Riveting stuff.

Saturday in the yard.

Just a small gang on Saturday, something to to with the Ale and Steam event? There were just 6 of us, and several jobs to do:

- A track inspection at Bishop's Cleeve

- Interflon greasing south of Bishops Cleeve

- A point timber to replace at Winchcombe.

As we were too small in numbers the track inspection got priority and a two man team remained behind at Winchcombe, to sort out second hand point timbers.

We have a pile of rejected timbers which can no longer be used, but which are long and heavy.

Dave decided to cut them into manageable pieces with his chainsaw.

Behind dave is a pile of 'still some potential' timbers.

These need sorting out the chaff from the re-usable, and that's why we needed a space next to them.

In between times the Steam & Ale event was in full swing, with 3 slightly shorter trains in service. One was hauled by the green class 37.

 

The rotten timbers, now more bite - sized, were taken to a corner of the yard.

They are now much easier to manipulate.

LADY of LEGEND was there too, with its majestic wheels slowly turning.

 

The grand old lady made her way to the station, where there was a pleasingly large crowd of people enjoying their day.

 

 

 

 

There was practically no one to be seen without a glass in their hand. Now that is what a successful day looks like. Such a crowd is also good for a local brewery like Goughs of Winchcombe, or a pub like the Crown & Trumpet at Broadway. We provide a multiplier effect on business.

 

After clearing the pile we felt rather weary, so called it a day, but not before checking in at the C&W shed, where we spotted some familiar planks.

These are the replacement planks for the bench at Hayles. One plank has been snapped clean in half, probably by someone standing on it to get a better view.

Please don't do that.

Broadway P2.

We are ready to start the blue plinth in bricks, but are waiting for John to return from a holiday.

Next also would be the lifting in of the other two ring beams, now that we have a hard concrete floor. The waiting time is not wasted though, as we can continue with the canopy at Toddington, where much remains to be done. Next week some time looks like a probable time for the lifting in.

Sunday on Creosote.

An infill day, to prepare with Creosote the bare new wood for use on Wednesday, when the Usketeers return.

It's still Ale and Steam, with a pleasing business about the railway.

Winchcombe is the main activity centre for beer, while Toddington was calmer (we heard), although customers did certainly manage to drink some barrels dry - see gaps in the racks. What we didn't know was that you can also do takeaway, that isn't advertised but we thought would be a good idea to do so.

The beer came from surprising places, like Derby and Crich. Well worth a try, but of course volunteers are barred from this if on duty.

Our two visiting GWR engines were in service again, as well as the blue class 47, seen here after arriving from Broadway.

These beer festivals are a good thing, as peripheral activities also do well, eg our cafe, and the RATS shop of paraphernalia.

The PWay door stop / anvil stand also drew interest, as evidenced by this last one remaining. More are on their way, thanks to Andy's new little business in the old B&S shed at Winchcombe. The rails are clean cut, and polished or painted. They are also on Ebay, and we have received good compliments!

Wednesday with an Usketeer.

Two absences out of four this week. John is replacing his worn out car, while Dave is in Devon, leaving yours truly and Paul to proceed with the business.

 

 

The first gate post that we planted last week has now gone off, so was ready today to receive its gate. 

That comes as a bit of a kit. You have to put your own hinges on for example. Here Paul has attached the upper hinge to the bigger gate.

With the upper hinge on, we were able to determine the exact location of the lower eyebolt.

To our surprise this did not locate well, it would be exactly opposite a mortice and tenon joint. How is that supposed to work then? We had no choice but to cut into one of the braces, to create room for the lock nut.

We put lots of Creosote on the newly opened joint.

Capping strips for the featherboard fence, paid for by a supporter.

 

Hartwells then arrived with the capping strips, recommended (and funded!) by a blog reader. We chatted to the driver, who explained that the spacing of the hinges on steel posts is designed for steel gates, not wooden ones. We did not realise that the spacing of the hinges is not standard. Wooden gate posts were offered to us, but as we want this fence to last, we chose galvanised steel posts, which we painted black to render them less modern.

