Loading rails.

Friday loading rails.

A small team of 4 spent the whole day loading a stack of 30ft rails in the Toddington garden cntre, and trundling them across the car park and on to the Warflat, parked in the Parlour Road.

 

Here is the stack, 'as found'. Most of the materials here come from MOD Bicester, so it is likely that these 30 footers were part of the deal. They are s/h, but good quality 110lb stock. More, full length rails remain on the other side of the road, but these don't fit the Warflat, which isn't long enough.

 

 

 

We used STEVIE to trundle the rails through the car park, having to go quite a long way round for the widest route through between randomly parked cars. Rails perform unexpected antics, when on the end of a set of chains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday was a Gold Fire & Drive day, and also rather murky, especially in the afternoon, as we finished loading in a fine drizzle, which made work increasingly unpleasant.

 

 

 

 

After quite a bit of time getting the logistics organised, lunch time saw us with only 6 rails loaded. We had planned to remove some of the stacks of cast iron chairs on site as well, but there just weren't enough of us to do two jobs at the same time.With everything in place and with more practice, we got to the half way stage when this picture was taken. Paul is just placing the bearers for the second layer.

 

The bars were for moving the rails around - STEVIE couldn't quite reach all the way across, so dropped the goodies off in the middle, and we barred them further into position.

Here is the site where the rails used to be, at the end of the wet afternoon. Compare that with the first picture. We pressed on right to the end, because it would be silly to get everything together again on another day, just to move the last three rails. But we did get wet and tired....

There's a lot of consumables rubbish here from the house builders next door. It's what they do, we've seen it on other jobs.  

 

Still to pick up: a number of pallets of chairs, some concrete sleepers. Then this side will be largely empty.

 

 

Cleeve Slip.

The site has been graded by a contractor, Dogfish emptied ready for material drops, and CRC made ready to receive filling material for the void.

 

 

 

Saturday on the PWay.

A smaller gang than usual, as some of the principal suspects are away.

The pictures of the day are from David, with thanks.

Seven members of the gang went back to the turnout in the C&W yard, which needs completion of its refurbishment. 

The job is not made any easier if the turnout in question continues to be in use.

Here the 4 Dogfish and Shark, recently emptied for the transport of filling material from CRC, are being shunted away, ready for transfer to CRC. 

 

While we wait, you might at least try to get some lineside pictures...

 

It's one of the advantages of joining the PWay department, next to the variety of jobs, yummy snacks and tea in the morning, and great cameraderie.

 

The sleepers in the yard are ancient, and the ballast +/- non-existent (not counting half bricks and slagstones).

Having dug out the bed, Nick and Dave drag in the replacement timber. 

The timber is then bolted down, even as Jim starts digging out the enxt one.

Under supervision of new recruit Mark. 

David also took a picture of one of the timbers they took out on Saturday - this one has an invisible hole in it (being underneath the oddly shaped chair) but the size of this hole could be the cause of rails spreading, and a subsequent derailment.

One turnout is now done, and a second is about half way done. We are also putting in long timbers, instead of two short sleepers, end to end. In the day we didn't have long point timbers for sidings like this, they were expensive. So two ordinary sleepers would be used, leading to a certain degree of movement in the structure, which is not advisable. It's better now !

Monday on the Broadway waiting room.

Just two of us on the build, Neal not feeling well, possibly COVID - it's still about !

While getting our kit together for the day we found this ancient pot, containing 'Lamb's arch lime putty, in off white, with silver sand'.

So that is what the builder used on the other side, and we still have a large pot of it - any takers? The P2 waiting room is having its arches built with normal mortar, with added blacking.

 

On Monday, under brilliant sunshine but a cold northerly wind, John moved the tower scaffold to the front, and started to infill between the windows.

This is a slow job, as almost every brick has to be cut somehow.

In this close up you can see the wonderful detail, where the column alongside the window frame reverts to a plain rectangular style near the top of the window. There's a 'special' brick that does that job, one of the ones we had to order extra, as they are handed, and we didn't have enough of the correct 'hand'.

