Back on line

(Last) Monday at Broadway

A gorgeous sunny day, not too hot, and all 3 of us there. The scaffolders came too (eventually). They came to remove the P1 scaffolding, which we now no longer need, so it can go off hire.

This is where we started from first thing this morning. Scaffolding and Heras fencing up.

We took the fencing down, had a brew, waited.

Eventually they did come, so to stay out of their way we decided to fetch down another (last?) lot of T&G from our store under the canopy.

This all needs lugging down to the painting area, then knotting, then primering.

The longer you leave it, the hotter it gets!

By lunch time the scaffolders had finished, and a beautiful butterfly emerged from the chrysalis. The skeleton of the steps looks quite elegant. We now have to put on the sides, and the treads. Sorting out the treads from a big pile on the other side looks like the next job. They are replacement treads fitted in HIA by BR, but of a very high quality wood, and most are still very serviceable.

You can't leave steps unattended for 5 minutes but some clown will try to go up them.

No Peter, No! Wait until the treads are on. (and the bridge open for business)

This is a trackside view; soon the steps will be veiled again by the Heras fencing panels, but at least it all looks a lot more manageable now. No doubt the missing spearhead fencing panels could be put in place now too.

Wot, no holes in the LH dagger board?

Neal made a start with the mouldings on the 4th and final side. At the end of the day he had all the large pieces on; just the arch over the top and a short bit down the roof of the centre span to go. Then that's another job ticked off.

Yes, you saw that right, one dagger board escaped the strict scrutiny of our assembly team and was made, and painted, without holes.

All the holes are made up out of two half-holes, so it's these that are missing.

Neal has it sorted though. Here he has a pattern for a hole (can you get these?).

The missing two half holes were soon drilled, and the hole counters were satisfied.

This is the 4th moulding run, almost completed as well in the picture.

Broadway seemed a busy village today. First this Chinook scraped itself over the treetops. We heard the CHOP-CHOP-CHOP coming, hence the picture.

Then all afternoon there were emergency vehicles screaming around us. No idea why. Something on Fish Hill perhaps? At the end of the afternoon we saw two patrol cars hurtling down station road, and a fire engine returning to Evesham. Mysterious.

Finally, a pleasant bit of heritage news. Upon opening the booking office was adorned with plastic leaflet holders, as a temporary measure, we heard.

We looked around on the internet for something more suitable for a 1904 station, and found this example after a Google search.

Could someone make us one of these?




Dave of the Broadway gang bravely accepted the challenge.

This is what he built, isn't it splendid! It's made out of scraps of hardwood that he found.

You see it here in the raw, being varnished.

Alex in the C&W workshops has kindly agreed to letter it.

We can't wait to see it with its gold letters on.





Tuesday.

The phone line to the blogger country pile suddenly stopped working. Disaster! It's amazing how dependent we are on the internet today. At first we suspected a router upgrade, and a reboot often cures that. But not this time.

A call to BT resulted in an off site line test, which pronounced that there was nothing wrong with the BT line, so the fault must lie with the house. A visit from a BT technician would cost £86, else a self help video was offered to trace the supposed fault in your house. We had £86 (well, what else can you do?) and the technician duly came on Friday. The Wednesday blog was now 2 days overdue.

The technician found the fault, and - surprise! - it wasn't in the blogger country pile after all, but in BT's line down the lane. No can fix today though, a cherry picker is needed. Monday at the earliest.

Rural Broadband, eh?

So today we are back on air again, after a bit of a trying week. The news updates now follow.



Wednesday at Winchcombe

No action on the Usk hut foundations.

Nearby, timber replacement took place on the yard turnout.

There are a lot of rotten timbers on this particular turnout (not on the main line) and as the bed around the timbers is as hard as concrete, removal and replacement of the timbers is slow.

Here Dave is releasing one of the chairs.

You just get going nicely when the shunter appears, a bit unusually for this side. After the diesel gala the carriage rakes had to be reconstituted. We step aside...

