Braunton up Honeybourne bank

Friday on steels.

A trip to Broadway to look for a number of items of P1 paperwork (not found though) and then back to Toddington to paint purlins and move the steels about, ready for a shotblaster to do his work.

In the Toddington car park there is the first half of the 300 odd sleepers from the viaduct in temporary storage. One wagon's worth. It will be back with the other half.

Volunteers are requested to park in the middle of the car park, not anywhere near these sleepers (Telehandler traffic) or anywhere by the fence (unloading traffic)

While  at Broadway we came across this belt buckle. We hadn't seen that before, presumably a gift from a supporter?

There's something attractive about brass items, and we liked this one. We wondered if every stationmaster had one, with the name of the station engraved on it.

However, after a search on the internet we discovered that it is almost certainly fake, as you can easily buy identical ones on Ebay or Etsy.

What a shame. Similar fakes exist for 'GWR' coat hangers, and cast iron BEWARE of TRAINS notices. Beware !

Back at Toddington. Yours truly started painting the purlins again (18 sides to do, 9 done by the end of the day) while Neal and John prepared the site for the visit of a shot blaster. This meant moving the purlins around (inevitably, and again).

 

 

 

As the shotblaster will be making a bit of a mess and we don't want our nicely painted purlins covered in rust particles, Neal and John started moving the purlins south to next to the ash pit.

 

Not all the purlins were moved today. Some were moved around under the greenhouse, so that new surfaces could be exposed for painting. Thanks, guys...  So yes, we got 9 sides done, when the sun went down, earlier every day, and it went dark.

The shotblaster is going to do the fascia boards, which have been laid out for him here. The millscale is just too tough for us to remove by conventional methods, so we capitulated and got a professional in.

The piles of angles in the background are also part of the job. For some reason the second packet of angles was much worse than the first (with which we built the purlins).

As you can see from the light this is the end of the day on Friday, and in the foreground are the items that are going to go away for galvanising. 

That's three manufactured cast iron posts, and the components of the internal steel frame of the building.

No news from the planners BTW. It must be 6 months by now...

 

 

 

As it was getting dark we caught Neal on his other job at Toddington - Neal is a multi tasker - and here he is laying in the reinforcement matting for a replacement bit of concrete by the coal dock. The old stuff had risen up and was no longer serviceable.

Another job for Mr. Fixit !

Saturday along the line.

A bright, sunny but cold day. Near freezing overnight! After a tiring week on and around the viaduct, we nonetheless had 8 volunteers for a day of fault fixing along the Broadway extension.

As we put our tools in the van a little freight train passed by.

We then went over to the CH car park to dig out the trailer and get the mini digger on board.

As Moses (Adam in the Ranger) would not come to the mountain (the trailer) the mountain had to come to Moses. Well, that was the easiest way of hooking up.

Then Dave mounted the mini digger and drove it on board, so that we could put the straps on.

We suggested that Dave remain seated and we put the straps over his legs, but that idea was not received with the enthusiasm it deserved.

We set off for Stanton yard, where the two teams separated.

 

 

Dave and Adam headed north to Laverton and beyond, where a number of concrete sleepers needed digging out with a view to their replacement.

 

 

These pictures are by Adam, and show how Dave dug out the sleepers that need changing.

We haven't had to change many concrete sleepers so far, they behave themselves pretty well. But when one does need changing it's a heck of a job, with digging and pulling.

The little mini digger helped a lot here.

Afterwards Dave trundled off back to the Ranger and its trailer. Wonder how they turned it round?

The second team headed south towards the viaduct, to start on a lengthy list of minor faults, that we eventually ticked off over about a mile. Most involved loose clips.

While in the proximity of the viaduct we wandered over to see how the contractors were doing. They were ammenable to a chat and a quick site visit.

Removal of the ballast has started. This is the top layer, leaving the infill layer for a second stage. It was dug out by a small 360 about half way along, and taken to the northern end and a storage site there by a 6T and a 9T dumper.

A load of ballast arrives at the storage site.

