Digging at Broadway again.

Thursday, on the road.

The appeal for help with benches for the new P2 building at Broadway has had a good start.

One was seen on Ebay, and was entirely funded by a friendly supporter, including transport from Cornwall. This one is a genuine 10ft GWR one, with 6 legs and upholstery along the back.

 

Here is a picture of it, as advertised. This is exactly the type that we are looking for, so if you know of another, do let us know.

It actually came from an antique shop, and was advertised on Ebay.

Underneath are two owner's stamps - GWR, and BR (W).

It's made of pitch pine and heavily varnished, with seat covering in green Rexine. This is slightly damaged - not surprising for its age - and we will give it some thought whether to have the material replaced, or 'leave it in its juice'. There are 4 small knife slashes on it, some buttons are missing, and someone has stood a pot of white paint on it at some time. So, not an easy choice.

The other bench was kindly sold to us by VT of Tyseley, for a very friendly price.

 

This one is also upholstered, but of a different design, and from a different railway company - the Midland Railway.

It's actually engraved 'MR' on the back rail, not discreetly underneath like the GWR one.

Interestingly, we have an identical one in our Winchcombe booking office.

 

In the first instance we have retrieved both and taken them to Broadway for storage, until the building is ready.

Ian and Neal answered our appeal for help, as these benches are surprisingly heavy.

The GWR one strikingly colourful, don't you think? That's a whole lot of layers of varnish. 

 

Two is an excellent start, but readers, please keep looking and asking, we need two or maybe even four more. They could be surplus at other railways, privately owned, on Ebay, or at a railwayana auction, you never know. But they are not common !

Saturday, out with the gang.

Twelve of us on Saturday, outside the Winchcombe signal box again.

Two of the three panels were put back in on Wednesday.

The third and final panel was trickier, as it was slightly humped, coinciding with two concrete troughs carrying cables. This meant we had to dig out the beds to a deeper level to get the track straight again.

 

Once again STEVIE played a crucial role, something the original Stevie in his JCB would not have been able to do, as we were surrounded by trackwork.

Here we have fitted a bucket to scrape out the ballast from the larger of the two beds. That between the conduits had to be dug by shovel and pickaxe.

At the other end of the relay a replacement timber had been worked in, and Tony spent some time fitting the fishplates to the first pair of rails. Initially the same rails are going back in; in due course we would like to replace the three shortish pairs by two longer ones.

One sleeper had been fitted with a panel that it revealed its previous location - some distance from Winchcombe!

Here is that view from the signal box steps again, with all the sleepers back in their places. That was followed by refitting of the rails, a tricky process of lifting and wriggling the rails back into the chairs, still at all sorts of angles.

The rails were then clipped up, and the curve re-aligned. That was still old fashioned manual labour, with a good eye required.

Monday at Broadway.

Just a quick visit was intended, to find homes for the two new benches, but it ended up being nearly a whole day.

John (our valiant brick layer) turned up anyway, but was forced to make his own mortar as Neal and Yours Truly were occupied getting the dumper for the P2 project. This always takes some time.

Taking the Paxford bench out of the mess room.

The two benches were much appreciated and admired, but where to put them?

We already have two plain ones (not upholstered) A dark brown one for under the P2 canopy (found in a bus shelter in Paxford) and a varnished pine one with 4 legs (shorter model) formerly located at Eynsham.

We decided to put the Paxford one under the P1 canopy, where there is already a sister bench, until the P2 building is ready.

The Eynsham bench, fully restored to varnished pine a couple of years ago now, was taken to the signal box for storage. It's dry in there, there's plenty of room, and it's not being used. It actually looks quite good there too.

Ian doing a Rees-Mogg on the new MR bench.

 

 

 

The two vacated spaces in the mess room were then filled with the two new acquisitions, which are rather heavier. The previous occupants were lighter, and easier to transport.

Neal arrived and confirmed the hire of a 3 ton digger for a week, starting Tuesday.

What do you want for Christmas? A reliable contractor, that doesn't cancel.

 

That meant getting the dumper from Winchcombe, using the Ranger and a trailer.

There we met head of PWay Paul, and a friendly chat ensued.

Tuesday at Broadway - spades in the ground.

Or 3 ton diggers, we've hired one in.

Neal makes his way to the site, along platform 2 at Broadway.

