Fabrication.

Friday (a week ago) at Toddington.

John being off sick, we made it a day of fabrication in the greenhouse at Toddington instead. Still no brick laying then, sadly.

 

 

 

Neal has now completed the fabrication of the four trusses for Broadway P2. They've got a few more rivets to go in though.

The green area of primer bottom left indicates where the angles had to be bent - that was his last job. 

During the day there were various movements out of the yard, and we caught this one just setting off, under its own steam, as it were.

The destination was, believe it or not, Lechlade ! It does have quite large diameter wheels for such road journeys. Estimated time for the journey was 4-5 hours.

 

Neal's job for the day was the fabrication of the intermediate trusses. These go from the middle of the ridge purlins to the fascia boards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this picture of an original roof, at Toddington itself, you can see one such intermediate truss in the upper foreground.

It's that latticework running L to R. 

All the other steelwork in this photograph has now been fabricated.

It's a lot, isn't it !

 

 

 Out in the yard another visitor was being collected.

 This was the Borrows well tank, manufactured by Kerr Stuart.

This is the worksplate. It's a Borrows design, but made by Kerr Stuart in Stoke. 1918 makes it 107 years old.

Back in the greenhouse Yours Truly was alone for a while, as Neal shot off to Stanley Pontlarge to examine the design of a latticework bridge parapet (by E Finch & Co of Chepstow). This was at the request of our infrastructure manager, who had heard of Neal's fabricating skills. 

Some of the Parapets are failing at the bottom, where they attach to the deck.

The picture shows the one in question, which has also had a curious shove from the right, which has displaced the brickwork. 

Neal's diagnosis is that, rather than a complete new fabrication, in some instances a repair is equally possible, and would save money.

 

Back in the greenhouse then, and Yours Truly spent almost the whole day removing surface rust and millscale off three lengths of angle. It's about 2 hours per unit, quite slow, but we were able to complete the job of three lengths by the end of the day.

Here they are being painted in green primer.

 

 

Saturday, out with the gang.

Eight of us, Saturday a week ago. It was a day marked by heat, and just slightly too much work taken on. We were late back....

 

 

At Winchcombe we loaded up the truck with tools, then pushed them over to make room for 6 sleepers.

Thus heavily laden, we made our way to the coal dock at Toddington, where the plan was to assemble a two part trolley to move our kit and sleepers to Toddington north.

 

 

 

 To do this we had to let a train pass of course.

Here is P&O, with its 7 coach train.

Enjoy this heavy pacific, as its boiler certificate will run out later this year, and then it will be withdrawn for an overhaul. 

 

 

 

We had an illustrious visitor as we set off, our new chairman.

As he has some Pway background, we soon spoke the same language. 

It was great to see him among us. 

With the line free, we assembled the trolleys, put the sleepers and kit on them, and then Simon set off.

On arrival just north of the Stow Road bridge we had to toss the trolleys to one side, and start digging.

 

It was the first of 6 wooden sleepers here - the track soon changes to concrete sleepers - and we thought nothing about getting them all done at once.

 

 

But the constant passage of trains kept interupting our work, and it was hot too, it has to be said. We fell behind a bit.

 

Eventually the road was free again, and the first two replacements went in. In the distance Paul is digging out the next.

The other loco out on that Saturday was the black 2807. What an elegant machine it is, and so old - 120 years old this year, and recently overhauled too.

Not much later we had to stop again, with this enormous pacific looming over us.

It was lunch time, and very hot for the crew up in that enclosed cab of theirs.

Paul bought us all Calyppos - including the fireman and driver - so to return the compliment they offered a cab ride to Broadway and back.

The lucky person was (fairly) recent recruit Jim, who absolutely loved the experience. 

Here is he, just coming back again. Jim regaled us with tales of being a fireman, but of putting them out, not heating boilers full of water with them.

 

 Jim also bagged a second cabbing, although not another cab ride.

The very earnest driver here is the son of the foreman of our site here in 1981, just after the society signed a lease with BR. It's lovely to see a second generation pick up the torch of history, and run with it.

We did get the 6 sleepers in, but overran our intended cut off time, which would allow us to have an end of the day cuppa in the Coffeepot. We compromised, by sending Simon to get the teas in and wait for us, while we finished to job, loaded up the trolley and then the Transit, and drove back home.

Tea first, then put the tools all back into store. The yard was already empty of cars - it had been a long day. 

 

 

Monday, back from away, and straight back to Broadway.

While we were away, Neal and John worked on the Thermalite blocks inside. Mostly on the north end wall, where the fireplace was also constructed, in concrete blocks.

 This picture, taken at the start of the day, shows the interior blockwork done last week.

