Sunny at last

Saturday, out with the gang.

Fine weather at last, and a fine gang.

But only a small job to do, pending the start of the siding 2 relay at Toddington This was to adjust some sleeper spacings by the Toddington south headshunt.

 

 

Moving sleepers around means digging. Luckily we had a strong gang on Saturday, so the job fell on many shoulders.

Either there was a sleeper missing in the length, or else some sleepers were not exactly at right angles to the rails.

Both issues meant digging out.

 

 

 

 

Once a sleeper was free of ballast, and with the help of a pan jack, we were able to lever it this way and that, to get it to the right position.

Then back fill, and Robel. 

 

The weather was splendid, full sun all day, albeit from a frosty start.

Saturday was also the first day of the 2025 season, so trains were running again, and this time with the Bubble Car hired in.

Here it is, pulling out of Toddington. When it reached the end of the 10mph speed limit it began to smoke quite a lot as it accelerated. Maybe it is not used to running on a longer line? We'll soon show it how.

We also noted that it was well filled. Some thought that it was too small (the role having been filled by a 3 car unit before) but we think it was the novelty factor that provided all the extra customers. You have to keep renewing your offering, after all.

The next train out of Toddington was hauled by an old friend, Foremarke Hall. Even though the regulator was only partially opened, it provided a fine trail of steam, thanks to the cold atmosphere on Saturday.

We moved three sleepers further apart, and inserted a fourth one.

Our valiant track walkers also found some sleepers that were not entirely square on, so we dug out one side of them, and pushed them along a bit.

Not very important stuff, but on the other hand, it does show that there are no emergencies on our track, if we are drilling down to this level of detail. 

 

Following an early 2 o'clock finish, we treated ourselves to a rare ride on the train, just to see what our track felt like from on board.

Of course we all congratulated each other. Had to! But the ride, especially at Didbrook, was exceptionally smooth.

Why won't it go round?

 

 

 

After tea in the Coffepot - a much missed opportunity during the winter months of closure - we did a bit of housekeeping.

Dave and Nick changed a wheel on the Ranger. It's had two punctures recently, and we prefer to keep the same group of 4 tyres on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also unloaded 6 cast iron chairs so kindly given to us by the SVR. (see below)

They even had 'GWSR' chalked on them, so that we could find them easily, next to the boiler shop at Bridgnorth.

It's a nice contact between our two PWay gangs. 

Hopefully we can reciprocate with something soon. 

 

 

A ballast regulator is stabled with us, but hasn't run in several years. It would be useful clearing the four foot at Didbrook.

Would it start?

 

Paul took this video. If your vehicle won't start due to a flat battery, use jumper cables from another vehicle....

 

 

 

Sunday at Broadway.

 The class 121 Bubble Car came to a sunny Broadway last Sunday.

 

As it is rather shorter than the former 3 car set, the stopping place along the platform varied a bit. Here it is quite far down.

 The centre of it was right opposite the main entrance, by the footbridge steps.

 

 At the end of the afternoon it stopped nearer the southern end of the platform.

https://youtu.be/ozqPrXRa_dM

We recorded a short clip of it leaving, without the rasping prattle that our 3 car set used to make, as it accelerated.

Note that our Bubble Car is slightly different - it's a class 122. The most obvious difference is the size of the destination board on the front. Experts will no doubt know more.....

 

 

Wednesday, two Usketeers.

Just two of us, as Dave is on holiday. In Plymouth. Yes, some people go there, rather than Fuerteventura.

It was a really pleasant day, the first one with above freezing temperatures in the morning for a long time. And we really enjoyed ourselves too. 

 

 

 

We're on floor laying at the moment. One inside, laying; the other outside, cleaning bricks.

Clean bricks are stacked by the door, from where they disappear at regular intervals. Inside, the new floor gets bigger and bigger.

 

 

 

 

 

Because the floor that we found was partly made of a big ugly concrete patch we are a bit short of bricks for the full relay. 

Extra bricks come from a number of pallets in the yard. These come from Verney Junction, where the builders of the new East-West line gave us a few precious hours to recover as many platform bricks as we could. We got maybe 2000 of them. We are using the Brindles, leaving any engineering blues for a future platform build.

Paul, while laying the brick floor at a higher level than before, is now nearing the door. The bottom now needs trimming, so that it will clear the new level of the floor.

Here he is with the circular saw. We drew this across the bottom, along a pencilled line.

This is the bit we cut off. It turned out to have some woodworm along the bottom, so that was just as well. The bottom of the door will get a new rain board, and a reinforcement along the back, to keep it robust. We also gave the exposed edge along the bottom some wood treatment, just in case.

 

 

 

 

 

The door looks a bit short now...

The outside will be built up, to prevent rainwater from running in, as it did in the past. An Aco drain will be laid across the front too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside, we did a test for the layout of the floor in the fireplace.

Also higher than before. For some reason the old fireplace seemed particularly damp. Probably due to the higher ground level now in place outside. 

Lunch was taken al fresco, the first time this year. We also had a chinwag with Mike in the PWay mess coach, and were offered tea and cupcakes. Very civilised. It made for such a pleasant morning. The social side is a big reason for volunteering on the railway.

This shows the floor nearing the doorway, at the end of Wednesday. We still have to deal with the fireplace, and the left hand corner, behind the balance mechanism, under the orange jacket.

We've laid about 3/4 of the floor now. There are 5 or 6 rows to go, with 10 bricks in each, so that's another two barrow loads of Brindles to fetch from the yard. A job for next week. It was quite a tiring push, uphill across the station forecourt to the weighbridge!