The next timber is a GWR throughbolter one, so we cannot undo it. Of course, why not make it a bit harder still?

The only way to get the old timber out is to split it down the middle. Hence the bars in the picture.

TOOOOT - here comes that shunter again. Hot diggety, is there no peace? We step aside again. We thought we were safe here, in the sidings. Ha!

After digging out the rotten timber, we wriggle in a new one. Or rather, a better one, although one 'good' one promptly split in half when we screwed down the bolts. Out it came a second time.

In between were the ordinary trains, which ran on the adjacent loop. That didn't affect us directly, but we stood aside anyway. This time it was heavy tank 4270, with the fireman just checking that he really has 8 on after leaving the platforms. You never know.

With your blogger's back still fragile after a 'twinge' a few days earlier, we took it carefully today, and decided to rid the site of these enormous rocks. They were scattered about  the tracks, in between the sleepers. There were more by the signal box too. Wonder what brought them here in the 1980s?

They have been dropped behind the Usk hut platform wall as in fill. There were 5 barrows of these boulders!

By the new platform there was a surveying team during the day, and later the area around the stop block was investigated.

The rest of the platform is going to be finished by C&M, and, taking the wall site in hand, they decided to go for a different construction for the return around the stop block.

The second hand sleepers laid in previously were removed again.

The area at the rear was then dug out, ready for a further bit of concrete foundation to be poured.

Meanwhile, a third timber was being manhandled into position at the yard turnout. In the foreground is a pile of debris, the remains of the three timbers dragged out.

Another pause for a passing train, this time Foremarke Hall at its head. With the topping and tailing going on to deal with the Broadway run through, there were also some diesels about.

Tweet! Get this man a bag of bird seed.

Getting the new timbers (this really is a new one) screwed down was quite tricky, with Rob on the left perching on the end of the bar to get the maximum amount of leverage from it.

We always aim to hit the Coffeepot just before closing time (well, after closing time would be pointless wouldn't it, but we did manage that too once) and then you get to see a steamer heading north while you slurp.

The first one who makes it to the Coffeepot gets the order in - 15 volunteer cups of tea please!

Not much profit in that, but you do get our labour for free, and it's a small price.

Martin was 'mother' today and did the honours. John can barely hold himself back, while a really impatient teacup is being proffered from the left, in the hope of an early fill.

Just wait your turn, mate!

This being the last train south of the day, it's a diesel that rumbles in right next to us, today the 'Green Goddess' Growler.

The smell of tea seems to have brought the second man out of his chair, you saw that here first!






Friday at Broadway

Much more painting, it's getting a bit tedious, but at least the weather is on our side, so it's 'make hay while the sun shines'.

Neal has made the round bits for the highest moulding area off site, so when he arrived they were ready to fit.

The P1 scaffolding of course has been removed, and instead the first spearhead fence panels were parked in their approximate positions. The P2 scaffolding is due to go in 10 days or so, not long now. We need to off hire to save costs.

Here's that final and tricky curved stretch of moulding in place, fillered and with a bit of primer on.










Saturday - a day out at Bloxham.

To build a heritage station you can't just go out and buy kit, it isn't there when you want it. You have to strike when it comes up, even if you can't use it straight away. This is how we bought lamp posts, door plates, lanterns, benches, V boards, cast iron letters and many other original GWR fittings for Broadway over the last 8 years.

So we keep an eye on the various auctions as they come up. Bloxham on Saturday was reputed to have a very rare set of GWR cast iron crowd barrier posts for sale.

Of the 4 GWSR stations, only Broadway has a set of these as it should.

The auction had over 100 items, and they were being rattled through at a rate of 140 an hour. Keep up, at the back there!

Bloxham is not the pace for hugely expensive locomotive name plates, it's more for smaller items, or interesting kit. So we had a good mooch around, see what else there is.


This trio of scripted GWR seat ends, originals, appealed. They are of the earlier pattern, with pierced back supports.

They went for £220 for the 3, cheaper than the price of two new ones.

