Our very own fridge.

Friday in a freezing loco shed.

We're fabricating and painting. The outside temperature was 0.5 C....

Neal is close to completing the second of the 3 future support posts for the end of the canopy for P2 at Broadway.

This one is slightly different, as the stringer from the bottom of the steps will pass through the 'cast iron' embellishment. A central gap therefore has to remain.

In the picture Neal is measuring up pieces of round, cut in half down the middle, which will be fitted above the widening on the post, already in place.

This is one he did earlier. We've been doing this job on and off while we wait for the official go ahead to start the P2 building. Things are looking favourable at the moment, but there are still one or two obstacles to overcome.

 

 

 

John continued his good work on the ladder and platform for the yard lamp. He will be getting used to this, it's the third one he has done. Second hand GWR yard lamps with original ladders are pretty rare, we only had the one, and for the other three new ladders had to be made.

This ladder is now complete. It's so long that it doesn't fully fit into the picture!

He's also done the floor of the platform, two uprights and the 'D' shaped guard rail at the top.

All this is covered in millscale. Previously we didn't remove this, but advice now is to deal with it, as the paint will stick much better. We don't want to leave a rusty legacy for future generations.

Friday was really busy in the shed. We noticed work on 2874, P&O and a welding course going on.

This is a little cameo on 2874. Steve, Jamie and Mike are removing a rear cylinder cover on 2874. It's heavy - you can't just walk up and pull it off on your own.

Ian was making new steps for the loco. Why - steps don't wear out, do they? The answer is that they became badly rusted at Barry.

Later yours truly and John put on a layer of topcoat on the Winchcombe canopy brackets.

Its called Dulux Country Cream and is a commercially available colour that matches quite well BR Western cream. In this picture we added a bit of saturation to the image to show you, otherwise in the dark shed the colour comes out as pretty much white. The paint covers really well, we found; we liked the stuff.

Saturday with the PWay gang.

Cold, dry, a good turnout, and a work site close to the mess coach. It all went very well. First we had Nick's chocolate doughnuts (a thumbs up given to them) and tea, for what some might call a 'briefing'.

Jobs for the day were:

- Finish off replacing the last 14 sleepers in the stretch opposite the mess coach

- Load the sleeper wagon with CS1 concretes

- Change two end posts by the outer home.

 

OK guys, there's tea, chocolate doughnuts, and raspberry doughnuts.

The weekend Santa activities take place between CRC and Winchcombe station, so they don't cover our worksite - except at the beginning of the day, at the end, and in the middle. Oh well, we can work round that.

While we were still having tea the first train came past - an ECS working to CRC. Foremarke Hall suitably decorated.

That was followed very shortly after by 4270 light engine, to pick up the marroon rake from P2, and take that down to CRC as well. Then we were clear for a few hours.

Sleeper wagon, part filled.

What we are going to be doing during the winter season is now sharpening up. The major job is to replace a stretch of several hundred concrete sleepers at Didbrook over 1/4 mile. These were laid back in the 1980s with austerity ex army sleepers. Being austerity, they contain less concrete, are shorter, and are now life expired. Some have shown signs of cracking up, and have had to be fitted with tie bars. 

 So they're coming out.

 

Boom out, Dave.

Dave fitted the forks to the Telehandler and together with Steve spent a couple of hours loading up the rest of the bogie flat.

Last week there was a question about GWR throughbolt chairs, so we took a picture of one close up to show you the construction.

 

This is one, end on. The bolt and square washer underneath are still on.

Note how rusty the nut on the right is. To get that off (if you can, after many years of rain) you need extreme force. That causes the bottom to rotate, as the sleepers is now too rotten and soft to hold it in place.

In other words, the bolt is impossible to remove, and we have to split the sleeper open to get the chair off. The 2807 guys then manage to turn them into boot scrapers to raise funds for their loco.

Simon here and yours truly spent some time splitting several sleepers to get the throughbolters off. We used to attack them with the pointed end of picks, but have now taken to using wedges from our rail moving kit. It's better; we might try some commercial wood splitting wedges next, see how that goes.

'All that has to be shovelled off'. 'Surely not, do you mean that?'

Although we were working close to the mess coach, it wasn't that close to our storage facilities, so the Citroen van had to come out and transport all the kit and dump it by the lineside. 

Dave also brought fresh ballast, and some replacement screwbolt chairs for the day. All heavy stuff, but it kept us warm.