Talking of station forecourt, there was some activity around the station canopy today.

This drew the attention of some passers by.

What seems to be holding up the reinstatement, along its full length, of the Winchcombe station canopy is the need to drill some holes into the new bracket castings, for the threaded bar that supports them.  They are curved, and that's not a job that our facilities are up to, it seems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today a small gang had a tower scaffold out, and was painting the woodwork on one end.

The woodwork for the other (extended) end is being cleaned and repaired in the C&M workshop at the moment. 

 

Under the canopy is a pavement, but it is less wide than the canopy reaches out. That means that the canopy can be hit by e.g. a coach parking close to the pavement, or a lorry doing a three point turn. This has already happened once in the past, we learned. What to do? Murphy's law dictates that if it is possible, it will happen, eventually.

Maybe some canon type bollards along the front? 

PWay on Wednesday.

A few snapshots of the gang at work on Wednesday, by Paul.

 

 

 

 

 

The RRV STEVIE was busy with the gang at the Winchcombe end of the tunnel, and inside.

 Here it is, just entering the tunnel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our tunnel is particularly dark inside, as it's on a curve and for most of its length you can't see the end, or any daylight.

Here is STEVIE just approaching the Gretton end, and you can see how useful the RRV is, as it has a good set of lights.

 

 

Picture by Bob, with thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

Although Greet tunnel is generally dry inside, excepting some areas near the two ends, we do on occasion have to change a sleeper, as was done today.

At the moment we are only running at weekends, so mid-week is a good time to do this. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the sleepers changed were just outside the tunnel mouth at the Winchcombe end. The stretch behind the camera was fully relaid about 5 years ago, together with moving the southern station turnout up a coach length.

 

 

 

Then it was time to go home again. If you look carefully, you can sea black smudge just right of centre of the tunnel mouth - we are a steam railway, after all.

Wouldn't it be nice to reinstate the date stone on the parapet? The original (dated 1905?) was made of soft sandstone and fell out years ago. Same at the other end.

 

A look over the fence - Bridgnorth.

A sort of a business trip to the SVR last Friday, to pick up some cast iron chairs for concrete sleepers that they were very kind to help us with.

While we were there we had to feed the inner man, so why not have a look around as well?

 

Because of the land slip near Sterns there were no running trains from Bridgnorth (but they do run from KMR) but the station was open to visit, in particular their wonderful pub the Railwayman's Arms. It was quite busy too, but unfortunately not enough for food, so we took their advice and headed for a Bridgnorth pub across the footbridge. Not without making a donation to their infrastructure fund, in lieu of patronage of the station pub.

 

 

 

In the yard we found Hagley Hall and another GWR loco, without cabsides; we think a Manor class.

Some of these, we heard, were giving cab rides on open days, something which was quite successful.

 

 

 

Of interest to us was the new refreshment room, a new build in some ways not unlike the new P2 waiting room we are building at Broadway. How had they solved certain problems, what ideas did they have? We were curious to find out.

We liked the cast iron gutters set into the walls, the type 2 (higher) lamp posts, and the 'Stafford Road' cast iron tables with benches outside. So much better than the pub type trestle tables that we use.

Less good we felt was the austere look of the blue bricks throughout, unrelieved by any reds. The corbels under the gutters were also very plain.

 

 

The refreshment room wasn't open, so we had to make do with a peep through the windows.

Nice floor tiles, fireplace, dado and picture rails. Picture rails in the cafe at at Broadway were refused as they 'gather dust', which is such a shame.

The lighting was of particular interest to us. We're going to have to think about this for the P2 building. We are aiming to recreate 1904, when there was no electric light.

 

 

 The new refreshment room also has new toilets to one side, and we certainly liked these.

The cubicles look very authentic, and have real spikes along the top, to hinder those who want to save spending a penny! The lighting is much more authentic than that at Broadway, where we were told that the ceiling lights had to be one of two modern options. Clearly not true.

After collecting the PWay items for which we came we spent a happy hour in Bridgnorth itself. It's a lovely town, with a footbridge over to it straight from the station.

Bridgnorth being on a promontory overlooking the Severn, there is a short but very steep cliff railway down to the bridge across the river to the lower town.

 

The ticket building at the top is very charming. The cabins on the railway look like 1950s buses, and indeed date from that period, when they replaced earlier ones from the end of the last century.

You'll see what we mean about the bus resemblance here:

 https://www.lodgecoaches.co.uk/copy-of-1962-bedford-sb-duple-super-vega

 

 ... where a 1948 model even has the same colours.

 

The railway used to be water powered, like the one at Lynton. However, unlike Lynton which took its water from a stream at the top end, the Bridgnorth one had to pump its water from the Severn and uphill in a cast iron pipe, which you can still see.

Today it is electrically powered, with a tram style controller that the 'driver' (as he was called in a maintenance notice) was happy to show us. 

Neal enjoys the view, but not for long.

This picture, taken from the bottom, shows the full extent of the track. The bus style aluminium body sits on a triangular frame, and is supported by 4 leaf springs, for a cushioned ride.

Originally water would be pumped into a tank under the uppermost car, until it was just too heavy for the lower one, and they changed places.

They are linked by a wire rope, which is wound by an electric motor today.

The SVR has a new car park behind the station, at the top of a steep hill. Motorhomes, please desist, says a notice. It's a one way circuit, so coming down sends you under the railway, with this lovely view of the station from the other side.