Back from gone away.

A week away in Jersey

 ...but no matter, the Usketeers were forgeing ahead anyway. This was Wednesday a week ago, while Your Blogger was enjoying the sunny beaches of that wonderful island near our shores, Jersey.

 All pictures of that Wednesday by Jules, with thanks. 

 

 

 

 

 

They were making the door for the lineside hut, out of decently thick planks.

Here Jules is nailing it all together.

The slot is the start of a window, so that here will be at least a shaft of light, in the unlikely case that gangers sit in there with the door closed.

 

 

 

 

 

What the door looks like from a distance.

 

 

 

 

 

Paul, having carpentry skills, is leading this, and can be seen here fitting a frame for the door. We can't just nail it to the sleepers, after all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had a trial fit of the door, with Jules adding a light touch to the proceedings, and then transferred it back to the trestles to fit the chunky hinges. Or maybe vice-versa...

 

 

 

 

 

The door seemed to fit OK on its hinges, so the last job of the day was to fit a bar across the front as a temporary lock.

We have bought (out of our own pockets) two substantial final locks, top and bottom, which will be fitted providing we can get some standard company padlocks for them. 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the effect at the end of Wednesday, a week ago.

The temporary bar is fitted.

The RH side is painted black, but the opposite side still needs doing, if we can find a dry day. 

 

We also need to fit some window glass, and find a definite solution for the downpipe. It works so far, but wind can blow the water back.

Check out the door frame fitted right round, to make the new door fit in between the rough sleepers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, with two Usketeers.

Your Blogger was back; Julian on the other hand, was now away, so three of us at the hut today.

 

 

 

 

Paul showed us the glass he got for the little window in the door.

After enquiry it appeared that wired glass is now hard to find, so we got some laminated glass, which fulfills the same function, but is clear. 

 

 

 

 

It was a day with lots of thin showers, so we got up to the site dry, but had to escape indoors on a number of occasions to get out of the rain.

 

Manston came by, out of the tunnel, and we got some nice waves from Steve, of the 35006 team. Unfortunately there seemed to be relatively few passengers, not counting coach parties and school children.

 

Again, the tunnel mouth spewed forth some impressive clouds of smoke after Manston had come out. It seems to be the foreign coal that we are now forced to import. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main job today was to fit the two heavy duty hasps that we bought from an agricultural shop (the same as where we bought the chunky hinges).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yours Truly spent most of the day painting; here round the back.

We would also like to add another coat of bitumastic to the roof, but it was too wet for that today. 

 

 

 

  

 

After much cutting Paul had the window glass in, surrounded by a little frame.

We sat inside and had the door shut, and can testify that there is a surprising amount of light through that little window. 

 

 

This is how we left it at the end of the day. The window and the hasps are fitted, the back painted, and the door frame made draught proof. Now for some of our standard railway padlocks.

 

 

Once we have painted the front, the look will be just right, in all black. Quite a few smaller jobs remain though.

 

 

 

 

Progress at Broadway.

Neal spent last week mostly on his own, as John is absent for a while with a health issue. 

First of all he put all the wooden joists into the building. This will give us somewhere to stand on when the canopy goes on. That is pencilled in for August, with a few more things to iron out before the date is definite. 

Then Neal has also been painting at Toddington. There really is an extraordinarily large area and number of items to paint. Each one at least three times - primer, undercoat, then another undercoat. We're trying to get as much done beforehand. It's easier to paint on the ground than from scaffolding.

 

This was the waiting room today, with those roof timbers all in. There is more brickwork to be done and it would be easier to put the canopy on if it were finished, but needs must. It can be done without.

 

 

The train was an end of the day one, with 3850 at the north end, and two class 20s whistling away at the south end.

Here they are, just pulling away. 

 

This is a shot of the roof timbers from above. We had a very quick 5 minute look round the site, and then it was home to a well earned rest.

 

The corbelling on the south end, Neal told us, was partly taken down again as it didn't look straight, so will be done again. 

 

 

Then we've got an interior shot for you. Note that the internal blockwork was carried on up to the top, an urgent job (while John was still there) so that the joists could go on.

This then, essentially, is the size of the room. Not huge, about the size of the P1 cafe, OK for a small function or a pop up bar during the beer festival.

We currently have 3 GWR benches for it, and could do with another, providing it is upholstered. 

 

 

 

PWay on Wednesday

Due to Rail Live at Long Marston the team on Wednesday was a bit smaller. Pictures today by Paul, with thanks.

 

 

 The weather looked a bit ominous too. Just look at those clouds over the Cotswolds Edge !

 

The team went to Stanley Pontlarge, where they changed an impressive 10 sleepers during the day. It must have been arduous, as it was wet and muggy all day long.

This long straight is the section with lots of 1990s second hand sleepers, so these are now becoming life expired, and also result in quite a few dips and broken fishplates along here. One day, when we have a free winter, we will replace these with concretes. 

 

In the next blog, another 'Look across the Fence', this time the Jersey railway. No, Jersey didn't have a railway, it had two railways. All gone for 90 years now, but there are still things to see.