Bert Ferrule and Simon attack a sleeper marked with a red 'X'.

Another crew shovelled out the cribs, and pulled in the replacement sleepers.

Tim kept a wary eye on the loco movements. No, it wasn't coming, it was running round, but you never know.

The gang working several sleepers at once.

With our gang of 11 on Saturday we were well manned, and this enabled us to attack the job on several levels, which is of course much more efficient.

On the right in the distance is the digging out crew, in the middle the sleeper breakers, and on the left the sleeper replacers and packers. Imagine if we only had 4 people (which actually happened on one day last year) - they would only be able to do one job at a time.

Here is a shot from the other end. The sleeper diggers have finished, and rejoined the sleeper replacers. There's no fresh ballast at this end, so Dave had to put the bucket back on the Telehandler and go all the way to Gotherington to get another load.

After lunch, Bert Ferrule, Jim and yours truly went to the outer home (beyond the north end of Chicken Curve) to replace the insulation jackets on two insulated joints, where the end posts were failing.

Insulated joint where the plastic end post between the rail ends has disappeared.

Close up - a big gap in the middle. This can lead to bridging with debris, and block failure.

What struck us as mysterious was why there was a second insulated joint, about 100m in front of the signal (where the first one is). The orange tube, which usually contains cabling, looked empty.

Well, we redid all the insulation on both joints as requested. Ours not to reason why etc etc.

What the joint insulation should look like. Boot by blogger.

We signed this one off and returned to the main site of 14 sleepers being replaced. Light was starting to fail.

In fact the guys were just finishing off, so we loaded up the Citroen with all the bits and bobs, Dave picked up the sleeper wreckage with the Telehandler, yours truly the scrap. Then park up the van, clean up, have a chat with Alex and then the signalman. That was Peter, also a member of the PWay gang. (Better indoors with a stove and an armchair, he knows) (But very boring, with just a few train movements....)

Set the controls for the heart of the sun... (who knows where that comes from?)

That second insulated joint nagged at the brain for the rest of the afternoon, we had to find out why it was there. Peter was only too happy to explain. The second insulated joint made for a short 100m section. There's a second by the outer home on the other side of the tunnel. When an incoming train hits that short little section, it rings a bell in the box, warning the signalman that the train is arriving. Ah.

Peter also let us take a snap through the window of the Santa activities on P1 at Winchcombe:

It's quite atmospheric, isn't it!

Only 4 o'clock, and so dark already. Santa activities were going full tilt, everyone was enjoying the hot food from the griddle, the model train whizzing round, and - the singing penguins. (!) But this is the NORTH pole....?

Tuesday - unloading day.

A PWay special. We are preparing for the winter works in January, and need lots of concrete sleepers along the relay site at Didbrook.

The bogie flat loaded on Saturday was pushed out to the site just short of Toddington, and on Tuesday a team of 3 unloaded it, and took the sleepers out along the line.

Walt in the Telehandler took out packets of 4 sleepers and dropped them in the Malvern side cess. That seemed rather slow, so we tried 8 sleepers, with success.

Walt drops off 8 sleepers.

It took pretty much all of the rather short day to empty the wagon, but here it is, ready for filling up again. It takes 128 sleepers at a time, so if we remember correctly, that's a bit over 5 trips. So we have a way to go yet.

Here's an overview of the relay site. We're looking at the area between the two Didbrook bridges, looking south towards Winchcombe.

The relay site starts just south of the bridge, and continues to somewhere beyond those houses in the distance, which are alongside Didbrook 2 bridge. About 650 sleepers will be involved. All the ex military sleepers are coming out, and are likely to be stored at Gotherington skew yard for a time, either for possible sale, or own use in the C&W yard, which has poor quality track at the moment.

Picture taken by Walt.

 

 

 

 

As Walt drove the Telehandler back to Winchcombe at dusk, he met the 03 coming the other way on Chicken Curve.

The 03 then collected the empty wagon and took it back to Winchcombe - see below for the next day.

 

Wednesday in our self built fridge.

Minus 3 degrees at Winchcombe! We sat indoors for a coffee from the flask, but wondered if we weren't better off sitting outside in the weak sun. It was cold in the Usk hut, like our very own fridge. Two windows are now glazed, leaving one to do by the apprentices trained last week. Paul was away on family business.

