A Bubble Car arrives.

Saturday, out with the gang.

A good gang on Saturday, and one beefed up with a new recruit - Sam. Welcome to the gang, Sam!

What are we supposed to do with this then?

 

We had a bit of a one off job on Saturday, inserting two brand new insulated rails at Gotherington Skew, to replace a set of insulated fishplates that were giving alignment trouble.

 

Time is beginning to press, as live trains are due again in March, and there are race trains too. So this job had to be done in a day.

First thing to do was take off the existing insulated fishplates.

Fishplates off, the next thing was to cut a gap long enough for the two new rails, with a couple of extra cm for the welds - these new rails will be welded in.

Here is David on the disk cutter (once we had it started...) These two-strokes are so temperamental.

The rail came out in two halves, with the old joint in the middle.

A complication of the joint replacement was that the new joints, which are permanently glued and bolted to their rails - were designed for Pandrol clips, while this stretch has SHC clips. So two sleepers had to be removed, followed by the dreaded ballast digging for two new beds to be created.

Dave then went to get the two replacement sleepers off the Transit.

These have to be loaded on a previous day, while on the day we need to think of taking the right chains for both types of sleepers, the hook attachment for the Telehandler, wedges for moving the rail up or down, the list of critical items is quite long.

 

 

The two Pandrol sleepers were then lifted into the beds we had dug out.

The existing rail on the other side of the old fishplate then had to be cut to size.

Chris is doing the honours here. Standing stooped like that is very tiring after a while, so we took it in turns.

After final cutting to size, to make sure none of the joints were over a sleeper, the new rails were lifted in.

This picture shows why different, Pandrol fitted sleepers were required.

The factory fitted insulated fishplate has special cutouts underneath for such a clip to be fitted. 

Lunch was our first one taken al fresco in 2025. It was a lovely sunny day, and the bridge parapet is just the right height for sitting on. Coffee, with lemon muffins, went down particularly well.

 

 

After lunch we fitted the second rail, back filled the ballast, and spent some time on slewing jacks and bars getting the alignment just right. The welders who will finish this off need the rails to be just so. We don't want them to weld a 'threepenny bit ' curve here.

 

 

 Finally, the new sleepers we packed using our Robel hand held tampers.

Here is the final product, a nice, straight insertion. We are not just repairing track issues, we actually improve the track.

 

The operation also yielded a little side benefit - four perfect anvils, or door stoppers, that came off the brand new rail when we cut it to size.

Seize your opportunity, we don't have many that are so brand new. 

 

 

 

 

Finally, a little insight into the gang's daily life. For every outing, all our tools have to be taken out of storage, often 5ft up in the air, and humped on to a flatbed truck, and back again.

This item is always the heaviest: It's a sports bag, with a broken carrying handle, that is filled with sockets of all sorts and sizes. Most of these we never use, yet we carry the whole bag round dutifully.

David handed it to us on Saturday, with the comment: 'Here it is, the BAG of DOOM' !

Never a truer word. We staggered off.... 

Monday at Broadway.

Brick laying at last ! There is a small window between Monday and mid week, where the temperatrures are above 3 degrees for 24 hrs.

 

 

There were several pre-opening jobs to do at Broadway - trains start to run again this weekend.

The most important one was to find a storage place for the windows and glassware supplied by the joiners. In the first instance this had been put in the Ladies' toilet, but the Ladies will be back now and the stuff had to go somewhere else.

 

 

 

 

 

John came to lay bricks, the first possible day in, what? - three weeks? Just look at that sky, we could hardly believe our luck.

John was working on the corner here, and along the back. 

 

Neal was on site too. He set out to beef up a drain cover at the bottom of the drive with this new one here.

Neal cutting a shape for the new drain cover.

The ring and cover needed replacing in steel. The previous model was conceived for pedestrian traffic - it was on a footpath, after all - but who would have guessed that HGVs would use the station approach to do U turns in front of our overbridge, and reverse up onto the pavement? They even snapped a concrete kerbstone in half. 

This abuse of our (private!) driveway is one reason we have not yet put back the original GWR cast iron gate posts here, although we have an offer from a supporter for a replacement pair (the originals were dug out and re-erected at CRC).

 

 

 

 

Mid day found Neal using a Kango to remove the earlier concrete around the plastic riser.

The new steel ring is lying up against the fence here. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nearer the end of the day, and we find John pointing up his work. He laid a line of half bricks along half of the back, raised the corner, and started a tenth course from the middle.

Neal completed the drainage cover replacement. It's all in here, and packed in with concrete.

The ROAD CLOSED sign was just used to cover over the site, until the concrete has gone off.

The tamper arrives.

Now that the Didbrook second relay is complete and welded up,  the tamper can be hired in to do its work.

Pictures by Paul.

