A roof for the platelayer's hut.

Good Friday, on the road.

A trip to Broadway with Paul, then on to the builder's merchant in Tewkesbury, to get supplies for the platelayer's hut.

 

 

 

On a slow day, with a full vehicle compound (good Friday), we took the opportunity of an available Transit to go to Broadway to pick up the 6 corrugated iron sheets that we will use on the platelayer's hut.

 

 

 

 

 

On the return trip we stopped at the builder's merchant to pick up 16x 6 inch gravel boards. We will cut these down the middle, to make 32x 3 inch strips, which will be nailed over the gaps between the sleepers. 

That was how it was done in the day, unless, if there were no gravel boards available, the gangers used old newspapers to plug the gaps. We won't go that far. 

 

 

The goodies were dropped off outside the weighbridge, our current base in Winchcombe. Here we will cut the gravel boards down the middle, and remove the surface rust from the corrugated iron sheets. Then we'll have to think of a way of getting all this down to the tunnel mouth site.

To finish off the half day we treated ourselves to a Cappuccino in the Coffeepot. It's nice to sit there and soak up the atmosphere - there's always something happening.

 

 

 

 

There were two steamers about, plus an unexpected diesel with three carriages. 

 

Class 24  24081 basked briefly in the lunchtime sun, before running round, on its Toddington - Winchcombe shuttle.

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

No Dave, tummy trouble - we had to struggle on without. Get well soon, Dave !

Wednesday was the day we dealt with the 16 pieces of gravel board, and the 6 rusty corrugated iron sheets. 

 

 

 

Here is Paul, cutting the 6 inch gravel boards into three inch strips.

These will be nailed to the sleepers to cover the gaps in between. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We suddenly had a lot of material to take to the tunnel mouth site, so with the kind permission of the FoWS we borrowed their 4 wheeled truck and pushed our stuff uphill.

That was quite hard work. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On arrival, Jules collapsed panting on to the little wall outside our patio area.

So that's what it is for. 

 

 

 

 

We hadn't got started yet when Simon appeared in the Telehandler with a large load of sleepers.

Checking his track possession, he vanished in the tunnel, his rear lights getting dimmer and dimmer. 

Yours truly then walked back to the weighbridge, forming 'team stripping the corrugated iron'

 

 

Here is the task. Step forward, those other volunteers...

We stripped and primered two of the six sheets (it's very slow) then walked back up to the tunnel mouth for lunch. 

 

 

Here we found that Julian had already got going with the strips, which he was nailing across the sleeper gaps.

This is the way it was done (if you didn't have wooden strips, old newspapers pushed into the gaps was OK as well).

The whole thing will be creosoted when we are done, for a uniform black appearance. 

 

 

 

 

 

Trains, some pleasingly full, came by and we all waved to the occupants.

The Easter weekend was deemed a success, with passenger numbers up on the previous year. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul brought more pavers, and completed the run across the front, leaving a gap for the door.

When they have gone off, we can stand the last 5 sleepers on them, to complete the circle around the hut. 

 

 

 

This was the situation as we saw it, immediately after lunch. Quite a few strips nailed on, down one side.

We in turn went back to the weighbridge, to give the sheets prepared in the morning a coat of bitumen black, to preserve them. 

 

 

That was it for the Usketeers on Wednesday. Now to pick up Mrs. Blogger from Broadway, where she was working in the cafe. She reported good business there ! 

 

At Broadway we took the opportunity of checking out the progress that John and Neal had made. Unfortunately we were unable to join them these last 10 days, due to a nasty cold. 

As you can see, the RH side window has had an arch fitted. It looks great.

We need this end finished, as the roofer is due to come, to do the store room (flat) roof. 

 

 While the cafe was closing, the trains hadn't finished running yet. Here is jet black 3850 running round.

 

 

We also took this close up for you, of the first arch, that went over the RH window.

Note the absence of the white paste in the joints, used by our builder on the other side.

A PWayer remarked at the time that it made the place look like a French boudoir. 

We'll leave you to judge if that is right. Anyway, no boudoir on P2.

 

 

Here is 3850, just putting itself back in front of the train.

Unfortunately we were unable to witness the main event of the day (we say), which was the test outing of GWR rail car W22.

 

 But someone else did see it... (thank you Chris!)

 

Here it is, about to set off from Toddington yard. The interior is splendidly Art Deco.

 

 

The driver has a central position. From a fairly restricted position at Didcot, W22 should be able to stretch its legs a bit on the 14 mile GWSR.

The test trip was scheduled for Toddington - Winchcombe, but how could they resist a stop at the lovely Hayles Abbey Halt, rebuilt by the Heritage Group.

Here's a little cabside video for you. Thanks to Chris, who was PWay representative on board.

And here it is, arrived at Winchcombe. The public can travel on this. First it's short trips to Hayles Abbey halt, then longer ones to CRC, on reservation. Check our website for the exact details, but don't miss the GWR railcar on the GWSR !

PWay out on Wednesday.

