Getting ready for riveting.

Friday at Broadway.

Now that the steelwork is up - with the exception of the rear fascia board along the canopy extension - we have a number of preparatory tasks before us, before we can put the roof sheets and glazing on, and keeping things in the dry.

Friday is a non-running day, but there are many exceptions (chiefly fire&drive) and last Friday was an outing of the Growler group supporters.

Just before noon both GWSR based Growlers arrived, in top and tail formation. As it was almost lunch time, and the train had a working buffet car on board, a strategic phone call earlier that morning arranged for a hot bacon roll to be delivered by the travelling stationmaster on the train. One of the working man's privileges.

 

 

 

Almost all the passengers were concentrated in the first carriage, but as Broadway was the terminus, there was a visible migration to the far end of the train, now the front.

The train was quite busy, with supporters from all over the country. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were not passengers, we were able to chat to the driver, and see the train depart.

 

 

 

 

Walking back, we took this record shot of the station, as it evolves into its final shape. 

There's a lot of S&T activity in and around the signal box, which will definitely enter service in 2027. Nine years after the station, but better late than never. It seemed like 'never' for quite a long time, but thanks to our new chairman, it will now happen. 

Another positive bit of news that we heard is that we will now be buying a set of bollards, to go along the pavement outside the station. 

 

 

Patience has finally run out, after the latest set of cracks on our pavement. Not only the slabs are affected, but at least two drainage covers have been crushed. Although at least one skip lorry was seen offending, the main offenders are 13 ton touring coaches. Instead of using the lay by half way up the drive, they want to deliver their passengers as close to the front door as possible, and then stay there, with 2 wheels on the pavement, because there is no room.

The bollards will be of the 'cannon ball' type and cast iron, so pukka stuff. They weigh 70 kg each. 

 

 

Then it was back to work, with Neal drilling rivet holes for junction plates, and Yours Truly touching up the paintwork damage from loading and final assembly.

Here Neal is bolting on one of the truss support brackets over the staircase. 

 

 

For comparison, here's a picture of Broadway's big sister station, Hall Green. The bit Neal is bolting on is the triangular piece under the truss, to the left of the staircase. He still has to make the brace piece in the middle - not a big job, after all he has done already.

There are also purlin extension pieces to make. These permit the dagger board screen over the end to be fitted. 

The Growler special came to Broadway three times during the day.

 This was the mid-afternoon departure, a double header, with its own headboard.

Monday at Broadway.

A laste arrival for Yours Truly, who started the day hunched over the telephone, argueing with the bank about a renewal debit card that didn't work. Stress ! But all sorted now. They left it right to the wire!

 

 

On our (late) arrival we found Neal on the tower scaffold, firmly planted in the 4ft. He had the section staff in his pocket, Monday being a non-running day.

The scaffolding was meant to be built out on to the run round loop, but we never managed to get permission to do this. So we are 6ft short.  How to drill the neceesary holes? And indeed fit the woodwork, dagger boards, guttering and final painting?

 

 

 

Neal is a practical man, so he organised a tower scaffold and drilled from that. Some holes had to be drilled from the inside, but no problem.

Every now and then we had to get down to the trackbed and hump the tower along to the site of the next truss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In between the trusses were these lattice brackets to secure.

They only had two rivet holes to drill, then move on. 

 

 

 

Here's an overview from the footbridge, with Neal about half way along.

Message to Noel: We've taken the G clamps off, there are secure bolts now (to be themselves replaced by rivets in due course) so no more need to worry! 

 

On getting the canopy steelwork up after three years of assembly in 'The Greenhouse', we've had quite a few messages of congratulation, but little interest from the centre so far. At least the public can now see what we are doing, what it's going to look like.

 

As we were working on the fascia board we got the replica builder's plate out from storage. It's not on yet here, but this is what it will look like. It's a new casting off an original, lent by Brian, a local photographer who saw the station being demolished in 1963.

 

While on the tower scaffold Neal also took the opportunity of disking off the excess from the latticework beams.

They stuck out at the bottom, but no more now.

By mid afternoon Neal arrived at the far, northern end. We reckon he drilled 82 holes during the day, a small part of the several hundred he needs to do before we can start riveting.

Another interesting job facing him is the 20mm adjustment of the second truss from the north end. It is slightly out of place, leading to a wobble in the ridge line and a fascia board with a curve in it.

How will he do it?

Stay tuned to this blog.

That said, there are going to be a few gaps, due to holidays and a working visit to another railway. Back to normal frequency by the end of September.
 

 

Tuesday at Broadway.

Three of us - John was back, so brick laying progressed, hooray ! 

 

 

 

We made John a nice mix (and a second one after lunch) and he was able to make good progress on the 4 rows of corbelling at the back. This is needed before we put the roof on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neal was on drilling again. or 'broaching' as it is, technically speaking.

He was on the ridge purlins today, all awkward holes, he informed us. 

