Storm Clara.

 ... had passed on Saturday, but left its traces. And our Friday workday was cancelled at the last minute, in view of heavy rain and high winds all day long forecast. There are limits.

Saturday morning saw Simon up early with the white Transit out, waiting for the Telehandler to load 4 timbers (that came with that lorry load of point timbers) tfor Bishops Cleeve, our work site for the day.

The huge puddle evidences the heavy rain that we had. The pottery down Bennett's lane even had sandbags round the door, being adjacent to the river Isbourne that crosses under the railway at Chicken Curve. 

 

 

 

 

Here are the 4 timbers outside our storage GUV, with a jolly crew loading the kit need to replace 4 timbers on Cleeve's northern CWR expansion joint.

The banter in the mess coach was particularly jovial this morning, but unfortunately we cannot go into any detail on that.  You'd have to join us, and you'd be welcome too.

 

 

 

With 10 of us signed on we needed three vehicles to get us all on site. It was gloomy and a light drizzle fell on us.

Here the 4 timbers are being unloaded (unloaded is the official term; actually they were rolled off with a terriffic thump when they hit the ground) while Nick is already well into digging out the first of the timbers under the CWR joint.

 

 

 

There was a race train down first thing, which just preceded us. It then returned, 'sweating our assets' as it were, to come down again, but this time loaded with pasengers on a Fish & Chip special. That eventually returned, then came back down again to pick up the race goers. Quite busy really, for a non-running season. We picked our working moments in between.

Here the first timber is being pulled out. It's an odd sort of wood, which we have encountered on the viaduct (half the hardwood timbers rotting after 15 years), on the Gotherington south loop turnout (about to be replaced) and now here. The wood is red inside, and outside, while firm to start with, it soon opens out into longtitudinal grooves, which fill up with water.

The replacement timber was then pulled in. This is second hand, but of excellent quality. It's extremely heavy.

 

 

 

We used only one jack on each side. These new Robel obstruction free mechanical jacks can be raised by one man on the T bar, but when you are lifting heavy timbers and additional rails in the middle with just a single jack, a second man on the T bar is needed.

On the other hand, they have a narrower footprint, are lighter than the pan jacks, and not quite so high, making them easier to slip underneath the rail. Without the hydraulics and associated seals, they should also be trouble free for a long time. 

 

 

 

While we were putting the fittings back on, our lookout thought he could help himself to a cheeky mid morning doughnut, while our backs were turned...

 

 

 

For the small number of blog readers with a deeper interest in PWay tools, here is a close up of the Robel mechanical jack that we recently acquired.

The T bar fits in the screw, which is a bit slower than pan jacks, but the release is extra quick - a kick on the spur on the left suffices, and it's down. 

 

 

Despite the gloom, we had the opportunity of this fine shot of the Fish & Chip special, with its race train rake.

The headboard says: CHELTENHAM FRYER - WORLDS FASTEST CHIPS. But it was hauled by a 2-8-0 freight engine, so you have to take that claim with a pinch of salt (or vinegar).

By lunch time we had replaced three of the four timbers. The fourth one was easy, as most of the digging had already been done. Then the whole lot was back filled with ballast. 

 

 

Unusually, we had all four of our Robels going at once.

As they stand in opposite pairs, you can see how this hand tamping mirrors the normal track tamping machine, like the one that we hired last week. With the Robels we vibrate the stone back underneath the sleepers, where they escape into any voids that might be there. 

 

This quick film illustrates the noise that this makes. It's still quite hard work for the operatives, as shown by David, who had to stop and take his jacket off.

 The Fish & Chip train then returned, its passengers well fed.

 

 

 

Just as we were finishing, and had all the sleeper cribs already filled in again, we noticed a problem.

The northern Cotswolds side rail wasn't resting on the base plate. 

 

 

 

 

This close up shows the gap. That is not how it should be, like that there is no support for the end of the rail.

Luckily the resolution of this wasn't too hard. After we got over our disappointment that one crib had to be dug out again, we set to it and moved the timber with the base plate 30mm northwards.

All in order again! 

Here is the end of the day shot. You'd hardly notice the difference, but these timbers are now good for several decades of further service.

Before returning to base, we had a look at a dip observed near Manor Lane. On site inspection revealed that this was a half day job, too much for what we had left of daylight. The dip was associated, as so often, with a tree growing close by. This can suck the moisture out of the ground, and cause it to drop.

