Broadway progress.

Friday at Broadway.

A sunny day at last, and brick laying resumed at Broadway after a week's pause.

 

John was working to finish the plinths on the back.

As you can see, the end and the front still need to be done.

 

It was also diesel driver experience day. The green Growler was out, with a rake of seven.

It feels strange to have an empty train. None of those passenger surges that hasten down the drive to go to Broadway village. A train arrives, the loco runs round, it leaves again.

The first driver really gave it the beans on the way out, so we lurked to record the second one. Nothing. That crept out at idling speed - dang !

Here is the Growler running round, past our P2 build project.

 

Once he had completed the plinths along the back, John went to the front to lay a second row there, on the fifth course.

At the end of the day only a short stretch of second row remained on the front. Plus the plinths on top of it. That'll be for next time, weather permitting.

There were three driver experience trips on Friday. Here is the Growler running round the third trip, seen through the pine trees planted to continue the original line along the lengthened platform. They were planted say 10 years ago, and most are doing really well.

Here's a last look at the site at the end of the day, seen from the footbridge. The five courses of blues are quite clear now.

Saturday, out with the gang.

A sunny day at last, so a good gang of 11, and plenty of people on the trains.

 

 

We were greeted by the sight of the new FO that has come to the railway.

The bodywork looks to be in very poor condition. (to the untrained eye)

PWay pundits reckon its got ETH and air brakes too.

 

Saturday's work was to be at Gotherington Skew yard. Lots of kit was assembled - the Ranger, the new Transit, a trailer, the mini digger and the Telehandler. And 11 volunteers, a good number. The sun was at the rendez-vous as well.

First we had to let the down train pass, which was headed by Dinmore Manor as it came off the Dixton straight.

This straight is very long... as experienced by Yours Truly. He drove all the way along it to place an advance warning board by the Preston Road bridge. Here there is a turning area, but it's on grass and that was also wet. The Transits are notorious (with us, anyway) for no traction at the rear end, so a three point turn was too risky as the Transit could well get stuck, with its nose against the track. So back to Gotherington Skew it was, all the way in reverse. And the same again at the end of the day, to pick up said advance warning board! What would be nice here would be a ballasted turning area, with a bit of a slope towards the track. A transit will spin its wheels even on ballasted ground, if level. (experience made at Didbrook...)

 

We split into two groups on arrival. One was to fill dumpy bags with ballast for later use, the other group was to change a number of damaged concrete sleepers and pack any dips that were spotted.

The first damaged sleeper was in Skew Bridge yard itself, under the haul road crossing. It was handy that the mini digger was there, as there was a lot to dig out.

We let the machine do the hard work.

After a while Dinmore Manor came back, with what looked like a well filled train. In fact catering reported a poor week, followed by a boom on Saturday. It's the autumn sunshine that brings them out.

Chose your weapons, men !

The sleeper (with a broken hoop) was hauled out by the Telehandler, and a new one half dragged in. That is as far as you can get with a Telehandler, which can only work forwards or backwards, but no sideways. The rest of the way it was heaving with bars. We got there in the end.

The hole was back filled and robelled, then move on.

Skew Bridge is a lovely area, with no signs of housing estates.

 

We then let the second down train through, this time hauled by 35006 P&O.

Lee, Simon and Yours Truly were sent as an advance guard to the next sleeper, which needed digging out. 

Here there was no mini digger, it's not what you know, it's who you know...

We dug a trench each side of the sleeper, and then the Telehandler came to yank it out, and pull in the replacement.

We just got this job done, when Dinmore came back out of the cutting.

Meanwhile Dave and Mike had been filling dumpy bags. These are tied at the bottom, so that they can be used to drop ballast in smaller amounts, rather than a whole Dogfish at once. We needed to create a new stock.

Then, another sunny picture of a passing loco. It was P&O, emerging from the Dixton cutting, with the Three Arch bridge behind.

 

 

With the train gone, Simon (newly qualified) used the Telehandler to move the bags to a storage area, from where they can be picked up by STEVIE when needed.

