A day on the road.

Friday at Broadway.

John and Neal did a day on Wednesday, and as the weather forecast for Friday slowly changed from 'Rain' to just 'Cloudy', we thought we'd have a go on Friday. It was a very productive day.

 

 

 

This is what the P1 building looks like at the moment. All the work is at the back, although Neal has retrieved the two new door frames, and taken down the temporary shapers.

 

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday John laid course 12 around the corner, and on Friday he was on course 13.

It looks quite high now, and Neal has set up some handy planks for John to work a bit higher.

Neal reckons that there are 18 courses of reds still to go, so we are less than half way along the back as yet. 

With Neal helping John on Friday, we had the opportunity of working on the upholstered benches for the new building. They are in the mess room container for the moment. The Midland one has been stripped and revarnished, so is now done.

 

 

We've had a long think about the GWR upholstered waiting room bench. Leave it as it is, or refresh it?

A heritage contact has had one restored professionally, and a fine job they did of it too. This caused us to look at our example a bit more closely, and also seek out what help might be available within the GWSR to make it more presentable.

 

Professionally restored bench - Picture by David Redfern.

 

 

 

 

This is a close up of our bench. It's 100 years old, so wear and tear is to be expected.

On the other hand, there are several slash marks where it has been vandalised, and many of the upholstery buttons are missing. 

 

If we re-upholster it (in a similar material) then that will show up the rest of the woodwork.

On closer inspection, the 'varnish' (actually a tan coloured paint) is worn away on the arms, or crumbling off at the sides.

There are also traces of blue paint.

 

 

 

All in all, and having seen the magnificent restoration job done to a similar bench, we have decided to strip the woodwork, and varnish it properly, to achieve a similar colour as before. 

This decision was considerably helped when the upholstery department of our carriage & wagon dept offered to to re-do the upholstery. Brilliant ! It should be an interesting job for them.

Monday, on the road.

A supporter of the railway has offered us a GWR lamp post from his garden, and Monday was the day that we went to get it. These are always interesting missions, as you never quite know what you are going to find, despite intensive email correspondence.

In a case a couple of years ago we recovered post from a garden in Birmingham, and the donor omitted to mention that he had built a house extension across the path along which it had been delivered. The post had to go back out through a corridor in the house ! 

The picture below shows the location of the post we went to fetch, on the terrace of the house of the donor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post was originally recovered from Pangbourne station (near Reading, on the Brunel main line) and the adjacent crop from a postcard shows the likely candidate. Pangbourne's cast iron lamp posts were replaced in the early 1970s with modern electric ones, but originally they were gas supplied. In the cropped photograph you can see a Windsor top, although when the lamp posts were replaced they had a Sugg Rochester type lantern. This came with the post, but once on the terrace, it was never fitted. Instead, the more modern 'municipal' type lantern (foreground) was mounted, and we had to take that off first.

We were advised by the donor that the extraction would have to be from inside a 2ft square slab, no more, so we devoted a lot of thought as to the type of tools that we might need, even to the extent of a bag of replacement ballast, and a replacement second hand slab. What we hadn't anticipated was the need for Allen keys, but luckily the lamp that was fitted came off anyway, after a bit of all round leverage applied. Phew! Our SDS drill, transformer, lump hammers etc were not needed, as it turned out to be buried in soft soil, and not electrically connected.

 

We introduced ourselves, and gratefully accepted cups of tea, and a visit to the facilities.

 

When we came back Neal was already in there, like a rat up a drain. There was no stopping him, and within minutes the post was 'seriously worried', next to a pile of soil excavated with his narrow trenching shovel. 

Due to the narrow confines of the 2ft by 2ft hole, we used a rope and a wooden batten to lift out the post vertically. This part could not be recorded, as the whole team was required to lift.

 

 

Moments later the hole was already back filled again, and the new slab fetched from the truck.

This piece of foresight by the team was particularly appreciated, as the house in question was being sold, and a hole on the patio would not go down well with any prospective buyers.