 

 

 

Monday, at Broadway and Toddington.

The intended day building the CRC turnout at Winchcombe on Monday was cancelled at the last minute, so, given the cold but very sunny weather, we had a painting day instead. 

 

 

 

With the upholstered GWR bench now completely stripped to bare pine, we decided to give it at least one coat of varnish. This is so that when the upholstery is renewed, we won't be painting up against the new material. 

 

 

 

 

 

This was it on Monday, after a complete coat of old pine woodstain. We need to get it a bit darker still, as the seat material will be dark.

So that will be another coat of old pine varnish, then a topcoat of clear. 

 

 

 

 

There's good news from the upholsterers. When we first spoke to them earlier this year they were so busy that they could not do the work before the end of the year. We were slightly sceptical, but, bless them, they came back to us on Monday and said that they would now be putting the GWR bench into their Christmas planning. Great News ! So the job shouldn't be too far away now, it'll be about £400, which sounds reasonable to us, including the cost of the material. At their request, we have also purchased the beading that the bench didn't have, but should. So we are ready to go. 

On the same sunny Monday we went to Toddington to check on the rivets that Neal and a team from the loco dept. did earlier. Unfortunately they had omitted to paint the new rivets, which means that they already started to rust. The picture above is one done about 3 weeks ago. It is 'in' the greenhouse at Toddington, which as you can see, is not at all weatherproof.

This one we treated with Kurrust; others that were more recent, directly with green primer. 

 

 

We then had a quick peek inside the loco shed, where we found Pendennis Castle. It was tamper out, and the castle back in.

The plume of orange smoke is steam escaping from the safety valve of 3850, which was put to bed on Sunday, after the charity Santa train.

Very atmospheric. 

 

Another view of Pendennis Castle. It's great to have a variety of locos, and good to see that our excellent loco sourcing team have found something to replace the two locos that have just gone out of service (35006 and 7903)
 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Ice cold today - snow on Cleeve Hill, 2 degrees in the vale, rising to a mind bending 4 degrees at dusk. We wrapped up well, but it still got our hands, they were frozen stiff.

Only some hard work would improve the circulation, so we set off for Hayles Abbey halt, do address the wobbly fence post.

 

 

 

There are two heavy wooden posts at the little gate, a hinge post and a receiver post. The latter was extremely wobbly, the former hard as a rock. Strange.

This is the 'before' picture then, with Dave freeing the wobbly post from the fence. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After it was freed, it 'come away in me 'ands, sir'.

And no wonder, it was rotted right through at the base. A steel angle pushed in for just 2 ins at the corner had not helped. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the post removed, Paul tugged at the steel angle, and that came out easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was a case of clearing the bottom,  until the old Postcrete was exposed, ready for demolition. How big would the lump be? Would it be easy to get out?

 

 

 

 

 

 

At a first pass, we were able to remove the top half of the Postcrete in the ground. Using a crowbar, we were eventually able to remove the remaining bottom of the post. Just look how it has rotted at ground level, in fewer than 10 years.

To prevent this happening again, we are going to use concrete godfather posts, as we did at Toddington. 

 

 

 

 

 

The bottom 1ft of the Postcrete was very tough to remove, we started to lose heart.

We had a cup of coffee over it, and a warm up in the cars, and then had another go, getting a long steel bar under it. 

Finally it popped out ! We were free! 

 

 

 

 

We were so cheered up by this success, that we decided to have a group photograph of the occasion (less your photographer of course) .

Now we could move on to stage two, the rebuilding. But first, lunch back at Winchcombe.

There, we found the platform works from last week completed. The tarmaccers had been (late on Friday, in the pouring rain), and had done a fine job, just in time for the Santa specials.

The railway is ready for them... but oh no, not the Singing Penguins! Promised to the Friends of Winchcombe to be in a platform based shed on a temporary basis, they are now permanently on the platform. Another shed for the railway.

Also on Friday, the tarmaccers were able to add the last piece of the Weighbridge refurb puzzle - a strip outside the door.

This area was in concrete before, so we think they did a good job. The colour should fade to match the rest of the tarmac here. We can now take down the Heras fencing. 

The channel in front of the door is very clear - this should stop the water from entering the building now. 

In the Winchcombe platform was a 'train', headed by the yard shunter. They were testing vacuum, or steam connections. We're gearing up for Santa.

