Pavers.

Friday on steels.

We had to pause fabrication, as we had run out of bits. So last Friday morning was spent cutting and grinding new pieces to size.

 

 

Luckily we now have a stock of cleaned and primered lengths of strip and angle. More is on the MACAW, but it is stabled away in the north carriage siding, out of reach.

After finding a pull along wagon we trundled two lengths of strip and two lengths of angle back down to the loco shed where the saw is.

As we are working on the canopy under the old 'greenhouse' roof on the garden centre site, we are having to walk a long way back and forth from shed to greenhouse (sigh...)

Got that transformer? I thought you were bringing it? Back you go....

 

We started with the strip, which has to be cut at and angle. We put one strip on top of the other, to hurry things along a bit, so the wheelbarrow soon filled up with bits.

The afternoon was spent back in the greenhouse, where yours truly fettled the new bits by rounding the ends to fit inside the long angles, and then primering them (again). The manoeuvering of the steel this way and that soon exposes virgin metal, and we really don't want any rust forming, which would be much regretted by those that have to (re-) paint the canopy in the future.

 

Neal spent Friday afternoon completing the second purlin. It looks like he got there - he commented when this photograph was taken that there were three more holes to drill and bolt up. Then that's the second one done.

Next week: The third purlin!

Saturday out with the gang.

During storm Antoni. Apparently. Despite dire BBC weather warnings we just had a breezy day with a little drizzle. Typical for a summer, we'd say.

The mission today was to fettle Siding 1 at Toddington. 

We had a quick peep into the loco shed to see what's going on - they're fitting insulation to 2807's boiler.

This looks like it will be the first of our 3 GWR 2-8-0s to return to service after overhaul.

3850 and 2874 are also making good progress at the same time.

 

 

Our day started soemwhat dark and wet, but bearably so.

This siding 1 (it's actually the service road connection between the yard throat and Toddington station, and is used by light engines every day) is a very old one, and hasn't had much done to it over the last 40 years, so it's a bit rough.

The first job was to straighten it at the station end. That took us all day, but we did it.

Give a little whistle....

 

Jim was our lookout, armed with an official lookout's whistle. It's very small though - a larger option exists on HOPS, but was no doubt considered too expensive. 

 

We brought Duff jacks with us, and the very heavy sluing jacks. As we were sluing, we tried the latter first.

 

 

There were just 5 of us on Saturday - did Antoni scare others off? - so we used three sluing jacks, one lookout and Bert Ferrule to eye us in.

As the service approaching from Winchcombe appeared on the horizon Mike from the loco dept. emerged on the footpath to the box. He was bearing a new shovel. 

Strange, that.  What was it for? Was he a new recruit for our gang? We could certainly do with more hands and shovels.

But no. As 78019 approached the box to hand in the token, the fireman bent down to pick something up. It was Mike's shovel !

Well, that was a new one for us.

Hello darling, now listen carefully, I will say this only once...

Lunchtime was upon us, and Nick sent a message to a contact in the buffet car. We were hungry, could they help?

The train arrived at Toddington....

Then set off again, as the signalman leant out of his box to hand over the token.

 

 Nick and Graham waited eagerly - would they heed our call?

 And they did! Here is Bert Ferrule with 5 bacon butties in a bag, still hot.

Picture by Andy.

 The gang munched them thoughtfully. Which was better - ketchup, or brown sauce ?

After lunch in the nearby mess room we completed the stretch of track straightening, and went over to jacking and packing.

As this is one of the first lengths of track laid back in the 1980s, it has very little ballast underneath, if any at all. The Robels work by shaking ballast until it has filled up any nearby voids, but here we were shaking mud. We fed the Robels with shovelfuls of surplus ballast from the 6ft, and one way or another we did get the track to stay up at its correct level.

At the end of the day the first 100 yds looked much straighter and more level, which is what we had set out to do. So that was a win, despite Antoni.

We took another portrait picture of the Standard doing the token exchange. Between the box and the bracket signal there is a nice space for interesting action pictures like this.

The signalman was friendly too, which is always nice. We exchanged a few bits of banter, which made the time pass faster.

Just before we went the class 20 trundled to a stop by the box, waiting to assist the incoming train from Winchcombe up to Broadway. The 'Wardrobe' sat there and whistled away. You never know which loco they're going to pick for this daily job, which makes visiting our railway more interesting.

Monday loading in the yard.

Mondays on the PWay are getting to be a regular thing - you can get a lot done with a small crew.

This Monday's job was to unload the Warflat of the economy sleepers picked up at Hayles, and to refill it with concrete CS1s for next winter season's job.

