The new bricks arrive.

Saturday, out with the gang at CRC south.

And it was a big gang this time, 16 of us. 

 

The first thing was to load a new soleplate on the RRV, which was waiting at Winchcombe.

Then 4 of us grabbed the black Ranger, and headed for original CRC booking office, where Nick was waiting with tea for all of us.

Also plenty of sweet goodies.... 

 

Here we would like to apologise for the misty appearance of the photographs in this blogpost. It seems that the phone camera lens was badly affected by cement dust that had crept into our jacket pocket, while making up the mixes at the platelayer's hut last Wednesday. Cleaning the lens didn't help, it looks like a gonner. Rather than buy a whole new phone, we're going to try a pocket camera again, something dustproof that doesn't mind the dusty, oily and full of shocks and knocks sort of activity that we do.

At CRC, Kev had to climb back over the pointwork that was largely laid in last week. L and R are the check rail lengths that still need to go in.

 

On his way to the heel of the turnout Kev stopped to to some tweaking. It need pulling towards the Malvern side by an inch or two. No longer possible by men on bars, now that all that weight is on it.

 

Half of the gang then continued screwing down the central section of the steelwork, while the other half was at the heel end, where the new soleplate was being fitted.

Why a brand new soleplate? It turns out that the old one was short, and did not continue under the point motor.

From the empty ferrules you can see that this end also still needs screwing down. 

During the week there was an unwelcome arrival at our worksite - this party helium ballon. There are entire shops dedicated to selling these things, and people buy them without thinking through the disposal consequences. Once you let them go, the rise into the air - and come down again, to become plastic litter. They end up in cattle fields, under hedgerows, in other people's gardens and - on our Cotswolds railway line.

Please don't buy them. 

With Kev at the southern end of the site, STEVIE could lift in the check rail lengths. The loop rail that we turned to one side was then clipped back into place.

Here's an interim shot of progress, as thoughts turned to lunch time.

Looks pretty complete, doesn't it? 

Lunch was taken inside the original booking office, now downgraded to a paint shop and volunteer tea room.

There was a brief ray of sunshine, but those black clouds over Cleeve Hill tell you why we sat indoors. 

At the Tunnel end we put back the single rail that we took out to let Kev trundle back and forth, retrieving components from the two flat wagons waiting beyond.

The pair of rails that we also took out was now too long, as we had installed a longer (less sharply curved) turnout. In the picture David and Peter are measuring what length of rail is required to fill the now shorter gap. 

David then cut both rails to size, watched by Tony from a distance. The day remained gloomy...

Picture by David

The single rail that we removed had a duff concrete sleeper under it. It was quite surprising how bad it was. One end was halved in thickness, leaving just an island underneath the rail.

Or, as one correspondent put it, 'it's holding gauge at one end, that should be enough' !

We swapped that one out, with the 360 being nearby. 

Picture by David

Here it is, fully extracted. You can see that weird 'island' bump at one end. Could it have been put in like that, 26 years ago? 

Kev laid in the last two lengths of plain rail, which David had cut to length. Then he extracted himself from the site, now rahter more difficult, with all those rails in the way.

At least the new turnout is now all in. There's a bit more drilling to do, then it's ballasting and packing next week. 

As an extra treat this week, here are a couple of drone shots of the work site, taken by Paul:

 

You can also see how close to the road the original GWR booking office now is.

We could see little evidence of further work on the new cycle path, in the 4 weeks that we have been here. The 4 pilaster caps are still oustanding, and the scaffolding round the bridge is still there. 

This view was taken mid afternoon, as Kev was about to put back the two lengths of plan rail.

At the other end is STEVIE, having just put back the check rail lengths.
 

 

Monday at Broadway.

A damp day, but with block laying possibilities, so we gave it a go.

The good news is that the specials we ordered from Ibstock in Bristol have at last arrived, pretty much in the 8 - 12 week time frame that they said. It's been too cold to lay any bricks anyway.

The label says it all: HEAVY - 1000Kg. So we have ordered the classic tonne of bricks.

Investigation under the plastic revealed that there is a small issue, in that 20 of the specials that we ordered single handed have arrived as 10 pairs. So we are 10 short, and have 10 over. John will negotiate with the company to see what can be done.

The others look fine. They look very new, especially when against one of the existing ones that we have, which have spent at least 10 years out in the open, and now have blemishes. But the colour is what we ordered, we'll have to see the effect on the day. It would be a miracle if they were exactly the same, we would expect a slight variation in the colour. But we noticed that the ones we already have do also vary between themselves slightly in the colour.