 

 

 

After lunch it was back to Hayles.

The hole was properly dug out, and then we did some test fittings. A small error was made back in 2017 when we built the fence, meaning that the rails from the fence didn't quite reach the receiver post, so we had to replace the rotten one with two new ones, side by side.

 

 

 

 

After some juggling, Paul was happy. We would use two godfather posts, and two uprights, left over from the Toddington job.

Bit by bit we added postcrete. Also broken lumps of concrete. It turned out that the original fixing of the post wasn't with Postcrete, but with proper concrete. That explained a lot about the trouble we had getting it back out of the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

We broke down the original concrete into much smaller lumps, and added them bit by bit back into the hole. That would save us a lot of Postcrete this time.

 

 

 

When we neared the surface, Dave added soil, then the Cotswolds chippings, which we had scraped to one side.

Then, at the end of the day, this was the scene at Hayles. What you can see are two godfather posts, at right angles.

Next week, when all has gone off, we will bolt two 6 x 3 inch posts to them, then add a gate catch that we have bought. This will replace the unsatisfactory one that was there before, supplied by Stevie Warren, and intended for horse riders. We need something for walkers, that is a lot more simple. 

Wednesday, on the track.

Pictures by Paul, with thanks.

Here's a lovely atmospheric view of Toddington Signal Box. The PWay had a possession today, so needed the staff for the section in question.

Note the Romesse signal box stove on the left. We have such a stove, which was bought for Broadway, but initially declined by the department. It's from Honeybourne, so has real local provenance. There is now hope that we may be able to fit it after all, in the place of the inappropriate early Victorian fireplace that our builder put in.

Which reminds us, does anyone have an address for the linoleum that goes in a signal box?

As Pendennis Castle arrived, the hired in tamper was moved on to its next job by the same company, our good friends RSS. 

An evening shot at Little Buckland, after tamping in the area. Perfectly smooth rails.

 

On Wednesday we had engineers round for an inspection of our tunnels. They did Hunting Butts earlier, and today moved to Winchcombe, where they had hired in a mobile working platform.

It was parked at Winchcombe in the yard when we arrived first thing,

 ... then mounted itself on the rails at the crossing by C&W, for the short trip uphill to Greet tunnel.

We also noticed a bunch of Highways people assembling in our yard, and found them later in a huddle on top of the Greet Road bridge. Exactly what the plan was we don't know, but it is a long held intention by the county to refurbish the bridge.

 

The Pway gang was out on a number of tasks today, and one of these was to install a crossing by the aqueduct near Stanton. We have taken delivery of a large supply of these rubber crossing units. They cost us nothing, save for the cost of the transport to Toddington.

The idea is to build a number of such crossings along our 14 1/2 mile line, to allow our flail contractor to change sides, and secondly, to permit PWay vehicles to cross the line. 

Such crossings that immediately spring to mind are:

Greet tunnel south - a former sleeper built crossing, since removed.

Gotherington skew yard - a ballast crossing, frequently used.

Stanton fields crossing - existing, but too short, risk of vehicles falling in the 4 foot. 

So the acquisition of these pads, for free, was a good strategic move.

Here is the Stanton aqueduct crossing, installed today. This one is for a contractor here to improve the drainage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally the Telehandler positioned a number of bags of ballast for a future ballasting operation, here at Stanton yard.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Turnout started.

Friday, starting to build a turnout.

Four of us on this Friday special.

There were two objectives:

1. To do an additional ballast drop in the Dixton cutting, using dumpy bags.

2. To make a start on building the CRC south replacement turnout. 

 

 

 

The first thing to do was to get STEVIE and his trailer out on the main line.

It's a piece of cake with a road railer, no need for points.

Just pick up your trailer, and drive to the crossing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the Ranger waits patiently in the foreground, STEVIE at the back manoeuvres himself and his trailer on to the yard crossing.

 

 

 

We met at Gotherington Skew yard. Here a dozen dumpy bags, 'prepared earlier' in Bue Peter parlance, awaited loading for just our kind of job. Adding small amounts of ballast to specific areas, rather than load up an entire Dogfish (which can only empty all at once) is what these bags are for. The trouble is with dumpy bags, they are mostly single use only, and weaken when exposed to sunlight. So we could do with a lot more, if any reader has some fresh ones to spare.