The gang then moved closer to Gotherington station for another sleeper change, and then cured a few more dips until it was time for tea at the Coffeepot. We made it, with 2 minutes to spare.

Looking across the scenery, it struck us that the field on the other side was suffering from a slow landslip, a phenomenon not unfamiliar to us. We have just had to deal with one, at some expense, in the Toddington north cutting, not the first one there either. It seems that even natural slopes will slip around here.

 

 

Monday on bricks

A last minute decision, in view of a very uncertain weather forecast. Whichever weather app you consult, they all seem to have a different point of view. Would it rain on Monday? Many thought yes, but maybe later in the day.

In fact it never rained at all, it was a glorious day, all day long.

 

 

 

We made a modest day of it though, as rain was expected in the afternoon, and we didn't want to get stuck with half a barrow of mortar, unused.

Another thing that slowed us down was the construction of this corner, which needed a lot of measuring and brick cutting.

It's an inward corner, followed by an outward one.

 

 

 

Having sorted the corner (s), John started to finish off the fifth row of blues at the front. Just a 5 yard stretch remained to be laid here.

 

Here is the corner at lunch time, when it was roughly completed. Still to come at that time: the pointing. It looks a lot neater now.

 

 

At the end of the day, and without the slightest drop of the forecast rain, the front stretch of blues was complete, and the plinth had come round the last corner and was starting to head down the front. John also made himself a lot of mini towers to work from, so that next time progress should be much faster.

Neal advised that another 65 rivets were inserted into the 4 project trusses (not 3 as we reported earlier, all that steelwork looks the same....) and what remains to be done now is to fabricate the two sides on each truss, each with a kink in it, and drill a lot more holes. That is poor Neal's fate - drilling holes all day long.

 

Wednesday with Usketeers at Broadway.

A mizzley day, but ideal for laying Thermalite blocks, which need to be damp when laid.

Three Usketeers came to Broadway to do the block laying. This has always been the intention, once the two fences at Toddington were constructed.

 

The first thing to do was to fit some 4ins insulation, starting in the NW corner. The blue plinth was high enough for two courses of Thermalite blocks.

 

 

These blocks are very lightweight, but have good insulation qualities. Hence they are easy to cut with a big saw. One end has to be reduced to fit inside the stanchion.

 

After quite a bit of discussing and experimenting, the first blocks were laid down, and it was already time for tea.

At Toddington we got into the habit of sitting in the cafe for this, and luckily there is one at Broadway. So we went there, and watched the DMU come in. Just two adults were on board, plus a few children.

 

The coffee at Broadway is very nice, and if you have a Cappucino, you get the company crest sprinkled in cocoa on top of the foamy milk. The shape for this was home made by a volunteer.

Perhaps a last look at the three car DMU that is for sale? There are no official news about it to write about though, we shall have to wait and see what the plan is.

The Usketeers weren't the only ones to sit by the cafe, the Broadway maintenance gang was there too.

With coffee consumed, we got back to the blocks.

Here you can see insulation and blocks going in.

The next train was rather larger, and fuller too. Our departmental director was on the footplate, and waved at us enthusiastically

 

Once round the corner, blocks were laid across the end, with concrete blocks along the back of the fireplace, as these will need to support the weight of the chimney.

Neal also came to support us, and busied himself with the making of a former for the two doors. As we don't have the door frames yet, these are being put up so that we can lay bricks around them.

By the middle of the afternoon one set of formers was up. The sky then began to darken, echoing the forecast which said rain at the end of the afternoon.

Neal came and double checked the work.

We got the end wall done, up to two blocks high, when it started to rain, so that was that for the day.

 

 

 

A look over the fence - EA, Northleigh Bridge 

As an add-on to the EA update at Loxhore two weeks ago, a fascinating presentation was given by Chris Duffell on the disconnected L&B railway bridge 19 at Northleigh, and an option for reinstatement.

With Chris's kind agreement, we give below a number of his slides taken from that presentation. The thought behind it is that, yes, after 90 years each section of trackbed has its challenges, but they can be overcome, one by one. This is one way that the road bridge 19 could be reinstated.