 

Here is Neal taking it down P2 to our work site.

We have it for a week, and there are several jobs we'd like to do with it:

- remove the temporary storage pile behind the footbridge

- grade the rear of the building

- dig out the footings for the canopy stanchions

- dig the trenches for the conduits from P1

There was a roar as we got ready - it was an A400. This seems to be a popular route, crossing our line along Springfield Lane.

Here is the first job then: digging away the temporary storage pile of excavated material from the building's foundations. This pile is only the rest, the major part went away on the day, in the wagons which are now back, empty.

Here is where we are taking the material, into those wagons.

This is our own little 1 ton dumper, which has a handy elevation option. It worked a treat.

Us churning over that pile of clay was of great interest to the robins. They are quite used to us humans, and sit nearby, waiting for a quiet moment to dive in for worms and grubs.

 

 

Round about lunch time both wagons were half full, and the dumper was unable to put in any more material.

Neal came down off his clay perch and pushed the spoil back, revealing a new void at the front.

Then we went back for more fill. By now the pile had shrunk by half, and we not only had top mount the slope, but drive some way along it.

Result !

At the end of the day the pile was reduced to a small remainder at the back. The wagons were full a second time, and Neal had to come down and push the material back once more. That left just enough room for the rest in this picture, a job for Wednesday morning.

Collection of the full wagons has been arranged for Wednesday lunch time, with a surprise visitor !

Wednesday at Broadway.

Cold and sunny - great digging weather!

 

First, and overview, so that you get an idea of where we are at the moment. John was laying bricks, but was off camera.

Two wagons loaded with spoil await collection. Late last night we heard the news that the collecting engine would be Foremarke Hall ! No less.

John is plugging away, mostly at the back at the moment, to stay out of the way of the digger and dumper. First thing he did was build up this corner. You can see how a lovely rounded corner to the building is developing here.

 

 

 

 

Here is John, round the back. He's reached the end of the back with the first course, and is mid way along the second here. At the end of the day he had started on the third.

 

We added more spoil to the wagons this morning, with a bit of pressure on, as collection was expected around lunch time.

Neal had to come and push the spoil back a second time, in order to create more space at the front. The little dumper only has a minimal reach.

 

 

We then followed Neal back to our original tip site, which, as you can see, is looking almost clean again. You knew if you were digging at ground level, in view of the mat of pine needles that was revealed.

Here Neal is cleaning up the site, while we wait to take the last two possible tips to the wagons - then they are definitely full.

 

Then - what else could we do? This corner needs to go, so Neal made a start on that.

We managed to hide one more load on the wagons, but now that is definitely it.

At last Foremarke Hall arrived, on a test run after having its cylinders bored out. That coincided with our need for haulage, so that was a very nice fit, and something interesting to look at.

 

Something interesting indeed for the Broadway gang too.

Mud is fascinating, isn't it?

At last Foremarke Hall managed to set off, in a large plume of steam, of which we are showing you the first second.

Enjoy !

The low sun made this passing shot possible. It's rare to see a steam locomotive on a real working freight train. This was no demonstration, and we want our wagons back empty, and as soon as possible too.

With the wagons gone, our thoughts turned to what else we might do with the digger.

The answer was: Have a go at digging out one of the many pine tree stumps. It's amazing how many trees have already been removed, but their stumps are still here.

Pine trees do not have very deep roots, and those that it has are mainly round the outside of the stump.

Neal cut those through with  a metal saw - the only one that was to hand - and then had a go at removing the stump.

To our surprise this worked. There was only one major root left, and after much pushing and pulling this eventually cracked, and the stump was out.

The end of the day - it got dark all too soon - saw Neal pulling out the stump, and starting a second one.

Wednesday on the PWay.

Pictures by Paul Fuller.

An extra day was put in on Tuesday to try and complete the 3 panel relay outside Winchgcombe signal box.

The RRV was used to line up the track, which has had some basic ballast under it.

New ballast was added today.

On the same day already immediate use of the relaid panels was made by 47 276, doing a shunt with carriages from Toddington to Winchcombe.

 

 

While STEVIE went out to get fresh bags of ballast from Gotherington Skew, the team set about stripping the chairs from the sleepers from Siding 4 (4 panels relaid last week), and also main line projects.