 

 

There were 3 of us - Walt in the machine, David and Yours Truly on the ground/on the Warflat. 

First of all we had to empty the Warflat. There were about a dozen old sleepers on the end, and 65 economy sleepers from Hayles, the last of the ones we took out last winter.

With the Warflat finally unloaded we could make a start on the next lot of replacement CS1s.

Here Walt is bringing in the last lot of economy sleepers, which we can stack 3 high on the forks, 6 high on the ground.

 

Unfortunately for a speedy loading some track components has been deposited in front of the sleeper pile that interested us, so we had remove the first layer to give the Telehandler room for manoeuvre.

The RRV was got out to do the lifting in a confined space.

The sleepers that were in the way were removed by the RRV and loaded on the Warflat.

At the end of the day we had unloaded the Warflat, and reloaded three quarters of it. Almost there then, but for the logistics involved in getting the CS1s out from their obstruction.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

A lovely warm day, and 4 of us in attendance today.

 

 

 

 

Project for the day - the diamond paver path. It's going along here, between the patio slabs laid by others and the door of the hut.

We spent some time digging it out to get the correct depth for 2 ins of mix and the other 2 ins of paver on top.

 

As the weather was nice and dry Paul decided to give the exposed wood over the gable ends a coat of protective paint.

Paul used black, and when you look up, you can't see it at all! It just looks dark.

Inside Dave was fettling the structure for the doorknobs. A bit of wood filler was required here. The 150 year old holes are quite big.

Railway business was brisk today. We can't say that very often, but the weather was kind, and it's the holidays. Lots of children were visible. We waved and waved and waved.

Here are Dave and Paul in the process of setting out the course of the path. But stopping to wave of course.

Hope these trains don't come past too often...

It's a sort of three dimensional game, this setting out. The level was used this way and that, and the two retaining planks were pushed around and raised here and there. Once the pavers are down they will be held in place by some concrete backing along the sides.

Then we had our mid morning cuppa. That didn't go well for Paul.

 

 

 

Somehow or other - he can't explain it - the full cup of coffee from his flask leaped into the air, and upended itself over his lower body, and then the floor.

 

 

 

Paul ended up with no coffee, a wet thigh and a very frustrated expression, as you can see.

 

 

 

 

 

We jollied him out of his funk, and soon he was laughing about it again.

 

Then we got Maxie out from the shed to see if she would start.

She did, no problems. Good old Maxie ! So we were ready to make up quantities of weak mix to go under the pavers.

Here is a general view of the site. As the road dips down behind the hut we will be raising this to the level of the grass in a couple of weeks, using spent ballast from the Didbrook relay. That will be interesting. We learned today the MO - in a couple of weeks two coal wagons (the ones with the coal company logos on them) will be brough to Hayles and loaded by the Telehandler. They will be pushed up the Usk siding and from there they will be unloaded again and the spoil dropped on the road to raise it.

By now Dave had started laying the pavers, and here you can see John bringing in a barrow load of weak mix on which to bed them down.

The first few pavers were quite slow, but then we got into our stride. 

We're having the 5 inch pavers bought with Usk funds in the middle, and 6 inch pavers found on site along the outside to frame them.

Dave did all the hard work, and on his knees too. The others watched and threw banter, some even from seats taken out into the sun.

 

 

And yes, here we all are on those seats, enjoying the unusual sun. (we've had a lot of rain recently)

Do you like our terrace on the platform? Just look at that green grass! The friends of Winchcombe were kind enough to strim it (and even to remove some Mares Tails that they noticed) but the grass soon grew some more.

We still don't have a date for unveiling our name board on the gable end. We had Aug 23rd pencilled in, but time is passing...

Here is a picture of Dave making progress. He's got those levels now, and although it was now mid afternoon, he was laying those pavers quite quickly.

Paul made up more mix for him - hope we have enough ballast and sand. We are currently working with leftovers only, the build itself having finished of course.

At the end of the day this is as far as we got. We are perhaps half way there? We did spend a lot of the morning painting and fettling the lock, so next time we should be able to make a big spurt and finish this off. If the weather holds for us, that is.

At the end of the day we retreated back into the hut, where it was still nice and cool from the increasing heat outside.

Jim joined us, to chew that fat.

We tidied up, then went to Toddington to see how Neal had done on Monday. Our normal Tuesday work having been advanced by a day for diary reasons, Neal carried on making up purlins, and as you can see we are now up to three of the six long purlins required. There are also two short ones to be made up.

Neal also tidied up the site, and just look at all the swarf that has been generated by drilling all the holes that make up one purlin. All the bolts will eventually be replaced by hot rivets too.