The picture shows them at our favourite shotblaster's premises, where they will get a  good clean and a zinc coating.

A surprise find was this PLATFORM No 1 sign, an original in excellent condition and ready to hang.

Now Broadway didn't have platform numbers, hardly necessary when the trains always stop at the same platforms and there are few passengers.

However, with the large numbers of passengers we have today our station staff expressed a wish for a Platform sign. Where it will be used is still open, but if we don't use it, it can always be sold on. The cost was not outrageous either.






We just tried it out next to that curious box which is appearing on every one of our stations. They are not heritage items though.







Finally, we did bag the crowd barrier columns, phew! They are in the same condition as those found in the debris at Broadway. We took them straight down to the workshop at Toddington to be cleaned up.

Where will they go? It's not been formally decided yet, but an idea being floated is to move the Toddington shop to better and larger premises, and then move the non-authentic ticket hatch in a platform side window back into the area of the shop, which is in fact the old booking office/stationmaster's office, with the middle wall knocked out. So shop, customer and authenticity would benefit. But remember, it's just a good idea at the moment.

And could we resurrect the 1st class waiting room as well? Now that would be fun.

Also by the Toddington workshop, the foundations are being excavated for the long awaited proper loco mess room.



Back at Broadway, we found Stevie starting work with the trench that will run down P2. This will hide the signalling cable that has been laid out here.

Later he decided to work at the northern end, by coincidence just where we were having our tea.

He knocked over a signal cable support, but Neil C forgave him for that (at least in front of us, we don't know about the severe kicking he might have received once out of sight)

While Steve was working the mini digger on the platform, we walked along the track to stay out of harm's way. Just as well, as we found a wristwatch in the P2 4 foot, just opposite where the locos uncouple from their train.

This is now the second time we have found a wrist watch there!

Anyone lost a wrist watch at Broadway? 

Glad to be back! See you again soon.

The foundations are excavated

Monday at Broadway

We're back with the mouldings, and the promised revelation of how Neal was going to add the curved piece at the top, out of the straight lengths of board that we had.

The lengths attached on Friday have now had their screw holes filled in, and also given a second application of undercoat.

Neal then used the bevel to measure out the angles, if the curve were to be divided into several little segments.








He then did a test installation with 4 pieces of plywood cut to the calculation results, and when that looked satisfactory, he cut off the actual pieces of the moulding board.










A sample of this can be seen on the right. The plywood piece is at the bottom, the actual piece of moulding to the same shape is at the top.

Two of the 4 pieces were then screwed on, while Neal can be seen juggling with the remaining two lengths in the middle which, despite the test run with the (thinner) pieces of plywood, wouldn't quite go on.

We left him to it for a while, as we went off to primer 4 more lengths of T&G board.

When we came back the 4 segments were in, and the screw holes covered with filler. Later they got a rubbing down and another layer of undercoat, but Neal's intention is to improve the shape a bit more with a little sander he has. But basically this completes the mouldings on both sides of the P1 steps.

Unseen but nonetheless doggedly busy was John, who started applying top coat to the P1 stringers.

Everything is in a shade of dark stone, but in this shot you can just about make out the difference between undercoat and topcoat. Topcoat is a bit more shiny.

We spent almost the whole day on the scaffolding, even to address some visitors, who almost always ask the same questions. John's legs can be seen in the middle, where he's applying topcoat to the stringers.

From above a little cameo could be seen down below by the neighbour's new gate.

Peter doesn't know he has an admirer....

Oi, do you mind, stop leaning on my new gate !

The cameo was interrupted by Peter K, the brain behind the new sliding gate for the B&B....

During the afternoon, we found Dave expertly crafting a replica GWR leaflet rack. We found the inspiration for this on the internet, and with it we hope to replace the perspex leaflet holders currently in use in the booking office. It's now off for varnishing and lettering.

Towards the end of the afternoon, all painting and fillering now done, we afforded ourselves three mugs of tea, and a sit down on one of the station benches.

