A works train

Friday at Broadway.

A works train arrived, with the canopy gang waiting expectantly in the signal box, where it was dry. The weather was very wet, but it did not dim our spirits. We had waited for this train for a long time, as it opened the door to the next stage of our P2 build.

The little works train was hauled by our 04 Toddington yard shunter, with three wagons of building materials, and a Shark brake van. STEVIE the RRV followed a short distance behind.

On arrival Neal produced a drawing with which he explained where everything had to go. There was over 30 tons of stuff to unload.

 

The supply train was parked on P1, and the RRV on P2, so that it could load on one side, and unload on the other. 

 

First of all were a couple of spare dumpy bags of ballast - these went to one side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then came 15 dumpy bags of MOT type ballast to build the bottom of the floor up to a level. 

The RRV ran up and down, from the supply train stationed by the starter signal, to the building midway down P2.

Unfortunately it was not possible to upend the dumpy bags to empty them, so we had to slit them underneath to let all that ballast out.

It was a good thing we broke up so much of the old concrete, as that saved us using too much of the new stuff

Here's a view from the footbridge, when it was still reasonably dry. A lot of rain came later, with both Cleeve Hill and Bredon Hill hidden by low rainclouds.

It wasn't possible to spread out the ballast directly from the bags, and the far side of the floor was out of reach, so every bag dropped meant a lot of shoveling and raking.

 

 

When the bags of ballast had all been unloaded we carried on with the next item, bags of sand for mixing mortar. This will now be done under the bridge, so that became the destination for bags of sand.

 

The next item was the 4 RSJs for the top of the uprights - 2 on the front, and two on the back. Ultimately these will support the trusses.

David and Walt bring the first RSJ for fitting on to the front posts.

Here is the first RSJ being lifted in. Another unmissable job for our RRV, how do we do without it? En route for Broadway it even brought a pallet of S&T concrete troughs for that department. Last time they came with the Drewry rail car, and had to be manhandled on and then off again.

Here is the first RSJ being fitted, with Neal bolting down the far end while David keeps the near end steady with a line.

 

 

With a very large stepladder borrowed from the steam dept. (thank you guys) Neal moved on to the other end of the RSJ to bolt it down too. To your blogger's surprise all the holes lined up straight away. What are the odds!

Or maybe it's Neal's skill?

Lunch was held in the signal box, where there are comfy chairs. We noticed that a pilot light was on.

And in the middle of the track diagram proof that there were two trains, one on the through road and one on the loop.

This year manning the signal box at Broadway is being tried on a ghost basis, i.e. people will be rostered but not actually work there. Opening the box would need 33% more signalmen, we heard.

If the trial is successful, then Broadway box could enter service next year. Keep your fingers crossed ! And volunteer for the signals department!

After lunch the second RSJ was taken up the platform. The third and fourth will be installed once the floor is in, the rear is out of reach for the RRV.

Here the second RSJ is being installed. It too fitted perfectly; all the holes lined up first time.

 

After dealing with the RSJs the 5 pallets of blue imperials were unloaded. These will be the first bricks to be laid, once the floor is in.

 

 

The packs of red bricks were left in the Mermaid, as they will be the last to be used. We already have several other packs of reds on the platform, left over from the main station build.

Check out the straightness of the RSJs here, this was the building at the end of the day. (and in the pouring rain)

Our last shot shows the Mermaid being shunted into the headshunt siding, where it will stay until needed a few months from now.

Walt the RRV driver recorded these two stop frame videos of the day, which you might enjoy:

This one is the trip from Toddington to Broadway, following the supply train.

And this one is of the supply train being unloaded by th RRV at Broadway itself.

Saturday with the PWay gang

The start of the bank holiday weekend, and a nice warm day. Only 6 of us in the gang though. Must have all gone to the beach...

We headed out to the siding by the yard throat at Toddington on Saturday, to deal with a couple of dipped joints reported.

It was interrsting to see the landscape here after the overgrowth had been cleared - you could see the narrow gauge railway below, and its terminus in the distance. There's also an infilled bridge (orange netting).

 

 

The work site was adjacent to three very large diesel engines stored on well wagons. Sadly one of the tarps has blown off, revealing the sheer size of it. There were no marks on it, except a plate from BREL to say that their guarantee expired in 1989. 

Shucks !

We stepped aside to let our big pacific P&O pass by. It's at this point that they leave the station limits and open the regulator, so we heard a lovely 3 cylinder chatter as the loco accelerated away round the bend to Hayles.