Removal of the top ballast was about 50% done at the time. We were impressed by the contractor working on a  Saturday.

One of the big dumpers was happy to pose for us and stop for a chat.

There seems to be  a wide area here for  the storage, possibly the result of some dumping of ash here, as was done at Broadway opposite the goods shed.

 

We left them to add to the pile, and rejoined our Transit for more fault finding in the northern direction.

The reported loose clips were mostly caused by scored concrete sleepers, which we solved by adding a second rubber pad. That made the clip tight again. We suspect the sundry loose clips have been like this since the line was laid in 2008. It was admittedly fairly low priority stuff, but someone has to do it at some point.

We had a new recruit Peter with us on Saturday. Together with new-ish recruit Graham he heaved at the Duff jack, with an encouraging smile from Bert Ferrule. The best lessons are learned when you work things out for yourself, not when someone tells you, we thought. SHC clip removal clearly fell into this category.

Near Stanton Fields we came across two pairs of hardwood sleepers (used alongside centre drains, as they can be cut to size) and the outer edges had been covered in ballast.

It is good practise to expose wooden sleepers along their full length, as under a layer of ballast they remain wet and rot quickly. You can see a covered sleeper end on the right, and a newly dug out one on the left, which is clearly much wetter that the area nearest to the camera, which was not under ballast and had a chance to dry out.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Well, with one other. Two of the gang had to bale out today, but the other two - yours truly and Paul - carried on regardless.

Also out today was the hired in Volker tamper. It's here for a week, and has already worked down the Defford straight and round Chicken Curve. Today it was off on its way to Manor Lane, to be followed by Cheltenham.

The tamper starting its engines first thing in the morning.

Then it moved off, captured by a short video clip:

On Tuesday it was on the Defford straight:

Paul took the second video of it at work, and a couple of photographs taken during the day:

 

This one was taken at the start of the Defford straight, just coming out of Hayles Abbey halt, with its bridge visible in the background.

On board the 'spaceship' (or so it looks), but which in fact dates back to 1990.

First thing we did was to provide Dave (when he is back next week) with some more blocks for the wall on the side of the slope leading down to the inspection pit.

We still have quite a few blocks left over, but hopefully one day this could become a platform extension for the PWay mess coach.

 Paul spent the whole day on the second hand gate.

Paul trims 4ft off the end of the gate.

 

We decided that the ideal width would be 10ft, instead of the 14ft as the gate came to us. As a 10ft gate it should also hang by itself from the gate post, and not need the little carrier wheel on the end that it came with. Our ground is too rough for that.

One day we reckoned this gate will be life expired, so we need to build the gateway in such a way that it can easily be replaced by a new gate. But how big are those normally? A look on Google revealed that you can take your pick - anything from 4ft wide to 14ft wide, in stages of 1ft. So at 10ft we are OK, and the Telehandler will fit through (it's 8ft wide).

Yours truly spent most of the day ferrying stuff around the site, principally the old Heras fencing which used to surround the inspection pit, before it was raised.

That was quite tiring, so a good lunch would be very welcome.

 

This is what Mrs. Blogger had in mind for us... lovingly healthy.

Unfortunately Paul was there with his Jam roll, so some of those calorie reductions may have come back on....

During the day RRV 'STEVIE' trundled by on its way to Chicken curve, where its new bucket - just a few days on the railway so far - was immediately put to good use shifting ballast after the passage of the tamper there.

Walt sent in the three pictures below, of STEVIE, Walt and Chris bringing ballast to some of the areas lifted high and dry after the passage of the tamper. 

You can see just how useful the new 60 inch bucket is. And it was originally intended for use at Broadway!

 

Finally, from Chicken Curve, we have this lovely shot of STEVIE heading back home in the setting sun. What a great shot.

 

Meanwhile, back at the Usk hut:

The two upright bricks in the picture have been positioned so that we can see where the gate should be located, and how much fencing we need on each side.

We then worked out the positions of the concrete grandfather posts, which will support the main uprights so that they do not sit in the ground and rot. Even with treated wood such posts go in about 10 years if just burried in wet clay.

