Fourth course started

Friday at Broadway.

Further brick laying at Broadway on a very sunny Friday, with the added interest of visits from both Growlers, as well as a second train hauled by our Peak loco.

The first to arrive at Broadway was the Peak, the Growler train having gone in the opposite direction.

No fewer than 7 trains were booked to arrive at Broadway during the day.

A bit over an hour later the Growler train arrived at Broadway. This was double headed, something we had never seen before.

The Growler train looked to be quite well filled; the Peak hauled train, less so.

Here is the green Growler running round the train, having left the blue one attached to the other end of the train.

Inside the signal box, time stood still:

These levers haven't moved for a long time, and operationally, never.

Spiders' webs are building up in our new but never used signal box.

Here is the all Growler train at Broadway, ready to leave. D6948 is at the head, 37 215 at the rear.

We took a video of the departure. As Blogger only allows short videos to be inserted directly, we cut it short, to show just the bellow and turbo whistle at the start:

After those two departures (there would be several more) it was back to work.

John was on the third of the five courses of blues on the plinth, now working along the back. There are 67 bricks between stanchions.

During our work the Peak ran round too. We wondered if every train had new customers, or was it the same people going up and down all day long?

John laid 80 bricks on Friday, which works out to about half way along the back, if you count the section with the 'Gents'.

After laying 80 bricks, a lot of time is taken up with cleaning the work and pointing what was laid during the session.

Saturday with the gang.

Seven of us on Saturday, perhaps slightly fewer than usual, when it was announced that we would be changing sleepers at Toddington - again.

As this is on a stretch of 1982 laid track, many of the life expired sleepers were second hand when laid, and are now really at the end of their life. About half are still GWR throughbolters, so hammers, wedges and the blog reader sponsored maul were out in use.

 

 

 

This is the sort of defective sleeper we're talking about.

It is split down the middle, the split going right through the location of the chairbolt.

'X' marks the spot.

 

Being near the middle of the line, we had to wait for two trains to pass before we had any decent time to pull sleepers in and out.

One train goes down to Winchcombe; 15 mins later the other comes back to Toddington. We do sometimes manage to change two sleepers in that short interval (10 mins granted by the signalman) but only if we have prepped the sites beforehand (dug out the ballast)

One sleeper being 'prepped' by digging it out from the old ballast.

 

Lunch time was very pleasant, sitting on the flap of the new Transit, which half a sleeper dragged out from the tracks at your feet.

After lunch and 5 sleepers later we went up to the station itself to check up on a crossing that was reported to be noisy.

We came along this long freight consist, which was about to be shunted northwards by the newly repainted 03.

Bert Ferrule and Adam check the - er - check rails.

2807 was waiting in the station, receiving more water and by the looks of the smoke, some extra coal on the fire too.

Not long after we had to step aside, as the big freight engine accelerated its 7 coach train out of the station.

 

Then it was back to the south end of the yard to tidy up.

The wreckage of the old sleepers was put on the truck, so that we leave a tidy site.

After parking up the vans we had a quick look at the new S&T building. The doors and windows are in. It looks like we are awaiting the visit of the electricians. Three large piles of ballast have arrived. No doubt these will be used to level the site, which has various holes and gullies in it at the moment.

Tuesday at Broadway.

Another day at the (brick) coal face, with just two of us on site.

On arrival at Broadway we were struck by the gaudiness of multiple signs and vinyl posters that have been put up. A new notice declining any responsibility for the public car park has been attached to the fence, as well as 3 single use vinyl posters, about 10 yards' worth, that now go up the drive. What becomes of the vinyl sheets afterwards? This random display does not say 'living museum', the image that our Trust is trying to give.

Up on platform 2 brick laying started again on Tuesday, and the waiting piles of blues have been reduced to just one, not yet opened. There is steady progress then.

 

Or there was. At 10 o clock both Cleeve Hill and Bredon Hill suddenly disappeared from view, signalling the arrival of heavy rain.

This duly came, accompanied by so much wind that we fled to the other side and bought ourselves coffee, to sit out the mini storm.

 

The forecast was quite correct though, and after the squalls in the morning the rest of the day was bright, albeit still breezy.

John continued with the third course of blues, closing a gap at the rear. In the picture he is tapping down a specially cut brick, which fits in behind one of the stanchions.

Visiting engines on Tuesday were 2807, and Foremarke Hall. The crew of the 2-8-0 must have much regretted their open cab, as they drove in reverse through the squall over Broadway.

But soon the sun was out again.

Having completed the third course at the back and across the south end, John resumed work on the fourth course at the front.

At the end of the day he had laid 87 blues, taking the fourth course half way along the front.

We look forward to seeing some of the decorative plinth stretchers being laid along here.

The other visitor on Tuesday, 7903 Foremarke Hall, is seen here in front of the stationmaster's house, just about ready to start its run round.

We were up at the top of the cutting to water a number of the replacement pine seedlings. There are two rows as per original, but the top row suffers from lack of water and has developed less quickly because of it. The middle row on the other hand is blossoming, and is now up to 8ft high.

Picture by Paul Fuller.

Finally for Tuesday, a little tidbit of information about the Winchcombe Road bridge. This is one for which the railway is not responsible.

A contractor with a cherry picker has been hired in to check the underside, and we understand that the intention is to replace the (concrete) deck later this year. As it's not our bridge we are not financially involved here.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Three of us today - no Dave.

 

 

While collecting the woodwork we would need, we noticed that Neal (absent during Broadway's brick laying on Tuesday ) had made fantastic progress with the canopy metalwork instead.

What you see here is the start of the last items needed for the canopy, the first of the four trusses laid out, and partially assembled.

With this under way, it was also noticable that the various random lengths of steel piled up under the greenhouse are visibly getting fewer.

Great progress !

 

Nearby, the contractors that have been laying drains in the Toddington North cutting were loading their machinery on to a large articulated flatbed.

A quick chat revealed that the largest part of the work is complete (hence return of the diggers and dumper) but some minor stuff like pointing the drainage pits still needs to be done.

 

 

Off to work then.

The first thing to do is to remove two more panels of the Heras fence, to give us room to assemble the next two sets of rails.

 

 

The pile of dismantled Heras panels is growing steadily, replaced by the post & rail fence in the background.

After painting the last 8 pieces of wood for the fence, we brought up 8 rails to make up the next two sets.

John is digging the first of his two holes. This will be the corner post, from where the fence turns left to arrive near the gas marker post.

Once the first hole was dug we put the post in straight away, so that the Postcrete can go off and we can use the new post to set up the next and final one.

We had the visit of a Dutch milkmaid today - no, wait, it's John! He was fetching water for the Postcrete, but also to pour down the hole he is digging, to soften the ground.

 

 

Another visitor was today's stationmaster, come up to see what we were doing along the Toddington station approach.

It met with approval - phew!

Lunch was held al fresco in the car park. The break also allowed the Postcrete to go off.

With that we were able to measure the distance to the last post that we plan to insert, and John dug the corresponding hole quite quickly - away from the drive there are no stones underground, and his progress was swift.

Here is where we are now, with one more set of rails to go to the top of the drive. Then the fence will swing right, out of the picture.

Once all the posts and rail are in place, we will go back to the beginning and attach the smaller intermediate posts, two per section. 

Although the fence is nice and straight here, it is less so around the big tree, as we had to swerve it a bit to avoid roots and an underground cable. We will revisit the line of the fence and make some small adjustments to make it look straighter.

The car park still looked quite busy, and 2807 always makes a fine show at the head of its rake.

Here the Toddington stationmaster today stands proud to receive the train.