 

 

After dealing with several joints and investigating another near Toddington station platforms, we decided to break for lunch on the balcony outside the mess room. Now is the time that it comes into its own.

Down below was Nick, who had gone down to wave to his wife and grandchildren.

We all have families...

 

Next on the fault list was a whole row of pumping sleepers at Stanton. This here was an unusual phenomenon. The common cause for sleepers to produce white dust like this is insufficient drainage underneath, leading to water pumping.

However, in this case the cause was a poor quality rail above. You can just about make out how irregular the surface is. These irregularities cause the wheel to vibrate and the rail to react likewise. The sleepers dance up and down and grind the ballast pieces to dust, rounding them off in the process. All the white stones have rounded corners due to grinding from vibrations.

We spent a couple of hours here robelling the Cotswolds side down and back up again, to fill the voids under the sleepers.

However, the only permanent cure is to replace the length of rail above (it's actually S/H rail welded into CWR in 2008.).

A close up of the robelling, and the rounded white pieces of ballast that signal the voiding that is going on underneath.

Finally, another nice shot of P&O heading south, with a wave from the driver too. How nice. We looked at the wheels though - did the sleepers behave themselves now?

They did, but not for long.

Tuesday at Broadway.

Work on the floor progresses nicely. Neal found time to vibrate the ballast, but that revealed a few high and low spots. Therse were dealt with on Tuesday.

Fore example, the newer part of the new building is built over the former location of the modesty screen, and the concrete foundations for the corner post. These stuck out, so John attacked them with a hammer and bolster.

 

Meanwhile Neal worked in the future workshop area, where he buried a waste pipe that got added to the specs at the last minute.

The building won't be connected to foulwater drains (too difficult/expensive), but we don't want to exclude the possibility, so an unused pipe is going in.

Tuesday was the first day of the new timetable. Despite the fine weather trains were not overly full. The cafe did good busines, being visited by the canopy gang, S&T and finally station staff.

Wait, these all get reduced rates...

We must say though, the two pairs of outside seats were popular, that was a good idea.

P&O ready to leave with the first train out of Broadway.

P&O now actually setting off, with the first train out of Broadway for the day.

 

P&O made a fine spectacle as it pulled away over station road bridge. Only the signal with the cross spoils the picture. 

How much longer...?

We gave the ballast another going over with the compactor, and then...

...started to put down the next layer, a blinding of sand. This protects the DPL from the sharp stones in the ballast.

Then we felt it was time for a coffee and an ice ream.

If you like this sort of stuff, you should sign up as a volunteer. Unfortunately things like ice cream are full price, but we do want the cafe to do some business from us.

While waiting in the queue, we noticed a new type of beer in the fridge:

ENGLISH ELECTRIC real ale.

This is no doubt aimed at our diesel friends, but why not give it a try and see how it differs from RAIL ALE. 

Both are made by a local brewery at Winchcombe.

Nearer the end of the day a diesel loco is attached to the rear of the train. So now you get both steam and diesel on the same train.

As the Growler is our favourite type of diesel loco, we have often tried to catch it growling, but always failed to get an interesting video. They usually sneak away at idling speed.

So we asked the driver (proudly wearing his 'Growler Group' sweatshirt) whether this time he would make the loco growl for us.

That was no problem at all, so here is the film that we took for you - hope you like it.

https://youtu.be/l8mbgEeo534

Broadway was quiet again, and we went back to work.

Once the sand was in we ran the scaffolding plank along to to make sure that everything was level.

Finally, at the end of the day Dinmore Manor came along and rolled to a stop right next to us.

It's lovely how people are really interested in what we are doing.

Wednesday - the Usk unveiling.

This is it then, the Usk hut is officially finished, and Wednesday was an opportunity for the railway to generate some publicity for itself with the unveiling of the authentic enamel sign that gives the hut its new identity.

 

 

 

Here is the sign up - we attached it to the battens put up 3 months ago - and hidden behind one of Mrs. Blogger's fitted sheets. That fitted just right. Strangely, she didn't want it back...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Usketeers watched from a distance... then decided to spend the rest of the time waiting much more fruitfully in the Coffeepot.

 

 

 

 

 

At the appointed hour Philip Young, our Trust chairman, arrived and pulled away the sheet.

Yes, our little hut is now - a Coal Office. In fact The Winchcombe Coal Co. was the original coal distributor on the Winchcombe site, and you may recall that we also have a wagon painted in that livery.

