Bye bye, Dave.

Thursday in the greenhouse.

We need to preserve the P2 steels, before the bad weather comes back, so we spent a day cleaning and painting, while Neal drilled more holes. These were for the brackets that hold the glazing bars - we would like to minimise the work needed on site, as we have been given a very short window only to get the roof on.

 

 

 

While Neal was attaching the brackets for the glazing bars (centre) we had a visitor - Greg, from the Railway Archiving Trust, RATs.

Greg is one of the strong supporters of correct heritage on the railway, so here we are, making plans.... 

 

 

 

 

 Lunch was spent in the mess room, the home of the steam department.

 No luxury is spared here, for our valiant drivers, firemen and steam raisers....

At the end of the day two triangualr brackets had been cleaned of millscale, rust and drilling fluid oil, treated with Kurust, and primered. These intermediate trusses were also given a coat of undercoat, except for one end, which was oily. Neal solved this problem by turning up with 2L of degreaser, negotiated with the very kind Diesel Dept. We do help each other.

 

 

Saturday, out with the gang.

Quite a good turnout of 8, given that holiday absences are beginning to show.

 

 

The summer season has mostly been spent with minor faults, many of which are due to the warmer than usual weather.

Saturday saw us just short of CRC, where white pebbles were spotted on the sleeper ends - a sign of unwanted pumping.

 

 

 

 

 

A check using a passing train confirmed that the track was going up and down under traffic.

It's not very visible in this photograph, but there are traces of white on and next to the sleeper ends for about a length here.

This was cured by robelling the stretch, to shake ballast into the voids under the sleepers. 

 

 

 

David dug out one sleeper end, to reveal a gap of about one inch, and lots of rounded stone. This happens when sleepers vibrate, and grind down the stones, leaving white dust.

 

We picked up this one worn stone and a normal one, to show the difference.

The white one is all rounded, and in that state will no longer lock into any other stones, and so fail to do its job of holding the track. 

On Saturday Tony stood in as PIC (Person In Charge) and he did very well. The daily task sheet was on a clip board for easy consultation, and he carefully noted down various details in a little notebook. This led to ribaldry, as we quoted 'Your name vill also go down in my book, vot is it?' and then the immortal chorus of 'Don't tell him, Pike'. What fun we have.

Jim is consulting his watch as lookout for the day, and soon enought 3850 came trundling round the bend.

This was a welcome sight, as we finally run steam trains again. 

The next job was to replace a bunch of pads and clips, where sleeper and rail did not make a tight connection.

When the track was laid late in 1999, second hand pads were used under the rails. These were too thin, or have worn further, and also tend to wander away from their intended place on the sleeper, as some ears fitting in the SHC hoops are absent.  

 

 

Dave was delighted to find that we have purchased several of these scraper tools, just for the job of pad replacement.

They allow you to root around under the rail to remove the old, gummy pad, without being tempted to put your fingers underneath.

They work brilliantly, it was reported. 

 

 

 

One of the benefits of volunteering on the PWay is that you can pick as many blackberries as you want. However, your name will go down in a book. (it seems)

Then it was time for lunch. Here Dave, David and Jim (II) munch through their picnic, as a blogger orange is passed along, hand to hand. Yours Truly then promptly dropped it in the dirt. 

Oh well, 5 second rule applies. 

This imposing picture of 3850 was taken from the outside of a fence, which at this point is quite close to the track.

 

Our last job was to inspect the turnout by the signal box. This was laid about 5 years ago, as the one laid originally had a crack in the frog.

Unfortunately the replacement was ordered to a tighter curvature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fine sprinkling of metal particles was noted inside the Cotswolds side rail, on the lead in curve.

The gauge here was measured, and found to be correct.

A higher authority will have to opine over what is going on here, but something is wearing, and it probably shouldn't be. 

 

 

Then we loaded up the tools and headed for Winchcombe, following the route of the old Cheltenham tram up Cleeve Hill.

 

 

 Strong tea, and a Magnum at Winchcombe, completed a very jolly and enjoyable day for us.

 

 

Monday and Tueaday in the greenhouse.

Due to personal circumstances brick laying did not take place this last week, so Neal and Yours Truly have worked at Toddington, drilling holes and painting. 

 

Neal has spent days, even weeks, drilling holes. 

The idea is that when we assemble the canopy on site all we will have to do is bolt it all together, without further preparation.

Here a base plate is being fitted. Parts of the truss are now in off white undercoat.

Neal has also worked on preparing the bridge 28 parapets for repair. He drilled about 75 holes there in a replacement angle for the lower half.

This picture was taken to illustrate our battle agianst the weather. The greenhouse is not 'under cover', as some would believe. It is basically outdoors, and subjected to rust inducing rain, as well as dust and bird droppings.

On top of that, it has to be admitted, the ongoing cutting, drilling, moving around and the oily drilling fluid do inflict a certain amount of damage to already existing paintwork. We're doing our best to keep it all rust free, before it goes under its own canopy roof and gets a top coat. 

The job these last few days has been to move the trusses into position, so that the holes for the purlins can be drilled. 

