Back from hols.

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.

 

Neal has stopped drilling steel (finished at last?) and has started on cutting T&G board for dagger boards at Broadway.

 

This is only the start of the job, the cutting to length. The longest bits go on the end, the short bits along the platform edge. A point still needs to be cut on each one, then holes drilled as per original.

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.

 

 

 

We let the train pass first... the weather was a lot damper, with straight rain in the afternoon, so steam was safe.

 

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. 

As there is no way of passing under Southam Lane bridge (the track changes sides here, and there is no crossing place for vehicles) we reversed back up the track to Bishops Cleeve, where we were met by an audience.

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.

 So this is what they came to see. We didn't realise how popular the railway is with some here.

 

 

 

 

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.

As we were walking on to the next one, P&O drifted in. 

There was a dip on the Malvern side. We decided that packing the next joint would probably do it. A fishplate discovered last time to be lifting too much was also replaced with a slightly more modest example.

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.

This quite daunting picture was made possible by the proximity of the fence to the line. Nick and Dave are in fact standing outside the line, despite the fact that the lumbering hulk of P&O is only 3 feet away. The loco was running round at this point.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Paul may also be able to do something about the lower half of the large window, which is rotting. Secondly, we have a lamp post to place.

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.

That project has taken a long time, but is now expected to go ahead during the next non - running season. We just need 4 holes drilling in the new castings, then they can be put up, as soon as there are no more passengers about.

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.

 Source: GVR Facebook

 Source: GVR Facebook.

 Source: GVR Facebook.

Source: GVR Facebook.

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)

This is looking up the valley, with former coal mines in the hills in the background, once served by the line.

 

From the same bridge, and here there seem to be no tracks present any more.

 

 But, looking over the next bridge, into the canal bed as it were, there are rails still present.

 The trackbed here is somewhat overgrown, and littered with debris thrown from the bridge.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

Next up the valley is the village of Pontyberem, which also has an attractive level crossing, with tracks still in situ.

It's all rather rusty and overgrown, but still there.

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. 

The actual site of the branch line terminus was here. As there were no station buildings, it's not easy working it all out. The road on the right had the rather oblique name of 'Station View'. Some hope !

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. 

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.