Roof works.

Friday at Broadway.

Still a few dry days, although not dry enough for that second undercoat on the steel. Assembly work continues, with two of us at it on Friday.

 

 

 

 

 

On this misty and damp Friday in November we see Neal carrying an armful of dagger boards, into which he had cut a groove in one of the containers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stacked the dagger boards on the canopy overhang, for sorting into front and back, left and right. All had been cut and painted under the Toddington glass, but somehow all the identifying marks had been painted over by someone. Well, there are only three people to point at !

We'd just have to work it out on site. 

 

 

 

This picture shows the back of the dagger boards that Neal put on the canopy end a few days ago. The tops still need trimming. On the left, the sorting into size area.

 

 

 

It was really heartening to see that despite his difficulties, John had been to install another arch, this one over the RH door.

That leaves just one more to do, number eight. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving to the southern end, this shows the timber support structure for the other set of end-on dagger boards. 

We had a bit of a funding issue to get bolts for this, so temporary bolts were used. With a new supply of bolts, Neal was able to replace them for the right ones on Friday. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here Neal is cutting recesses into the timber, so that the bolts can sit flush. Then they don't interfere with the fitting of the dagger boards.

He's standing on the store room roof here. It's the only dry place in the building so far.

 

 

 

 

 

We asked Neal about when the roof sheets were likely to go on, and indeed we are nearly ready, but now the two week line block has become available, so we will be using that to work on the front fascia board. 

 

We had a GOLD fire&drive experience on Friday, a last chance to be at the controls of that lovely Black 5.

 

The Black 5 ran round in a large cloud of steam. Blowing piston glands, Neal advised, the LMS ones are not as good as the GWR ones... We would say that, of course.

 

 

 

 

After changing the bolts, we brought a supply of the longer dagger boards to the store room roof, where we enjoyed a brief sorting out period. Are they all there? Did Neal cut them all right? This one appears twice, one must be for the other end...

 

 

 

 

This is us fitting the first two on the south end. Those ratchet G clamps come in really handy. We could only put a handful on, as two more steel stays need to be bolted between the timbers and the truss. Neal has made those OK, but they were still wet from undercoating earlier in the day.

 

 

From the store room roof we saw that pine needles had bunched up in big piles on the guttering of the P1 canopy. A lot of these will be trying to go down the storm water drainage system too, and try blocking it. We saw that last year. A supply of gutter netting exists, but has not been used yet. 

 

 

 

Near the end of the day (about 3.30pm these days, when the light starts to go) Neal put a few more boards on the northern end. Here the extra stays are already in place - you can just see one on the LH frame of the picture, and another behind Neal's head.

 

 

 

Just as we were packing up, the F&D train turned up a second time. Enjoy that loco, it's leaving very shortly. 

 

 

 

It was interesting to see that the F&D candidate was one of our very own volunteers. 

 

 

45110 at rest at Broadway, in the gloom.

A peep into the cab, showing the driver's tea can, and a rather more modern plastic coffee cup. Lovely atmosphere though.

 

 

 

 

Friday in the PWay yard.

Another speciual day, with a small team. 

Pictures by Walt and David, with thanks.

 

 

 

 

A lightbulb went on when we were asked top remove the short demonstration track panel from the garden centre. Why not take it to Winchcombe to store the buggy and its trailers on it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The RRV was ideal for this task. After it lifted in the track panel the first trailer was placed on it. That also freed space in the area in front of the S&T building, where the kit had been dropped in the first instance.

 

 

 

 

 

To save 'siding space' (ha ha) one trailer was put on top of the other. That left enough length of track to putr the buggy. This is now operational, and there is a plan to try it out this winter.

 

At the end of the operation the track panel, buggy and trailers looked like this - neatly stacked away.

Thge buggy storage problem is not completely solved yet, as you can see that it is still out in the open, with a bit of tarp flapping over it. The trailers are completely bare.

We could put up a PWay trolley type shed over them, made out of old sleepers and some spare corrugated iron sheets. But how then to get the buggy on to a running line? It needs lifting by either the RRV, or the Telehandler. It's too heavy to be carried by 4 people, as they used to be. 

 

 

 

Tuesday at Broadway.

Cold and cloudy. Rain forecast to start at 17.00. It actually started to rain at 14.00, so that put a damper on things a bit. The temperature barely reached 7 degrees. 

 

 

 

 

On Monday Neal was able to add more dagger boards to the southern end of the canopy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, John was able to complete the last, eighth arch along the front. Brilliant! He also started the next course, which goes over it. More bricks are on a pallet (on the LH edge of the picture) and during the day we brought up two more barrow loads.

The brick courses need to go right up to the steel framework of the building, with the top 4 courses all corbel specials. 

 

 

 

 

 

Yours Truly spent the day painting again. There is always something to paint, it seems.

Here we have 3 timbers that will go along the back edge of the roof, and they have an angle cut into them, to match the slope of the corrugated iron sheets. Once dry, Neal will put these up.

We also gathered together some of the items that will be needed during next week, when we share a track possession with the S&T gang. 

Before we were able to sign off this paint job, it started to rain at 14.00. We hastily carried the 3 sticky timbers, and another 7 boards from inside the container, up to the footbridge, the only other dry place we have for long items like this. 

