The last brick

Only 9 people today, and the temperature was only barely above freezing. That said, we did a brilliant day's work between us, stopped only by the slightly premature (vis-a-vis the BBC website) arrival of the rain.

Last week, the small flat truck was loaded at Winchcombe with more slabs for Hayles. It is now at last available for us to transport lots of slabs at once, now that it has done its job in transporting materials to and from the Winchcombe relay in the tunnel cutting.

First thing, Julian was already on site (he's very keen, our  Jules) and busy getting the kettle all steaming so that arrivals could enjoy a good cuppa on this frosty morning.

We crowded into the container to win that tiny extra bit of heat (also to put our hand into the doughnut bag, with success, as can be seen here)

Shortly afterwards, Lucky the Dalmatian galloped up and gave us the onceover, but without finding anything. Dang !

A rival dog later in the day would be more lucky... Stevie's Gypsy called at lunchtime, and had half a hamburger. Didn't seem to appreciate it though, just looked hungry for more.

Last week, no fewer than 6 people tried fruitlessly to start Minnie the Mixer.

This week, we had to have a plan.

Here is Dave, giving her some TLC. She is having her oil level checked, the lucky girl. We don't do that every day, you know. Mmmmmmmm.

Next to the pampering, some bribery was tried.

This worked, as Minnie then sang into life on the second pull!

You've got to know how to treat them....

Then, work. To our joy, the flat truck had been parked up against our new halt, thank you Neil. The piles of slabs were carefull unloaded and stacked to one side.

Here they could be trimmed and improved. This natural sandstone suffers from spalling, so we turn them upside down, and remove any loose layers.

Dave D is having a go with the bolster.

Later, Dave D also had a go with the disk cutter, and this always attracts a crowd.

Much more success in this today, thanks to a new cutting disk. Another treat from us. We spoil our people.

The slabs ex CRC2 come in all sorts of lengths, and here is a long one, about 5ft in fact.

With our special slab handling grabs (patent pending) this big one is carefully manoeuvered across to the area where we were laying, i.e. the northern end of the platform.

A thick bed of mortar is applied, and the slab gently lowered down. It is deliberately laid a bit too high, so that we can tamp it down to the right level, using a heavy fence post which is ideal for the job.

Here's an overview of the site today - slabbing at the Toddington end, two teams corbelling this end.
No firm news on finishing the landscaping yet though, maybe in a fortnight. We are in a queue. Platform work is slowly coming to a close, so we need to prepare the next jobs, one of which is the laying of the slab for the hut.

Two low level visitors flew over the site today, seen here over Dumbleton hill. Very exciting to hear the roar coming, and to see not one but two race past at nearly tree top level.

In betwen all the slabbing and brick laying, Tom is calmly working his way down the platform, applying a final layer of creosote.

Looks good, doesn't it?

The corbelling team of Julian and Tim were working on the southern end, where two more bays needed the brickwork finishing off. Would they finish this today?

Yes they did !

Here is Julian with the very last brick laid at the new Hayles Abbey Halt.

All that remains to be done here now is the placing of the edging slabs.

At 3 o'clock it started to rain, so we had no choice but to cover our work and tidy up. Ten slabs were laid today, and these covered the rest of the northern end of the platform, and some way down the slope. All the brickwork is finished too.

The replica running in board is going to be made by the Building and Services gang, for which we are very grateful. They also made the CRC2 board, so have the experience. For the first time on the GWSR, the letters will be in cast metal, another step up in the quality of the build. We also have 2 trespass notices, the one we found on site (currently being repaired) and a second bought on Ebay. Just need some bridge rail to fix them on now.

The post is late...

Due to the need for an urgent bit of dumping for the track replacement works at Winchcombe, your blogger wasn't at Hayles yesterday.

Or was he?

It seems the smell of fried sausages drifts a long way, because round about lunch time Stevie at Winchcombe decided a trip to Hayles for a cup of tea would be a good idea.

We found a good gang of 11 busy laying slabs that Dave P had brought up with the Telehandler, while Dave D was trying to trim them, very slowly with what looked like a blunt cutting disk. Much dust ensued.

Our arrival was very timely, as Paul was just finishing the fry up, and the rolls had already been laid out. Yes, there were some spare sausages! Help yourself to ketchup, and tea.

Although the weather wasn't particularly balmy, we did just about manage to sit outside in the temperature of 5 degrees C.

John M entertained us with several of his awful jokes, and we cannot unfortunately delve into further details here. But a picture speaks 1000 words:

Did you hear the one about Nicola Sturgeon?

The unmentionable punchline is delivered.







After lunch, a quick look around the site:

The corbelling, at lunchtime, was on the home straight, with only two more sections to go. More slabs for this are being sorted out at Winchcombe, with logistics and accessibility issues in their slow arrival. But 5 more arrived today and were duly placed.

The newly placed slabs are in the foreground, with the mortar for the next one placed but left to go off a bit more while we ate.

On site Stevie and Jim G are having a tactical discussion as to what happens next. Behind them is the partly excavated area for the foundation slab of the corrugated iron hut. This needs further digging out, and the remainder of the slope needs landscaping.