All was observed by the unblinking eye of the CCTV camera. We can thank Dave for this screenshot of us just sitting there, doing nothing. (it was alleged)


Wednesday at Winchcombe

Great excitement at the site for the Usk building! We are going to dig the hole for the foundations at last.

Stevie 'Wonder' was there with his JCB digger, and here you see the team measuring one last time the distance between the side of the building and the platform. It has to be very precise.

Last time we reported on the back filling of the platform. Big mistake! We did this on the basis of a photograph supplied of the Telehandler emptying a bucket of infill into the void. However, as you can see on this picture, that is all they did on that day. It doesn't pay to be away for a day.

Finally we had it all measured out, and Stevie started digging out the hole for the concrete pad for the Usk building.

Only a few yards away the PWay gang were digging out another timber, one of several marked a fortnight ago as in need of rapid replacement.

As the ground was very hard in this area (no ballast used in these early days of the 1980s) it was arranged for Stevie to dig out an area next to the turnout, into which the dug out timbers could be pulled. This made life easier, but digging out of the timbers themselves was still required.

The first one was dug out in the morning, and the Telehandler was dispatched to fetch a replacement of similar length, which it duly brought and shoved into pace.

The first timber was hard work, especially in today's heat, but they got it out and back in, screwed on tight, and then a start was made on a second one. Unfortunately that one wasn't on the list, it was discovered to be life expired during today's digging, so at lunch time the score was one replaced, and one more rotten one found. Net nil...

We had the King out today, always interesting to watch, especially as it's going to go home again one day (during August in fact). So get you trip in, if you haven't yet.

There was a huge discussion about the siting of the Usk hut foundations when another group came along and argued about it.

Eventually it was decided to move the hole along a bit, a couple of feet this way, and some inches that. Stevie handled it all with aplomb, the pile of diggings mounting steadily higher in the middle.

Jim helped to gauge the depth of the foundations.







Paul called out the measurements, so that the bottom of the slab was +/- level.

Once the hole was dug - about a foot deep - Steve spooned out the spoil into the gap behind the platforms.

Now we could finally say that the platform was being back filled.

The back filling moved slowly along, until the area under the tree was reached, which was very rough. Here Steve leveled and dug, and again the surplus was dropped behind the wall. It was getting hotter all the time too.

Great was our joy when Jim turned up with a box full of ice lollies. We all took one and sucked on them thoughtfully. It was nice and cool under the shade of the oak tree.

When Stevie had finished the area between platform and foundation hole looked really great. The area behind the stop block still needs finishing, a return around the stop block needs to be build, so that the sloping concrete sleepers can be buried under spoil.

So this is to be the area for the new goods platform. This used to a covered in weeds with random rubble tipped over the years underneath. Quite a pleasing transformation, isn't it?

Now we are waiting for a final quote for the rebar within the concrete slab. It is more complicated than it looks at first, so we need to be patient. Next we build the shuttering, and pour the concrete. Some shuttering was fetched by Neil and yours truly from Stanton yard today, formerly stuff used for the Hayles job. It all gets recycled.

After work we treated ourselves to tea, or even cans of lemonade, in the Coffepot, while waiting for the King to arrive.

Going the other way was the spluttery class 24. It's strange, but it always seems such an occasion when a train slowly hauls itself into the station, especially when there is already one on the other side waiting to go out again. Everyone stops what they are doing, to look.

We stopped off at Broadway on the way home, to find that Neal had fixed the moulding onto the lower half of the Cotswolds side of P2. So P1 is indeed finished. The entire P1 scaffolding will be removed next week.

We're going to carry on on Friday, after a quick exploratory visit of the GCR with 7 of the PWay fun guys tomorrow. No doubt a 'look over the fence' will follow.

On Friday - Sunday we will hold our annual diesel gala.

Bet you won't see anything like this: Three Growlers pulling into Toddington from the Broadway direction. Photograph by John Lees.

Now you're going to ask: Which ones then?

Sigh. It was 37 324, 37 215 and 37 219. Happy now?