A celebration.

Friday, an extra day on the fence

After the complete washout on Wednesday and cancellation of Usketeering (and PWay too, we heard) we still wanted to make progress, as the materials for the upper drive post and rail fence are coming on 5th June. 

Friday was a dry day, so two of us met to continue with the fence at Toddington.

Beforehand, we had a quick visit to the Usk building and the PWay yard.

The Usk building was open for the gala, and it was pleasing to see that the additional grass had finally taken off. It's looking very green now, and it would be a nice place to linger for passengers.

 

 On to Toddington, where there was an unpleasant surprise:

One of the glass roofing panels in the 'greenhouse' had crashed down into our canopy assembly area. The cause could not be determined, but vandalism seems unlikely. We swept up the broken glass, but now our working area is even less dry than it was before (it was never dry, due to the wind that always accompanies any rain)

A broken pane of glass - possibly heat related?

Neal was also busy at Toddington, and we helped him get the material together for the third fascia board.

Neal also reported that as feared, after the failure to get the concrete in last Monday there had been heavy rain, and now the P2 floor insulation is swimming in a pool of water. This needs to be removed, somehow, before a new attempt at delivering concrete is made.

Neal assembled the long sheet and two angles, which he spot welded on. He then started to drill the many holes.

There are 51 to each side, 102 per fascia board. All that drilling makes for a lot of swarf.

The Usketeering team was only 2 strong, due to the short notice available, so Paul and Yours Truly dug the holes and planted the last two posts.

Here is Paul, mixing up the Postcrete, which we like to do in a barrow beforehand. The end post goes in first, then the middle one to ensure a straight line.

 

Digging the post holes has different challenges every time. These last two both had the same issue: after about 18 inches down there were large rocks, which we had to break up with a very heavy duty SDS drill. No more tarmac though, phew!

 

While Yours Truly painted more featherboards with Creosote ( we think that there are 300 of them, and they each have a large surface area), Paul attached the rails to the posts set 10 days ago.

The street facing side is now ready for featherboards, and on the right you can see a trial run being made. This part of the job shouldn't take too long, which is why we decided to let the materials for the heritage style fence on the upper station approach come now.

During the day there were lots of preparations for the gala, which was to take place the following day.

We had a quick look at the end of P1, to record Bretton Grange coming back from a test run.

Back in the greenhouse area for more creosoting, and two of the visitor traction engines were also having a trial run.

The larger one is half size, while the smaller one is one third size, we ascertained.

Saturday, Winchcombe and Toddington during the gala.

The PWay gang was convened as normal, but due to the gala services we were asked not to work on the line. So it was an easy day.

We had a grandstand view of the passing gala trains from the mess coach steps. Unfortunately only 9351 faced north - see picture below -

- while all the others faced south, and at Winchcombe that meant a shot into the sun.

A shot into the sun, with Betton Grange.

A shot into the sun gives poor colours, and an image more akin to a black & white effect.

But the passing shot was OK, especially as it showed off the 6880 number, and the name plate of BETTON GRANGE.

First impressions were that trains were well filled, and the Toddington (normal) car park was crowded with people and traction engines to see.

 

A bacon burger always goes down well, but what a shame that the griddle has to be advertised by a wobbly plastic sign on a rubber foot that advertises the obvious - an extra A board menu is just off camera too.

The plastic signage is placed up against the GWR lamp post we placed there last year, with the intention of making the platform more authentic.

The railway has experienced a multiplication of modern signage recently, as well as frequent vinyl banners with one way plastic cable ties - 16 we counted on one.

Lunch on Saturday was in the company of the steam crew on the mess room balcony. It's a great place to watch those locomotives going by that you helped to prepare in the middle of the night.

And the loco yard apron is empty! A diesel locomotive poked its nose out to see if it was safe.

Tuesday at Toddington.

A rainy morning, so work started at lunch time when the weather brightened. The news on the gala is great! Everyone is very happy, even the finance director. The after effects of the Grange continue, as there is continuing interest and it is booked to stray with us until June 19th. Come and see it, if you haven't yet.

