A day with the Friday gang.
Friday is a good day for special little PWay projects - Walt, one of our RRV operators, is free on Fridays, and Friday is also often a non-running day. That is a useful combination.
Friday 29th August then saw Walt, David and Yours Truly on the former garden centre site, working with STEVIE to move a number of rails ex MOD Bicester over to the Parlour Road.
We've got quite a big pile here, in temporary storage.
So on the Friday we made a start in reducing that pile.
After walking each rail through the car park, this is where we put the stack. Just inside the fence by the Parlour Road, ready for loading on a flat wagon. That still has to come, but then it should be quick.
While there were no trains on the Friday (as per usual) the cafe was open, and its gamble paid off - quite a few people dropped in, including a large group of cyclists.
Earlier in the week it was the WI. Advice from their leader was - better move to another table, it's going to get noisy here.
It wasn't so bad, just a bit of banter then.
This was the situation at the end of the job - 12 rails walked across, and neatly stacked.
In the afternoon of the Friday we worked with Neal in the greenhouse. There were heavy showers at times, resulting in drips in places that we did not expect, i.e. the very middle. Leaking valley gutters, it seems.
Then the paint preparation - knotting fluid, timber preservative, primer, undercoat, topcoat. Will we make it before the start of the closed season in 3 months time?
Saturday, out with the gang.
Nine of us on Saturday 29th, a good turnout. Enough to split us into two teams.
Team two went directly to CRC for some packing by the signal box, while team 1 stopped at Bishops Cleeve to change a clip, and deal with a badly dipped joint, reported by the infilled bridge.
The clip needing to be changed was unusual, as it was encrusted with rust.
As you can see from the orange colour on the ballast, rusty water has been dripping off Two Hedges bridge for some time. This has formed some sort of a stalagmite behind the clip, making it rather difficult to remove.
Some hits with a large hammer worked wonders on it.
Then it was on to the infilled bridge, which, as you can see is not so infilled after all. There is a clear crawl space underneath. This is for inspection purposes.
The issue by the filled in bridge was a strongly pumping joint. The ballast on the sleeper ends in the foreground was seen to be dancing around as the train passed. A video of this phenomenon would have been nice, so maybe next time.
We lifted the joint back to normal, but the underlying cause is for another day. The end of the rail top right is bent down wards, causing the wheels of the passing trains to bang on it. The rail also has two squats nearby, so we will be replacing it shortly.
We thought these people wanted to cross, but it turned out that they were just waiting for a train, to watch it pass. They were not disappointed, as P&O soon hove into sight.
Getting out of the railway gate was unexpectedly difficult. It was jammed tight, and wouldn't budge
As Bert Ferrule watched, Jim gave it some special treatment with a keying hammer.
We eventually got out, but the issue remains. It is extremely tight against the latch, and there is no adjustment possible, as the nuts on the hinge bolts were welded shut, probably in the early days when some residents here were against the return of the railway.
Team 1 then joined team 2 at CRC, where they were lifting and packing the track outside the signal box.
We had a line block from the signalman in place.
With his help we were able to follow the progress of the next train right down the line towards us, and complete the job before it arrived.
Incidentaly, although we claimed last time to have only two tie bars along the course of our 14 mile railway, we have in fact got none at all at the moment. We did have 5 or 6 at Didbrook, when the economy sleepers started to fail a couple of years ago, but now we have none. A reason to be proud of our crew.
Usketeers Wednesday 10th.
Dave and Paul had a day together, mainly on pointing the setts in front of the hut. Pictures by Dave, with thanks.
The initial session was directed at the setts that were still in place, where the mortar between them had largely failed, leaving them proud.
Paul had a go at this.
Then it was Dave's turn to tidy up, make it all neat, and indeed waterproof.
.jpeg)
Later they checked out the base of the lamp post in the centre of the double entrance - seems to fit OK.
Of course lifting on the actual lamp post will prove us right - or wrong.
There's also been a small development with the 'secondary Usk hut', the little corrugated iron lamp hut the Usketeers were using during the winter weather.
Of course the stone built Usk hut is complete now, and two other departments showed an interest in the lamp hut. It wasn't even destined for the Usk hut project, but was supposed to act as a lawnmower store at Hayles, and Stevie Warren with his JCB took it to the PWay yard instead.
The first to ask us was the C&W dept, where it will be used as an oil store.
This picture, by Paul, shows the lamp hut on its way. We hope that it will still be in the public eye, somewhere.
It was recovered from a field near Bredon 10 years ago, and was painted red oxide at Broadway, where it was the cement store for the platform build. The Broadway gang also fitted it with these handy lifting eyes.
Broadway P2.
Due to holidays there's been less work done. John's been twice to lay bricks along the rear, while Neal has been making dagger boards at Toddington. Help is needed with painting them.
Wednesday, without Usketeers.
Paul called in sick, and Dave is on holiday, so no work on the weighbridge today.
We did manage to take a complementary photograph, which shows that both cobbled areas have in fact been pointed, so that job is also done.
