Double dip.

Thursday and Friday at Broadway.

Laying bricks again, at last. The weather was warm, almost too warm, and the team worked for three days in succession - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 

 

Wednesday saw further work at the back, which was on row 13.

This is the opening shot on Thursday. 

 

It was a day of full on sun, leading to some very blue skies.

Here are Neal and John, working along the back. 

Neal provided a lot of the logistics on Thursday, with this impressive pile of 'headers' (half bricks) ready for John to use, and within easy reach.

Yours truly was on brick cutting for most of the day, requiring an extensive shower in the evening to get rid of all the red dust from the hair.

 

Neal also spotted an inconsistency in the bricks laid alongside the RH door.

The third brick up should have been a long one, but was laid with a short example.

 

During the day we also had a visitor: BETTON GRANGE.  It was on a photo shoot day, stopping at various places along the line for pictures to be taken.

Our turn came at lunch time, when the loco, dressed to head The Cornishman, ran into Broadway station.

Due to the low but very bright light photography was not easy, especially if the unannounced arrival interupts a nice cup of tea with a volunteer in Auntie Wainwright's.

Returning to the site we found that John had quickly put back the bricks removed by Neal, but in the right order. All is well.

At the end of the day John was working on row 15 at the back. Having re-laid the bricks by the door, he also took an interest in the corner, and he decided to raise it a little. There was talk of setting in the window cill here (currently sitting loose).

 

 

Back the next day... well, the weather is kind to us, so let's get this done. Tiring though - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday on the trot. Probably Monday too.

Neal joined us, and started the day by making up a frame for the 'toilet' window, around which brick laying can continue.

There's another on the right of the door. This will actually be a store room or workshop. We have enough toilets, and connecting another to the system is expensive and complicated. So we decided to copy it, but use the room for something to replace the 5 steel containers still on site. They need to go, in due course.

 

 

 

 

John laid bricks on the 15th course at the back, and down the north end. 

Here, a slightly shorter closure header was required.

 

 

 

 

 

And then it went in, and that's another course completed here.

As you can see, all half bricks, to simulate the English bond style. 

Immediately behind it is the insulation, so we can't lay full size headers on this building.

 

 

 

 After completing the course on the north end, John Came round to the front.

While we were away stripping paint off one of the benches, Neal and John laid in a window cill. Some infill was also put around the sides.

 

 

 

John then continued building up the sides, until the window cill was actually bricked in.

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day, after also laying a course of reds along the north wall, John had made an excellent start on this, our first window. Because it was at the front, the progress was more apparent thaan when he works at the back, which is a long, solid wall that swallows up large numbers of bricks.

 

 

Saturday, out with the gang.

An excellent turnout of 12 on Saturday, quite a large gang. And it was a fun day - nice and dry, and all the work took place right outside the mess coach.

 

 

The job was to replace a number of timbers under the northern end of the platform loop at Winchcombe. Those currently in place are likely from the 1980s, and are now definitely life expired.

Here we are, bringing the replacement timbers in on a trolley. They are heavy!

 

 

 

As it's still early in the day, we see the first down train to CRC come by, again hauled by BETTON GRANGE.

 

'You carry the heavy equipment, and I will supervise...'

 

 

 

The tools are all out, and while we wait for the line to clear, various conversations are taking place.

 

 

 

 

 

Another hindrance to the start of serious work was some urgent C&W shunting. They were asked by the signalman to hurry up, and they jolly well did too. Very smart shunting here.

 

 

With a line block given to us we could make a start.

A wrinkle in the intended proceedings was the presence of point rodding at both ends of the timbers. This would be in the way.

We dug a deeper channel to one side of the timber, so that the back end could slide down into it, while we lifted the front end over the rodding.

 

 

 

 

The replacement timber was inserted in a similar way. Being 13ft long and made of hardwood, the timber as a heavy one and required the use of six men, where for regular sleepers we only use four.

 

 

 

 

Our hired in DMU then came in. We noted that it was well loaded, much more than the 3 car DMU that we used to have was. 

 

Possibly this was the novelty factor, or else because with a single car DMU you can see right through it, and see much more of the line.