Yours truly was on painting on Monday. All our woodwork is in primer, and it has been exposed to the winter storms for a long time. Some of the primer is lifting off, so after repair we covered the woodwork with a coat of grey undercoat. That will protect it better. Ultimately these frames will be dark brown, as per 1904. We also did the boarded door for the end, and heard that the roofing contractor is expected this coming weekend, so our store room could be wind and weatherproof in just a few days.

The final shot of Monday shows how John has done the infill between the first two windows to the bottom of the arches.

A start was made on the second column, by the door. 

Tuesday on the waiting room.

John and Yours Truly again, more brick laying between the windows.

 

 

We been noticing these crows take an interest in the cafe chimney. As the fire has never been lit - not even tested - the chimney is attracting birds nests through non-use.

We saw one go down into the pot, and after a while, reappear. Another hovered over it, looking down, then changed its mind and flew off.

 

Due to the slip repair at Cleeve, we are on a special timetable, with trains running between Winchcombe and Broadway mid week. Weekends are back to normal. This meant that trains at Broadway were more frequent. Occupation was only fair, but at least there were some customers. Also several coaches (see below) and the childrens' wartime experience. There was a nasty spy on board the train - you know who you are !

 The other train was the Bubble car.

 

It stopped outside the cafe, just a short walk to the Cappuccino. Even so, the cafe did only modest business, we heard. Though it was nice to see two cyclists, for example, who came just for the cafe, but not to travel.

The steam loco of the day was BETTON GRANGE, which is a lovely engine to see. But it has a very leaky ashpan, and on Tuesday it left a trail of small fires at Broadway - we put out no fewer than six of them. All leaves and pine needles in the four foot.

John went to put one out in the southern turnout. We got a bit worried when we saw the increasing smoke, but it soon died down once the leaves had burned off. We gave it a soaking for good measure.

 

 

On the building we moved the tower scaffold along a bit on the front.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John finished off the second column between the windows, to the bottom of the arches. Neal wasn't there, and we didn't like to anticipate the next step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside, another coach manoeuvered up to the pavement, behind the little entrance canopy.

 

We're thinking about bollards, or possibly short lengths of bullhead rail, which would be authentic (and cheap) .

The whiter slabs in the foreground are replacements for ones crushed by road vehicles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were more fires in the afternoon:

 

One under the marroon coach. As we were sitting nearby, outside the cafe, we smelled the smoke, before we saw it. It's unmistakeable. Station staff put that one out.

 

 

 

 

The last one was in the run round loop. That got a broadside from a builder's bucket ! 

BETTON GRANGE's ash pan is turning out to be a bit of a collander (we quote) but as alternative locos were not easy to hand, they had to press on. 

All part of running in a new loco.

 

 

 

Wednesday with just one Usketeer.

Two Usketeers cried off with domestic issues, leaving Yours Truly to continue the daily 'grind' with the rusty corrugated iron sheets.

 

 

This was what it looked like at the start of the day. Four sheets done on one side, two more cleaned and ready for etch primer.

The weather was perfect for doing this, hence the lonely post. 

 

 

 

 

 

Winchcombe station was quite busy, being the temporary terminus mid week until the gala end of May.
 

 

 

At the north end we spotted this little interchange between the station assistant, and driver Chris on BETTON GRANGE.

Chris has some great steam memories. He was fireman on the banker up Honeybourne bank, which on one occasion was a 9F.

If only we could have been there. 

 

 

 

  

A little later BETTON GRANGE was out again, still starting small fires. It needs a proper ashpan sprinkler, we were told. Not something you can knock up between one day and the next, so it's a case of 'bear with'.

We took little breaks during the relentless grinding (also to give other ears a rest), and enjoyed a sandwich over lunch with the PWay gang. This is when you get all the gossip...

 

The first interesting bit is this, clearance of a small site so that we can put down some containers. Thanks are due to Rob & Colin, from C&M.