We won't be using them straight away (before you ask...) as our current objective is to finish the store room (ex Gents) so that we have a roof over our heads, somewhere to stand in the dry, and somewhere to keep our kit. 

 

In other news Peter K has made and fitted a nice set of handrails down to the SB locker room. This is at the request of one of our safety officers.

They look plausible. We had a little debate amonst ourselves as to what would look acceptable, and we think we did OK. The curve over the blue plinth was an issue, and we think that Peter handled that admirably.

Interestingly, the catch for the gate, attached to the box, has had to be moved down a couple of inches. This is because the gate post is on made up ground (the platform) and the box is on piles.

 

During the day John laid concrete blocks, with a mix-and-a-half.

That gave three courses of blocks, bringing the total laid to eight so far. Twelve courses takes us up as far as we need - then there will be joists for the roof. The 'Gents' was not covered by the canopy but was originally open. At Toddington, and now at Broadway, the Gents will have an internal (not visible) slightly sloping flat roof. The roof will be slightly lower than the rest of the building. (see below)

 

 

 

For comparison, we have included this colourised crop of a very early Broadway picture, possibly from 1904, the opening year. It's certainly early, because in the background you can see a small wooden building with a pitched roof beyond the end of the platform. That was the first signal box. It only lasted a few months, until the final one by the road bridge was opened.

Behind the lamp post you can see a white lintel over a door. Above it a white stripe - that indicates the height of the open toilet at the time. 

In the foreground is the P2 running in board and a cast iron post on its side. They have not yet been fitted, we think because they wanted the made up ground to settle. It is still settling today, our replacement board and lamp posts are also leaning backwards a bit.

Under the canopy, outside the waiting room, is an all wooden bench. We have that - currently in store on P1.

The WAY OUT sign is also made up and ready to go - currently in the blogger garage. 

The platform surface is only partly paved, that is how they did it in those days. Our platforms however are fully tarmacced, except under the canopy, where we will have paving. Not authentic, but we get way more people on a platform.

 

Lastly, a shot from inside. The wall separating Gents from the main room has concrete blocks on one side, and lightweight blocks on the inside (as well as insulation between them).

This was what it looked like as it began to get dark. 

 

Blogger camera. 

A new, dustproof camera is on order, BTW. It has to last as long as my phone (2 years old), so we didn't spend too much and bought Chinese.

See if it works, later in the week. It says 'Water and dust proof', so we will certainly test that. But is it cement proof?

 

With the Usketeers.

Dave is back ! Feeling better, thank goodness. We did miss him. He knows how to handle Maxie! We pulled and pulled and pulled last week, but couldn't get her to start (we hadn't actually switched her on...)

 

 

No problems with starting this week then. Except that petrol was low, and Dave had taken the can home, and forgot to bring it back full. So we would start Maxie, run her for 1 minute, then shut her down again. In this frugal way we got three mixes out of her, and a drum cleaning run. Phew!

 

It was an excellent day today: the weather was good, the company was pleasant, and Paul started on the arch over the fireplace. Here he is, testing the layout of the blues.

 

STEVIE passed us, early on, on his way to Gotherington. Two grinning faces at the window; we waved back cheerfully.

 

While Dave and Paul built up the fireplace, Yours Truly took the opportunity of laying second hand blocks (scavenged from Winchcombe yard) on the concrete base laid last week.

This was the result - pretty good, huh? Nice and straight. Just a broken block on the left to repair, and filling in the holes with concrete.

These blocks, rebuilt as they were, hold back the terrain behind, into which the concrete base was laid by BR in the 1950s. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bit later, and Paul and Dave had completed the arch, and were laying a row of reds over the top.

 

Tailored with a builder's trowel to fit. 

 

Lunch was held back at the base (the Winchcombe weighbridge), and on the way back we stopped to collect some more concrete blocks from the yard.

A pause for breath.

They were jolly heavy, having been used by someone else before, and filled with concrete. We only managed two this time; there are two more back in the yard.

 

The thought here is that we would like to build up some steps leading to the new hut's concrete base. At the moment the 'veranda' ends in a rather slippery slope, with broken concrete bits on it.

 

 

A bit later Paul had built another two courses over the arch. Thoughts were turning towards corbelling back, and starting to form the chimney.

 

 

 

Another view of the fireplace, now towards the end of the day.

Our pile of reds on the right is looking rather empty. What happened to all those bricks? We will need to get some more. 

 

The last shot of the day is a little overview of the site as were were about to leave it. It's getting dark, and with it there is a sharp drop in the temperature.

 

The blogger camera continues to take pictures with an aura round it, but Chinese help arrived at the close of play. We shall play with the new toy, and report next week.