Busy Toddington.

Saturday at Southam.

A good gang of 8 on Saturday, not counting a new recruit - Steve ! An engineer by profession, hope he knows how to wield a keying hammer. We shall find out next week.

The first train of the trundled by as we loaded the tools. Our mission was a list of (minor) faults reported by track patrollers in the Southam area.

We are now down to one flatbed truck - the blue Transit. The white one is currently off MOT and off the road, the Citroen was sold with similar issues, as were the two Landrovers. We now have a Ranger, mostly for its crew transport ability (5), but also with a modest load bearing capacity.

 

 

We entered at Bishop's Cleve and drove south to the Kayte Lane foot crossing. This seems to have fallen out of use, and is quite overgrown.

At the same time we found this drainage pit with a lid thrown into it.

 

Rather than call the drainage gang, we decided to save them the bother and reposition the lid straight away.

 

Call us suspicious, but a few yards away is a new caravan site, set up across the route of the footpath.

Could that be dissuading people from using it now?

 

We had a long wash list of missing clips, broken plastics and loose (or alternatively: seized) bolts, but motored through it with ease.

 

A bit slower was the phenomenon of wet beds, resulting in pumping and the white dust evident on sleeper ends.

We robelled the sleepers here, which is a temporary fix, but poor drainage in the shallow cutting leading up to Kayte Lane bridge is the underlying issue here. That needs more intensive surgery.

We picked out two representative rocks for you:

- One sharp edged and still good,

- The other, all rounded off, and no longer suitable for holding the track in place. 

It's amazing what this water based pumping can do, merely through the passage of trains on top of it.

 

Operations were interupted by the necessary passage of trains, here one headed by 2807.

 

Occasionally we would stop for a brew, but the yummies had to be carefully guarded.

Stop thief !

 

Moving on south, there were more bolts that needed tightening / unseizing.

We did have a rash of seized fishplate bolts a while back, and there seem to be fewer now.

It seems to us that the seizures may have been caused by over tightening in the past, and thus part stripping the thread.

We now use a torque wrench for the last bit of tightening.

The fence alongside the last straight before CRC allowed us to stand close to the line and admire the big Pacific.

 

Later P&O ran round, allowing this portrait by the bracket signal. It's raining now - you can see the drops in front of the smoke box.

Walking opposite P2 at CRC we noticed a striking difference in the colour of the mortar used. At the time the mixes were made with a shovel straight into the mixer, and this may have led to different ratios of cement and sand. Or perhaps the colour additive was forgotten one day?

At Broadway we are doing our best to avoid this, by measuring all the sand and cement with the same bucket, and using a consistent quantity of colourant with an old cup.

 

We also had a debate about a word on this new sign ( we seem to have a rash of addtional signage these days)

In the last line, is it 'railway staff which may be present, or 'railway staff who may be present'?

During the day we ticked off quite a few of the reported faults, and felt rather good about doing so.

We deserved a tea and a sit down, but not for some, when an old diesel approached...

Monday at Broadway.

Two of us on brick laying, with Neal at Toddington on ridge purlin assembly.

 

It was the second day on the second course of the plinth.

This course is laid on a DPC membrane, so required a lot of mortar, and a special trip to the local hardware shop for another tin of black dye. We get through a lot.

The GWR used finely sieved ash to colour the mortar dark grey, but we haven't got any of that.

 

While crossing the footbridge to bring in the tools we were disappointed to see that we had had a dog walking visitor.

The result was this sprinkle of urine !

John doggedly laid one 3.7Kg blue after another during the day, using almost two whole mixes.

The result at the end of the afternoon was the second course of blues down the front and across to the back corner. We counted 95 blues laid in all, a very good performance for the day, given that the DPC itself takes a lot of time and extra mortar to bed it down as well.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

All 4 of us today, and good progress, with interesting stuff happening around us.

 

 

Paul brought a length of wood to attach to the bottom of the larger gate. This will allow him to mount the drop bolt a little lower down, as it didn't quite reach the ground. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave brought his Titan SDS drill, a nice piece of kit which comes with a case containing every sort of drill bit you could imagine.

With a large drill bit Dave made a hole in the tarmac, into which he inserted a tube for the bottom of the drop bolt.

The pair of gates is now fully installed, but could do with some sort of lock. We did bring a length of chain for the padlock, but it proved to be too small.