 

Copyright: Google Maps

Bridge 19 is where the L&B trackbed, in the bottom of the Yeo valley, starts to climb after Collard bridge. On the map bridge 19 is to the right of the word 'campsite', and after that the trackbed continues south of the road to Chelfham. EA own this part of the trackbed.

 

 

This is Collard bridge, just to give you an idea of what the buried road bridge looks like, which was in the same style. EA also own this part of the trackbed.

 

A few yards uphill from Collard bridge the trackbed curves right, and where it used to pass under the road there is now a pile of infill.

This 1904 map shows how the trackbed did an 'S' curve under the road, while the old road did a rather more acute zig-zag over it.

This old photograph looking downhill shows the zig-zag in the distance, with the trackbed rising towards Chelfham on the left.

Chris also had a useful screenshot from a film taken just before closure. You can see the resemblance with Collard bridge. (we think he means bridge 19, as bridge 17 is a river bridge)

 

 

After closure the old road bridge was blocked off underneath with a rock wall, but left intact.

This 1960s map shows how the road was moved over onto the infilled trackbed, while the original road alignment became a layby, and the bridge was left to one side.

This shot of the new road alignment shows how the original trackbed, in a cutting here, was infilled and used to make the road straighter.

But the old roadbed is still there. It's gated off, and used as a council storage area.

In 1971 it was in use as a layby, and you could still see the bridge parapets, recognisable by the white coloured bricks, also used on Chelfham viaduct. (and some houses on the Goodleigh road out of Barnstaple)

That the original bridge was still there was unknown to the volunteers, until they had a little archaeological dig on their side of the fence.

This is what they found. A retaining wall at the top of the cutting leading to the bridge, and at the end of the trench, the head wall of the bridge itself. It was still there.

The retaining wall did not go all the way to the bottom of the cutting, as the geology here is solid rock. So the retaining wall was only necessary for the upper portion.

This is a close up of the arch with four rings of bricks, and the bottom of the parapet wall.

Further digging revealed the white brick abutment, and the infill of rough stone, visible in the black and white photograph further up. It's all still there.

Now that we know more about the site, and what remains of the original structures, Chris has made an informal proposal to show how a reinstated road over rail bridge could be built.

Using the original road bed through the former layby and council depot, the road could cross the railway on a more diagonal path slightly downhill from the original bridge. It could be built while the current arrangements are still in place, hence with little disturbance, and it would leave the original brick bridge intact, although unused.

This is a very elegant solution. Please note that it is not a formal proposal, and it is not funded. It is merely an idea, to show how a problem could be overcome, in an elegant way.

No doubt once EA have assembled a sufficient length of trackbed, then more thought could be devoted to reinstate the bridge, and look for funding to do it. A legacy for example would go a long way here.

Back from Barnstaple.

Wednesday with the Usketeers.

All 4 of us again, but lots of drizzle all day long. It didn't really deter us. This was to be our final day on the post and rail fence up the drive, so we gave it a big push.

The main job was to complete the series of lead caps on the main posts, being those on the concrete godfathers. 

Protected from both above and below, we think these softwood posts will last quite some time before they need replacing. It will then be a simple job to unbolt them, and bolt they new ones back on - no digging out is involved.

 

At the end of the morning the 22 caps were all in situ. The remaining roll of lead sheet will be taken to Broadway, where lead is used on the canopy.

 

Yours truly spent the day tidying up the lime trees, which were being overwhelmed by rings of suckers.

The site looks much more tidy now.

A very fruitful hour was also spent in the RAT office, where a whole string of previously unseen photographs of the construction of the line have recently been unearthed. These will form the basis of future articles in The Cornishman.

Because of the fairly foul weather early in the day, the lads of the C&M team made a later start on rebuilding the third chimney. There was no progress at all last Wednesday, due to the heavy rain that day.

A first row of reds was put down on the plinth blues.

At the end of the day they had three rows of reds down. Not a great deal, but laying bricks with mortar is a lot more sensitive to rainy weather, than bashing bits of lead onto wooden posts.

