Big push at Didbrook.

A Friday special at Hayles.

Four of us out on Friday, to get a bit more of the relay done. We are under time pressure, with services due in less than a month, and some stock movements before that. We need to get the track back in, roughly levelled, ballasted, welded and tamped.

 

It's particularly at the southern end where more work needs to be done. The join between the relay and the existing track is not yet done, and we intend to cut and shut another couple of panels beyond that.

 

 

David was very busy drilling holes...

... while the others lifted the track just before the join, to make it level.

Kevin our contractor and digger driver made himself useful by dropping spent ballast in the cribs, and this we then shovelled underneath. The 360 has a rotating bucket, something we don't see every day, but it was jolly useful here.

David also cut the ends off the last panel, while...

... Paul supervised from a distance.

We had a rail with squats in it here, so to deal with that, as well as close the gap in the panels, resulting from all the bits we cut off, a small supply of nearly new second hand rails was brought up.

Monday at Broadway.

No progress possible with the building, due to the cold weather. The night time temperature has been below the minimum of 3 degrees for a week now, and more, similar weather is forecast.

 

 

We went to the local hardware shop (Cotswolds, in Broadway, highly recommended) and they were very kind to cut us three new glass panes for the accidental damage to one of the canopy lanterns with the flashing 'safety' light on top of the dumper. When parking up underneath the canopy, we remembered the height of the roll over cage, but the additional height from the light was out of sight. Shit happens.

 

 

Monday was pretty evil weather really, constant rain all day, so we spent it in the mess room and continued with the fill-in job of cleaning up the woodwork on the MR bench. The whole bench was coloured so dark brown that it was almost black. Comparison with the similar bench at Winchcombe revealed that the latter had a lighter varnished frame, so this is what we are going for here.

This one was overhauled at Wolverton, and varnished very, very dark brown, with traces of a lighter varnish underneath. We're going for that original varnished look again.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday with the welders.

Five volunteers on site on Tuesday. This was just in case the welders needed assistance somewhere, but none was required and after hovering a bit, we went to the southern end of the site and did quite a bit for ourselves there.

Here are a few pictures of the welding work:

The famous 'vee' when the moulds are warmed up.

Using a hydraulic ram to push off the excess material, while still hot.

The 'vee' of the second weld, looking south.

A weld after cutting off the excess material, still due for grinding completely flat.

 

Our first job, while the welders worked away at the northern end, was to move a sleeper a few inches to one side so that the fishplate would fit.

Although digging ballast is hard work there were several volunteers for this, as it was cold outside (3 degrees and mizzle) and the digging would warm us up some.

After digging out the sleeper we pushed it along with a Duff jack.

More cutting was done, this time by Andy, the man behind our sales of rail ends. After the second Didbrook relay here he will have a new stock, so don't hold back. All sizes are possible, but generally they are about a foot long.

After cutting the rail we had to move it up to close a gap of about 6ft. Barring it, even with fulcrums, didn't really get us anywhere, as the rail is on a curve and there is a lot of resistance in the chairs.

So we resorted to jacking it along, bit by bit, using various fill in pieces to bridge the gap on the end. 

The team leader of the welders wandered over, and smiled at the way we dealt with problems when expensive mechanical means were not to hand. And we did it, another two rails were fishplated up.

 

 

At the end of Tuesday one more rail was due to be lifted in, and two closure rails cut and fitted. Not too much. Then, final levelling of this end, otherwise the welders won't get the rail ends to line up.

 

 

 

 

The welders did 4 joints on Tuesday, and are expected back twice more. There were some delays (6 joints were planned) as the different rates of wear on our track meant that they needed a special type of mould, which they hadn't got with them. But next time they will.

 

Finally, Dave spotted this train of loaded ballast wagons in the Parlour Road at Toddington. This is also for the Didbrook relay.

The actual day for the ballast drop is not yet decided, but it will  be soon.

Wednesday update:-

The welders returned for a second day, and did 5 more welds.

The volunteer gang measured, cut and fit the last two closure rails, so the railway is now complete again. Additionally there was lifting and packing, as well as changing one sleeper, and straightening several others.

More remains to be done for Saturday, and the welders have another 13 welds to do.

 

 

Wednesday in the weighbridge hut.

Another damp day, and inside the weighbridge it was even worse. Water was running down the windows. We had a measuring tool for humidity with us this time (used to test firewood at home) and out of curiosity we tested the floor. It came back as 23% humidity, and a triple raindrop warning! So that is pretty damp, and we do hope that our rebuilding of the floor will address the issue sufficiently.

 

 

 

The first thing here is to remove the old floor. Having removed the bricks, we are left with a large lump of concrete, which mostly covers the original machinery pit.

Dave here is smashing the larger lumps into something more useful.

 

 

 

 

We got all the 1945 rebuild concrete out, except this bit, stuck half way under the new balancing mechanism. That is not resting on it, but on a row of blues on the edge of the new pit.