 

Next to its crew of two, there is always a representative of the PWay department on board. Just in case contact with the railway is needed, or local knowledge.

Last week it was Bert Ferrule, who is seen here waiting for Bob to do his preliminary inspections. 

 

 

 

The Didbrook section was tamped thoughout, and tested at 25mph. The result was - smooth as butter ! Nice.

Another PWay job done in the (short!) closed season, and on time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A bubble car arrives...

 

 
 

 

 

 

On Tuesday 'Bubble Car' DMU 55024 arrived at Toddington (by road, by road!).

This will no doubt plug the gap left by the sale of our 3 car DMU a few months ago, and prior to the entry into service of our own (slightly different) class 122 Bubble Car, No. 55003. It's a short term hire, we understand.

The origin of this unit is the Chinnor & Princes Risborough railway, who have two of these class 121 single DMUs.

Here it is, just a few minutes after unloading, in the Toddington loco yard. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something that we liked was the duck - it's from Aylesbury depot, after all!

 

What could we put on ours...? A doughnut springs to mind....

 

 

 

 

 

 Pictures with thanks to Chris Sturgeon.

 

 

 

 

 ... and a few more very recent pictures from Paul, taken only this afternoon:

 

Our black 2807 is also back, so we are all ready to start the new season. Just need to change that PADDINGTON destination board....

 

 

 

Tuesday, brick laying again.

 All three of us profiting from the crisp, clear weather on Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week is either wet, or too cold again, so more brick laying will have to wait until next week. 

An occasional visitor on Tuesday felt that we were making great progress, but to those on site seeing half a row a day laid the progress seems quite slow.

 

 

Neal made himself busy by building solid plank platforms along the back, so that John can work without having to stand in the sticky clay. 

At the same time Neal brought over a whole lot more bricks, finishing one of the packets (we have others...)

 

 

 

 

John was working around the south end and rear on Tuesday.

Neal is just bringing another barrowload of muck - John got through three of them, but there comes a point when you need to stop laying bricks, and get on with your pointing. 

At the end of the day John had finished the tenth row of reds, and was on the eleventh. This end of the rear is slightly in advance of the far end though.

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Just two of us today, as Dave is off for a couple of weeks. How the other half lives, eh?

The weather was attrocious to start with, making us sit in the weighbridge hut and looking at our watches. Will the rain stop soon? The forecasts had differing opinions on the subject.

 

Finally, after multiple coffees and biscuits, we could wait no longer. There's nothing for it, but to get your best rain gear on and stand outside, cleaning bricks.

These are from the top floor that we took out. Liquid cement seems to have been poured into the cracks, which all had to be chipped off before we could lay them again cleanly. We're going to use dried sand to lock the bricks in. 

 

 

We put the bricks that were ready by the door, while Paul, inside, levelled the sand and placed the bricks. 

He's making a lovely job of it. Plus, we want somewhere to sit. To start with, we were perched into a corner, but at the end of the day, it felt a lot roomier already.

 

 

 

 

We bought a third dumpy bag of sand, and barrowed some of that in as well. We're working towards the door, but before we get that far we need to trim off the bottom. A bit like the cream coloured door frame, which, in the corner, has been truncated by someone, and a brick substituted at the bottom. We're planning to come out at a level a little above the doorstep, to ensure that water can no longer flow in during heavy rain.

At the end of the day Paul had laid 50 or 60 bricks, and was indeed close to the door. Best to trim that while the weather is dry though, hopefully next week.

 

Winchcombe was really busy today. Vans were bringing in supplies for the start of the season (Saturday), all the carriages were being checked, and police with a bomb disposal van turned up - luckily just for an exercise.

 

On the footbridge the guys from Construction & Maintenance were fitting non slip treads down the P2 side. This meant drilling holes into the metal treads underneath, so that the non slip ones could be bolted down.

The chaps were inventive too. How do you drill into steel when the existing non slip surface prevents you from using a mag drill?

Answer: Weigh down the drill with a 56lb weight, and a beefy chap standing on top of it...

Worked a treat.

 

The up side was almost completed when we took this picture.

In the platforms are two of our rakes, being readied for the resumption of services.

Hope it's a good season, 2025! We've got Betton Grange residing with us this year, and the maroon Bubble Car for a couple of months.

Come and see them.

 

 

 

And finally...

 

A very kind supporter has offered us a GWR lamp post, complete with gas lit top. We do appreciate such offers, as we can certainly use more, genuine GWR lamp posts. There are several places around the railway where they can realistically be used. Remember that we started our railway with nothing, just a bare trackbed and 4 demolished stations. We're still on the lookout for another GWR upholstered bench, if you know of one.

We will pick the lamp post up next week, so the next blog issue will see a report, with all about it. 

Got a post in your garden that needs a good home in a GWR museum? Send us a note via the contact form, top right.