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.