Pictures by Paul, with thanks.

 

 

Here is Simon in the Telehandler, at the end of his mission through Greet tunnel, with a large pile of sleepers for changing.

 The team did extremely well, they changed 15 of them. That must be some sort of a reccord?

 

 

 

This is where they were working, in brilliant sunshine. Just outside the southern end of Greet tunnel, one of our favourite photo sites.

 

 

 

The gang spread out across the site, so that several sleepers could be worked on at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

Another lovely shot from Paul. Shame that it was so hot today, with 21 degrees air temperature, but an amazing 37 degrees rail temperature. This is always higher than the air. So there wasn't much steam to be seen.

 

 

 

At the end of the day we all sat on the Coffeepot verandah, including two Usketeers, who are, after all, also members of the PWay gang (when they aren't building stuff).

The season is launched, and the cafes are open again. Yay ! 

 

 

 

 

 

A look over the fence - GCR Mountsorrell branch at Nunckley Hill

A swapmeet at Quorn in the morning took us to the old granite quarry at Nunckley Hill, which has been redeveloped as a rail based community centre, with its own branch line.

There was a bit of confusion on our part on arrival. Google maps took us to a field with nothing there, which it said was the rail centre. Luckily we saw the gleam of parked cars in the distance, and soon found the real location. Once in the right location, there was a bit of further confusion on our part, as what we took to be the entrance was in fact a cafe and museum. The cafe had an excellent range of cakes and we hesitated - deciding to stop there on the way out (by then it was chokka...) 

Going out of the cafe's back door we found a lady sitting by a table selling tickets. £3 seemed very reasonable for access to the former quarry, and its mix of NG and SG sidings.. 

 

 

We found a little 0-4-0 shunter going up and down with various wagons. 'Extras' could be purchased for a cab ride - £5 - and £10 for a go at the actual controls.

This quarry and its short branch from Swithland Sidings were used by the GCR to source granite for ballasting the line to London.

We got the impression that the centre's particular focus group was families with children. It has very good on line reviews for that.

 

 

Of course as a quarry the site is rather limited in size. Nonetheless a small circular (2ft) gauge railway has been squeezed in, and this was very popular.

 

 

 

Motive power of the day was Kerr Stuart ROGER, which we had seen going round the garden at Statfold Barn, and at the Welland Rally. For a 200yd circle and 3 wagons, it has had supplementary airbrakes fitted, with a tank on board, and a compressor on the platform. Seemed a bit OTT to us.

 

 

 

 

As it was lunch time, the driver treated himself to sausages on a shovel.

Probably less chance of frazzling your food in a little firebox like that, than in a Hall on the GWSR. 

 

 

 

 

Everything was very neat, with abundant signage - a bit too much for our liking. It was substantially a fairground ride. I sincerely hope we don't start putting up signs in our 1904 stations, asking parents to keep their children away from the platform edge.

 

 

The steam shunting on the other hand was quite convincing. There was also a museum, with a unique steam loco (a Brush, if we remember correctly, the only one they made) and a carriage that is well restored from an empty shell.

 

 

 

 

The SG shunter of the day was a 1911 Barclay, from the Caledonia works. There was all sorts of industrial stuff to see and marvel at.

Behind the Barclay was the rebuilt 1834 Stephenson lift bridge. This once went over the Grand Union canal in Leicester, and by use of chains and counterweights raised the tracks enough for a horse to pass under it on the towpath. This is a great piece of engineering. It's basically an oak frame with 4 corner posts, and a pulley wheel on each corner. It's just been completely rebuilt. It's sad that it has to remain outside (indeed, where else?) but leaving wood in the open air is not a LT solution.

Near the exit we found this enormous bucket. Something for STEVIE, the RRV? We think not, much as it would speed up ballast loading.

What few people realise perhaps is that Mountsorrel granite quarry is still going today, and is now what looks like the deepest hole in the UK. It's gigantic!

 https://mountsorrel.tarmac.com/about-us/

 It's just around the corner - who knew?

 

Earlier, in the Quorn swapmeet, we unexpectedly found something that relates to our railway. We went there to accompany a friend, and to browse. No to spend any money. But in the end, we did:

It's the 1905 works plate on the right. E. Finch & Co of Chepstow, made all the ironworks on the Honeybourne line, even running in board posts. Now we have three with successive years, illustrating the progressive opening of our railway southwards, starting with Broadway 1903. 1904 was from the aqueduct at Stanton; the seller didn't know the provenance of the 1905 one.

We hope these will be accepted into our museum, when we eventually get one. In truth, there is little to go into it, other than generic GWR stuff. Very little remains of our original line, where you can say, yes, that's from Bishop's Cleeve, or Weston Sub Edge. We had no totems. We suggested that the Trust bid at an auction for a Malvern Road totem, but it was not of interest to them. The former Winchcombe museum has a BROADWAY enamel sign, one of 4 that were placed on each of our stations in later days. It's the only one known today. If only we could look after it, and show it to the public.