Note the concrete chimney liner. This chimney will be able to work. (but we skipped the original slate fireplace below 12 years ago)

 

As this was to be our last day at Toddington, we decided to splash out (at our expense) on a lunch at The Pheasant round the corner. It was also John's last day with us, so to celebrate that we treated him. John is now 86 years old, and the long journey to the GWSR from Witney was getting a bit too much. He's going to look for something more local.

We shall miss John (aka The Mole, in view of his prodigeous hole digging capability) but will see him again for our Christmas Dinner.

 

 

We tidied up the site by carrying away the 17 Heras fence panels, to a place of storage on the Malvern side, out of sight behind a fence. They probably won't be there for very long, as there are always things going on. 

Neal continues to be busy with the canopy steelwork. He suggested we take a peep in the loco shed...

... where we could indeed see that Neal and his little team had been riveting the trusses. There's more to do, but you can see that quite a few nuts and bolts have now been replaced by permanent rivets.

Finally, outside the loco shed there's been some movement on the 76077 boiler, where the crinolines and some of the cladding have been test fitted. This boiler is now the subject of an appeal, so that it can be overhauled and put back on the chassis at Loughborough. It needs £150.000, a modest amount these days, as the boiler is in reasonable condition already. The appeal total is now almost half way, so if you'd like to help get the other half this is the link:

https://standard76077.com/boiler-appeal/

Next Wednesday, weather permitting, the three Usketeers will make a start on the internal blockwork at Broadway. That will support John there, who has been laying all the bricks so far completely on his own.

 

 

A look over the fence - EA review meeting, Loxhore viillage hall.

It's a long way to north Devon, but boy, is it worth it.

We stopped off along the way for a light lunch at the Grand Western Canal, and then a peek round Tiverton museum, where a GWR locomotive is displayed (but not well known).

 

 

 

The locomotive is of course 1442, aka the Tivvy Bumper. It's a 14xx, the same class as pulled our very own 'Coffeepot' up and down the Honeybourne line, together with an auto coach. We last saw one on the GWSR for the opening of Hayles Abbey halt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No 1442 ran on the Tiverton - Junction (GWR main line to the south) to Tiverton branch.

That line closed to passengers in 1963, and local resident Viscount Amory bought the locomotive for the town, and it was placed on a plinth outdoors in 1965.

 

 

 

 

Realising that the locomotive was slowly decaying in the open air, space in its own little shed was found for it in 1978 at the Tiverton museum.

(it's a small world, but the chair of the museum's trustees is also a supporter of EA, and we had a nice chat in the conservatory in Bratton Fleming station)

It is now very well preserved, and won't be able to decay any more. Sadly, it's running days are over though, it's all built in here.

 

 

 

The Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life was very interesting. We spent a good hour looking around, and saw many children there.

By far the most interesting exhibit for them was the Tivvy Bumper, which had access to the footplate for them.

Inside was a button that they could press for train noises, and a pull cord in the middle to make the whistle sound.

As the principal customers were little tots, a junior foot stool was provided.

The bedlam from the little horrors was such that we could hear it from an adjacent gallery, and when we wondered where exactly 1442 was located, we just had to follow the sound of children enjoying themselves.

We could do this with Cadbury No.1...

 

The railway side of the museum was very well represented. We were amazed at all the items the curators had managed to find that related to the Tivvy Bumper. We have nothing like it at Toddington, after 40 years. 

 

We particularly liked this representative selection of GWR door plates. At Broadway we have an example of all of them, except 'PORTERS'. Now there's an idea for P2. Anyone got a spare one, or one we could copy?

On to Barnstaple then.

 

The EA meeting was in Loxhore village hall, as the usual one at Goodleigh was already booked. Loxhore was a fascinating place to get to. It's seated on a hill between two valleys, and reachable only by sunken single track roads, with occasional passing places

The hall was tiny - snug you might say - and held this enamel gem from a considerable time ago.

Another find was this 1911 timetable for the L&B, which gave the connections to both Waterloo... and Paddington, both SR and GWR having a station at Barnstaple. The timetables are reproductions, and are for sale for £5. The original was discovered in a barber's in Barnstaple.

