It's Christmas.

Friday on the CRC turnout.

Four expected, and eight turned up. A good day, plus dry weather, a bonus.

We needed to complete the pre-assembly of the CRC turnout, by the signal box at Winchcombe.

What do you mean, there's none for me?

On arrival, we were met with the very welcome sight of a tray with 8 cups of tea on it. Doughnuts were also available, laid out on a giant Grundon wheelie bin. There's junk food for you.

 

But we couldn't hang around for too long, it was almost the shortest day of the year, and there was a lot to do. 

 

 

This was the state of play first thing. Rails sort of laid out, but not much bolted down yet.

By the end of the day, we were to have finished this off, and then completely disassembled it again. Unfortunately the location at CRC, beyond the platform ends, makes it very difficult to get any decent craneage in to lift an entire turnout, or even sections of it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEVIE continues to be a blessing, as he does all the heavy lifting for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time it was for the stock rail, missing in the foreground on the previous picture, by the check rail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A second bullhead rail was brought by David and Walt out of storage.

This one is part of the stock rail on the opposite side, where two shorter lengths, end to end, were required. 

 

 

 

Walt then cut the two stock rail halves to size. It's already difficult to work the disk cutter, bent over all of the time, but in the case of the latest rail brought over it turned out to be a Mnaganese one, which is extra tough to cut. Walt earned his wagesOK  today. 

Wait - what wages?

 

 

 

 

 

A lot of Friday was spent drilling holes for the chairs, and then bolting down, which is what Chris and Andy are doing here.

 

 

 

 

 

Once we had the outer rails properly bolted down, and all aligned with the straight edge of the car park road, we could use that as a datum point for the rest of the turnout.

Nigel with the track gauge, reading out the measurements.

 

 

 

In this picture it is already getting darker, as the afternoon progresses.

We are just lifting in the freshly cut stock rail, which will bolt on to the end of the Manganese 'toughie'. 

 

 

 

This is the turnout round about 3 o'clock. The right hand side is bolted down, the rails are all cut to size and approximately in position. The two missing  timbers in the foreground are for the point motor and associated bars, which are on extra long timbers, kept to one side for the time being.

 

 

Saturday, in the Pheasant.

No tracks laid here, just 24 PWay Christmas dinners eaten. It's that time of year again. But we are not at a complete standstill, there will be action on the 24th, and the 27th.

Just before lunch, we had a quick look at the Greenhouse site for the Broadway canopy fabrication.

The fabrication is finished now, all possible pre-installation rivets have gone in, and Neal has drilled countless holes ready for the final rivets on site. Neal estimates that the total number of rivets placed so far is 1200. That's pretty impressive. All rivets are now weatherproof (sort of), by a coat of primer, and a coat of undercoat.

Neal has also moved the trusses as far into the greenhouse shelter as possible, to escape from the driving southerly winds and rain. Northerly winds and rain on the other hand are now more likely to cause damage to our kit of parts. Southerly winds are dominant here, hence the move.

 

 

 

During the one or two half decent sunny days we've had recently, Neal and John have primered and undercoated the numerous dagger boards that Neal cut.

 

 

 

 

 

There are also mouldings, and constructional timbers for the canopy ends.

 

 

 

 

These timbers for the canopy ends can be seen here, also in primer, and partially in undercoat. 

So we have done what we can, given the weather, and the wait for the special bricks. 

 

 

 

Interesting tidbit: The chairman's Christmas message specifically mentions Broadway signal box. Fingers crossed for a 2026 opening !

 

 

Friday, on hands and knees.

It's Christmas Eve.... but the blogger children have their own Christmasses now, and only visit afterwards. 

Hence Christmas Eve on the railway.  

A gang of five returned to Gotherington station. Last time we got one sleeper in, and bolted down with one bolt.

Chris is having a bit of a lie down.

 

This time the goal was to do the same at the other end.

Well, it was jolly difficult, no faster than last time.

How do you dig a crib for the new sleeper, if you can't get to it? Running board, axle, brake rigging, a telegraph pole on its side, it was all in the way. 

 

 

 

 

 

We dug a spot for the pan jack, the only thing you can crank under there.

But those jacks are surprisingly heavy, if you have to lift them with arms stretched out. 

 

 

 

There was plenty of good advice from those not under the Toad though.

 

 

After 15 minutes on hands & knees under that Toad, we had to take a walk around to get the feeling back in our lower legs.

Quite pretty, this little branch line though. This is GOTHERINGTON GOODS terminus. That's a lovely display of telegraph insulators too. Check out the 'hat' on top, which not only protects the pole from rotting in the top, but also offers room for two more insulators.

 

 

 

We had the company van out, and half a telegraph pole dragged out of the way.

Chris's orange feet can be seen underneath, where he is trying to dig a hole on the other side for the sleeper end. 

 

 

 

 

After a picnic lunch on site, and multiple coffees served by Savita, we had the sleeper in and one chair on.

There was no room to fit the other chair, as the Toad was still too low, and all our jacking didn't get it very much higher, with the jacks just sinking into the ground instead.

But experience added to, better results next time. 

One chair in, finally !

 

 

Once the chair was in, we tried to screw it down with the electric impact wrench. It was the perfect tool for the job, but the wrong Toad, as it kept interfering with bits hanging in our way.

We got the bolt in eventually. 

A last one from Paul. What a pleasant, warm day, you'd think. But it wasn't. There was a mean northerly wind, and just 3 degrees. We've all got thick winter jackets and beanies on.

Next time we will bring more Duff jacks, and wider packing supports, and have a proper go at righting the Leaning Toad of Gotherington.

A bit of GWSR history:

GWRS Newsletter December 1981 - 44 years ago.

That's the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Society, our baby steps back in the 1980s. By then, the society had already been in existence for five years, but we did not yet own our railway.

The cover picture was one of Brit 70045 Lord Rowallan barrelling through Bishops Cleeve with an up Saturday Special, past a beautiful Costwolds stone signal box. Will we ever have one of those? Candidates for improvement could be the Race Course, or Gotherington, both of which are free style, Bradstone and plastic boxes.

 

What was the news in December 1981?

 

- Capital raised for the new plc so far has reached £88.000 

- Four camping coaches are expected to arrive from Dawlish Warren.

- Two buffet cars and a Siphon G, bought by 2807, have been acquired. 

- Locos anticipated to arrive are a class 14 diesel, and Prairie tank 4115 from Barry. 

- A tender has been submitted for a turntable, water tank and clock tower from Ashford, Kent. (what happened to the clock tower?) 

 - Father Christmas will be at Toddington on two afternoons in December. Admission: 65p, which includes a present for the children.

- A site caravan has been found to act as a shop for Toddington.  

 

Merry Christmas to all our faithful readers. We're glad you enjoyed the blog this year, and now on to the next !