 

Lunch was held in the nice warm signal box, perhaps for the last time, as the canopy gang has been told not to use it any more after November 16th. Just as it's starting to get seriously wet and cold !

 

 

An end of the day shot, during light rain, shows how far we have got with the canopy ends. Neal is still there for a few minutes, changing the last of the bolts. You can just make out the completed arches along the front, and two pallets of bricks ready for the courses above them.

 

 

 

Monday, a special on the PWay.

This was a small group at Stanton, readying the yard for the transfer of a stock of heavy duty concrete sleepers, currently in store in the old garden centre, and in the way.  

 

 

 

 

The yard is a bit of a jumble, with broken sleepers, some military lightweight ones, two turnouts belonging to a third party, and those pads that we took up there a few weeks back. All overgrown with brambles of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This looks a lot better.

Redundant sleepers have been laid out as bearers for what is to come. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the crossing pads that we moved up there have already been relocated - again. Now up against the end fence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The redundant concrete sleepers were put in a pile. While we do use an occasional concrete sleeper, for example to make up a ballast retaining wall, these are basically surplus, should anyone be interested. 

We have also used concrete sleepers to make up the coal bunkers at Toddington, so there are uses for them, with imagination. After all, they are strong, and don't rot. 

 

 

 

That left the second third party turnout to deal with.

We dismantled the first one, and this one is still left to do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

All four of us today, with grey and drizzley weather. Thank heavens for the Pagoda at Gotherington West !

 

 

 

Before going to Gotherington we stopped at Winchcombe, to offload 4 reasonably fresh dumpy bags for ballasting the PWay. 

Then we picked up one of the sleeper off cuts from the platelayer's hut, which will go under the wheel at the bottom RH corner of the picture, the existing one being life expired.

Jules is keen as mustard, we heard the others found him digging at 8.30 ! This is the trench that will take away the rainwater from the downpipes, instead of splashing it at the cabin's frames.

 

 

Inside we used some of the black fence paint, also from the platelayer's hut project, to stain the newer planks we put in the floor. Everything should fade to a uniform grey, once it's been used for a bit. 

 

 

 

 

Outside the others were busy fixing the new skirting boards along the bottom of the cabin, all the way round. They were there before, but had unfortunately all but rotted away.

Dave brought some mastic, to keep the water away in future. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boards were test fitted to the front, and then the ends chamfered.

 

 

 

Here the front one has been fitted, and the side one is being measured up. If you are very observant, you might notice that during last week Bryan had also been along to paint the front in cream.

 

 

 

 

Here the other end is being fitted. It also came to our notice that the ends of the floorboards - which are exposed to the weather, sticking out under the door - could do with some protection. We will do some skip surfing at Winchcombe to see if we can find a suitable piece of angle to covere the ends.

 

 

What's this - has the postman been? Maybe you could write us a letter, c/o Gotherington West.

Note also the state of the end of the floor board on the right. The LH one was replaced by us last week. 

 

 

Paul cooked for us again for lunch.

On the menu: Sausage & Onion baps, with a choice of ketchup, mustard, or Daddy's sauce.

For pudding: Missisippi toffee cake, Mince pies, or Wagon Wheels. 

All 3 did you say? Why certainly, it's Liberty Hall here, we're old enough now. 

 

 

As we tidied up the lineside hut looked like this. Bryan will paint the skirting boards (brown).

Dave is applying a last strip of mastic.

We also dug the hole for the wheel of the cable run that operates the adjacent signal.

 

 

On the way home we called in at Winchcombe again.

 

You'd better be careful when crossing the tracks behind the C&W shed. Not only might you meet a train or a shunting loco, but today it was STEVIE with two dangling rails.

 

 

These rails were dropped off outside the S&T building.

 

Walt revealed that these were for a student project from Gloucester college.

It's nice how we can work with the local community. 

PWay today.

 

Toddington was the place, making good use of the fact that the coches were being decorated for Santa at Winchcombe, so the platform tracks were free for once.

 

 

 

Some less than fresh sleepers were changed here, and the remains of one of them were so small that they made a small pile of lighting up wood on the platform.

 

 

 

 Some members wore poppies, as today was 11.11. The Usketeers even had a minute's silence.

 

 

 

Elsewhere at Toddington the good quality concrete sleepers, ex Bicester MOD, were re-stacked to make their imminent removal to Stanton yard easier.

 

MIC: Warming up PWay machinery.

 

The message below came round on a circular, which we think is worth sharing with other PWay gangs, or anyone else using motorised machinery. 

 

 

 

This is the piston from one of our Robels. It's the second engine we’ve lost due to bore scoring - the other being a Husqvarna rail saw last year.

Using full power immediately after startup can have the aluminium piston heating and expanding faster than the cylinder wall, and even a decent Honda is not immune to the damage.

To prevent this from happening to any more of our petrol machines, please could we make sure that when starting the engines from cold, we give them a few minutes at idle to allow the engine to warm up. They only need a minute or so. Likewise when finished with, we should ideally allow them to idle for a short while before we switch them off.

Petrol machinery includes the Robels, rail saws, sleeper drills and rail drills - all of which will be used in anger in the coming months.

 

By the way, there is a new blog post of Yeo Valley Lines, on the Barnstaple and Yeo Valley Railway Trust. You can see it here:

 https://yeovalleylines.blogspot.com/2026/11/groundworks.html