load.

We stared intently at the crossing as various trains passed, but nothing obviously bad struck us. Maybe the centre? We gave that a good robelling. We didn't get a great deal of time as line blocks were required, and there was a lot of traffic in the area on Saturday.

When Dinmore Manor arrived we heard the starter signal move to clear, but later we noticed that it was still on. Strange. On the other hand the advanced starter was off. The footplate crew were seen standing by the telephone to the box, and the safety valves started to go as the departure was delayed.

Eventually Dinmore Manor did move off, passing the signal at danger (but see below). There was loud whistling too.

 

 

 

From the vantage point of the platform outside the mess room we were able to have a chat with Dan, the signalman, about what was behind the starter at danger.

 

 

The explanation was a simple one - the wire snapped! That explains how we heard it go off, and yet stay on.

Dinmore was then allowed to pass by means of the green flag.

All part of a signalman's interesting day. They live for that.

Also interesting was a shunting move. After Foremarke Hall had cleared the platform line heading north, the yard shunter made off for the N headshunt to pick up a rake of Dogfish and a Shark.

 

 

 

Here it is back again, outside the mess room terrace. We were still up there, as we were unable to get a line block. 

The Shark was propelled up the parlour road, to be attached to the Broadway supply train, ready for its move in early May.

 

 

 

 

 

A member of thr S&T dept came out to look for the break in the wire (rust on the wire near to the signal) but in the meantime life went on, with a token being handed to the driver of Foremarke Hall.

Finally the area was clear, and we were able to resume work.

 

After examining further wheel movements over the crossovver, we decided that the heel end could do with support. Here, the insulated joint was badly dipped, but this wasn't in fact part of our remit, so we didn't have the necessary jacks with us.

We packed the area as best we could, but this rail really needs cropping.

 

On the way back to base we stopped for an update of the S&T building.

As you can see the roof trusses are in, so it's doing well.

 

 

Tuesday on steels

The canopy gang is back in action, working on the steels while we wait for the supply train for Broadway. Last week saw the final length of angle cleaned and protected with undercoat. However, as we are effectively assembling the canopy outdoors - no indoor spaces are available to us - we are fighting the constant threat of rust.

 

 

These gusset plates were actually indoors, in that little cupboard in the background. We had cleaned and primered them, but the rust got them nevertheless. When we transferred the stack on to the pallet in the foreground there was water between the plates. So they all had to be cleaned again, Kurust applied, and this time an extra layer of undercoat. Hopefully that will seal them for good.

 

 

 In the meantime Neal made a start on actual manufacture again.

 

 

We've already made three purlins, and on Tuesday Neal made a start on the first of four fascia boards. This one is 7.25m long, and will fit in the middle of the building on the platform side.

As it's very heavy and rather floppy we resorted to lifting it on to three trestles with the Telehandler.

 

 

 

 

We then added a similar length of angle ('here's one we prepared earlier') and Neal then tack welded it on.

The fascia board was then turned the other way up, and a second length of angle tack welded on. These will give the fascia board stiffness.

The angles will now have to be drilled for rivetting, but bolts will be used in the first instance as usual.

This one shows Neal drilling the bolt holes - there are lots and lots of them.

 

You might be interested to know that a campaign has been launched for sponsorship of commemorative plaques along the inside of the viaduct parapet, the one which cost us £250.000 to stabilise. This excellent initiative could raise up to £60.000, so is well worth supporting.

Have a look here:

https://www.gwsr.com/support-us/stanway-viaduct-commemorative-plaques

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Just two of us today - Dave on holiday and John elsewhere. Our enamel plaque unveiling day is nearing with rapid steps - it's Wednesday May 8th at 11am.

As the building is now complete we are finishing off the site in the last time available. It's been very cold overnight recently, so the grass has been a bit reluctant to grow, but as you can see from this picture it is making progress.

Foremarke Hall passed by as we took this picture of the site, not having seen it first hand for two Wednesdays. The diamond paver path has been extended to the road, and the grass has grown.

 

 

On the other side of the road John finished of the reinstatement of the ditch, and today we fine tuned the grassy island by raking it level, removing any stones and seeding the rest.

Grass has already started to grow in the foreground.

 

 

 Paul busied himself indoors by removing items no longer needed, and then sweeping out the floor.

Over the winter the window frames had swollen a little, and Paul planed them back to size and reinstated the paint.

From next Wednesday we will be on a new job, for which we have volunteered, when we heard that contractors were going to be used for the work. This is the erection of 20m of featherboard fence at Toddington. That's perfectly within our skill set, so why pay a contractor? We will be in good company, as Neal will be working next door on the Broadway steels.

 

After lunch we left the Usk hut enclosure to deal with the remainder of the soil that we had shared with the drainage gang.

We spread this soil out around the inspection pit cover, so that the area could be seeded. We're not sure if this grass will be mown in future, but at least the grass will get a head start on the bramble, convulvulus and mare's tail that usually grows here.

Behind us the Telehandler was working away, stacking economy sleepers, ready for the next job. That could be the rest of siding 2 at Toddington, but it's not yet confirmed.

At the end of the day this once derelict site around the inspection pit looked like this, with grass seed already raked in.

We then took some of our kit up to Toddington, ready for the next job.

Now a little rant, as we were saddened to see that several plastic barriers were being skipped.

The railway bought these say 6 or 7 years ago, a big pallet full of them. We were uneasy about the purchase at the time, so much plastic, where will it end up at the end of its life? That life proved to be short, and here they are, adding to our pile of non-recyclable waste. These will eventually break down into micro-plastics and one way or another end up in the ocean, or in our food chain.

As a general observation: when you buy plastic, think of its end of life.

Another non-Usk item is to mention that we have 4 cast iron street lamp posts that are surplus to requirements. They are the same type as fitted to the station drive at Broadway. We could probably let them go for a friendly price, so if interested, send us a message (contact form at the top of the blog).

Away from the Usk hut, the PWay gang were working on the Gretton straight today:

Lifting and packing joints at Working lane. This is the stretch with the oldest sleepers and probably some of the older rail. There are many sleepers that need refreshing, and dipped joints attending tio.

These are the dipped joints in question. There used to be a run round loop here, long since lifted as we pushed south.

As a result of the sleeper replacements, we not only have the new ones to insert, but there are old ones to collect from the lineside.

This picture shows the start, as the white Transit is filled up, twice today in fact.

An impressive total of 41 sleepers was collected during the day, a big effort by the gang, lifting them all out of the undergrowth and into the van.

Finally, Jim of the PWay group shared a picture with us, reproduced with his permission, of a rare diesel locomotive that some of you might find intersting, as pictures of it will be scarce.

This is a Rolls Royce engined Barclay, seen here inside the MOD at Ashchurch where Jim worked. It was one of 6 built to the Berne gauge. Five were black but this one was painted in an alternative colour scheme, but sadly saw very little use. The BAOR was shrinking and with the peacetime bonus there was no need for them, although today it's not impossible that there might be once again. Where are they now ?