A short speech, as your blogger holds forth (pictures by John Mayell)

 

A group photograph of the Usketeers, with Trust chairman Philip Young. Only Jules was missing, sadly due to a funeral.

The Usketeers formally give the key to the Usk hut to Neil Herapath of the FoWS, who paid for the platform that we also built.

 

Here is a portrait of the hut in all its glory, without all those human beings around. The enamel sign looks just right, it's a quality piece of authentic signage that will last a long time.

 

 

 

We took some souvenir pictures of the coal office inside, now that all the building materials and tools have been removed.

Here is the clerk's desk, with telephone and typewriter.

 

 

The lock, an ancient one whose latch is marked 'LNWR' , is now finally repaired and fitted.

The replacement key works (after some last minute fettling) and it is this which will lock the hut from now on. Its default position will be locked, but the key is available from the FoWS, and it will be open during events, such as our end of May gala.

 

 

 

 

The spare key has been hung on one of the coat hooks, just over the old Broadway safe.

Last week's left over doughnuts are no longer in the safe !

 

After we cleared all the detritus and tools out of the interior, Dave and Paul stand proudly by what they have created. 

Hope you like it too.

It was good to hear that the Trust is impressed with our achievement, which will help them fulfill their aim of obtaining a museum accreditation for the GWSR.

Afterwards we posed again outside the door, and our lovingly laid diamond paver path.

With a tear in our eye, but looking forward to new adventures, we then drove over to Toddington and immediately got to work on the next project, the featherboard fence.

This is a little overview of the site, seen from the footbridge. The featherboard fence will continue the existing one by the sliding gate, and end up by the birch tree just on camera on the left. It's not a big job, we have a couple of weeks spare and a plc director asked for our help, so that the company would save the cost of the contractors that were budgeted here. 

Glad to help!

In other news we learned that a kind donor has now made a sponsorship payment to the trust for the heritage post and rail fence that we are also building along the upper part of the drive.

So when we have finished the featherboard fence, we will be able to move seamlessly on to the larger fence job for which we had offered our services.

And after that job, brick laying at Broadway!

This week Dave was back, and he brought a powerful SDS drill. It was needed too!

 

Dave gives it the SDS treatment.

We dug 4 more post holes (2 last week, 11 in total) and while some were better than the first two around the gate, the last of the 4 was a real problem, as it was the site of someone else's earlier post and concerte lump. Then, on top of that we found a metal post support buried in a post hole as well.

 

 

 

While Dave and John were digging holes, Paul and Yours Truly planted the first posts.

We mix the Postcrete up in a barrow first, that works better. But you have to be quick to spoon it into the holes afterwards, it goes off super quickly.

As it was a sunny day, we had your lunch in front of Toddington station building. It occurred to us that something was missing that was there before.

Here is a 'before' picture.

 

 And here is a picture from Wednesday. Can you see what is no longer there?

The answer is: Two WR enamel ' No Parking' signs. A RATs director who put them up 30 years ago is wondering where they went. No one he asked has removed hem, or knows anything.

It sounds as if they have been stolen.

If you see two WR chocolate brown enamel No Parking signs for sale, do let us know.

 

Also working in the same area as ourselves was the C&M gang, who were laying a new slab path to a converted garage for storage. 

They worked very quickly. Helped by the mini digger, they had the bed of the path cleared by lunch time (when we arrived after unveiling the Usk plaque) and at the end of the day the slabs were down.

Meanwhile the Usk gang got gravel boards out to start setting the posts at the right distances.

We also had a request to take a picture of the concrete slab path that C&M completed last week. It was built to give a safer walk to loco crews changing at Toddington, after a trip recently.

The fireman of Dinmore Manor kindly agreed to smile for us.

 

Back on the platform at Toddington we were surprised to see a town cryer.

Additional engagement with our customers will surely bring dividends. 

We thought it was a nice idea.

 

Our last shot of the day is along the three additional posts planted on Wednesday, with a fourth one dug out just off camera. Three gravel boards are in.

It will be nice when we can dispense with the steel barriers here (and the Heras fencing panels on the upper part of the station approach)

 

Next week no Dave again - but we managed to borrow the SDS drill, so there will be no stopping us! 

We are also going to attend the next regular Exmoor Associates meeting on Saturday. They have a number of irons in the fire... we shall post a full report. Could be exciting...