 

 

 

Neal was going to carry on drilling holes in the secondary trusses in the garden centre, but succumbed to temptation, and spent the day at Broadway with us.

 

Here he is, fitting insulation strips to the window frames. This is modern stuff, made of plastic and polystyrene foam, but fortunately it won't be seen once the interior walls are in.

Of course we are also putting in insulation in the cavities, all things that the original station didn't have. But it won't be visible, rest assured. 

 

 

 

 

We had lunch in the signal box as usual, until Neal mentioned that there was a hornet, right above our head!

Luckily the insect, more than twice the size of a normal wasp, seemed fairly docile. 

This is the best picture that we could get. It seemed like a European hornet to us, with a yellow and black body, and no traces of orange colour as in the Asian ones.

Once we had the picture, we slid a window open, and it flew out. 

 

 

 

 

 

Neal spent most of the day fitting  the insulation, and helping John with cutting blocks to size. In between the windows at the front there is a lot of block cutting.

The brickwork has been paused for a while, as we are now short of some specials, and communication with the brickworks seems less than ideal. 

 

 

The work done on the fireplace last week is particularly evident here. We now have to make enquiries as to sourcing two slate fireplaces. We hope the cost of the genuine article won't put off the railway from funding them...

The last picture of Tuesday shows John working on the rear of the fireplace. Later, he added to the chimney breast.

During the day, he also filled in the wall just visible on the right, and ran a first line of blocks at ground level up to the second door. Excellent progress ! 

 

 

Usketeers, on Wednesday.

All back again, after a week's absence of Dave and Yours Truly.  Paul would have been alone last week, so he took his wife out for a train ride. Paul was full of praise for the station staff, who were most helpful with her wheelchair. It was a grand day for both of them.

 

 

 

Today we took stock of the cast ironware around the weighbridge. There is a downpipe both front and back, but neither is ideal. The back one is broken and was fixed with some sort of gum, while the front one was made of grey plastic. Where the drainage actually went is not clear, because ultimately the original stormwater drain was broken, when the 1945 weighbridge deck was installed. 

We will do our best with what the site allows, but one thing we can influence is the quality of the drainpipes, so we made a list of requirements for proper cast iron ones today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had one more lot of spalled bricks to remove, to the right of the door.

Dave is chopping out the broken bricks here.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The previous arrangement was a concrete slope in front of the hut, which led the water over the stoop and inside the hut. Not good.

We have of course raised the doorstep, and what we are also doing is inserting an ACO drain in front of the building, into which the water from the rear downpipe will also be led. 

Here Dave is starting on the trench for the ACO drain.  

 

 

 

 

For the sake of continuity and looks, we decided to remove the concrete slope. Once the ACO drain is in, we will fill this area with tarmac, to match the rest.

Here Dave is removing the wider area of the concrete slope. 

 

 

 

The two 2-8-0 freight locos were out in force today.

Here is 2807, in black and with rods down, just passing the bracket signal at Winchcombe. 

 

 

Nearby, the PWay gang was occupied sorting out the yard for the expected arrival of some steel containers. These will be very welcome, as we will be able to store our tools at ground level, and not have to climb up ladders/steps into various wagons to retrieve our tools each time we go out.

Simon shunted concrete sleepers around the yard to make space, while the main group was busy concentrating the smaller scrap into a big pile, which would allow the Telehandler to put it into the scrap skip, where it will finally earn us some money. 

 

The Milwaukee tools by the way, paid for by sales of rail ends and direct sponsorship into the Trust, have been ordered and have now arrived. No doubt we will be able to have a go on Saturday... 

 

 

 Back to the weighbridge... 

Here a channel has now been created outside the door, and a length of ACO drain has been laid in to see what sort of depth we should be aiming for. Three lengths of this have been found on site, so didn't cost us anything. The cast iron goods however will have to be bought commercially, for about £300. 

While we were digging the trench for the drain it occurred to us that the bricks on the other side of the door had also gone, so they are coming out in this picture. So that is as far as we got on Wednesday.

 

 

From the archives.

We recently came across a number of back copies of the roneo-ed newsletter of the GWRS. That's not a spelling mistake, it stood for Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Society. No.23 was the first in a new A5 format, and was dated March-April 1981. (We'd be interested to see any of the first 22 newsletters, by the way)

Hot news was the signing of a one year lease from BR for the Toddington station and the yard. This enabled working parties to actually start clearing the site. 

A new committee member was co-opted - the chairman of Cotswold Steam Preservation, the group that was to acquire 2807. It just goes to show how long the two groups have been intertwined, and the loyal support that we have enjoyed from them.

Disappointment was expressed that another railway society bought from BR, and removed, most of the workings from Toddington signal box. 