Despite hacking at it all morning ('You've really got it worried now, Dave') we had to throw in the towel at the end of the morning. It dawned on us that removal was not essential, the new floor level would in fact be above it.

 

 

 

Last week we scoured the yard for a new lintel, to cover the hole here. The old one was made up out of crumbly concrete, and disintegrated after a modest tap.

We eventually found the perfect candidate - the right length, not too thick - in a pile marked ' Drainage'.

We asked the team if we could have one of several in the pile, and they very kindly said 'yes'.

So here it is going in.

It really was just right, so we are very grateful for this example of inter departmental cooperation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made up a barrow of mortar, and bedded the new lintel down on top of it. Here are Paul and Dave just lifting the lintel into place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That left us pretty free to get on with the floor itself.

It was a bit of a magic moment for us, because after all the lifting and demolition, here we were, putting things back together again. And better too. 

Here Paul is filling Dave's wheelbarrow with sand, for a one inch layer on top of the old floor, for the DPM to go down on.

 

 

The floor soon had its first blinding layer. We bought two bags of sand for this, and the thicker final layer, on which the new floor of bricks will be laid.

 

The last thing that we did was fit the DPM. Luckily we were able to find one about the railway, so that cost us nothing (although the sand did) . We cut it into two halves, and manhandled both into the building, one on top of the other.

Next time therefore we will barrow in the rest of the sand, and start on relaying the bricks, this time in a pattern all over the floor, without that ugly concrete patch. 

Block laying at last

Thursday at Broadway.

Three of us, on this cold and sunny day. Too cold for brick laying again, sadly.

Windows, this time with a glazing bar across the middle.

 

But the good news is that the joinery has arrived.

It still needed to go into storage, so it was trundled down the platform, and carried across to the containers.

Doors, and door frames.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was just as well that there were three of us on Thursday, as this woodwork was solidly made, and heavy.

Then it was back to digging and dumping - the last day of digger hire. The dumper also has to be returned to Winchcombe, as another department needs to use it.

 

 

The wagons were almost full. With a bit of pushing and shoving, maybe we could get a bit more in?

Then back to the digging site - the trench for the wall foundations, and re-excavating the pit for the third canopy support.

Here Neal is turning the corner to make one long trench. This will be filled by the concrete lorry in one longer pour.

Then the wagons really were full. The plan is to use the fill at the top of the Working Lane access road, for the drainage department.

 

We in turn need to return the digging and dumping machinery. For that it has to be clean, so here Neal is scraping out the dumper. 

The sticky clay stayed in the dumper, shake as we might. But it couldn't resist the digger bucket.

The wagons are now completely full, so are ready for collecting.

 

We even had a pressure washer out, and cleaned the (company owned) dumper all over.

It's hard to make it squeaky clean - the wheels still go through the dirt, and when you get on you leave muddy footprints.

It is a piece of construction machinery, after all.

Here it is, all shiny.

A bit of bad news at the end of the day - we parked the dumper under the canopy on P1, checking carefully that the roll over bar fitted under the dagger boards. A few feet further on the flashing safety light hit one of the canopy lamps. Dang ! Two broken clear glass panels, and one of the milky glass ones in the top.

We know how to get the clear glass panels cut, but where can you get a top panel made, in the milky white glass?

Friday at Broadway.

This was supposed to be a rest day, after 4 days on the trot. But the forecast was for a milder day, and at last an opportunity to lay bricks. We couldn't miss that, especially after another colder spell was forecast for next week.

 

 

This time we went for thermal blocks on the inside.

Neal was there first thing to off hire the digger, then helped John prepare for insulation and blockwork.

Meanwhile, during a tea break, here's an overview of the station. The digger's been returned, the dumper washed and ready to go back to Winchcombe for the next user, the platform swept clean, and the wagons filled and ready to go.

We're an efficient little team.

 

 

 

After lunch time John had reached the far end with a first course of blocks, with insulation behind.

It took a while to set this up, but once under way, the block laying proceded apace.

A look over the side from inside out showed the hole Neal dug in the clay, where the foundations for the retaining wall meet those for the corner post for the canopy. We now await concrete for this.

With the damp winter weather the trench is already filling up with water again.

At the end of Friday the back side had the first row of blocks completed, and a start made on the second one.

Saturday at Didbrook.

A few pictures of the day, thanks to David. It was a small gang of only six. Can the fluctuations be explained by the doughnut flavours? People are quite fervently for raspberry, while others must have custard. Then a wild card appears - toffee flavour. What's going on?

'Jack 'em high'.

 

 

 

With all the track in now, we are at the basic alignment phase. It's not the final fettle, that is for the tamper that is coming.

But we need to get the track basically in its place.

Alignment means not only a nice curve instead of a threepenny bit one, but also more or less level. Kevin our digger contractor did a fine job with the levelling of the trackbed, but some additional packing is inevitable.

The biggest step is at the two ends, where the 300m section starts, and drops off the existing. The dug out trackbed must be lower than the existing, because you can always raise the track laid, but it's nigh impossible to lower it, once it's down.