If anyone has other pictures of the work on Monday, do please pass them on for posting.


Post Script 

Paul very kindly sent in a batch of Monday photographs, but due to an address error they only came in today.
Here they are:

Minnie had one of her turns and wouldn't start.

It took six goes to get her running!

Julian on the final stretch of corbelling, on the southern end ramp.

Dave brought in the Telehandler from Winchcombe, as well as half a dozen additional slabs. (more are waiting on a flat in the yard)

Dave D had a good go at squaring them up, but it wasn't so easy with a disk that was getting increasingly blunt.

All hands on deck at the southern end of the platform now.

Tim on the top row of corbelling at the start of the slope.

A small number of slabs was put on, and the row of them is getting increasingly long, amplified by this view along it.

Remember the scene in Blackadder III?

SAUSAGE TIME !

This impressive shot shows the almost fully completed brickwork, faced with creosoted planks to look like the original sleepers that were used her in the 1920s.

Sunshine, and more slabs

What a good day today! The sun made an appearance for most of the day, and we had a record 12 volunteers - is there a link perhaps?

Dave P brought the Telehandler out from Winchcombe again today, and this time he brought not only the forks, but also the bucket.

The forks were parked in a corner, and with the bucket Dave set out to scoop up the remaining bits of infill that had been raked together in a long pile.

Each bucketful was carefully dropped behind the new platform wall, starting here at the northern end.

At the other end of the platform you can see a second group gathering around the corbelling activity.

Tim came to finish off the northern end of the platform brickwork, but access for barrows of mortar was somewhat hindered by the growing pile of infill, so that he was forced to help Dave shovel it all flat.

Warming work that, shovelling. And slow. The next bucketful is already approaching !

By mid morning early fog had lifted and it was a lovely warming day. On this picture you can see two corbelling teams, and an infill team at work. Paul is off to cook sausages, and John is chatting to a neighbour, who came to see how we were doing.
In the picture the infill has nearly all been used up, leaving only a gap in the middle, which might be filled from the excavations for the slab for the hut. We shall see.

Infill finished, Tim was at last let loose on the northern end corbelling, which he completed in fine style. He then joined the others working on the southern end.

The southern end corbelling team laid a record number of bricks, thus ensuring that more slabs can be laid here.

Julian took a real flier when he ventured that the brickwork might be finished next week.

Oooh, risquee! We shall see if his prediction comes out.

Yours truly on mortar got through most of a dumpy bag of sand today. The going, in racing terms, was 'heavy'. The ground was sodden and stuck to the wheelbarrow, so that the wheel became twice as wide and would not be pushed.

By early afternoon all our sand was gone, and an emergency resupply had to be ordered. BPS, our sponsor, came in like the cavalry, well done !

Now that the platform is almost finished and two coaches long, getting down to the trackbed is almost always a long walk, so Paul rustled us up a neat little access ladder. Jim H has just tried it out, and is mulling his next move.

Dave P brought in this interesting relic, recently acquired. It is a DREADNOUGHT Thief-Proof patented toilet roll holder, with an additional stamp of G.W.R. in the top LH corner.
Theft of loo rolls was clearly an annoying problem on the railway, and this neat little invention solved it. To get the roll off, it has to be empty first. You then tear up the inner cardboard, to reveal a slot into which a penny is inserted. Only this releases the axle. Cunning!

Sausages for lunch today. Paul cooked a lovely sizzeling panful today, and with the clement weather, we all sat outside and ate our two-sausages-in-a-roll-with-tomato-ketchup. Our first outside lunch in 2017.

Delicious. Then tea, and any leftover doughnuts from this morning. They were not hoovered up by Lucky the Dalmatian, who came by non-stop today with Mrs. Lucky in tow.

After lunch, we changed the bucket on the Telehandler for the forks, and set about to do some slabbing. We got 5 in today. To start with, they had to be trimmed, and the volunteer who agreed to be covered in white dust today was Dave D. Very brave. Maybe he already has a white car interior?

Dave P measured up the length of each slab (they vary in length from 3ft to 6ft) and here you can see him working out how much mortar to put down for it.

His tape measure was tiny. He says he found it (in a Christmas cracker?) and while an inch is an inch on every tape measure, this miniature 3ft example wasn't quite man enough for a slab measuring 3ft 6ins long.

With the right amount of mortar in place, the next slab can be lifted in.

In this example, it also had to have a thin slice off the back, in order to fit around the drain inspection pit, the height of which we have extended up to the top of the new platform.

With a slab in place, the final step is to adjust its correct position and height.

We have found that the best tool for this job is a heavy fence post, which you bump up and down over the spot you want adjusted. Works a treat, and does not harm the slab.

John is in charge of fence posting today.

The 'piece de la resistance' is the pointing of the gaps between the finished slabs.

Here we see Rick inserting the mortar into the cracks.

It's nice to be able to do a job standing up.

At the end of the day, we had laid 5 slabs, removed all the infill that was obstructing the trackbed (sorry, Andy P) and extended the final layer of corbelling well down the southern end, so that one more day here might see us complete this job.

