A start on the reds

Friday at Broadway.

A lovely sunny day, and more blues got laid. 

We're on the final row of blue plinth bricks now, all the way across the front. The sunny weather made this an excellent day for laying bricks.

Over on P1 Ben and Neal were installing (for the second time, the first time the hands ran at unequal speeds) the station clock. At the end of the day it ran correctly - result !

Yours truly spent the day on sorting and crushing bricks. There is a vast pile under the stairs, so it will keep us happily occupied for weeks to come. From the detritus we have already filled one pallet with cleaned and recycled bricks, originally in the P2 waiting room, or built into one of the platforms that were demolished in 1963.

 

We suddenly realised that among the bricks and stones was one with letters on it - this one. It says 'B III'. The top is flat, with a slight slope to one side and a drip strip underneath.

Neal diagnosed this as coming from the top edge of the Gents toilet, where a stone cap sealed off the brickwork at the top. It must have been part of a kit.

 

 

At lunch time we ate our sandwiches in the signal box, accompanied by George from S&T.

There was a Gold Fire & Drive train today, and you see George here watching P&O trundle into Broadway with  the (almost) empty coaches, but one happy driver.

George showed us how the future Broadway signalman could see where the incoming train was, and he lit up the display for us. There was a buzzer too, which the train activated a bit south of the Childswickham bridge.

P&O then ran round its treain.

This was the view from inside Broadway signal box, as the big Pacific ran round. Photography is miraculous - you can't see the thick spider's webs.

Maybe next year?

At the end of the day John had laid 71 blue plinths. He was over half way down, so one more day should sort that. We, in the meantime, started stacking reds at the back, so all is ready for the big transit from one colour to the next.

At the end of the day there was an interesting conversation with a visitor from Warwick, who was a builder, starting to wind down from his business, and looking for something else to do. We sang the GWSR's praises, so here's hoping that it leads to a new recruit.

Meanwhile, 30 lengths of 98lb and 113lb FB rail has arrived from Bicester, on top of the sleepers (in the corner) already delivered. A second load of concrete sleepers is still pending.

Excellent work by our PWay manager, who arranged this for us at little or no cost.

Saturday, out with the gang.

Prescott today, a lovely part of the countryside.

This view is at Middle Stanley. It's a complex of holiday cottages, with a smashing view - our railway! But it's certainly very charming.

We let the first train through, just as the early morning rain was clearing. Here's P&O, heading for Cheltenham at 10am.

After the first train was through we set out our work boards, and met up with the rest of the team, and David, recently qualified, in the Telehandler.

This was needed to pull out a defective concrete sleeper, one of several earmarked along this stretch. They look to have had their various faults for a long time, probably since they were laid in the 1990s.

While Nick clears the last of the ballast out of the crib, David in the Telehandler pulls out the defective sleeper.

By this time the second train was due, now headed by newly restored 3850.

This is the defective sleeper. It's missing one of its hoops, but seems to have been laid anyway, in the rush to the south.

Dave, still with us today, was on the team that day, but remembers 'nothing'. Very wise.

After the replacement sleeper had been inserted by the Telehandler, the defective one was dropped on to our new Transit.

After some calculations, we discovered that because of its Palfinger tail lift (meaning extra weight) the net loading capacity of this truck is very modest, only around 645 Kg. That means after its crew and their equipment, it can only carry one sleeper back to base. Not really enough for our gang.

Some of the SHC clips in this area seemed very loose. A newer, stiffer clip did not help, so our suspicions moved on to the pad that was underneath.

This was it - a thin, ruined bit of pad that looked nothing like the new ones we use today. It resembled an offcut of carpet tile.

We put a new pad underneath, and after that the SHC clip went in tight, as it should.

In view of the clement weather we ate al fresco on the Prescott Road bridge. A train came by at a snail's pace as we sat there, having been slowed by our advance site board, but we weren't working. Sorry !