The first dumpy bag promptly ripped as it was placed on the trailer. We had been using a sling, which pulls the loops tighter, so for subsequent bags we used the quadruple chain, which exerted less pull on the loops. 

Various low spots had been marked up along the Dixton cutting, so we gradually worked our way along with 6 bags, then went back for 6 more. Almost all of the cutting was done in this way.

Picture by Walt.

 

 

 

 

'Come and join in some ballast dropping' was the call. How hard could it be?

Very hard, all of the dropped ballast then had to be shovelled under the rails.

There's always shovelling ! 

 

 

 

 

After a quick lunch on site we returned to the yard for part two, the start of building the replacement CRC turnout.

As we set up, we were visited by a low flying A400 military transport. They often fly along here, it must be a preferred route. We see quite a few Chinooks too, which then turn left and fly behind the Usk hut.

Before starting on the turnout, we consulted this handy drawing.

It shows the lengths and positions of all the timbers. Annoyingly, in cm, while the timbers are marked in feet. The distance between centres is exactly 762mm - er, that's 30 inches.

We handed over a tape measure that had both imperial and metric measures on it. Only to receive it back at the end of the day, all crumpled and torn. We suddenly had respect for Polonius...

 

Our drawing for the CRC south turnout. Both old and new turnouts are on it. The replacement one has a slightly easier curve.

 

As you may recall, the timbers that arrived by lorry last week were sorted into destination piles. However, within each pile they were still a jumble, so it took us a while to extract the two longest timbers, two fourteen footers.

The 42 timbers required are being laid out in front of the signal box - a flat area, with a straight line down the side of it.

Paul checks the drawing.

 

 

 

 

After the 14 footers came the 13 footers, then the 12'6''ers - where are they?

Right at the back, you say? 

 

 

 

 

The steelwork is here - it's the centre part of the former crossover at Toddington, that was professionally replaced a few years back. Closure rails and stock rails still need to be dug out from the other half of the yard. We'll make a start on this next week.

 

At the end of the afternoon we had got this far - all timbers laid out, bar three in the middle.

Now they have to be aligned with the roadside for straightness, and the timbers correctly spaced. 

 

 

Scrap items?

Our S&T dept has been disposing of quite a fair number of unwanted items recently.

We found these two in the skip.

They are marked WESTINGHOUSE and HAND GENERATOR. We're not S&T afficionados, but can report that they are quite heavy, and make a whirring noise when you crank the handle.

Hand Generators.

Are these really for throwing away? It's old school technology, and we are in the preservation movement, surely they must be of interest to somebody?

 

 

We were able to open one, which was lighter. The gearbox is there, but we think the generating part has been removed. The lid of the gearbox is out of the picture, but still available.

 

The other is heavier, and has not been opened, as the lock nut on top looks rusted fast. Our guess is that that one is intact, being rather heavier. 

 

 

If you are interested in acquiring one or both, drop us a note via the contact form top right. Or maybe help with some info? Did they operate power points in case of failure, for example?

 

 

 

Broadway P2 build.

On Wednesday last week Neal and John added extra courses on the south end of the building, visible by the darker mortar (which eventually dries to a lighter shade) .

Given the damper weather forecast, it was then decided to return the rented tower scaffold. The special bricks that we have ordered won't arrive for another three months now, the supplier estimates.

The Broadway waiting room on Friday.

The roof line of the Gents (aka the store room) will be lower than the rest of the building, so they are near the top of the brick courses there now.

 

We had cause to go through our photographs since the end of 2011 (thousands, on the Broadway build, and Pway track laying to Broadway) and came across a couple that you might find interesting today.

The first is this extract from a drawing of the station site, very early on last century. It shows the sizes of the original buildings, and the purposes of the various rooms.

The current new build on P1 is about 50% longer, mainly due to all the extra toilets that we need. That means that the new building is several feet closer to the footbridge, and quite a bit longer at the other, southern end. Today, the corner of the new building is roughly between the letters 'O' and 'N' on the forecourt.

The little steps shown at the top are still there today (they led to the garden entrance of the stationmaster's house, a handy shortcut for the employees that lived up above), but the road centre left leading to the horse dock was sold off before the GWSR was founded, and was filled in to a higher level behind a hedge today.

Our today's platforms continue off picture on the left, made longer to accommodate 10 coach trains. 