News on the blogger car is not good. It would appear that the garage declared it a write off. The accident was two months ago.... all that time in suspense, and in a hire car, plus rising storage costs taken by someone. It's not a good process, and we see now why our insurance premiums are so high. People in the middle have no interest in a rapid conclusion, and the longer the process takes, the more money they can earn. Do people like the FCA realise this?

Steel manufacture under way.

Friday on steels.

Are proper start is being made on the actual manufacture of the Broadway P2 canopy parts. We have painstakingly cleaned and primered about half of the 7 tons of steel, and last Tuesday Neal started to cut some of the parts to size.

 

Last Friday then saw the start of putting it all together.

Neal is starting with the 6 purlins, for the three roof bays involved.

In the picture he has laid out two 7.5m angles, put in wooden spacers at each end, and laid in the first of the zig-zag lengths of strip.

Just checking....

 

The angle pattern starts in the middle, and Neal is working outwards towards the two ends.

As you don't want to end up with a length facing the wrong way, Neal is just checking the drawing. But ask Neal any question, and he always knows the answer. It's all in his head.

 

The start of the manufacture is a slow process of setting out, so we had a quick walk to the other end of the site, through the loco shed.

All is quiet here. The DMU in here last week has gone again. Now we see Foremarke Hall and Dinmore Manor on the left, and 3850 and 2807 on the right.

In the middle is the little Peckett 'John', and original from our opening year. It's sort of a running shed on the left, and an overhaul shed on the right.

Right. Back with Neal. He's laid out a lot of the strips with angled ends, found the fit satisfatory (and meeting correctly those from the other end) and started drilling holes for bolts, later to be replaced by hot rivets.

Neal was drilling through 3 layers of 8mm steel, so that is 3cm to penetrate. Hard work.

A Magnum lightens the atmosphere and gives some relief from the hard work.

Saturday at CRC.

Most of the PWay gang were having a small tools training session (no more small tools jokes please, I think we have already exhausted them in the mess coach, thank you)

There was a large cake, provided by Paul. We divided it into 8/12 portions, but actually the whole cake disappeared. Someone must have had more than one piece... Hungry Caterpillars R Us.

Six people split off to have small tools training, and the other 4 went to CRC to measure up the platform roads, as well as the sleepers for the southern loop turnout.

When 35006 came with a train we stepped well back, next to some of our lesser used goods wagons.

Then we moved back forwards again to measure up the timbers of the turnout. This was laid in 2000 with second hand timbers. It is surprising how many of these are still good, but 9 now need replacement, so were marked up and measured.

 

We walked back along the platform for lunch, next to our little gem visitor 78019.

Why we like volunteering - getting bacon rolls from a window.

Although we had all brought some sandwiches with us, we couldn't resist knocking on the window of the buffet car.

With a result ! Three thickly filled bacon rolls, with the option of ketchup or brown sauce. Worth every penny.

We then headed back to Winchcombe, to find the 6 trainees just tidying up after their day of small tools training. This course will be repeated for the other half (and more) of the PWay group.

Monday on concrete sleepers.

A full team of three! But just enough to do the job. One in the Telehandler, one on the ground, one on top.

 

 

We had our own little train - the C&W 03 shunter, a Toad, and the Warflat with 160 CS1s.

Monday being a non-running day, we were soon pushed out to site at Hayles, without any nasty interuptions from revenue earning trains...

The 03 was soon gone again, leaving the Toad and Warflat stabled between the Hayles platform, and the Didbrook 1 bridge. In the foreground is level ground for stacking the sleepers.

Walt in the Telehandler arrived soon after, also bearing a bag of 5 custard doughnuts.

Here he is, just starting the unloading, 8 sleepers at a time.

This is the stretch of track with those thinner wartime economy sleepers that we need to replace during the next winter works. It's the completion of what we started in the last winter shutdown period, about another 400 sleepers to do. You can see the economy sleepers with those holes in them below. On the right bigger CS1s that we brought with an earlier load. One more half load remains to be brought.

At the end of the morning the Warflat was empty again - that took about 2 hours, not counting the arrival and departure with the men and tools.

If we didn't count lunch, we reckoned we had about 3 hours available to do some loading. Rain was also expected at 3, so that fitted nicely.

The rain came early, but not too hard, so that was OK. We managed to recover all the last remaining wartime sleepers piled up from last winter's work, so the site is now ready for the next winter period job.

Next Monday is likely to be an RRV day. These extra Mondays, with just a small team, are quite fun, and always interesting, as different from the routine.