Not a real problem said Paul, everything can be overcome.

 

 

 

 

From time to time we need to be in the station, and today we saw this cameo while looking at the structure of the original roof.

As you may realise, railway preservation is not only about trains, it is a social thing. We look forward to our days on the railway, above all because of the people we meet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We took the larger gate out to the site and hung it to see the effect. Not bad !

Here Paul is just checking it for level. We now need some washers with a 1 inch internal diameter, as these weren't part of the kit.

So which do you prefer, Heras fencing, or a 5 bar wooden gate?

 

 

 

Then Paul put the main hinge on the smaller gate. It wil be a tricky juggling affair to get the two gates to be the same height, and the posts exactly vertical. And that on slightly rising ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 We are not alone by that canopy - with nothing happening at Broadway for a short while, plenty has been going on in the 'greenhouse'.

Two out of the four fascia boards that Neal made have now been rivetted. Neal also primered the rivet heads, so far only on the one side, as the boards are hard to turn over - very heavy.

 

 

There is also evidence of some manoeuvering of the constituent parts.

One of the ridge purlin centre parts has been extracted and placed in the working area. Whatever next?

 

 

 

 

 

But then we heard a rumble down the original station approach. What could it be?

We have a delivery! Anyone ordered a fully functioning Bulleid Pacific?

 

 We let P&O in, then returned to work.

Neal had arrived, and was setting out the next phase of his work to construct the iconic GWR curved ridge purlins. All this is written down of course. On a tiny scrap of paper, which he showed us.

The curved angles in the bacground are cut into shorter pieces, and are attached to the end of the ridges.

What is this going to look like? Here is the original, at Toddington. Can you see what Neal is doing?

In between two ridge purlins is a truss. These we still have to make, and they are the biggest items.

Back on the station approach, Paul had the two gates pretty much in line and at the same height. Here he is checking the second gate post for level.

That worked out Ok, so it was time to put in the grandfather post that starts off the actual fence here.

Then we mixed up the postcrete, and shovelled it in.

Next week this post will have also gone off, and then we can fit the bottom hinge and finally set up the second gate. John should be back, and we can start digging more post holes.

 

On the side of the older featherboard fence a gang from C&M was repairing the featherboards, which we must admit had looked rather moth eaten on top.

This picture, taken earlier, shows what they were up against. With the sponsored caps, our bit of fence certainly won't suffer from this phenomenon.

Our last picture from Toddington today shows one of the gala visitors leaving, preceded earlier by its tender.

It is good practice to coordinate departures and arrivals, to make maximum use of the lorry mileage.

So: Two in, and two out. (locos + their tender)

Some PWay thoughts.

Paul, head of our PWay dept, had a walk around Toddington today, and saw a number of items for your perusal:

 

 

More rail ends were found at Toddington, and were put on a trolley for recovery to Winchcombe.

 

 

At Winchcombe they were stored adjacent to the old B&S shed, which has become Andy's workshop for turning the rail cut offs into cash for the railway. He polishes them, and some get painted as well, if the customer wants it that way.

In the shed there's been a lot of progress on one of our other heavy freight locos, 3850.

The buffer beam and cab controls look fantastic.

Much work remains in the area of the slide bars, which, it now seems, also suffered from the heavy shunt the loco once got in its BR days.

9351 was seen waiting for the lorry to take it home, as you saw earlier in the blog.

After the departure of our class 73 we now have two class 20s, which one day may be seen running back to back.

What we think is the later arrival (correct us if mistaken) has now been painted in BR blue. With a bit of luck it is hoped to have it available for the gala.

In Winchcombe yard spare stone left over from the gabions in the river Isbourne were put into dumpy bags, for easier transport later on.

 

 

A poor looking throughbolter as also discovered.

You can see here that it is close to the fishplate, and that the hammering has pounded it right into the wooden sleeper.

The replacement was then robelled, and now all is well again.