 

 

 

 

We sat inside the hut, feeling out of the wind, but pretty cold nonetheless.

Jules found a spot in the sun, where life was bearable.

 

 

 

 

The window was covered in ice, and someone had used it as a blackboard for a stick man and a little steam engine. They melted of course, once the sun got to them.

After enjoying some seasonal mince pies, courtesy of the Broadway gang Christmas dinner, we got the kit together to apply the glazing to the third and last window.

Mince pies, and putty. One of these you can't eat, according to the safety instructions.

We took the window out and put it on the table, where it was easier to work on. Two glass panes fitted easily. Too easily in fact, which was a bit suspicious. The other two panes next to them seemed just too large for their spaces, and we then realised that the central bar running from top to bottom was off centre by a few mm.

Back to the manufacturer, accompanied by a stiff complaint. No? Well, not the latter, as the manufacturer was Paul, who very generously agreed to adjust the frames for us. 

So we'll finish that one next week, and we put the plastic sheet back on for now.

 

Out in the yard the PWay gang were already loading the bogie flat again with the next load of 128 sleepers.

This time it was Bob in charge of the machine, and he was doing very well, as you can see by this load of 8 that he just picked up.

Later in the day the wagon was almost full again when we passed by, and at the end of the day it was ready to go again for further laying out. Now we need 3 volunteers again to empty it.

Then back to the Usk hut.

Jules and Dave decided to knock off the protruding edges of the bricks under the damp course. They needed to be level with the wall, so that the floor can go in.

After lunch the sun was fully out, and although the temperature never climbed about 3C, it became quite pleasant outside.

Yours truly spent a satisfying half hour applying LeadMate around the window frames, and then we painted the two barge boards that we have (two more are needed) in white primer.

That's another job ticked off the list.

Dave and Jules spent the afternoon making an inventory of the floor slabs that we have. Many are cracked or damaged. We could do with a few more. The originals were in the same stone as the building - chunky pink sandstone, if anyone has a few to spare.

To start the roof we are still paused, pending receipt of funds to rent the scaffolding. If we get that, we could start the job after Christmas.

Last week's derailment puzzle.

The loco that derailed, with the strange chimney, was actually a 2-8-0 WD in service in Holland.

                                                  Collection NSM

That large chimney came about because Dutch enginemen complained of drifting smoke along the boiler. As they had a higher loading gauge, a chimney extension was the easiest solution.

The actual locomotive was NS 4309, and the crane that rightened it was a British built Ransomes Rapier.

The derailment took place on the approach to Ijsselmonde marshalling yard in south Rotterdam, and the cause was an unusual one - the previous goods train had dropped a buffer on to the track, and the WD hit it and then derailed on the points entering the yard.

 

 

A couple of readers got pretty close to the truth of the tale - you can't fool them! Britain and The Netherlands have always had close ties with railway equipment.

Belgium was the first continental country to open a railway line. That was between Brussels and Mechelen, in 1835. And who supplied the kit? We did! And that's why trains in Belgium today run on the left, just like the first ones we supplied. (which leads to a tricky issue with their HSL from Brussels to Rotterdam, where they run on the right... what do they do on the border - does anyone know?)

Santa has arrived at the North Pole.

Friday at Winchcombe.

Quick, quick, our replacement GWR lamp post hasn't got its top on yet, and Saturday is the start of Santa trains at Winchcombe!

Luckily the weather forecast was fine and dry, so we were able to use the silicone on the glass.

First of all, get your tools ready. Here is the kit for a 16 inch Windsor lamp top.

And this is the top of the post where it is destined to go.

The FoWS have given it a first coat of paint, but the acanthus leaves haven't been picked out yet. That is still to come.

The first item to go on is the frame itself, still without glass. Otherwise it would be too awkward and heavy.

 

There it is. Still without glass, but the lightbulb works. On the left is the sidehung door. Cheaper lamp tops have no door, but a removable top - not authentic.

Next, Neal started to fit the specially cut glass, which came as part of the kit. Don't drop any, Neal, they are difficult to replace!

For the full effect, we'd need lamp glasses that read 'WINCHCOMBE'. At Broadway we achieved that effect by cheating a bit (well it was early days) - we used stickers.

If anyone knows how to get proper lamp glasses, we'd be interested to hear. Otherwise it'll be stickers again, but not until we have replaced all of the non-original posts.