Hope was expressed that the society might obtain a Light Railway Order for the line from Pittville to Honeybourne. On the subject of the Stratford end, the society vice chairman had a meeting with Stratford District Council. Here he learned of certain reservations being held against the railway returning to Stratford. These are primarily that many people do not want to see even more tourists attracted to the town (!) and  that Warwickshire County Council intend to buy some of the SMJR to construct a bypass.

2807 was expected to arrive in May 1981, and 4 industrial locomotives have arrived on site - two 0-4-0 Pecketts, a 0-6-0 Hunslett and a diesel shunter. 

44 years ago today! How much we have achieved...

 

 

Gala weekend

Gala day.

Your truly was invited to do a turn on the brake vans as 'Chaperone'. 

 

 

The day (Sunday) started well - just look at the queue to get in, and it wasn't even 9 o'clock yet.

Later in the day this field would be completely full with parked cars.

 

We tried to get a snap of each of the locos present on Sunday.

This was the first one, Austerity No.15 from the WPR. As a former K&ESR volunteer we knew these locos well, but had never seen one with an air pump so well concealed. This will interest our friends with the SSN in Rotterdam, who have a (genuine) war time Austerity, but one which has a steam brake only. Where to put the air pump, without disfiguring the loco? On the running plate in front of the cab? Next to the smoke box? In the bunker? No.15 has found an excellent solution here.

 

 

Next was No 65 from the Bluebell.

As a former volunteer on the K&ESR we also knew this loco well. It helped to lift the original line, and there were high hopes that it could eventually be based on the K&ESR, but to our great surprise it suddenly went to the Bluebell. 

 

You don't often see an SE&CR works plate, so here is one.

Locomotive works in sleepy Ashford, Kent? Of course! 

 

 

 

We went to pick up our cash box and brake van tickets, and waited for the brake van train to rumble in, at first hauled by 2807.

We set up shop by the amusingly named 'Queen Mary' brake, as it could hold 20 visitors, against the GWR Toad at the other end, which had space for only 10. It was a bogie brake, with two balconies - luxury.

This is what you pay for - a view of someone's large behind. But fun. People loved the experience. You get rattled about, smell the air, hear the sounds, and have first hand experience of everything that's going on.

We were asked to bring a torch, but there was no need, and the dark was rather fun anyway.

 

 

As the journey south was uphill, the driver opened up after a while, and we got a wonderful spectacle of light from the first balcony. This was cutting edge participation, nearly as good as a cab ride.

 

 

 

 

 

At CRC our freight train pulled into P2 (which we had helped to build 10 years ago).

It was the first time we had actually been on it in commercial use. The bottom of the old wooden toilet block was still there, with its 'Niagara' urinals. We considered them for Broadway, but the construction of the concrete slab under the floor made the related drainage impossible, so modern suspended urinals it became.

Ahead of 2807 was BETTON GRANGE, giving footplate rides during the morning, we heard.

Then came a choice - an hour in the Hunting Butts headshunt doing nothing, or frequent the snackshack, and be served by a former chairman. We opted for a tea and a piece of cake.

Here you can see the unusual sight of a train on the rarely used Hunting Butts extension. The C RC signalman was unusually busy that day.

The return journey was tender first, with the Queen Mary rattling along on the end. Here we are, about to enter Greet tunnel, the second longest in preservation. It's on a curve, as you can see, so at one point it is completely dark inside. Great! That's how tunnels should be.

 

On both our journeys to CRC we stopped for a small fire. These dogged the timetable all day long. All the different trains on the timetable ran, but increasingly late during the day. The gala naturally wanted to present a large variety to our customers, so with all the stuff going on even the smallest interuption had a knock on effect all day long. On Saturday it was a sheep on the tracks.

 

 

  

The first fire that we found was just beyond Hayles. It was an easy fix - the fireman put it out with the slack pipe. We saw that done in Poland too!

 

The second one was by the mobile home village just before Cleeve. Here the fire brigade had come. They spent quite a long time - too long, in our view - dousing another small berm fire. We waited patiently, and that didn't help the timetable either of course. The fire crew looked very cheerful though.

 

Passing through Winchcombe we found the two well tanks at opposite ends of a short freight train.

 

One is a Borrows well tank, the other a Kerr Stuart, but they looked the same to us. (Google says that the Kerr Stuart is built to a Borrows design - ah!)

 

 

 

Also at Winchcombe was this Pannier tank - Austerity combo. 

That would have made a great noise in Greet tunnel.

 

One locomotive that we glimpsed only briefly was 75069.

