Thursday at Broadway.
It was a day of finishing off the southern end of the brickwork.
A day previous, John and Neal had completed the end, with the exception of a number of corbelling bricks at the top left. There were plans to fit a door, but other jobs got in the way.
It looks very much like a building now! We may be slow, but we are cheap, and steady.
Here is the complete corbelling row, finished on Thursday. There's just one more line of bricks to go, then there will be a series of slabs to go on top of the brickwork to seal it.
In the foreground the hidden flat roof slopes gently down to where the gutter will be.
On the other side of the roof, to our surprise, is another line of corbelling. This is where the station canopy actually finishes, in a line of vertical boards.
This is all invisible to the public, but it's how it was.
The RSJ on which the trusses will sit is prominent. The brickwork will rise up to meet it.
Friday in the yard.
A small team of 4, including new recruit Steve. Welcome, Steve !
It was going to be a day of clearing the recently obtained PWay materials from in front of the S&T building, but things intervened. Such are plans made. We started loading the pallets, when a low level A400 Atlas roared past, 275ft above ground. We can now see this on our Flightradar tracker.
What intervened was the delivery of the shelving for our two new PWay containers.
It had been loaded by a Telehandler with extended forks. We didn't have one of those...
The solution was to unload all the bits by hand, and make a grab for the last bit with straps. That worked OK.
David took the kit round to the containers, and the plan was for the Saturday gang to assemble the shelving during the gala, when we wouldn't have much access to the track anyway.
Here Paul and David are trying to consolidate two stillages of chair screws. The damned screws wouldn't fall out, poking with a stick helped a bit.
We also had a useful chat with Sam, our new head of S&T. They have a Romesse SB stove that is destined to go into Winchcombe box, where there is only a plain domestic stove, with a glazed front door. The interesting thing, for those learning about Romesse SB stoves, is that there seem to be at least three designs for the top portion.
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FLAT TOP
ROMESSE
This is the flap at the bottom of the stove pipe that regulates the air flow. It's missing in the Broadway one.
So we have three types of cast iron top:
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| 1. Flat top, with stove pipe fitting and air flap (S&T) |
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| 2. Flat top, without stove pipe fitting or air flap. (Ex Notgrove) |
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| 3. Slightly angled top, with filling flap and stove pipe fitting (Ex Honeybourne) |
Our preference is for the 3. Honeybourne version, although the air flap is now missing and will need to be remade.
We're currently waiting for a quote for the stove tray that goes underneath. When that is made, we can assemble the stove in Broadway signal box, in time for its opening in November.
Getting ready for the gala at Toddington.
On the way back from yard work at Winchcombe we stopped at Toddington to see the preparations for the gala. It's going to be great, there was a lovely carnival atmosphere, and the weather outlook is for sunshine all weekend and Monday.
When passing skips we always have a little look to see what's inside. You can tell a lot from people's rubbish...
Here is a stack of takeaway pizza boxes, a big stack. This is typical Black 5 test run food. It was ordered at Winchcombe on the way down, and picked up at Gotherington on the way back. Logistics, see.
Of equal importance was this 'HUGE 1KG PACK' of luxury chocolate biscuits..... an army marches on its stomach, after all.
Inside the loco shed, with 35006 under overhaul behind, a line of wheelbarrows with firewood was all lined up and ready to go.
Taking no chances here.
Outside the remaining locos and visitors were lined up, ready for an early start on Saturday.
Love the rail car!
If red is your colour, we can offer you this mouth watering Caledonian 0-4-4T in LMS crimson lake:
As Yours Truly hails from the Ashford, Kent, area, we just have to mention that our SECR locos were not 'Built', they were 'Constructed' at Ashford works. It's cut above, don't you think?
The lettering - or should we say numbering - of the Caledonian loco is superb, it even has gold leaf on it.
A last look on Friday of the yard, from in between two GWR heavy freight locomotives:
In passing, a quick look at the Broadway stanchions for the waiting room.
Neal has followed up on the primering with a first undercoat.
A second coat is required, before we take them up to Broadway.
Monday, a day on the brake vans.
The third day of the gala. The heatwave hit us hard in the first two days. There were S&T and points failures, small lineside fires, the rail car withdrawn as it was unbearably hot inside, a footplate crew member became unwell in the heat, and the police came to conduct a member of the public with dementia off a train. And those were just the issues that we heard about.
On Sunday night an urgent review of the timetable was carried out, into the early hours of the morning. Betton Grange and No.22 were withdrawn, and most services ran Todddington to CRC, with a separate shuttle from Toddington to Broadway.
Yours Truly joined the freight train at Toddington, for 3 return trips to CRC. Apart from a slightly late start, caused by a late incoming train, our timetabled day went extremeley well. So the midnight oil burned turned out to be quite effective. We had up to 30 happy punters on board the freight train's Toad and 'Queen Mary' brakes. The freight train was quite long, and was (we were told) composed of suitable vehicles for a certain period, leaving some other vehicles behind as too modern.
Ticket sales varied throught the day. Punters could chose front or back, and opinions were divided equally, so that avoided any over concentrations of people. It was £10 cash 'on the door' and while one could pay at the booking office, it was usually a long walk away and carried the risk of the train departing in the meantime. Yet several people turned up without cash.