At the end of the day we had visitors who came to admire our work and have a bit of a chat.

Ian, Bob and Rick watched Paul re-fit the end of the shortened gate, for which this saw was indispensable.

Braunton up Honeybourne bank

On the way home we ran into Neal at a woodyard, and Neal had an unexpected item of news for us: a steam excursion would be going up Honeybourne bank in half an hour! That was too good to miss.

Here is what we filmed, from an overbridge near Mickleton:

https://youtu.be/rdgesIE-dPY

This was all rather hasty, so any knowledge about the loco and its trip had to be gleaned from Google afterwards.

It turns out that this was 34046 Braunton, on a Cotswolds Explorer tour. For some reason it is relatively rare for a steam tour to go up Honeybourne bank, in our experience they have all gone down. So copping one going hard uphill is rare. We think this one had a bit of a shove from the class 47 tacked on behind.

According to the tour itinerary, this one too should have been going downhill, and back up via the Golden Valley. For some reason the tour has turned around, so we were lucky today.

A bit of history.

While helping with the dismantling of the Broadway Journey through Steam exhibition, we noticed a drawer full of tickets that related to our line. They belong to a private collector.

 

One is a ticket (on the right) from Broadway to - Liverpool! That probably trumped the rest of the booking office takings on that day.

See you next week!

Work on the viaduct starts.

Friday on steels.

Just a quick picture. Due to a meeting elsewhere we only had a half day, and gave 3 sides of purlins another coat.

Neal welded on the tops and bottoms of the 6th and last stanchion for the P2 building. 

Saturday, with the gang and with rain.

The forecast was a bit dire, but we can't sit round here all day, so let's get going.

All the tools were laid out, while Bert Ferrule got the Transit. That and the crew cab Transit provided just enough room for the 9 of us. Snug. And fuggy, when everyone is in damp clothing...

Before we left we watched the trains crossing in front of us. The dark and rainy atmosphere made for two great photographs.

Here is superstar 2807 pulling away from the bracket signal, released once Foremarke Hall had arrived.

And this is the opposite shot of Foremarke hall, accelerating away from the station. The driver gave it the beanz just as it approached us - great!

We went out to the Gretton straight, with two sleepers to change, and a number of dipped joints to lift. Someone muttered 'Groundhog Day' - yes, it did seem like that.

But not from next week, we are going to kick off the viaduct works!

Here's the bad sleeper being extracted. It was already second hand in the 1990s. 

The replacement sleeper was inserted, screwed down and the ballast shovelled back in. Graham and Tim did the rest with the Robels, and it was time to move on to the next one.

We had several periods of heavy rain, and here the Ranger showed its worth with the lifting tailgate - it makes a handy veranda.

We didn't spend all day at Gretton as we had STEVIE's naming ceremony due at 4 o'clock. We got back to Winchcombe just as the cloudburst was moving away, and the first ray of sunshine gave us a nice rainbow over the mess coach.

STEVIE naming ceremony.

Saturday finally was the big day of the naming of our new (2002) RRV as STEVIE, in memory of our much loved PWay contractor from Winchcombe.

STEVIE gets a last rub down from Mike and Dave.

The rain stopped just in time, and there was even a shaft of sunlight, and just enough daylight to do the naming before the light failed.

 

Picture by 'Daily' Mayell, with thanks.

Members of his family had been invited, but before the off the whole gang lined up in front and had its picture taken.

Jim then gave us a short address, after which he invited Stevie's son Billie to unveil the name plate and explanatory plaque. We already knew Billie a little bit, as Stevie would sometimes bring him to work and the two trundled along in the trusty JCB dragging rail to Broadway etc.

 

Our very own Jim, member since virtually the beginning in the 1980s, handed over a cheque for £212 that we had collected for the hospice where Stevie spent his last days. Graham, his former employer, looked on.

We had covered up the name plate with one of the signal flags from the lookout's kit. It was just right.

Billie then pulled the flag off to reveal the brass plates. The name plate is done in a GWR loco style.