A piano truck borrowed from the loco shed is ideal for moving lamp posts along, and it was soon going down the side of the house, through the garage, up the drive and up the road.

Going up the road, to where the kerb is the highest.

Actually lifting a lamp post on the truck is not as hard as it looks, as you can lift on the lighter end first, and then apply some leverage at the top, while the other two team members lift up the lower half.

Here is the post, in store at Winchcombe. The post we recovered is in an earlier style, with a fluted column and a large hexagonal ring at the bottom, before a thinner part of the casting below ground.

Behind it is the later style with Acanthus leaves (in use on the 1904 Honeybourne line), but exceptionally without the part of the casting that goes below ground. This type was developed late in the GWR period, and was simply bolted to a concrete block in the ground, with 4 studs. 

What we do with the Pangbourne post is not yet clear. It might get a role as an individual post somewhere (so that the style difference is not apparent) or perhaps we would be open to offers for a swap, with someone who needs the older style? Send us a message if interested.

The 'municipal' type lantern that was fitted while in the garden was also offered to us, and we have passed it on to the RATS shop, where it might raise some funds.

The Sugg 'Rochester' gas lantern is in good condition, and substantially complete. We even have a glass globe for it. However, it does need a new fixing ring for the globe to be attached.

We are always interested in more original GWR lamp posts, so if you have one, no longer want it, or for example, are contemplating a house move, then do get in touch.

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

 Snow and sleet this morning, that came as a bit of a shock

 The weighbridge hut had a layer of snow on its roof, so how warm would it be inside?

 

 

Not very! But it did feel drier.

First things first, we welcomed Dave back from 3 weeks away, and then had coffee. There were lots of tales to swap. 

And we were able to better enjoy the relaid floor, now that most of it is down. No more chair legs falling down holes, and the chair falling over.

 

 

 

We're now up to the door, so it's time to see how it would all fit if we kept on laying, or if we would need to cut bricks.

Paul spends almost the whole day on his hands and knees doing this, it's a heroic performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave helped us fetch another barrow of bricks, cleaned most of them, and then settled down to do this corner.

 

The cold got to our finger tips and was a bit grim, but later in the day the sun came out, and that really cheered us up. 

 

Here you can see how Paul is up to the door, and some bricks are being cut to size to fit into the corner. 

 

Quite a number of half bricks still need fitting.

 

 

 

 At the end of the day (OK, mid afternoon) Paul had finished laying the floor up to the door, and into the corner on the right. After several hours on his knees, he was looking forward to a bit of a rest, and sitting down.

Once all the bricks are down, we will brush over some kiln dried sand, which we will stain black with Cementone for an older look.

We also still need to do the area behind the door on the left, and into the fireplace. That's out of sight in the picture.

 

 

During a short break, we also took a short video of each of the two race trains that headed south, as they accelerated out of the station, after picking up the token.

 

This one is 35006:

https://youtu.be/b0XQguRyEww

The second train was a bit louder, and was hauled by 7903:

 

 https://youtu.be/D7Gaycr-e6E

 

Lots of happy faces on board, with Mrs. Blogger serving champagne (not from the blogger wine cellar, just to be clear. We keep the finest stuff for ourselves)

Wednesday with the PWay gang.

 Work goes on regardless of race trains. We just have to fit in. There are 8 movements - two down, full, two back up, empty. Then two down empty, and two back up, full. There's a gap of several hours in the middle of the day, when everyone is having fun on the race course, and the PWay gang can work unhindered.

 

 

 

 

 

Stevie was out, for his operator Walt to have a regular operational assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the gang remained at Winchcombe, where timbers were dug out on 19 points.

Two timbers were changed, with more to be done next time.

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the day the sun came out, the gang took a breather and posed for Paul's camera.

A few hours earlier this spot was covered in snow - that's March for you.

 

 Pictures by Paul, with thanks.