This was the incoming train that delayed us by 10 minutes at the start. The Caley tank and its 3 coaches then went on to run the Broadway shuttle.
Our freight train set off with 3850 in charge. This was the view from the front balcony at Winchcombe, before setting off for the tunnel. The second run was behind 2807, and the third behind 78022. The first run was quite thrilling here, as we made a lusty run up the hill to the tunnel mouth, and once inside, we had a spectacular view, due to the low tender profile, of a huge orange glow, the footplate crew working, and sparks flying up to the roof.
On the return journey from CRC we crossed the down train, headed by Standard 2 78022. The sun was unrelenting, not a cloud in the sky, and hot in the Toad, which was single ended and had no through draft.
At Winchcombe the three chaperones and the guard were delighted by two of the cafe staff coming to the brake van with a 6 pack of water bottles. That was very kind.
We were able to stick to the timetable pretty much all day long, with never more than a 10 minute deviation. There were no long, unexplained waits on Monday, it just all went very well. Sadly, for those same reasons of simplicity, we did not see the GER shunter in action, just catching a glimpse of it as we passed the loco yard.
The third trip then was behind the Standard 2, here on arrival at CRC, and with the loco crew retreated to the shade of a tree on the platform. It was one of the few times we were able to stand officially on the platform we had helped to build a decade earlier.
The crew of 78022, one even with a tie on, stood in the hot, enclosed cab and greeted us cheerfully. Did we notice an Australian twang from one of them there?
Here's Manston just setting off at CRC. It's in the enclosed cab of this locomotive that one of us got unwell. You could feel the heat from the boiler in the adjacent brake van.
We thought this video, found on YouTube, caught our special trains rather well:
https://youtu.be/Y0jx7V746xc?si=TuztIZhWxrr3I1NQ
Leaving CRC, we noticed that the west side of the station, previously grassed over, has been turned into an additional car park with hard standing.
On the way back we noticed the completed land slip works - very neat, they did a good job.
Note that easing the slope here was only possible because we still controlled the toe of the embankment. In many places neighbours have advanced their fences, and would make this impossible. We take no action.
A little cameo from the day:
Heard at Toddington, a young mother was dragging an inquisitive boy along the platform:
''Mummy is very tired now and needs a coffee.
Daddy will answer all your questions.''
Wednesday with the Usketeers.
Another hottie. The day almost got cancelled, but we thought, nothing ventured, nothing gained. All 4 Usketeers reported for duty. It was actually nice and breezy, but became sweltery later in the day.
It's getting very green out here in the country, and Jules nearly lost his way in the deep grass...
Despite the gala only two days ago, trains were running again, with the same, hot crews.
Paul and Dave completed the job of screwing down the corrugated iron roof sheets. 'They're going nowhere', we heard Paul growl.
Next, we see them looking at the gap for the door, which Paul will make. It will have a reinforced glass window in it.
We painted the back in black today (no picture, as we were waiting for the sun to come round) and just after we started on the side - now in the shade - the team decided that that was it for the day, leaving us to take a hasty picture for a 'before' shot of the unpainted side. Just the bottom corner has a bit of black on it.
Again, the passing shot, with the sun, was the better one. In the distance you can just make out the platelayer's hut, by the signal.
Around the Toddington site.
After a slightly early downing of Usketeer tools we went to Toddington, where a number of things were happening.
Readers may recall that we relaid about 2/3 of siding 2 last year. The remainder was occupied by rolling stock. That has now been cleared, and we can get on with the rest of it.
Passing the steam shed, we noticed this new 40ft container had arrived.
It's one of two, we ascertained. They are to house locomotive bits and pieces during refurbishment.
The PWay gang was working on siding 2 at Toddington today.
STEVIE was there to lift out the rails. In the foreground is the turnout, the limit of renewal for the moment.
Work with STEVIE stopped of course whenever a train went by, with STEVIE being positioned on the adjacent siding 1.
The rotten sleepers were piled up on the trolley, which STEVIE then propelled to the Parlour Road siding by the car park. That's a handy loading point for us.
After the sleepers were gone Dave D at the controls of STEVIE scraped the trackbed, ready for more economy concrete sleepers from the Didbrook relay to be laid out. They are ideal for this job.
The ash 'ballast' was heaped up at the end, ready to be used again when the repacement sleepers are installed.
Three panels are currently involved.
After that it would be the turnout, which will be reversed back to normal, and re-positioned. We're waiting for more rolling stock to be moved to one side for this.
For a first day this PWay job seemed to be going particularly well.
Then up to the end of P2, where the platform is being lengthened
The building materials you saw in the last blog have been delivered here, and a good start made, with the removal of platform slabs and the tarmac from the platform.
The job is, on both sides, to extend the platform up to the bridge, in the place of the slope.
Then, a quick look under the greenhouse, where we had spotted Neal's van as we came in.
We were visited by the chairman and a board director, and they recommended a slight boost to the heritage appearance, in that we should seek quotes for the use of genuine stone slabs to top out the 'GENTS' workshop. Nice to get such support from board level.
Things are going well !
Great news about the genuine stone slabs!
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