 

While John was digging the next two post holes further along, Dave got out a shovel and cleaned the edges of the tarmac. We like to leave a tidy site. He also back filled any holes left after planting posts.

With the edge of the road revealed again, Dave joined Paul in fixing the rails to last week's posts planted.

If you feel that the fence line is not quite straight, this is because we are constrained by the location of a power cable +/- along the same line, so can't plant our posts just where we happen to want them. The roots of the large tree on the right also dictated the positions of some of the posts, off the ideal line.

In this picture you can see how near to the existing vegetation John has to dig some of the holes.

Lunch time came all too soon. We have availed ourselves of a small occasional table, and now eat our snap in great comfort.

Here is a record shot of the fence marching uphill, away from the pair of gates that we installed. While it looks kind of finished, we in fact still need to fit pairs of intermediary posts between the uprights.

The redundant Heras fencing panels are being stored nearby.

This is what the finished gates look like now. A large one for vehicles, and a smaller one for pedestrians coming from the coaches parked off to the left. (if any)

 

 

The last shot taken this Wednesday shows the constrictions of the site, principally where a large tree intrudes into the intended fence line. We are aiming to place it 1m from the edge, leaving enough room for a lawn mower to get up outside it, and high enough off the ground to get the nose of the lawn mower underneath.

Elsewhere on a busy Toddington site today:

On Monday Neal worked on the second ridge purlin, which looks pretty much finished here, and is probably waiting for a fork lift to become available to lift it to the right, and put the third part completed purlin in its place.

 

The steam department can be seen here installing the repositioned information boards for the various locomotive projects that we have on site. These used to be located near to the coal bunkers, but were cut off from public sight when the perimeter around the coal bunkers was made larger.

 

 

 

A team from the C&M department spent the day replacing spalled bricks at the end of the parlour road.

These will have been laid in the early 1980s, some of the earliest activities on site after we purchased the railway line.

 

 

 

Another team from our C&M department was repainting the outside of the Cotswolds Halt building.

Instead of chocolate brown it is now in dark stone.

 

 

 

 

 

Painting the building was no easy task, and we see the gang here on the platform, 6 on a 10ft bench, enjoying a rest and a mug of tea.

Nearby, by the museum coach, Keith and Greg were stripping a GWR cash box for refurbishment. It was all sorts of colours (after a long service life), but was once varnished, which is the effect that we would like to achieve again.

 

 

 

A quick look into the Cotswolds halt showed a fine offering of boot scrapers (£40, for 2807) and repurposed rail ends for such things as anvils or door stops. Andy, who is organising this amazing little fund raiser for the PWay tool fund, has even resorted to cleaning and painting them.

They are £35 for a 12 inch one, and £25 for a 9 inch one. Pay in the Cotswolds Halt. Other sizes on request.

 

 

 

We were intrigued by a new (2023) acquisition in the Narrow Gauge. (have you been on it yet?)

 

 

This is a standard gauge Wickham trolley, re-gauged to 2ft. It is in perfect working condition, and in fact its proud owner briefly started it for us as proof.

It's number is DB965082. There's more about it here:

http://www.toddington-narrow-gauge.co.uk/stock/Wickham/

 

What we found amazing was the transmission, known as friction drive. This is very basic, but effective. It works with a disk fixed to the crank axle, which is touched by the outside perimeter of a disk linked to the driving axle at 90 degrees. A lever at the top moves the driving disk from the centre of the engine disk to the outside, thereby making the trolley go faster, or slower, or backwards. Ingenious !

 

 

 

Originally the trolley was fitted with a JAP V twin, but was later re-engined with a single cylinder 650cc Petter.

You can make out the valve rods here.

Hand start of course, but no problem as there is a valve lifter.

Diesel days.

Diesel days.

Saturday on the PWay was a quiet one, as most were on a slinging refresher course. But it was also a diesel gala day, so not without interest.

These large vinyl posters advertised the 3 day event. Broadway had two large vinyls at the bottom of the drive.

In the Winchcombe visitor centre there was a large model railway layout, split into two halves - public, and behind a screen, a large fiddle yard.

Members of the PWay team stare at the model railway...

With a bit of patience you could get some quite realistic shots of the freight trains at 'Abbotswood'.

 

 

We're not that much into model railways, but must admit that the scenery was very well executed. It wasn't too fussy, with the more open spaces that you normally see on the full size railway.