There remains the tarmac area (formerly concrete) in front of the door. That will be filled in some time in November. Professional tarmaccers are coming in to deal with a sunken part of P1 at Winchcombe, after the start of the non-running season. At the same time they will give this area a little professional love. So it should look really good.
A quick visit to Toddington then followed, for a round up chat with Neal. He still has another 80 holes to drill, where do they all come from?
Neal's been very busy with making daggerboards for the P2 canopy. The woodwork is now ready, but that is only the starting point for an extended painting and preparation session. Knotting, wood preservation, primering, undercoat and topcoat all need applying, both sides. We are gathering the necessary materials together, to make an early start.
We understand that P&O has gone for a visit to the SVR, so the shed felt quite airy. On the other hand, we are expecting a longer visit from a standard tank. That should be fun.
Next year will also see two railwayana car boot sales at Toddington - that should also be fun. There is a good feeling in the air these days.
The dates are for the railwayana car boot days are:
Sunday 26th April 2026, and
Sunday, 20th September, 2026.
Come and sell, or just browse and buy, all welcome.
The previous picture shows the parapets being repaired, with a 'before' picture, and this one, a 'during'.
Finally, Neal has also made 4 brackets for the re-installation of the Winchcombe entrance canopy.
A few people have been asking, why no blog update for 2 weeks? The answer is simple - we all like to take a summer holiday.
The destination was northern Italy, and next time we'll take a look at a few railway aspects that we found there.
A look over the fence - Gwendraeth Valley Railway.
This is a relatively unknown railway, in its earliest start up phase. The oldies in the GWSR will remember that feeling. The GVR is located near the south western Wales coast, at Kidwelly.
By Afterbrunel - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50414319
The original railway layout was a bit complicated, but essentially ran from Burry Port (a big coal loading harbour) to Kidwelly, and then up the Gwendraeth valley, the westernmost of the Welsh coalmining valleys. In recent years the railway was noted for its cut down locomotives, required to pass under several low overbridges. These were too low, because the railway was built in 1869 by converting a canal on the same route. Mostly the rails were laid on the towpath, but on some sections road bridges had to be passed under, and there the rails were laid on the canal bed, leading to interesting variations in levels, and a very low height restriction. The canal also had a number of inclined planes, which later affected the gradients of the railway laid along its route. The railway also had a number of wet beds along its course - you can imagine that.
This was essentially a mineral line, but it was taken over by the GWR in 1922. Cut down steam locomotives were used along the line for coal and limestone traffic, and in later years cut down 03 shunters. The final closure was relatively recently, in 1998.
Today the line is heavily overgrown, but several stretches of track are still in place, albeit quite unuseable. There were no passenger stations.
So what is there to see today? While in the area we had a look around. At Burry Port the line has been turned into a cycle path for a couple of miles. The actual starting point of the GVR project is the junction with the GWR main line at Kidwelly, and then the 9 mile section to the top of the valley at Cwm Mawr. The GVR have obtained a 99 year lease from Network Rail, and are currently relaying a short section to create an unloading point for their first vehicles, 03 119 and Leyland railbus RB3, repatriated from Ireland.
As we were unable to talk to anyone on site, we trust the GVR won't mind if we show these pictures of activity at Kidwelly, borrowed from their public Facebook site.
While still at Burry Port, we couldn't resist taking a photograph of this original builder's plate, very similar in style and era to our own builders, E. Finch &Co of Chepstow:
This one was spotted on an overbridge at the station, with a steep slope up on each side, so it no doubt replaced a busy but awkward level crossing at the spot.
The remaining pictures below were taken during a trip up the Gwendraeth valley to the former terminus at Cwm Mawr.
The first four pictures were taken off two bridges in the lower half of the valley, by local correspondent Alan, for which our thanks. We owe you a pint in the Portobello. ( a drinker's pub in Burry Port, highly recommended)
About half way up the branch, now well away from the coast and into the valley, is the village of Pontyates.
This has a rather attractive level crossing still in place, with tracks present as well.
This is the view along the tracks, back down the valley towards Kidwelly. The locals use the trackbed as a narrow footpath, but it's otherwise clear.
This is the view back down the line.
The B4317 follows the line up the valley, and on a bend by a layby the two almost touch.
This looks rather sylvan and pretty, but remember that it was once a canal and is probably rather damp in the winter. This is the downhill view, not far from Cwm Mawr terminus.
Looking in the uphill direction, it's a lot gloomier:
Can you see the mossy rails? Alongside is a footpath.
Presumably the line here was once the towpath, and the footpath the bottom of the canal. A long time ago.
We had a little bit of trouble finding the terminus, or site thereof. There are no station buildings of course, as this was a mineral line (with a sneaky bit of workers trains, not really authorised in the day).
Coming down a hill, we passed a diagonal derelict site, which with hindsight, was possibly the end of a short extension to the coal mine. No trace of that now.
Today the end of the rails, still in situ, is in the trees in the distance, where there was a run round loop and a siding.
We wish the GVR the best of luck with their endeavours, this could be a very pretty line, and will do a lot of good for the communities alongside it, if it opens as a heritage line.