 

During the meeting both EA and the Yeo Valley Trust (YVT) gave updates on various projects and possible land purchases. Unfortunately a track walk, pencilled in for the afternoon, could not go ahead as the negotiations for it had not quite concluded yet, and a certain amount of clearance would be required beforehand, as the disused trackbed is very overgrown. Buying parcels of land that was last used by trains 90 years ago needs a lot of patience, and a certain wisdom in knowing when to go for something, or bide your time and try again later. In one instance talks had been going on for 20 years. But there are two potentials where talks are encouraging, and the board hoped to be able to let us know more by, say, the end of the year.

The goods shed at Bratton Flemming has not yet been started, as a project manager volunteer has had to withdraw, and it looks as if the team will have to hire in professional help. Planning permission is held, so time is pressing and there is a full awareness of that.

Regular working days are being considered, if there is enough support. Clearing, fencing and a limited amount of track laying (see below) are areas where help would be appreciated. Assistance with drafting company articles would also be of interest.

The YVT currently has 3 appeals going: Bratton Fleming goods shed, trackbed purchases, and a general appeal. It is better to donate to the YVT than to buy more shares in EA, as the former can generate gift aid:

https://yvt.org.uk/donations/

We shall make a donation to the general appeal, which gives them the most flexibility.

After the meeting, Chris Duffel gave a most interesting presentation about the potential rebuilding of the road bridge at Northleigh (south of Chelfham, where the line crosses under the road and then to Collard bridge.) We hope to give a resume of this in a future blog post, with original slides. Rebuilding the L&B doubtlessly has a large number of challenges, and this bridge is one of them. But the problems can be overcome, one at a time, like eating an elephant ! 

 

After the meeting we accepted an invitation to tea at Bratton Fleming. This involved going down the other side of the hill from Loxhore, but the road was just the same - single track, sunken, long stretches with just an occasional farm entrance to dive into if anyone came the other way.

 

 

 

 

This was the sight as we emerged from the bottom of the valley, as the road began to broaden again. It's a missing bridge at Bratton Mill. A footpath leads here from next to the station, a very enjoyable walk.

 

 

Looking back down from above the station, this is the view across the valley that the L&B used to climb up to Exmoor. 

As we admired the view we had a chat with a local resident, who had moved here 6 months ago. As he showed some interest in the railway, we suggested he join us for the tea at the station, and he subsequently agreed to become a volunteer.

 

This is Bratton Fleming station today. Four lengths of rail have been delivered to the site (Ex MOD, 1983), and the intention is to make up two track panels and place upon them the little diesel locomotive that has recently been restored, as well as the carriage that was an opportunity too good to miss.

The conservatory is being left in situ for the moment, as it will not hinder the track panels, and is a nice place to sit, given that the intention is to rent the station out as a holiday home next year.

 

 

 

 

Here is a view from above the station. The modern extension that was leaking has been removed, with a small portion remaining and fitted with a new roof. This provides a bathroom, essential if the building is to be let until trains come back here. A small concrete crusher is on site, and about a third of the rubble has been reduced, seen in the distance. The concrete apron in front of the building will then be removed, revealing the original platform edge, which is still in situ.

 

 

 

This shot shows the former 'goods yard', a big term for a short siding that ended in a shed. Currently that is replaced by some random garages. The siding and shed will be rebuilt and then the little loco and carriage can be stored inside it, together with a small workshop and toilets. The former trackbed leads off under the bridge on the right, where the steady climb to Blackmoor Gate continues.

At the moment EA have not yet been able to buy the trackbed at either end of the station site, and there is no intention to run any sort of trains here.

 

 

Later that afternoon we paused at Snapper, as we had heard that a second, larger lot of rails had been brought here.

As you can see the demonstration track stops at the end of the platform. By putting down a few more panels, EA will give the illusion that track actually continues around the corner.

 

 

 

The rails had been delivered, but were out of sight, centre left. The track will be laid to running standards with Jarrah sleepers (cut in half), so that when the L&B does come this way it won't have to be lifted and relaid.

PWay video from Wednesday last week

2807 storms out of Greet tunnel, recorded by Walt (with thanks). What a great video, and in the rain too.