 

From the window of the training centre you also got a good shot of your own trains, and this time, very realistic.

Here 37 215 exchanges tokens with the Winchcombe signalman as the first train of the day heads south.

After a while (and a cup of tea with biscuits in the training centre) the initial train was followed by one headed by the second class 37. Notice the short rake - but with more trains running up and down, one of the reasons we scheduled the training for that Saturday.

 

 

To make use of the day, we decided to get out the Transit and transfer the collected GWR throughbolters to Toddington. 

Here they are, 26 of them, nearly 3/4 of a tonne. They are for the 2807 gang, to turn into boot scrapers, for sale.

We also dropped off 3 hardwood blocks for the loco dept to use. They come from good bits of discarded timbers.

Elsewhere in the loco yard was our visitor from Llangollen, 5310.

Here it is doing some work in the yard.

That work was pushing cold 2807 back into the shed - it was diesel day, after all.

 

Our own class 24 was there too, for inspection.

Not long afterwards, with its engine nicely warmed up, visitor 5310 went out on the main line.

Here it is in the station, just leaving.... backwards. It was on the rear of the Broadway train.

The car park was well filled, with some people having to double park, and also make use of the upper coach park. A quick check of the Cotswolds halt at 11 showed it to be empty. Let's hope that fills up later one with people wanting lunch and a drink. The bar was open too.

The trains looked quite well filled, and the weather was kind, which no doubt helped. Here is our new found pair of class 20s, with the new blue 20 228 out in front.

This combination seemed extra popular, with a lot of enthusiasts hanging out of the window in the first carriage. Unfortunately there is not much noisy action while in our extensive station limits.

In Toddington, the RATs trust has put up two GWR posters from the inter war years that we have sourced. These are weatherproof - they are printed on an aluminium laminate and are colourfast.

The original style of posters on GWR stations of our period was to fix double or quad royal frames to sets of three battens. At Toddington you can still see the shadows on the brickwork where they were. The RATs have replaced one set that was on the end wall; a second set existed on the left, but a non - heritage aware person has put up a single posterboard with a modern poster on it instead.

For a while the original quad royal poster board had modern posters stuck on it too (while we arranged for the replicas from the interwar years, Toddington's period) and these have now been transferred to the modern featherboard fence opposite. Here they still serve their purpose, but no longer affect the period look of the station.

A less frenetic day on the Pway also offered the opportunity of chats with some mates you don't see so often.

We found Margaret, a PWay track walker and member of the Friends of Winchcombe Station, manning the Usk hut, which was open for sales of magazines etc to benefit the FoWS .

It was good to see the Usk hut doing something useful. Margaret had also acquired an excellent antique stool, which was just right for the height of the counter section. 

Note also the filled coal scuttle, and the railwayman's lamp in the fireplace.

Looking good !

Wednesday with the Usketeers on the fence.

Dave is back, we are back to our full strength of 4. That resulted in a great day, and the warm, pleasant weather played its part too.

Neal from Broadway wasn't there, but he had been on Monday, leaving a second arched ridge purlin a long way to completion.

It's here in the foreground. The first is stood upright centre right. Only one more to go, the third.

Neal though he might make a start on the trusses in a fortnight. Now that's progress ! The trusses form the largest item on our to make list.

 

After a welcome cup of coffee at 8 am the Usketeers got to work too, in blazing sun shine. (at last)

Each week we dig two post holes, and concrete in the relative grandfather posts.

Then the week after we can add the woodwork, while John digs the holes for the following week.

 

On the left Paul is fixing the rails, while John and Dave, under the big tree, are digging holes.

Yours truly completed the capping on the featherboard fence, and dug a post hole for the retainer post for the gate. Then it was more creosoting, to keep up with the others - such fun!

A cabin hook was fitted to the smaller of the two gates, so that these are now ready, except for the drop bolt in the middle.

The tree visible in the picture above was a concern. It is very tall indeed, and our fence would pass right in front of it.

 

Undaunted, Dave started digging the post hole, and by luck or skill managed not to find any large roots.

Here the post hole, 2ft deep, has just been completed.

The featherboard gate has had its length of capping too. The little gap on the right still needs filling, but we haven't had time. The gap is used very frequently, we wonder why there is a gate at all?

We heard a distant roar above us, and took the shot below, with maximum zoom.