With the DMU heading off towards Greet tunnel, BETTON GRANGE could set off in the opposite direction, and past our work site.

 

 

 

 

We replaced a first timber, then took three more off the trolley. One was brand new, and heavier still than the others.

 

 

 

 

 

Once the new timber was in, we slid the chairs under, and then packed stone under it, so that it was up against the rail and could be drilled for the chair bolts.

Sam and Tony really put their hearts into it, but there is nothing like pure, unadulterated body weight to lever up a heavy timber like this. 

 

This is the whole timber being levered up in the picture.

Bright yellow ferrules show where the timber will be drilled. 

 

During the day we replaced 4 timbers like this. We were very pleased with ourselves. It was a job efficiently done, in between all the regular trains and shunting movements at the start, and one timber was changed in as little as half an hour from start to finish.

 

 

 

 

BETTON GRANGE reappeared, and once again we stopped and waited. 

The advantage with working at Winchcombe is that trains cross here, so we only have one wait per train pair, instead of two elsewhere.

Here the team take a welcome rest, while the Bubble Car trundles in. It was again well filled.

At the end of the afternoon we tidied up the tools - not far to walk here, and no trucks involved as we were 'playing at home' and then went for a cup of tea in the Coffeepot.

It's open again, at last. We did miss it, over the winter. 

Back at the metal skip, we had another look...

 

 

To our boundless delight (it depends what turns you on) we found another cast iron fire bucket bracket under a pile of nuts and bolts, and this one is a GWR casting. 

With one in store at home, that means we now have a matching pair, and one that is authentic - we are a museum, after all.

They will be used for the fire buckets on the end of the P2 building at Broadway. 

 

 

 

 

Less nice was what we saw in the general waste skip, a large section of plastic safety fencing. The railway bought a large quantity of these about 10 years ago, and we wondered at the time what the end of life plan was for such large pieces of plastic.

The answer is: The skip.

 

Plastic is not good. If burned, it generates toxic gases, and if sent to land fill, it breaks down into micro plastics and ends up in the food chain. Researchers are now finding them in every part of our bodies.

Monday loading sleepers.

Three volunteers, Paul and two contractors on site at Hayles on Monday. The line is now reinstated, after all the wartime economy sleepers were exchanged for CS1 concretes over two jobs (2023 and 2025).

Now the site needs cleaning up. We have one week of non-running (mid-week) left.

A tractor-trailer and a digger were hired in, to help with lifting, and to load the spent ballast and take it back to the yard at Winchcombe.

Here the tractor arrives, as Dave and Simon look on. 

A shunter and the Warflat were also booked to arrive.

No Warflat in sight though. Just as well, as the tractor immediately failed to start again, due to a weak battery.

Jump leads and a truck were found.

David looked on, hands in his pockets.

After much tooting in the distance (shunting the yard?) the train finally arrived, just as the tractor lurched into gear again, and went off to find a ballast pile.

 

There are several spent ballast piles in the Hayles area, and the tractor-trailer spent the day doing round trips - down the line to Winchcombe, and back by road to Toddington, then back down to Hayles.

Almost all of it has now been removed - one pile remains. There's a big pile in the PWay yard now, for which there is demand elsewhere on the railway.

 

The contractor's truck brought down a set of forks for the digger, the idea being that the Telehandler would bring groups of sleepers, and the digger would load them.

The experience proved to be a mixed one. While the digger could load more accurately than the Telehandler, it was limited to 4 sleepers at a time, while the Telehandler could load 12 at once, but was more difficult to position. 

After trying both for a while, we settled on the Telehandler alone, leaving the digger to work with the tractor-trailer.

The Telehandler found it difficult to present the sleepers at the correct angle. which meant that those on the Warflat spent more time re-adjusting the piles with crowbars. But on balance it was faster that way, and by lunch time we had loaded the Warflat with 160 sleepers.

 

Lunchtime meant a trip back to Toddington in the train for two of us, while David brought up the Telehandler for the subsequent unloading there.

Under way, at 5 mph....