 

 

The interesting bit on Tuesday, the first working day after the August bank holiday, was to load 50 021 on to a special Allelys trailer. 

The trailer came with its own very long ramp, which came on a separate lorry (that HIAB behind the cab).

 

 

We don't know if it's true, but a former owner of FEARLESS once told us that 50s don't like changes in the vertical direction.

Here the rear bogie is being watched, as it too starts to go up the ramp. The bogie is level, while the chassis of the loc is going uphill. 

 

 

To make the transition from level to climb as easy as possible the Allelys trailer not only has that super long ramp, but can itself be positioned to form a slope. So it's a gentle climb for the locomotive.

Here it is, nearly on board. Shortly afterwards it left, bound for the Dean Forest Railway, we heard.

We much regretted its departure, as it was a popular locomotive during and after the gala.

Come back soon, Rodders! 

 

 

 

Then it was time for a coffee break. The attraction of working at Toddington is that the Cotswolds halt is also open on Fridays, a non-running day.

Quite a few people turn up on spec, there are motorcycle excursions, and the previous Friday, a meeting of the WI. We we warned that it might get noisy... 

Neal has also opened a large pack of tongue & groove board. When he has finished drilling holes, he intends to make a start of the P2 dagger boards.
 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

All three of us, although this will soon change, as we all have various absences planned, so no Usketeer reports for a while.

A lot of heavy showers were forecast for today, as a band of rain drifted across the UK. This led to a sudden change of plan for the day, from the intended tarmaccing, to preparing the foundation block for the lamp post at the entrance to the site. 

 

 

 

The lamp post will go on this traffic island by the entrance. It used to split the passenger traffic from the goods traffic, where the goods route had a double gate (the original posts are still in situ) and the passenger side was open but fenced off from the yard.

First thought: What's down this inspection pit? Will we hit anything if we dig?

 

 

The answer was: a foul water drain collector. The source would be the houses next to the drive. But no issue for a lamp post.

 

 

Before digging the hole we needed to replicate the bolt holes on a sheet of plywood, which we got cheap from the skip.

The post in question is one of a pair that was donated a couple of years back now. It is unusual in that it has no casting underground, but sits on studs at ground level. It's a No.2 post, 8ft high, with a ladder bar. So taller than a platform post, ideal for the location.  

 

 

 

 

 Back at the office we drilled the holes.

 

 

 

 

Then we took out the middle of three concrete slabs, and started excavating. The soil thus dug up was used to fill in a shallow trench discovered in the lawn by the Usk building, made by a Telehandler driving over it !

 

 

The hole was soon dug out, and the template with the bolts placed in it.

We spent no money on this. The threaded bar is surplus from Broadway, while the retaining bar inside the concrete is from the skip. The plastic piping (to allow for some play in the bolts when mounting the post) came from the back of the C&M yard.

Dave mixed the concrete, while Paul pushed it round and under the template.

 

 

 

 

 

The post will be sitting on the concrete, held down by the 4 nuts. The hole in the middle is the end of a conduit that we included, in case someone wants to run an electrical supply up the post. At the moment this is not necessary, as it is for display only. Note: The conduit exits the concrete block on the station side.

 

This was the final picture from today. It's all smoothed off, and ready for the post. We checked the distances between the studs just in case, but with the plastic (toilet!) pipes we have built in some play.

 Wednesday on the PWay.

 The gang worked at Toddington today, and at Laverton.

This is the Toddington job. Two sleepers were changed here. You can see why, there is some rot showing through the ballast fork.

Fun fact: Unlike some railways, we only have two tie bars in use along the whole of our 14 mile line. 

 

 

 

 'X' marks the spot. 

A member of our S&T department very kindly removed the point rod, which was hindering the sleeper removal. Just for an hour or so, mind.

 

 

 

 

While the gang was working at Toddington an unexpected visitor turned up.

 This was a rather splendid blue and white double decker, a Leyland Tiger PS2, built in 1950.

It brought a party of very welcome visitors to the railway, starting at Broadway, where they nearly overwhelmed Mrs. Blogger working in the cafe. But we don't say no to business.

This 1950 bus has an interesting wrinkle in its history. It started life as a single decker. By the end of the 1950s these were becoming unfashionable, while the chassis however was still good, and had plenty of life left in it. Hence the idea of a new body, but with two decks.

Stratford Blue belonged to Midland Red, but were allowed to stay independent until 1971. Then RED they had to become.

 

 

 

The second job on Wednesday was lifting and packing at Laverton. Here the Malvern side rail had drooped once again, and our valiant team lifted and robelled nearly 4 lengths back to the correct profile.

In the foreground is one of our hydraulic pan jacks, which often fail due to dust getting into the cylinders.

By way of a test we have now ordered two Robel mechanical obstruction free jacks. These work in a purely mechanical way, so should be more robust.

It will be interesting to see how that works out in practice. The Robel jacks were not in our budget, and we were only able to buy them thanks to donations made to our tool fund with the GWRT (trust). 

Thanks, guys! 

 

 

 The next blog post will be somewhat delayed, so bear with.