Is that a B52 there, accompanied by two fighters? They were heading SW, generally in the direction of the USA...

We were pleased to see that the latest permanent GWR poster that we have sourced is now up. The location is the P2 waiting room at Toddington.

Cheltenham Races (1936!) is very fitting for our line.

Soon it was lunch time.

We treated ourselves to rolls filled with suasages and onions - delicious! Dave certainly thought so.

During the day we took down the first panels of Heras fencing, to reveal the post and rail fence behind. The Heras fence is supported periodically by a triangle behind, and that gets in the way of the permanent fence that we are erecting.

Mid afternoon it was time to concrete in the grandfather posts into the holes dug earlier the same day.

Note how close to our fence route that big tree is. Keeping to the required distance of 1m from the kerb here could be tricky.

 

But the concrete post by the big tree went in as well, we were lucky there. We also took down some of the invasive ivy up the tree.

The last thing we did today was to set the gate retaining post inside the featherboard fence.

Next week it will receive a cabin hook, and then that's the gate finished.

The material to close the gap is stored up against the fence, so we are ready for the job, just too busy with the next one.

 

We've been storing the liberated Heras fencing panels upright against the paling fence, but today the steam dept came and requested that we let them have half a dozen for their wood pile.

All the other panels will eventually have to go back into storage, so that is half a dozen fewer that we have to deal with. Good for both parties then.

 

At the end of the day we called in at Broadway, where John and Neal have been laying bricks, after a temporary hiatus when we ran out of black dye powder.

A big roll of 225mm DPC has been found, and this enabled John to make a start on the second course of blues along the plinth.

Two mixes were made - more than usual - and John reckons he put down over 100 blues. Great progress here too then.

To round off the day we relaxed outside the cafe with a slice of cake and a cuppa. Life is good....

A GWR 2-8-0 beyond hope.

Or so we thought. This Barry wreck was retrieved from the P&BR in 2011 and taken to the K&ESR. It had stood on a Welsh mountainside for 24 years, exactly the same number of years that it had stood in the scrapyard. It was the last 4200 to be extracted, so all the useful bits were missing.

Photo credit: 4253 Locomotive Co Ltd.

How could this rusty thing ever run again? All the connecting and coupling rods were missing, all the brass fittings, the chimney base shattered, tanks, cab and bunker only good for patterns.

We signed up though !

It was estimated to be a 10 - 12 year project, and so far we have had - 12 years. But it's nearly ready, not bad for a team on the KESR that has never restored a Barry wreck before.

The bunker before...

... and the bunker after, a complete refabrication.

These two pictures give you an idea of the extent of the work that was necessary. And of the quality achieved.

The reason for this blogpost is the excellent news that the boiler has returned from its overhaul. It too has had extensive work done, which has rather depleted the coffers for the final push towards its relaunch.

 

Here the boiler has just been hauled into the yard at Rolvenden. The frames, bunker and smokebox of 4253 are in the foreground.

 

Amazing, but within 40 minutes the overhauled boiler was back in the frames.

All the rods were missing, and had to be traced or completely remade. But they're on now.

When they saw the wreck of 4253, out in the open air for 48 years, many people thought that this was an impossible project. Too far gone, too expensive, they'll never raise the money.

Well, here is their answer:

 

 (Three photo credits: Alan Crotty, 4253 Locomotive Co Ltd.)

 

The restoration is still not fully funded, there is still a gap. If you would like to give them a hand for the final push, you can do so here:

https://www.4253.co.uk/how-to-help/

Two other restoration projects on the KESR are also of interest:

This 'boiler on wheels' is the next project for the 4253 people. It came from the same source, not long after 4253 arrived on the KESR. This is GWR 0-6-2 5668, which has spent a similar length of time at Barry and at the P&BR. As you can see it is completely bare, but some new parts for it have already been made, in parallel with its larger brother.

The other interesting item is another rare GWR survivor, railcar W20W. That actually ran in 1974 immediately after the KESR reopening, but was soon withdrawn due to bodywork issues. It too has seen an extensive overhaul, which is nearing completion.

Maybe if we ask the KESR very very nicely, they will lend it to us for a little while? Those railcars did run on our line, we have a picture of one passing Long Marston signal box. Now wouldn't that be nice.

Your blogger still has a roneoed set of operating instructions printed 50 years ago !