You can see from Billie's face that he was very pleased with the arrangement, and we will be thinking of his father every time we use the RRV.

Stevie's two children then had their picture taken by their aunt in front of the name plate.

Then it was time for a family and friends picture.

Finally we found Stevie's two sisters and his cousin watching Foremarke Hall storm out of Winchcombe. It gave them a good idea why we all volunteer here.

It was a very successful ceremony, and it assured Stevie's family that we won't be forgetting him.

Monday on the Viaduct.

A good turnout of 13, plus our contractors, attacked the lifting of the track on the viaduct with vigour.

Plant, tools,volunteers and contractors streamed on to the viaduct.

In fact the track lifting was our responsibility, but we were assisted by the contractor with an excavator that pulled away the rail. The rest was up to us.

The first job was to remove the fishplates. They all went on the trolley and were stored at the southern end of the viaduct.

Then the de-clipping of the Pandrols followed. Not too onerous, although it looks like one volunteer was already tired...

There are 300 odd sleepers across the viaduct, so about 1200 clips to bend down and pick up. Ouch! Luckily we had a big team with which to ring the changes.

 

 

 

Along the parapet are these little niches, although we have heard say that they are for refuge (when this was double track) and not some sort of garden seat.

 

While we were busy on top, the contractors worked from underneath (where they had their base) and spent the day building a permanent staircase, for easier access from the gate below.

We squeezed round the side and took this snapshot below of the viaduct for you. It looks in good condition here, but what you can't see is that it leaks rainwater and this eats away at the pillars underneath.

We had an appeal update on Monday which advised that we are now at £293.000 including gift aid. We need at least £360.000, just to do the waterproofing.  Brickwork pointing and repair is extra.

In order to allow the waterproofing work to start this winter season the Trust has stepped in for the balance. Money spent on maintaining the infrastructure will not be spent on heritage (the Trust's mission) so we can only encourage readers to support the appeal. In fact indirectly you will be supporting the P2 build at Broadway, which is imminent.

Stanway viaduct from the Cotswolds side, looking south.

Here is the GWRT appeal page again, in case you would like to help with a last push.   We really need at least £360.000.

https://www.gwrt.org.uk/donate/stanway-viaduct-appeal

Looking past Robert enjoying a little rest in his niche, we can see that it's quite a long way down below.

The rest of the gang soon joined him for a communal lunch, on top of Stanway viaduct. We were very lucky that the weather was fine, as it could be grim up here, as we saw last time we took the track off here a few years ago now.

 

Initially we put the 1200 Pandrol clips into Dumpy bags but then ran out, so the rest were piled up on top of the trolley, then lifted off the rails to one side by the excavator with forks attached.

Behind the excavator a pair of rails was removed to facilitate access on top of the track.

 

The first vehicle through the gap was the Telehandler, which took a big bundle of bearers to the other side.

 

 

 

With fishplates and all clips removed, our next job was to pull the cable troughs out of the ballast, and put them up against the parapet where there was a handy ledge.

The contractor's excavator then made a start with removing the rails, starting from the middle. This was the slowest part of the job, as the Telehandler had to wait each time until the excavator had tracked back to the southern end.

Robert had as a personal mission to put all the lids back on the trough. While they are not so heavy as the troughs themselves, there are an awful lot of them.

 

 

 

More and more rail was being dragged to the southern end, but it was a slow process. The excavator worked very carefully, and it was quite a distance to cover.

Martin was trying to bring the sleepers south as well, but had to wait for the excavator to clear the trackbed.

Eventually he was able to scoop up 4 of them.

 

 

The pile of sleepers to be removed and stacked got bigger and bigger.

 

 

Finally there were 16 of them in a stack, and with the trackbed clear Martin was able to take it south.

Tuesday on the viaduct.

Day two. Also 13 volunteers, but a new mixture, with two new recruits too.

By P1 the C&W 03 shunter was waiting to propel the WARFLAT to the viaduct. 

This is to pick up the spent wooden sleepers there, and later to bring in concrete ones.

A rainbow greeted us too, the first of several on Tuesday. It was that sort of weather.