So here the Duff jacks have raised the track by 4 - 5 inches, and shovels full of ballast brought from a nearby pile.

It's looking nice and straight though.

Finally Kevin nudges the track this way and that on the instructions of Bert Ferrule, standing some distance away.

Seven of the 17 panels were treated this way, 10 more to go.

Monday at Broadway.

Time to return the dumper to Winchcombe.

This took rather longer than anticipated, due to various logistical issues, including the closure for two months of the Toddington to Broadway road. It took until well after lunch, but we got there. Duty discharged !

 

 

 

John was happy to continue with block laying, provided he didn't run out of mortar. So we made him a barrow full first thing, and a second just before setting off for Winchcombe to get the trailer.

This was the result when we got back - another row completed.

 

 

 

 

 

Neal also helped John, by tailoring the blocks so that they fit inside the I beams in the framework.

 

 

At the end of the day John had done three rows of blocks all along the back, and a fourth one along half of it.

Laying blocks is faster than laying bricks, but consumes much more mortar. Pressure on Yours Truly !

Tuesday on blocks.

Although the day had a poor forecast - at best, only half a day could be done before the rain came - we gave it a go, as the longer range forecast shows it is too cold for brick (block) laying until at least the middle of February.

 

 

 

So here goes, up bright and early, and we had a big barrow of muck ready for John as soon as he arrived.

The clouds in the distance and the weather radar confirmed that there would be rain soon.

 

 

 

In the morning John was able to complete the fourth course of Thermalite blocks along the back wall, the store room excepted.

A lot of the blocks are heaped up inside the building, but does it look a bit airier in there now? We think so. They are being used up.

We had a late lunch, to try and use as much of the dry morning as possible. Four barrows of mortar were made, and half a barrow remained after lunch, as little spits of rain began to fall.

 

After lunch John turned his attentions to the north wall, which needed some cutting to size and a slice taken off the end of the blocks to fit the 'H' section of the stanchion.

 

This is where we got to, as the rain became more insistent and we wrapped up. The third and fourth course are in progress here, on the north wall.

Wednesday, with all three Usketeers again.

Yes, three, Dave is back! Good to see him again. Nearly a month's absence, so a lot of news to swap, and show him what we've done so far.

So, you got any more of that delicious fruitcake then?

 

 

 

We put Dave to work straight away, stripping out the remains of the old concrete floor.

 

Paul also chiseled out the concrete in the fireplace, which revealed the same, neat brick floor that we had discovered last week.

That left a lintel over the end of the pit. It was cracked and we were rather doubtful about how good it was. Keep it, or strip it out as well? We gave it a few taps to see what it would do, and it immediately fell apart. Strip it out as well then.

Here it is in pieces, revealing the end of the pit that it covered (partially). The balance mechanism sat on two long hardwood timbers, themselves bedded on engineering bricks. So the concrete surrounding it was not critical to its support.

 

 

Here's an end-on view of the balance and pit showing how the arm from the weighing table attaches to the balance, using several ingenious fulcrums.

Once we had the rough concrete out we swept the room again, and were surprised to discover the remains of a second pit in the corner. This was much smaller, and also occupied a corner position, just like in the weighbridge at Usk.

Hence when the weighbridge was upgraded from 15 tons to 20 tons, a much larger mechanism was installed, requiring a new, deeper pit and a central position, rather than in the corner. The new mechanism was also placed about 6ins higher, both inside and out. That meant that the ground around the building was raised, causing the damp issues that we now have. Inside, a second floor of brick and concrete was laid. This we have now taken out again.

The plan is to raise the floor back again, this time to door sill level. This will stop rainwater from running in, combined with an ACO drain that we will install outside in front of the door. The floor inside will be laid on sand/ballast, with a DPM under the bricks, wrapped right round with the DPM raised upwards about 9 inches. That will stop damp coming in from underneath, as well as the bottom two courses of bricks.

Now we need a new lintel. We had a good scout around the yard, which is a fruitful source of all sorts of building material.

What we wanted was a 120cm lintel, in concrete. It will not be visible, as under the new floor.

An ideal candidate was here, in a pile marked  'Drainage'.

We asked very nicely, and the gang was kind enough to let us have one - thank you, guys !

In this summary shot you can see both old and new pits. There is still some concrete remaining on the left

 

 

 

After some head scratching, and peering underneath on hands and knees, we determined thet the concrete was not structural, but just fill, so we took it out as well. This will allow us to have the DPM right round, and a uniform brick floor.

Blog link on Plc website.

This has now been restored. Its (temporary) disappearance was a mystery to everyone concerned, but, no matter, it is up again.

Thank you to everyone who pointed out the omission, we had no idea. What the event did produce was an excellent suggestion from a reader for this website:

 https://acahl.org.uk/GWSRblogs.html

This is a rather basic website with a list of GWSR blogs, but with the added utility of providing the most recent update for each of them. This addresses the missing updates that are no longer available since we updated the plc website. At a glance here you can see who has posted, and when.

Give it a try.