We spent the afternon creosoting (no pictures, same as last time), while Neal drilled 51 holes along the second angle on the third fascia board. At the end of the afternoon he got to the end, just after this picture.

Neal completes the third fascia board for Broadway.

 The fourth one now needs to be assembled - the sheet is on the floor on the left.

These two jobs took several hours during the afternoon.

Also busy was a photographers' charter train, with Betton Grange on a GWR themed freight consist.

They all streamed off to the front, only to turn around and get on at the back! Must be something to do with the sunlight...

The destination was Broadway, and the train was away for several hours. How nice for a railway to be able to offer this, and how lucky we are to possess such a large, spacious vehicle as the Queen Mary brake.

 

In the end, some settled down at the front, and some at the back.

Maybe something in the ticket price....?

The Grange waited impatiently for the stragglers to arrive...

... and finally set off for our newest station.

No pictures here from this little jolly, you'll have to trawl social media to see what they got up to. We carried on creosoting, and did 30 boards, enough for one fence panel.

 

 

A rumbling and a clanking sound near to the greenhouse drew our attention - it was the steam dept. Telehandler, pulling a traction engine and three wagons up the driver.

Well, that's a new one for us.

 

We waited for the strange combination to pass:

https://youtu.be/1DtQ9sKUGDw

At 5 o'clock the Grange returned.

We were expecting it to return to whence it came - P1. But it was P2, so we ended up standing in the wrong spot. Well, we didn't pay to see it either, so that is justice...

The sky was heavily overcast , but even so you can get a reasonable picture.

Here you have our newest visitor at rest by P2, on its return from the venture to Broadway.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A full house today - Dave back from hols, and Jules paid us a visit, to celebrate the completion of the Usk hut with a good meal at the Pheasant nearby. 

But to start with - and we are talking 8 am - we had to have a good sit down and a chinwag.

Chinwag completed, we split into three - Yours Truly on Creosote, Dave started putting up featherboards, and Paul fixed the gravel boards and remaining rails to the posts we planted on Friday.

 

 

 

To begin with Dave worked alone, but soon he was joined by John (who comes from rather further away in Whitney) and then the featherboarding accelerated.

Paul came to check how things were going.

We made ourselves a little guide gadget, the T shaped bit on the ground, and this helped to fix the boards without having to measure every time.

However, every third board is checked for level, otherwise a small error soon multiplies.

 

 

John held the boards in place with the gadget, while Dave hammered in the nails.

Progress was fairly rapid from then on - coffee breaks excepted - and here you see them on the second fence panel. Each panels holds 30 feather boards, which is about what we can Creosote in a day. Our creosoted buffer stock quickly dwindled, we must work harder!

The Usketeers were not the only ones to enjoy a coffee break. Here are the lads from the C&M team, also enjoying a chinwag and a coffee after repairing the existing fence where a post had started to rot by the sliding gate.

Then it was back with the Usketeers - what, another coffee break already? Well, it was 11 o'clock. They do look rather beatific and happy. They had dragged their chairs into the shade, newly made by our own fence, as it was getting rather hot.

Jules dropped in to join us for a little celebration in the Pheasant, to mark the delivery of the Usk project.

Afterwards we asked a passer-by to record the 5 Usketeers, so here we are. What new challenges could we accept? Hayles Abbey halt, the Usk platform and building....

This then is the latest challenge, just a quickie really while funding for the slightly larger one up the drive is arranged. That is now in place, and the material is coming next Wednesday. We would like to have this fence finished at the end of that day, but it may take one more day after that, possibly split into two smaller teams, one on each fence.

Here is Paul, finishing off the gravel boards and rails.

Just visible centre left is Dave, just clearing up.

This was it then, at the end of the day. All the framework is up, so now it's just the feather boards to do. Dave and John did three panels, Yours Truly creosoted just the one, so that's not fast enough ...

As the Usketeers went home, we had a quick look at 9351 (our visitor from the WSR), which was being serviced over the ash pit.

This is a great area from which to photograph the loco being coaled up.

9351 is a lovely little engine, so don't forget to come and see it while we still have it as a visitor.

Re the P2 building at Broadway, the concrete for the floor is now re-scheduled for Monday 3rd June. Let's hope that is definite.