As the new station building is so much larger, it was agreed early on that the waiting room would also be bigger, in proportion. Not any old longer length was possible, the extra bit had to be a multiple of the truss distances, so that is what we built, with one extra truss, to make 4, in stead of 3. The P2 building is sited the correct distance from the footbridge, and in the correct relationship to it. When finished, the circulating area at the bottom of the steps will be bigger than that on P1, where it is incorrect because the builder we used would not have the canopy touch the footbridge. (!) Yes, that's the sort of inane argument we had during the build. But we got there in the end, thanks to Neal's clever steps redesign to accommodate the P1 errors.

Back in 2013, as the P2 blockwork was proceeding along the trackbed, the old Cotswolds stone concrete bed of the former waiting room was exposed. Today, the trees along the back by the waiting room have all been felled. The footbridge steps came down from the right.

 

 

A year earlier, in August 2012, the site had been part cleared of the remaining low wall left after demolition in 1963.

The nearest two trees have also been felled. The area cleared next to them held 7 or 8 platform slabs in a fallen over pile, and next to them were the two cast iron columns that held up the end of the canopy/bottom of the steps. They were snapped off at the bottom, so alas, no good to us. 

 

 

The next picture is from April 2012, four months earlier: 

Here is Andy P (for it is he...) with an SDS drill releasing all the remaining bricks. As you can imagine most were damaged in some way or another, and there were too few of them, so they could not be re-used in the rebuild, but they were all used in backing up the platform blues. All were from Redbank, as with the other brick Honeybourne line buidlings.

 

 

Monday to Wednesday.

The weather has been poor, there's been no work possible at Broadway, and the Usketeers cancelled Wednesday, due to heavy rain.

Work may continue at Broadway next week, likely to be interior blockwork. 

The Usketeers have accepted a request to repair the failing gatepost at Hayles, so that will be a 'quickie' in between. In the meantime, the tarmaccers are expected later this week to complete the Winchcombe P1 platform repair, and fill in a strip outside the door of the weighbridge. That would complete the weighbridge repair, but for the rotten window. Paul is mindful for doing that.

On Monday we had a quick session in the mess room container at Broadway, to complete the stripping of the upholstered GWR bench, prior to its upholstery refurbishment, due at the end of the year. It got a thorough sanding down back to bare wood. This released a large cloud of dust, much to the chagrin of the other Broadway volunteers, for which we apologised profusely. Sweeping out the room was only partially successful. Luckily it's not used that much; the days with 24 volunteers on a day have gone now.

The GWR bench, ready for re-upholstering.

 

 

Wednesday on the Pway.

It was a wet day, a good day to do - wet beds. What are these? They are areas where water collects under the ballast, and when trains pass over, the alternating weight pumps the water up through the ballast, bringing a white, ground down stone residue with it. You can recognise them by the white areas along the track.

We have one principal area of wet beds along our 14 mile railway, by the road bridge at Southam. For a reason we cannot explain (nor can the water company) water constantly runs out of the weep holes in the Cotswolds side bridge abutment, rain or shine. As a result, the cutting there over several dozen yards is wet, and the track pumps up and down.

 

 

 

Here is a wet bed, partially dug out. The bottom is made up out of ground up ballast, ground into a white slurry.

Notice also the presence of the rail joint, which exacerbates the problem. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the gang today, assisted by a contractor (in the good old days, this would have been Stevie Warren), digging out the spoilt ballast from between, and indeed under, the sleepers.

 

 

 

 

 

To cure the local problem, a membrane is inserted under the sleepers in the troublesome spot, and the area back filled with clean ballast.

Here the clean ballast is evident, seen by the rail joint. 

 

 

The longer term solution is to remove the water that keeps coming back into the bottom of this shallow cutting. In fact the bridge is slightly hump backed, because the cutting is only shallow. And yet water pours out of its weep holes. The opposite side is dry...

 

Until we have solved this mystery, it is quite possible that this area will remain wet.  The issue has been reported upwards, and is being investigated at high level.

Elsewhere, the tamper has been out and about. Last week , it was on the Broadway section; this week it is in the Defford Straight cutting.

The tamper on the Defford Straight, here at Old Farmer's Bridge.

At the end of the day, and with heavy rain clouds billowing across an angry sky, the tamper had reached the start of Chicken Curve.