 

On arrival with the Transit at the viaduct we found that all the rail had been removed. Great!

So our job today could go ahead, that is to say, removal and loading of the timber sleepers.

The Telehandler loaded up 12 sleepers at a time and brought them to the loading area at the southern end of the viaduct.

Here a contractor 360 fitted with forks lifted them on to the WARFLAT.

This side of the operation took longer than anticipated, as the sleepers proved to be surprisingly heavy and after several test lifts, only packs of 4 could be loaded at a time. The 8 in the picture above were not lifted on (together...).

The sleepers on the viaduct were reportedly new hardwood when laid, but they have not lasted well. Many are rotting from underneath, or were attacked by a fungus.

One disintegrated altogether, as seen in this picture.

While we were stacking sleepers, the contractors concluded the construction of the steps at the northern end.

Lunch was consumed al fresco, in the shelter of the parapet. Telephone reception was impossible here while seated, but once you stood up, it was fine. Must be thick walls.

During lunch some off us wandered to the other side to inspect the view. It's pretty, that is true. Below is a farm which we suspect is linked to Stanway House not far away.

After a day's loading we were all pretty tired. The WARFLAT was filled with the sleepers from half the  viaduct.  The plan is to take it to Toddington, unload it and return for the second half.

We walked back in the gloom. All the rail has gone, and 50% of the sleepers.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Getting wintery now, with this day of wind and heavy fine rain. We sat in our little self build, in the dry, and munched our bacon rolls (Paul remembered...).

 

Outside, under a threatening sky and in the driving rain the RRV, now officially 'STEVIE', was manoeuvered with its trolley on to the main line.

We didn't linger after this picture... here is only a part of the PWay gang today, the rest was at Toddington and on the viaduct.

After a few moments 'STEVIE' came by on the main line, now under clear signals.

The combination rumbled by, on its way to Toddington to replace a trap point with plain rail.

That is the sort of thing STEVIE was bought for, a great job.

Here are a couple of stop frame videos that Walt took (with thanks)

Back home in the dry we found Paul working on the support for the safe from Broadway.

Paul was cutting a mitre for the plinth.

Note the coat rack above, the sort of thing you would find in a worker's cottage.

Outside in the rain John was busy on the side of the cutting (it is just starting here, on its way to the tunnel mouth) where he was digging out bramble roots and ivy. 

When the spring comes we intend to sow grass seed along here, stopping what used to be a jungle of brambles and nettles.

Dave spent the day along the side of the recently backfilled area around the raised drain. We are building a low retaining wall here of leftover Usk stones.

The one on the corner is a chunky dressed quoin, and we think this is one from the station building that was left over. It is more finely dressed than our material.

During the day we went to get a gate post and a receiver for the gate that we are putting in. This will separate the public around the Usk hut from the PWay yard.

Paul came to see how Dave was doing - OK, but tiring ! We had forgotten how heavy those stones are.

Once Paul had finished with the pedestal for the safe, he took an interest in the gate we are going to hang. It's a free gift, so we need to size it up for suitability. At 14ft long it is too big for our purposes, so we will trim it to 10ft, which is the more normal opening and suitable for the Telehandler to pass through. (if necessary)

We organised some testles and laid the gate on them, ready for work to begin.

After measuring it up, we took the gate post that we have and tested it against the gate for fit. Three inches out, dang ! Why aren't these things standard?

 

 

In the afternoon the day brightened, and Dave made good progress with the retaining wall.

It's almost finished now. It needs a bit more height on the left, then we will back fill against it to level out the two areas, and bring the slope down gradually.

The fence will start with the post planted on the corner earlier.

Here' a picture of the pedestal that Paul made, with the safe, polished up by Greg, on top of it.

Wellies and some coats on the hooks finish a working area picture.

The last shot is of something we recovered from the metal skip today.

Recognise the combo?

 

You'd be hard pushed to locate one of these cast iron castings on the left. They are very scarce - we have never seen one for sale. Now it's safe. Maybe one day we can replace the modern signal boxes that we have with GWR ones...

 

See you next week!