Tuesday on steels.

Two of us again, but good progress was made.

Yours truly spent the day rounding off the contact edge on the zig-zag strips and angles, so that they fit better into the long pairs of angles that make up each purlin.

 

Ah yes, the purlins.

Tuesday we (I say 'we', that is mostly Neal, let's be honest) completed the first purlin.

Here it is, in the middle.

On the left are the potential components for the next one.

We're having to think forward about the logistics of this, as there will be 6 long purlins, and two shorter ones. We need a production line of trestles, and a storage line. Remembering that a completed purlin can no longer be moved by hand.

So we inched the finished purlin forwards, and the bare pairs of angles to the back. One purlin will serve as example for the next, it saves us thinking time.

 

Mid-way through the day Neal walked over to the Trust office, to hand over his cheque for the viaduct appeal.

For someone who is now a pensioner of modest means, this was a pretty generous gesture from Neal. Our viaduct certainly needs it.

Can you see the white stains at the bottoms of the arches and down the legs? They are caused by water leaking from above, though the brickwork. The waterproofing over the tops of the arches has failed, and now the rainwater percolates through the bricks, and in winter it freezes in between. Some bricks have already been pushed out and fallen to the ground. Not good, we need to address this issue soon to halt the deterioration.

Please join us in the appeal with a donation. We need you! Together we are strong:

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

 

 

After lunch Neal started the second purlin,

Here he is setting up the two parallel sides, held appart by two wooden blocks to get them started.

At the end of the afternoon the second purlin was well under way.

We'll be back on Friday to complete it. Then we'll have to cut ourselves some more angles for the third one.

Wednesday with the PWay gang.

Pictures by Paul of today's work:

Robelling at Toddington, and along the line.

What would we do without the Robels!

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

Four of us again, all busy with something. The Usk hut keeps on giving!

We started early, a bit after 8am. Paul and Dave were already there however. It doesn't seem to matter when we get up, they are there before us. Oh well. Back in times of employment we started work at 9am, and now in retirement, it's an hour earlier. Crazy!

We had an early visitor, Steve, a fellow PWayer with very many years of experience. Not only on the PWay, but also from his pre-retirement skills, principally with electrics. So we are getting some advice, not only for the Usk hut, but also for the home. Dave is listening eagerly.

 

Dave and Paul worked on fitting the lock today.

This is a big one, marked LNWR on the inside, so it has a fitting railway background. It was originally fitted to a door facing the other way, so it's now upside down with us. We're still looking for an upside down key....

 

 Trains today were one steam, one diesel. They looked reasonably well filled. Steam was Dinmore Manor.

Diesel was our class 24, with its lovely nearly-stalling chug. There were more people in the steam hauled trains though, it does seem to matter to the public.

 

Inside, Dave a set up a small vice and was filing down the 1/4 inch bar inside the lock, to which the door knobs are attached. We are dealing with second hand stuff from various sources, and it doesn't always fit easily (as we found out with the Ogee gutters!)

Outside we started preparing the diamond paver path.

Last week the berm intended to give lateral support to the path was dug away, so this week we had to get some more material to replace it. As we are on a slope here the risk is that the pavers will slowly split apart if not supported from the side.

Measuring the pavers and allowing for a two inch base of weak mix we established that we needed a four inch drop along the route of the path.

Ants quickly make a home underneath the slabs if you bed down on sand. So a weak mix as a base should put a stop to them.

At the end of the day we had prepared the first 6 feet or so. This allows us to make a start on the path next week, unless there is a washout. One was promised for today, but never came.

Dinmore Manor did though.

We had an amusing comment today - it seems some people are walking down the slope at the end of the platform to try and catch a glimpse of the Usk hut, currently obscured from P1 by the brake van. The Macaw is going to be moved to the end at some point in the near future.

Our grass at the front is growing fast, and so are some Mares Tails. Clearly some fragments of roots were included in the earth we brought in, and they are now popping up in various places. If we dig them out quickly then they won't have time to dig down deep. We picked out 30 or so last week, and another 11 today. We are winning!

Fun fact from 1865.

When Charing Cross station in London was opened it included a 250 bed hotel in front of it, set back 120 feet from the Strand.

One of its features was a 'rising room, fitted with comfortable seats, in which visitors may be conveyed up or down if they feel indisposed to use the staircases.'

A rising room with seats? What could that possibly be? Other hotels soon also offered 'ascending rooms'. In fact it was another quarter of a century before a new word emerged for this amazing contraption: It was a lift !

Don't forget to make a donation to the Trust for the viaduct! We need you.

See you again next week.