The glass panes are held in place by little tabs inside, but that does not ensure a watertight seal, so we ran silicone down the edges.

Then we put the top on, and it was time for a photograph.

There's one more non-original post to do on P1, but at the moment we don't have any more posts with which to do it. If you have one in your garden that you want to donate, get in touch! We'd love to hear from you.

One of the canopy gang poses with the new post, and its 16 inch top.

Saturday at Gotherington.

Not the continuation of spot resleepering at Winchcombe, no, but dealing with a list of minor faults at Gotherington.

 

Normal doughnut supplies were interupted on Saturday, so alternative sources were tried, thanks to Tony.

These were actually rather tasty, being a mixture of chocolate, caramel and sprinkles.

Yum!

We loaded up two vans and set of with the list of minor faults for Gotherington skew. Just in time for the first up Santa train to come past. The first of the Christmas season.

It came storming by.

Sadly it was a tad too stormily - the camera had to have a think about it first, before releasing the shutter. By that time Foremarke Hall had already managed to get a buffer past.

Then we put a load of ballast in the Citroen, and the team split into two.

You see, it's over here, mile post 15...

The main gang went to change a lifter plate for a slightly higher one, while three of us went to Manor Lane to add some ballast to a foot crossing between there and Cleeve.

We had noticed before that there seemed to be a lot of alcoholic litter around the Manor Lane entrance gate, which is on our property, but set back some way from the road.

Party time...

Our gate approach, hard to find and discreetly around a bend, is apparently the place to have a party for the local youth. Beer bottles and party balloons littered the site.

We negotiated the beer bottles on the ground and made our way to the foot crossing. Here the rubber panels had risen a little, and revealed an unsafe edge. We back filled this with the ballast that was loaded at Skew bridge.

Job done. Let's hope it lasts. It's quite a busy crossing, with that new housing estate nearby.

As we left, we got a message to let us know that a train was passing Gotherington, so we paused the return journey to let it pass. This is the second ECS, on its way to CRC to pick up Santa passengers.

We then drove on through, to exit at the Cleeve foot crossing.

Wrongo! No fewer than three cars illegally parked around our exit. No way to get out here on Saturday. No one about (Nursery shut, so not customers of theirs), so all we could do was drive all the way back to Manor Lane. 

Back in at Skew bridge depot then, and turn right down the Dixton straight, to find the gang in the cutting there grappling with that lifter plate we need to replace.

You'd think a quick change with the impact wrench for a higher lift, but no. The new plate wouldn't fit, as one of the sleepers was too close. So that had to be dug out and barred across some.

Burp !

After that strenuous bit of sleeper barring and ballast shovelling, we afforded ourselves a tea break, and consumption of the remaining chocolate doughnuts.

Enjoying the last days of its boiler ticket, 4270 accelerates a Santa train out of Gotherington.

The sun was very pale on Saturday, but as it wasn't very strong it allowed some interesting shots of the now full returning Santa train.

Another lifter plate was required just past Gotherington Skew bridge. This one was simpler, phew!

Foremarke Hall on its way to the North Pole with excited children.

We had lunch in the platform shelter at Gotherington. What a lovely little station. You sit back and watch 

the trains steam out of the passing loop.

 

We waved to the children, all expecting a meeting with the visitor from the North Pole. 

Although most seemed excited, some were already crying. Best to get it in early. Perhaps they felt guilty, and had some misbehaviours to confess?

 

 

 

The long trudge home, through Gotherington station and back to the vans.

The next job was just a simple replacement of a defective insulating end post, which should take just two people to do the job. As were were about a dozen again, yours truly took the opportunity duck out and talk to Bryan, the owner of the station. That's always an interesting conversation. Heritage railway tips flow both ways.

What we didn't realise was that the swapping of the end post wasn't so simple at all, and involved all of the gang (except yours truly of course), as the joint was so tight the whole rail had to be loosened and moved back a few mm with wedges. Quite a job! Then back on foot from one end of the loop to the other.

 On the way back to Skew bridge yard we stopped to shovel some more ballast. We had some left in the truck after the crossing fill, and here at Granna lane some sleeper ends were exposed - a great place to lose some spare ballast.

This was an easy job - just shovel it off the truck, and drop it down. Soon done.

 

 Back at Winchcombe we put back the tools, parked up the truck, then had a look round the Santa platform. It really was very jolly and exciting there. Lots of helpful volunteers dressed in red.