At Toddington, the roundabout was decorated for Rememberance Day. It was beautifully done, with poppies and silhouettes of WW1 soldiers. We are impressed. 

 

Finally, a quick look into the C&M workshop at Winchcombe shows the Hayles Abbey Halt running in board under repair. It's proving difficult to keep our RIBs in good condition, because they are basically made of wood, and constantly in the wind and rain. They rot quickly, probably because of the poor quality wood that we are obliged to use these days. One trick we have learned is not to have a moulding along the bottom, which avoids water being trapped there. The GWR used the same trick !

 

 

From the GWRS newsletter, September 1981.

The chairman celebrated the establishment of the GWSR plc, next to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Society. The plc managed to raise an initial £73.720 , a sum which really needed to double if we were mindful of starting to lay track, next to buying the line. The minimum capital required was £50.000. At the time of writing (Sept 1981) work was going on at Toddington under a lease.

5952 Cogan Hall arrived, owned by the Great Western Steam Locomotive Group, owners also of Ditcheat Manor and Odney Manor, already at Toddington. (all three would later move on). Four GWR camping coaches were purchased from Dawlish Warren.

Arrival of a camping coach.  Picture by John Lees.

COGAN HALL has just arrived, together with a box van.

 

At the end of August 1981 a sponsored 24 hour overnight track laying was organised. 

This raised £550, and 269 yards of track were laid. (the rail head had not yet passed the station throat though, it's a long straight to the first curve at Didbrook)

Toddington after the removal of the track - picture via John Lees.

  

Construction of the station throat, but no running line yet. The signals are bare. Picture by John Lees.

The lack of a play area on site for family members of working volunteers was regretted. Examination of the site revealed a clean (-ish) strip of land to the extreme west of the Toddington site. That would be ideal, until a member brought a couple of hundred yards of 2ft track that he had in his garden - that was the start of the Toddington narrow gauge.

Stock now on site:

Locos: Cogan Hall, Ditcheat Manor, Odney Manor, 2807. Pecket 0-4-0, an 0-6-0 and a Hudswell Clarke diesel shunter, all privateley owned.

Rolling stock: GWR auto coach 169,  2 camping coaches and a box van.

To speed up the track laying a shift system is proposed:

Saturday: 9am to 3pm 

                3pm to 9pm (under lights) (!!!)

We have come a long way... 

  

 

 

RIP Roger Johnson.

News has reached us that our colleague Roger Johnson has passed away. Roger was on the Broadway rebuild project pretty much from the start. He was a property manager in his working life, and at Broadway could be seen doing any one of a number of jobs, such as :

Laying backing up bricks, some of the 10s of thousands behind the blue platform wall, that the public doesn't see.

Clearing out the centre drains, unattended for 50 years. Terry (L) and Rod (R) are still with us today, working in C&M out of Winchcombe now.

 Stripping the telephone kiosk of old paint, and here, placing the new perspex 'TELEPHONE' insert.

Digging holes for lamp posts. See here with Clive and Jim (who no longer volunteer) and centre, Roger's buddy Jim Hitchen, who passed away of cancer a couple of years ago. Roger and Jim H both came from the general area of Milton Keynes/Bedford, and would compare notes every morning on how their (rather long) journey had gone. Roger would screech up in his one series BMW, managing to get into third gear up the station approach. That was before the traffic humps went in....

 Mixing mortar for the brick layers, here with Jim.

 

 

 

When the extension to Laverton Halt opened in 2012, we thought we'd go down there, to remind the railway that far-away Broadway still existed.

Second from the left is Robin Elliott, on whom we reported a couple of weeks ago. 

 

 

 

 Roger and Jim, bringing in supplies for the mixer, in clearly cold and wet weather.

Roger and Jim (R) during a running in board post recovery excercise from Gotherington. It was a very kind donation from owner Bryan, and this original enabled us to have several authentic copies made. 

There are 4 people on the lighter end of the post, while Roger and Jim took on the heavier end... 

Roger and Jim, fitting the temporary lineside cabinets along the platforms. Unfortunately they turned out to be permanent, and do not belong on a replica of the old station.

The full Broadway construction gang in 2012. Project leader Bill Britton is kneeling in front. Roger is standing at the rear, third from the left, in a green jumper. There are 24 volunteers in this picture. The Broadway maintenance gang is what remains today, and they could do with help.

Roger Johnson, always in good humour.