 

 

After lunch, the unloading started. Again, the Telehandler could take packets of 12. We also roped in smaller the steam dept. Telehandler, but that proved to be limited to just 4 at a time.

 

It took a good 2 hours to unload the sleepers at Toddington, and take them for stacking in the 'Greenhouse' area.

They won't be there long, because we will shortly be using them to relay Siding 2, the one alongside the goods shed.

The shunter crew were very patient, although it wasn't hard to sit in the warm sun.

On the way back to Hayles for a second go, we took a snapshot out of the window of our own bubble car, 55003. It's beautifully painted, and with a BR crest, but the interior is only partially installed. This is what is holding up its entry into service. A member of their group felt it would be another couple of months. The group could do with a few extra hands, we feel.

 

Paul had hoped to make two full round trips with the Warflat, but as you can see the light was beginning to fail at the end, and we only managed another half load. That's another 80 sleepers loaded. They will be unloaded later in the week.

Here you can see us strapping up the second load.

The relay site looks much clearer now. About 50 lightweight concrete sleepers remain, and a similar number of chaired woods, that we had also replaced. 

That's another loading day then, plus some detritus such as broken sleepers, scrap etc. It'll be a very neat job at the end.

 

 

Our final picture of the day shows the train with its half load heading back to Toddington, under a setting sun. It was a very successful day, leaving us with a great sense of achievement.

It's why we volunteer.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Dave is still absent, and feeling unwell. We miss him. Two of us will have to soldier on, but we are making progress.

During the day Paul managed to complete the myriad of little cuts required to fill in the odd sized gaps that were left after all the straight bricks were laid. 

Paul fills in the last gaps around the edge of the floor.

So now we have a complete floor, although it's not quite finished yet. We still need to brush kiln dried sand into the gaps, and finish the fireplace.

A suggested pattern of bricks for the fireplace.

After some thought on the subject, a slightly different pattern will be applied, leading to a wider area at the mouth. 

Previously the bottom of the fireplace was at floor level, but we will raise it by one course of bricks. This course will be cemented in.

 

So now we are starting to think about the next phase. What about the stoep? How high should it be?

Immediately outside is a sloped concrete ramp, which used to channel rainwater under the door. We have established that the new floor level is slightly above the top of the ramp, so that is a win. 

What about the rest of the area outside? The build up of ground outside has made the bottom courses of bricks so wet that they have spalled. We'd like to address that.

Here is a wider shot of the area outside the door. There area 4 courses of bricks below the plinth. Only two are showing, and these are badly spalled. However, the weighing plate installed after the war determines the ground level around the hut, and that comes out at just under the blue plinth. Unfortunately that limits what we can do, but we can at least repair the brickwork.

In the afternoon we had a look around the yard, and learned that the old Building & Services (after Broadway this was renamed 'Construction & Maintenance') workshop is to be taken down. The wooden building is not original, and the roof is leaking badly. C&M now have a new workshop behind Churchward House. The inside is being cleared out, so it's worth while taking a look to see if any items are worth saving, or recycling, possibly for cash. For example there is a large orange enamel sign. We took photographs of a number of items of potential interest. We may come back on this in the next blog.

In the new C&M workshop there are increasing signs that the canopy over the Winchcombe entrance is about to be reinstated.

Here a large number of dagger boards are being primed and painted.

 

 

 

 

 

The three cast iron brackets have been brought down from the steam shed at Toddington, where they have stood against a wall for several years. 

One is an original. It was taken down to serve as a model for two replicas. These still need three holes drilling into them for the attachment points.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally for today, we have been shown a new historical photograph of the area around the entrance to Winchcombe yard.

It shows what we have always suspected, that the entrance to the station has always had a severe bend to it. You can see the line of the fence with two posts cutting across from right to left.

Behind the chap with the flat cap - thought to be the coal man for the office there - you can see the original acetylene building. A similar one remains at Toddington. This one was demolished when we sold the corner site, and two houses were built on it.

The wooden building in the picture would be the coal office, and the weighbridge would have been on the left, off camera. The horse is about to start on its rounds, in the days when every household used coal.

The horse is in beautiful condition, with a shiny coat.