A train for Broadway.

 

A train for Broadway.

Thursday was a quiet day, being the first of the 34 degrees C days. Friday will be the next one. But two of us carried on regardless. John is still off site, being not well.

It's not too bad inside the building, where Neal suggested that we cut to size the Thermalite blocks that will fit between the wooden joists that he laid out. They have a gap of 35cm between each of them, shorter than a standard block. 

The block cutting saw, stuck in a block.

So each block will need cutting. How many then, Neal?

Er, 72..... 

Better get started then. We managed half of them by mid afternoon.

 

 

 

We lost track of Neal for a while, being in the building, while Neal was out of it. It seemed suspiciously quiet....

We found him uunder steps, and an exxtension fitted to the stormwater pipe. 

He has plans to backfill this section. 

 

 

 

 

Hinted at in the previous blog post, Neal was replacing the short self tapping polts with longer threaded bolts, drilled and resined glued into the concrete.

 

 

 

 

 

The best place to be on Thursday was under the P1 canopy - in the shade, with a slight breeze. Sadly, the cafe was closed due to the above illness, and we had to get a refreshing, ice cold can of Coke from the garage down on the road. 

We heard French voices, and chatted to a family from Guadeloupe (!), who were new to the idea of railway preservation. We explained that the locomotive would now appear at the other end of the train, and that they had the time to go up and see it. In French.... 

 

Neal, returning from Toddingn to source some nuts for the threaded bolts, reported that a lorry at (already) knocked down the height restriction bar that he had made. Murphy's law, unfortunately. If it can be knocked down, it will be. Our aim is not really to restrict the height of large vehicles, but their weight.There is a big gas main under the approach road. How do we stop heavy vehicles, and guide them down the original approach road??

 

 

Friday, with a special train.

The second of two hot days, but progress marches on. Two of us on site, getting ready for the arrival of a train of 4 Dogfish, loaded with surplus infill from the Cleeve slip works. 

 

 

 

This is where (some of) the infill is going. Neal has cleared some of the building materials stored here, so that the height of the platform infill can be brought to nearer where it needs to be for future tarmaccing.

 

 

 

 

At 11 o'clock the train with the Dogfish arrived, headed by 24081. Chris was the driver; Steve second man. It was lovely to talk to them, and they had some useful heritage tips, of which more later, if we are lucky !

 

 

 We won't deprive you of this lovely enlarged freight train shot in front of Broadway signal box.

 

 

 

After pausing to discuss tactics, the train was pulled ahead until the last wagon was next to the start of the raw platform.

This was back filled about 10 years ago, and has settled since. It now needs beefing up a bit, and the left over spoil from Cleeve was just the thing we needed. 

 

 

 

Neal started on the last Dogfish. The hired in digger was just the right height to see into and empty each wagon, or nearly so. Some remnants will remain in the bottom, and these will be emptied at Toddington.

 

 

As the Dogfish were emptied the train slowly advanced. 

It's a fairly realistic shot of a 1960s freight train heading for Stratford.

 

 

 

Experience learned showed that we needed some boards to stop infill cascading down to the trackside.

Neal shovelled out the ballast and spread it along the platform to bring the level nearer to what the tarmaccers will want, or as here, to permit the laying of 3x2 slabs. 

 

 

 

 

 

Round about lunch time the class 24 left us to go to Toddington, where it was due to collect two recently delivered carriages and take them to Winchcombe.

Here you can see how Neal was able to scoop out the Dogfish.

 

 

 

 

 

The 24 was then caught a couple of hours later by Paul at Winchcombe. Unfortunately he just missed the two carriages, just off camera on the left.

 

 

 

 

A good part of one Dogfish went into this area here, the future circulating area at the foot of the steps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the area after filling. It will be paved, under the canopy extension.

At the back will be a wall of blue brick, to hold back the rising terrain here. The building sits exactly on the change from cutting to embankment - the other end is made up ground already.

 

 

 A view from above gives a good idea of Friday's activities.

 

 Later the train was moved down further still, now propelled by the returning 24081.

 

 

 

 

Inside the building Yours Truly spent most of the day sawing Thermalite blocks.

On the left is the pile generated; in the foreground the pile of offcuts.

The shortened pieces will go in between the joists above. 

 

At one point the train was split in two, with two Dogfish opposite the old office. This is also a low area of infill. Behind are two of the 5x P1 construction containers that will have to be cleared off the site in due course.

Mid afternoon the temperature reached 34 degrees, but fortunately Neal by this time was working in the shade.

The surplus building materials will also need to be cleared in due course, although some of the blues may be used on the retaining wall at the bottom of the steps.  

When P1 was opened for business in 2018, everything was hoisted off the trackbed and on to P2. Now that's our disposal problem to resolve.

 

 

 

PWay on Friday.

On the same hot day a small group was out near Prescott, to deal with a number of kinks that had developed on the track. There was uncertainty over whether this was a thruppenny bit curve (older members) or a 50p curve (the younger ones).

Either way the correct curve was successfully reinstated, using a bit of mechanical muscle, given the high temperature of the day. David provided the picture for us.

Shovelling tools are stacked against the bridge over the lane, but our guess is that they may not have seen that much use on the day... 

Monday at Broadway.

Two members of the canopy gang present.

The hire company came to pick up the digger again, and much of the rest of the day was spent dealing with the aftermath of erecting stanchions, and spreading ballast.

 

 

We completed the last of the 72 cuts to Thermalite blocks, so these are now ready for fitting.

The offcuts were carried to the base of the stanchions, where they will be used as infill.

Up above Neal is refitting the dagger boards, taken off to allow the stanchions to be erected.

 

 

 

 

 

Three sheets of corrugated iron were originally taken off for the erection of the stanchions. The middle one was easily put back in place; while the other two needed cutting in order to fit around the columns.