At the business end was 4270, looking festive and atmospheric in the evening light and platform lamps.

Got your ticket yet? It's too late - all the Santa tickets are sold out this year. Good news for the company, as the winter is costly in maintenance and outgoings that don't stop, just because the trains do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday without the Usketeers.

A miserable day. Gigaclear came to install superfast Broadband at the blogger country pile. A 2 - 3 hour job, they said.

The workmen ripped out the BT apparatus and phone, and ran a cable under the lawn and drilled a hole in the side of the house.

After 5 hours they left, but without a Gigaclear service in place !!! Some sort of issue with the supply, nothing to do with the house, or their work.

An engineer will come... (when ?????)

Luckily we were able to reconnect the many cables and plugs of the old BT modem, so this blogpost comes to you one more time through a rural telephone line. Thank you BT, but wish your service wasn't so slow, expensive, and recently, more and more intermittent.

Well, somebody had fun today. The pictures below are thanks to Julian. You can send pictures by email, but you can't send brandy soaked fruitcake :-(

 

 

 

Today was glass day. Through family connections we managed to order the glass for all the windows, ready cut, for a very friendly price.

Here are Paul and Dave, proudly bearing the much awaited goods.

 

 

The most interesting glazing was round the two sliding windows. These enabled the operator of the original weighbridge to communicate with the customer, and hand out tickets etc. So they needed to open, and not slam in the wind.

There are two then, on little brass rollers, which run along a steel strip. 

As examples of  'this is one we did earlier' the brass rollers, worn flat after seizing, have been turned and in one case replaced some while back, and were in store (read - lamp hut).

The steel strip was badly rusted and full of craters, which is no doubt why the rollers had flat spots worn into them. It was replaced with a new one, with the same screw holes.

In the picture you can see Paul re-cut the space for one of the rollers, which was part filled in when our friendly joiner Steve mended the corner of that window with a piece of new wood. (another thing we did earlier)

There's more glazing to do with the two plain windows that open. (less interessting)

 

 

 

 

Next came the putty for the glass, and in this picture you can see Paul tap in some securing nails

 

 

 

 

The centre window is fixed, and outside Paul was getting the frame ready to insert the first sliding window.

Then it was lunch time. The building is now mostly dry thanks to the tarpaulin over the trusses, but when we had a look on Saturday, after some stormy and wet nights, there was half an inch of water covering the floor. At the time the windows had rather flappy polythene sheets over them.

Now the big window is glazed on one side, and the chance of rain pouring in like last week should be considerably reduced.

Paul and Dave chew the fat.....

 

 

 

Then it was the turn of the second sliding window, which you can see here on the makeshift table being fitted with putty.

Last week there was also talk of fitting the door, which is now fully repainted. We have hinges and a bolt. (both original)

 

 

At the end of a rather dingey but dry day (humidity 100%, according to the BBC) both windows were in, and a large hole in the side of the building plugged.

An addendum to Julian's report states that one of the two smaller windows was also glazed, leaving one more to do next week. Paul won't be there, but he now has two carefully trained apprentices...

This does look rather good, doesn't it. It's even somewhat seasonal. Those little stickers on the glass look like winter snowflakes at first glance.

We still need to fit some brass locks on the window. There was one original at Usk, the other was snapped, but we found a brand new replacement in a local shop at Broadway. Great ! It's one of those lovely hardware shops that has everything. (Plug: Cotswolds Building Supplies!)

For the scaffolding we continue to await funding to pay for it. 

A last minute picture from Dave:

Big window glazed up, tower scaffold moved back to the chimney end.

Thanks from a reader.

Many of you add comments on the blog, which we always read and appreciate. But last week we received a book in an envelope, addressed to 'The Heritage Herald blog' at Churchward house! Luckily they knew who was behind it. The envelope contained a 1964 book on the Lynton & Barnstaple, and a note of thanks for several years of blog reading enjoyment.

We have the 1989 updated book on the L&B, so to read this original volume was rather fun. Many thanks for the little gift, received from an anonymous supporter.

A little puzzle

As this blogpost feels a bit short (thank you, Gigaclear) we will set you a little puzzle.

It's a picture we came across while writing an article. It was taken in 1953, and shows an 8F on its side after a derailment.

Copyright: NSM

Can anyone say more? Note the 'RAPIER' steam crane on the right.