The PWay has never had containers (just about every other department has them) and because of our track laying and extension train history, we have alway stored our kit high up in a wagon of some form. This means lugging all our heavy stuff up and down stairs every working day.

 

 

 

So a couple of secure ground level storage containers have been on the wish list for some time, held back only by lack of money. Now, finally, we've had a breakthrough, made possible by money donated by people like you readers, and very importantly, by the sale of rail ends. Two containers are expected imminently, and they will go here.

 

That means that our tool fund is back down to a low level, while a particular need has cropped up. It's for a dumpy bag beam, like this one. 

We started using dumpy bags filled with ballast to do spot ballasting along the line - not a whole Dogfish at once. This saves us money. The dumpy bags are all second hand. But to fill them, and to stop the loops from breaking when we lift them, we would like to have a bag beam. To satisfy our safety requirements, it has to be new, and certified.

They are £400 - is there anyone who can sponsor one, or part of one?

If so, please send something to the Trust (where Gift Aid is possible) mentioning that it is for the PWay tool fund. It would help if you also let us know via a blog contact form, then we can see if we can buy a beam yet, or not.

Paul our head of PWay says he is even prepared to name it, and you can have your name painted on. Wow. 

 

Another news item is that we have managed to obtain some second hand PWay materials, as per pictures below:

 

 A working PWay trolley, self propelled, with a Honda engine and some trailers, also as per below.

The trailers that go with the powered trolley.

  There are also several pallets of track components, vats of grease, and a set of traffic lights:

 

 Apparently they announce speed restrictions. What could we do with them?

 

The PWay gang, many having just returned from a rail jolly to Whitby, continued the lengthy job of retimbering the key turnouts in the C&W yard.

 

We also have a new PWay recruitment leaflet - new, because we've never had one before - so if what we do is of interest, why not join us? Working outdoors is good for your health!

 

 

 

Near the end of the day Walt arrived with STEVIE, and the second refurbished parapet on board the trolley. This should go out to the site near Stanley Pontlarge in the next few days.

STEVIE will be working on Friday in the PWay yard, testing a possible new layout with the turnout components retrieved from CRC during the winter. 

 

 

 

 

A shunter also came down from Toddington to take the 4 empty Dogfish to CRC for loading (for the slip repair), but despite lurking on P1 with a Cappuccino and a camera, we did not see it come past, but, we ascertained, it will do so on Friday morning.

So at the end of the day we had cleaned, primered and painted in bitumen paint two more corrugated iron sheets. That means we now have six done, all with one unpainted side remaining. This side will be underneath. We might have a crack at that next week, if the spirit is still willing.

 

A defibrillator for Broadway? 

This is the plan, we read. We were pretty shocked, a bright yellow modern box, on our flagship 1904 station? Why? There is already a defibrillator at Broadway, in the stationmaster's office.

The argument advanced is that a public and visible defibrillator box would be needed for those days when the stationmaster isn't there.  But the only time someone is at Broadway without a stationmaster is on a Monday, when 4 - 5 members of the FoBS do some maintenance.  

A bright yellow box in full view goes against our 'living museum' principle, and would ruin the chances of a filming contract. It is also a slap in the face for those who fought so hard to make the station authentic. For such a tiny benefit? 

 

We have appealed internally, behind the scenes, but it's to no avail. We were stiff armed; there is no compromise possible. A defibrillator 'must take precedence over purely aesthetic considerations'. There is no legal obligation, but it is felt that there is a moral one. 'It may not be visually pleasing or in keeping with heritage, but safety and welfare needs to be foremost.' It is important that these devices are available outside public hours.

What do readers think? 

 

 

 

Sunday in a cricket club.

 

We just thought you'd like to see this balmy evening view of the local cricket pitch, with a hot air balloon just about to land in the area of Stanway viaduct.

A small group of volunteers meets here for pub quizzes, and it's here that important, often heritage, stuff is discussed. In a bar, of course.