 

 

 

At the end of the day two of the three sheets were back on. It needed a lot of pushing about and cutting to size.

We also gave the 8 small window frames a coat of undercoat in the building materials container.

 

Neal had a go at levelling the ballast emptied from the Dogfish, but it's a big job. Maybe later then. 

 

Not much joy with the suppliers of the canopy glass. We have been offered a size that is thicker than we want, and with a colour that is not further described other than its name. More work is needed here. It doesn't help that John is off sick at the moment, as he was good at ferreting out suppliers.

 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Three of us today, with the weather hot, but pleasantly breezy. It's very nice sitting in the lineside hut, where the temperature is much more measured, thanks to the thick sleeper walls.

The jobs for today were to give the roof a second coat of bitumen paint, and to fix the upright sleepers to the concrete floor, just in case they ever think of moving.

 

We got to the site a little later today, after organising a little generator, and a locating rare connecting cable.

By the time we got to the hut the first train was already back from CRC. Trains today seemed emptier than usual - Mrs. Blogger blames the football. She is always right.

Note the two sleepers - these will become benches inside. They came out of the tunnel after a sleeper changing exercise. 

 

 

 

 

The heavy sleepers stand upright on the concrete base, and we think it very unlikely that they will ever move. But just to stop any possible creep over time, we decided to fix them to the floor anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

3850 and Betton Grange were out and about, both fairly open locomotives, in view of the heat.

 

 

 

 

 

We tried this shot from the opposite side of the cutting. It's quite effective, don't you think? The two locomotives today faced in opposite directions, so trains that passed were both tender first at one point, with two smokebox first after that.

 

 

 

We seem to have plenty of the bitumen paint, and its cheap too, so we decided to apply a second coat to the corrugated iron. That's on top of the etch primer, so all in all we hope that the wriggly tin is now waterproof.

 

 

Here's Betton Grange coming back out of the tunnel, this time seen from the opposite side. Quite a pleasing shot, with all those trees about.

 

 

 

Here you can see why we needed that generator - it was to drill fixing holes into the concrete floor. The strip at the bottom holds the sleepers together, and the scews going into the floor will stop any potential creeping.

 

 

 

Having one side of the interior clear of building materials, Dave and Paul brought in the first of the two sleepers destined to become benches.

What would they sit like? They were going to find out.

The verdict: Height OK, but too close to the wall. They need to come out another 4 inches. 

 

 

Betton Grange came by, as seen from the inside of the hut

Dave had brought a length of spare carpet. Before you say, now you're going to far with that replica linesman's hut, the carpet is to protect our bottoms when sitting on a hard, rough sleeper. It's inside, no one will see.

Both jobs (second coat of bitumen on the corrugated iron, and fixing the sleepers to the floor) were completed today.

We are thinking about our next job. What could it be? (there is no money....) 

A view of the  externally complete linesman's hut, with one padlock in place too. The other one needs a bit of fettling, the door seems to have shrunk in the dry heat.

After Usketeering (and a mug of tea with an ice cream in the Coffeepot) we went to Toddington to check up on a couple of items in the news.

The first one was the demolition of the height barrier, put up by Neal to stop heavy lorries from running over the buried high pressure gas main here.

As we know from our Brroadway bridge, it is only a question of time before someone hits your height barrier. And so it was - it took about a month. 

 

 

 

 

 

At the same time we note that work has started to adjust the station approach. An area has been cleared here, and we believe that this is part of a longer held wish to move the newer station approach right up to the fence line.

 

 

 

 

We would also like proper gates. At the moment they are temporary, being made of Heras fencing panels.

This is where the final location of the new station approach might be. 

Note the red and white striped gas main marker, centre right. The new road would be well away from it. (currently running next to it) 

 

 

 

 

Next, we took a look at the Toddington platform, where modern notices have been planted to indicate buried cables.

 

 

 

This does not match our policy of being 'a living railway museum'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a suitable design was found, copies of a BR-WR notice have been made, and the first two examples planted.

Not so garish, and more in keeping with our GWR style. 

You see, it can be done, with a bit of thought and care. 

 

 

 

 

Finally, STEVIE was out Tuesday and Wednesday, helping the team lengthening the Toddington platforms.

 

The attraction here is that STEVIE can not only do the heavy lifting of the slabs, but we own a scissors sleeper lifter which was just right for placing the slabs as well.

 

These pictures come to us from Walt (for STEVIE) and Paul (for the Pway). 

 

At the end of the day the platform end, now lengthened and with new steps, looked like this. It was hoped to complete the job for the diesel gala. Almost there now.

 

 

PWay on Wednesday.

A slightly smaller gang today, no doubt a combination of the heat and the football. Yes, it affects volunteers too. 

 

The job, as so often, was resleepering along the Gretton straight. Between the tunnel mouth and near Prescott we have a long stretch of original second hand sleepers of the early 1990s. These are all starting to go now. Nine sleepers were changed, an excellent performance given the hot weather.

The team watches Betton Grange trundle by.

 

 

 

 

 

The day was also an opportunity to assess our newest Lookout recruit - David R.

He qualified. 

 

 

 

 

A smart 26043 was on the diesel service at the end of the day.

 

 

Finally the sleepers removed from the track have been placed next to the roadway, waiting to be transferred to one of our LT storage sites.

In the meantime they can enjoy the view towards the Malverns, as we did. (Or is that Breedon Hill...?)

 

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Technical note - the page view counter is going crazy. Monthly views of this blog would average around 15 - 20.000, when they suddenly rose to 100.000, then fell a bit, and last week shot to 197.000!

Perhaps we should engage the Google Ads function - that would raise money for the railway, but readers might not find it so pleasant. Any thoughts?