Here it is at Toddington. The double chimney that it has is quite clear to see. It came to us courtesy of the SVR. It felt more at home with our exclusively Mk1 stock than the little 01, which everyone adored though.

Gotherington station was having a fine old time. There were lots of people on its platform, which was decked with tables and chairs for - chicken or chick pea curry. This sounded most attractive. The home made cakes got a mention in the brake van, which is some recommendation.

Passing the garden, we snatched a long range shot of Bryan's home built platelayer's hut. We're building up a good data bank of PWay hut information.

In the foreground is a garden bench, made out of slate urinals, as Bryan once explained. 

At Winchcombe the Usk hut was in a blaze of glory for the weekend, having been converted to a small US army camp.

 

 

The Jeep from it passed us at Toddington in what the driver called a 'footplate crew delivery service'.

It's a shame that we stopped the 'Wartime in the Cotswolds' experiences, as we really enjoyed the displays of militaria. Our video of the Sherman tank mounting its tank transporter is a great favourite on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/DaYPn9P-9gE 

Love the roar of that aero engine in the back! 

The day was long, but we managed to beat the previous day's takings by a few pounds, so it was all worth it. And we a had a lot of happy customers.

Here they all are, in the back of the Queen Mary.

 

 ++++++ *** ++++++

 

Note that the next edition of the blog will be in a fortnight from now, not in a week as per usual.

Broadway.

No work done at Broadway, due to the weather and then the gala.
 

PWAY on Saturday

Absent, due to a shingles vaccination, which was rather unpleasant for 48 hours afterwards. 

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A full complement, currently numbering three. 

The work today was concentrated on the remaining old brick pillar on the corner of the building. Note also how the plinth blue is broken on the corner, an old injury.

 

 

 

 

Dave set to work with the SDS drill and removed the three crumbly bricks holding up the corner. 

Just to make sure, Paul held up the corner of the building, in case it fell on Dave.

Or maybe he was just leaning against it there. 

 

 

 

 

Once the last corner bricks were out, and the remaining mortar in the hole chiselled out, the first bricks were mortared back into the hole, building on the bricks we laid last week.

 

 

Fitting the new bricks was a job requiring precision and feeling. What was holding it up now, why won't it go all the way in?

The 'moment supreme' came when Dave fitted the last of the replacement plinth headers. We also found us a replacement corner brick, after much rummaging through brick piles back in the yard.

This was the happy result at the end of the day: the front, the corner, and most of one side done. The new corner brick is like new.

We still want to point the bricks in black cement, and we would like to put on a layer of waterproofed mortar (a bottle of water proofing was given to us by a member of 35006) on the two courses that will be below ground. This, we hope, will stop the bricks absorbing the rainwater and spalling in the future.

We also had a good poke around the two cast iron down pipes, one at the front (actually in horrible grey plastic) and one at the back (cast iron, but fractured). We need to work out what parts to order from the cast iron guttering store, something to the order of £350 in cost, but so much more authentic.

 

At the end of the afternoon there was a surprise in the yard:

A fire engine ! Who ordered that? And what for? See below for the explanation.

Wednesday on the PWay.

This was spent in and about Winchcombe.

 

 

 

 

To start with the end of the day, this was the berm fire which prompted a neighbour to call the fire brigade. It really wasn't very much to see.

Several muscular lads from the gang walked up there (you can just see the Winchcombe road bridge) with fire buckets and poured water on the fire.

A rueful observation was that the fire buckets, taller than yer usual buckets, were very heavy to carry when full of water.

Well, yes....

 

 

 

The day was mostly spent in the C&W sidings, where a section that we relaid in concrete a while back was ballasted and packed.

 The ballast used was spent ballast from Hayles, so we can now say that nothing is wasted.

It was brought over from the other side of the yard, and put on a trolley, with which it could be moved about and dropped where most wanted.

There was a lot of shovelling, but luckily it was mostly downwards, off the trolley and into the four foot. And the gang was quite large today, so that helped.

Another, smaller team elected to do fishplate greasing in the tunnel. We have now almost completed this year's greasing of the line.

Here is the fishplate greasing team, on the Greet side of the tunnel. You might notice that we are no longer using the bulky back packs originally provided, as they were awkward to use, heavy, and kept clogging up.

Instead, we are now using very basic hand sprayers, which are much faster, and don't waste so much of this incredibly expensive product. If you know of a substitute/equivalent for Interflon, we'd love to hear from you.

As our tunnel is very dark inside, Chris made up this LED portable light gantry. It really worked too (see below) 

This is Chris with his gantry, some way into the tunnel, on the straight section uphill from Winchcombe. Clearly there is plenty of light. Previously we used a petrol generator on a trolley, with wobbly lights attached to it.