How far has he got? A fair bit, was the answer. So a bit more patience is needed, before we are ready to do any riveting. 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look carefully, you can just make out Neal's yellow hatted head in the distance. 

It was a good day for painting, so we followed up with undercoat all the little bits we had treated with Kurrust, and covered with green steel primer earlier.

There are 6 roof 'boxes' in between the steels if you like. We completed 4 of them today, and those are now waterproof for a while, until a topcoat is applied. 

 

 

It would be even better for the coat of protective paint if we had the roof sheets on, but that is still a while off. Let's hope we have a dry September. No one else has come forward to do any painting, so it looks like a job for Yours Truly, after the hols.

 

It was a Growler haulage day again on Tuesday. Here, it's 37215. Customers seemed fairly numerous, which was good to see, including some groups.  We sat on the platform outside the cafe, enjoying a Cappuccino, and let all the populace mill around us. It was a moment of quiet pride, people enjoying our station, many not realising that it is a replica built by volunteers.

 

 

 

At the end of the day John had laid about 3/4 of the back third row of corbels, using bevelled headers (as we call them).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using the toilets to wash our hands, we saw a new notice above the taps. Now, normally we would baulk at such non-heritage notices - there seem to be a lot of them appearing nowadays - but we do get the reason for these. People turn on the taps, then walk away.

Replacing our nice Victorian models with modern self closing taps does not help, because these soon clog up and no longer close, leading to even more loss of water. So what to do to educate people? Hence the notice above all the taps at Broadway. OK then.

 

 

 

 

Next came this one: it's above the toilet bowl. Not exactly Victorian either, but modern people throw all sorts of non-human waste down the toilet, pricipally plastic wet wipes. Don't do it, they're made of plastic, and cause fatbergs! Yes, You !

Alas, also OK then. 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally this one: We had this 'DISABLED' door plate made specially, in GWR style.

An aluminium Baby Changing sign was then glued above it. This was the result of a passenger in the cafe who changed her baby's nappy on top of one of the cafe tables, claiming there was no sign to show her where the baby changing facilities were. 

Not OK - surely this was an isolated incident? How clueless some people are. 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A full house of 4 volunteers today. We started at Winchcombe, as we needed to talk to people for various supplies we needed, and maybe some tools to borrow.

Paul also wanted to explain his suggested method of lifting the little cabin, so that we can get a sleeper underneath. He did us a little drawing, on the back of the envelope as it were. Or, in this case, a spot from brick laying:

 

 

 

It involved two lifting arms, possibly with some extra stays, if required.

It reminded us of a Sedan chair... 

 

 

 

 

Once on site in Bryan's back garden, a simpler idea evolved. 

 

 

How about using a bar on each corner, using some sleeper offcuts as fulcrums, and see if we can tip the cabin back that way?

If successful, we could then get some temporary bricks underneath to hold it up. 

This idea did indeed work, and in the picture you can see two bricks and a bit of packing , under a part of the side frame that was still sound.

 

 

 

The end of that frame member, as well as the bottom 6 inches of the corner post were rotten, and this was the reason the cabin had tilted. 

The cause of the rot was that the concrete pots on which it stood were too low down, so that much of the cabin's frame stood on ash, which was often wet, especially since the two downpipes did not dispose of the rainwater very well.

 These inside shots of the frame at the front give you an idea of what was going on.

Middle of the front frame, which turned out to be two lengths spliced together.

 

A rotten corner.Not a good jacking point, we found.

 

 

 

Paul can be seen clearing of the concrete pads, which are about a foot below ground level.

The intention is to raise these pads with brick towers, so that the whole cabin will stand above ground. 

 

 

 

 

 

We rather like working at Gotherington. We have our own cabin (albeit a bit wonky at the moment), and we can watch trains rumbling by all day long. And owner Bryan is delighted with us being there, as he can't manage all the maintenance on his own. No doubt he would be grateful for some local help, to keep the place ticking over.

Bryan gave us a little tour of Gotherington station yard, so that we could help ourselves to any useful materials that we might find.

 

In the meantime the green Growler arrived with its train, not so well filled. The first train out of CRC was well occupied though, with at least one party booking, and a full coach of enthusiastic people waving at us. 

 

 

The idea of levering the hut with an iron bar on two corners worked quite well. Here it is almost level now. However, ultimately we would like to see it above, not on, the ground.

 

 

Lunch was taken al fresco, although it wasn't all that fresh. It was hot and muggy today, and we felt exhausted after just a couple of hours work.

 

This signal is operated from the little groundframe cabin - an idea for children, like the ground frame at Toddington. 

 

 

 

As we probed further, we realised that the bottoms of all the boarding at the front was also rotten. It was also obscuring our view of the frame, and of what needed to be done to it.

 

With Bryan's permission we removed the signal box name plate, so that we can remove the boards in due course. In fact the bottoms of the boards all round are badly decayed, again caused by sitting on the ground. 

The Growler was back after lunch, when Yours Truly had to leave early - admin at home. There is another life out there, you know!