 

 

We weren't really geared up to change a lot of pads on Saturday, and anyway that job wasn't on our list. So we did what we could with the handful of pads that we happened to have with us.

More work is needed here.

One job that was on our list was to deal with a sleeper with a bent hoop, so no SHC clip was fitted. These hoops often get bent during transport and stacking.

We tried to bend the hoop back, with our two 'most muscular' team members on the ends of two bars, but without success.

The next idea will be to heat it up with an oxy-acetylene set, and try again. It would be a shame to waste the sleeper otherwise.

The passage of trains, and some surface evidence told us that some sleepers were pumping, so we had a go at that too, with all 4 machines:

Little Freddie

Big Al

Bill, and 

Ben

And then we found two hats along the line, but soaking wet, and possibly there for some time now.

If you recognise one of these as yours, let us know - Dave has them.

And don't look out of the open window with a hat on. That's our advice.

Andy's stock of rail end cut offs has shrunk, after his successful sales of quite a few now. People use them as anvils, or door stops etc. We still have more to sell, and may even add to the stock, with future cut and shut operations. You can buy one from the Cafe at Todington, or via our PWay group. We can accommodate different length requirements, with a bit of notice. One chap wanted to make a table out of 4 bits - we were happy to help. It brings in vital shekels for our tool fund.

Tuesday at Broadway.

The end of the plinths? Not quite. Just part of the front left to do, after a damp day on Tuesday.

Twentyfive blue plinth headers laid on Tuesday, about 20 remain to be done.

News has come in that the GWSR DMU group have indeed sold their working 3 car set L425, to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway. It's going to leave in November.

Currently set L425 is still running services for us. Here it is entering Broadway on Tuesday, so take a last look. Or even travel on it one last time. It'll run on the blue timetable until the Autumn gala.

On the P1 build we had a little milestone too - John laid the first red brick, by the door to the future store room (ex GENTS).

The ample blue plastic sheeting is there to protect the 6 courses of blues from mortar dropping down. It will be pulled away when the top course of reds goes on.

While John and Bob, both of whom laid many of the bricks on the P1 building, discuss the start of the red brick section, the class 117 prepares to reverse back out of the station.

The SRPS have posted a video of their acquisition of the class 117 from the GWSR DMU group. The set is of course privately owned, as is all motive power on the GWSR.

https://youtu.be/dg9cWYl6lCE?si=g-RdKS3zR70TUjsw

We await with interest news of how the DMU slot in our blue timetable will be filled next season. The same owner group also has a class 122 'Bubble Car', which would be an interesting alternative, but at the time of writing its restoration wasn't completely finished yet. DMU 51372 was also sold, as a source of spare parts.

As we are now definitely within the autumn period, steam heating is being used. You can just see it leaking ourt from under this carriage.

Having laid 25 of the front plinths remaining to be done (the rest will be done next time), John turned his skills to the end wall of the future store room.

The first course was stretchers, so with English bond the next course should be?

Neal and yours truly debated on how to break the news to him gently.

At the end of the day John had duly taken down again all but the first course, and started again. We aim to get things historically correct.

Always a pleasure is the passing of the light engine running round, here in the form of newly restored 3850. We often get a toot (little wisp of steam by the bridge) or a friendly wave from the footplate crew.

A few moments later 3850 was back at the head of the train, and ready to leave. Now is the time to put some of that coal on the fire...

 

We were amused to discover a small toy left on the pile of blocks for us, presumably to inspire us as to the shape of the new waiting room.

It's going to be better than that !

Later in the day Neal came to help us out.

Here he has brought a barrow load of half bricks. As we are laying to the English bond, rows should alternate between headers and stretchers. As the outside wall is only one brick wide (to allow for a cavity inside for insulation purposes, which the original building did not have) the header course has to be in half bricks, which we cut on site.

In the background John is rebuilding the three courses he initially built all in stretchers...