The days are now getting longer again, and whereas it was dark at 15.00 a month ago, this picture shows the sky at 16.00, as Dave P sets off to return the Telehandler to Winchcombe.

The building of Hayles Abbey halt also involves some work behind the scnes, and today we were able to enjoy the fruits of one of these efforts, as the letters for the running in board were delivered.

These are reproduction castings from originals, which we borrowed from friends and in 3 cases, found at a local auction. They are 12ins high, and faithful copies of the GWR design. You can judge the size by the GWSR souvenir mug in the middle! Chunky stuff. They will be attached to the running in board with one way screws, so that they can't be stolen. A kind supporter already gave us a set of original letters for 'HALT', so we now have a full set.

Drizzle and slabs

The BBC forecast was in two minds for today:

a. All day rain (BBC's weather icons) or
b. Drizzle to start with, fading to the east (BBC's narrative)

We had 'a.'

It was so wet that the windscreen wipers in the car increased to maximum speed while driving down on the B4632. What a washout.

Unperturbed, 8 volunteers reported for duty and fun at Hayles. It would surely stop raining soon...
Because of the sodden ground, it was decided not to park on the adjacent bridleway any more, and Jim G asked our neighbours DLF Seeds Ltd whether we might use their overflow car park. This they let us do, but better still, they offered us a big bag of grass seed to sow on the newly landscaped cutting slope around the halt. Brilliant. Thank you, DLF Seeds!

After walking in the rain for 200yds from our alternative car park, it was very cheering to be offered, immediately on arrival, a hot mug of steaming tea by a hand reaching out from inside the container.

In the hope the rain might ease off, we stood inside for a while and shared more tea and doughnuts.

The sound of the kettle and the rustle of the doughnut bags being opened brought an immediate two visitors: Steve, on his way to Pry Lane to level the ballast tipped on the extension, and Lucky, the Dalmatian.

Lucky sumitted the container to an intensive survey by nose.

Eventually he located what he was looking for, and dived into the bin bag (with last week's rubbish, or possibly even older rubbish!).

He emerged after quite a period of rummaging, chewing something indescribable.

We preferred not to ask too many questions, and hope that he got home alright without being sick.

Outside, the horizon was scanned for the tiniest break in the cloud. There were none. An arpeggio on a mobile then announced a text message, which turned out to be from a worried spouse informing the volunteer recipient that he had left his gloves at home. This was very thoughtful, but he already knew that....

Tim came in his convertible MX5 - the hood was up, can you believe it - and tried to lay corbelling bricks, but it was just too wet to do this. After considering our options, we decided to lay slabs instead, which was still feasible.

Dave P was dispatched to Winchcombe to fetch the Telehandler. After half an hour's waiting he duly emerged from the gloom, bearing a load of 5 additional slabs from the pile behind the B&S compound there.

Due to the inclement weather, and having already excercised the options of tea and / or doughnuts in the container, a number of us decided to wait under the bridge in the dry. No point in getting wetter still while waiting for Dave.

Still in the rain, now reduced to a steady drizzle, we started laying slabs. This went quite well, and at the end of the day we had laid a further 7, making 17 laid so far.

Jim H was slinger for the day, and did a good job with Dave P in the Telehandler, given the confined approach to the platform (hampered by a row of ballast at the rear).

While we all got pretty wet out in the relentless drizzle, we had only very limited sympathy for Dave P, who, in his nice warm cab, heater and windscreen wiper on, complained that he got a wet knee from under the open window.

Yes, it's tough, being a Telehandler driver.

Once a slab was down, Paul came in to check it for height, alignment and level.

A steadily lengthening row of slabs can be seen in the background, as well as a row of ballast piles on the left, which was prepared last week out of the remains of the initial supply of infill.

This still needs scooping up by the Telehandler, on a day that it is equipped with its bucket.

We laid the 7 slabs before lunch. After lunch, it was decided not to continue laying, but to remove the 10 slabs laid on the platform infill, so that Steve can continue with his landscaping and push the excess into the rear of the platform. Although we wanted to use these 10 slabs for laying straight away, they were all out of square or damaged in some way, so that they all need their ends cutting off to make them useable. Due to the rain, our man with the disc cutter didn't come today, so that is a job for next time.

Here we see Dave P, Jim H and Julian slowly removing the slabs that need cutting to the other side of the trackbed. Just 5 more to go. On the right, the long pile of infill that got in the way, and which now needs scooping up.

At the end of the day, you can see the 17 slabs now laid in total, covering perhaps a third of the full platform length. The 10 slabs that need cutting have been removed, so that the area is now ready for Steve to continue reprofiling the sides, and more importantly, finish excavating the site for the concrete base for the corrugated iron shelter that is coming. The grass seed is, inter alia, for the area in the foreground, which is now covered in fresh earth.

There's still a bit more corbelling to do right at the back (the final row in the last section) and along the bit in the front, where the blues have been positioned.

From the soggy state of the path on the right, you can imagine what our boots looked like at the end of the day. Now to drive home, and hang eveything up in the garge to dry. Let's hope it's going to be ready for Wednesday!