This gained us about 80 S1 chairs.

Here is a picture puzzle for you. A whole picture full of Panlocks, but one is not a Panlock.

If you can spot which one it is, you are of above average intelligence.... *

In the yard behind Churchward house a large pile of PWay trolleys has been assembled, awaiting refurbishment.

* If you really tried to do this, then maybe not :-)

The closed season starts

Friday at Broadway.

Cold and damp, a real wintry feel now. Tow of us worked at Broadway. In silence, as there were no trains around, and no people. The cafe was closed, which to yours truly is the greatest loss. There's nothing like mooching with a coffee at a table on the platform, and watching the world go by.

 

 

Here's an opening shot through the canopy that we built.

That orange thing is John's coat, not a scarecrow. John is on the end of the building, where he is putting down a first course of reds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He then pointed that course.

Preparations were also made for him to work along the back, as some time around when you read this the empty wagons are coming back to be loaded a second time.

For that, the front will need to be vacant for the dumper to shuttle up and down.

So during this session quite a bit of time was spent along the front, where the bricks reached the third course. 

We counted the courses on the P1 building - there are 33 of them, before you get to the overhang at the top. Thirty-three !

We have a long way to go....

 

 

This shot shows how John laid round the north end, and made himself a little start at the back. The back will be without windows. That was as it was, but also to avoid any risk of vandalism or intrusion from the field in the future.

We are using the slightly lesser quality bricks along here, where they are out of sight. Many have small chips or other imperfections on them.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a near end of the day shot, before everything gets covered in blue plastic for protection, as the mortar goes off.

Three courses along most of it, two nearest the camera. John has started the slow process each day of pointing his work.

 

On the corner is the first bull nose, on top of the conversion brick from square to round. The rounded corner in the brickwork is a lovely old fashioned feature.

 

Earlier, at Toddington...

One of the power units of the DMU (that the owners have sold to Bo'ness) waits on the unloading road to be collected and taken to Scotland.

The destination board no longer says 'BROADWAY', but 'DAISY'.

Toddington station building has also been defaced with an E-Scooter notice.

You can also see that the brickwork has been drilled into to attach a collection box, which was then moved to the other side of the window, and new holes drilled to attach it a second time.

Toddington is our only original station building. There are no rules to oblige people to respect our original fabric, or liaise with those promoting our 'living museum'. You can make any holes that you like.

The E Scooter sign and the box account for about 20 holes drilled into the Edwardian brickwork over the last 3 months.

On a brighter note, the Usketeers held a mini Christmas dinner in the Pheasant, together with their wives. 

Greetings to all our readers from the Usketeers! We are currently on the lookout for a new project, and as soon as we get something fixed up, we'll let you know.

 

 

Saturday, out with the gang.

It's the fun period now - no more trains, and we do more interesting stuff than packing and spot sleeper changing.

 

 

 

Last Wednesday saw a start on relaying the four panels taken out the Saturday before.

A tricky bit came at the start, as the concrete CS1 sleepers are higher than the wooden ones leading off the turnout.

 

 

Pictures by Paul Fuller

 

 

 

 

The trackbed was levelled with the little mini digger, and then the sleepers in storage in the C&W yard were brought in by Telehandler, and the rail tipped in by men on bars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then came the following Saturday, when a gap representing the fourth panel remained.

The initial store of CS1s was not quite enough, and a few extra wartime economy ones were drafted in from the PWay yard. These are thinner, and that suits the situation well, as the track behind the camera is laid with steel sleepers, which have a very low profile.

 

 

 

 

Initially work started on Saturday with another short relay, this one 3 panels right outside the signal box. It's another very old section, laid with second hand throughbolters in 1987, as the railhead reached Winchcombe for the first time.

 

Although work didn't start, due to a rake of carriages occupying an adjacent track for a generator change. The RV was trapped behind it until 11.30, with a big part of the day already gone.

 

Finally the RRV was released, as a line of gang members watched with interest.

Well, most of them anyway.

STEVIE the RRV lifted out 6 rails, all shorter than full length. There is hope that we can replace them with 4 longer ones, and so save on a couple of joints.

Picture by John Lees

Talking of second hand throughbolters laid in 1987, here is a picture by John Lees of Winchcombe that May. Recognise it? On Saturday we were working by that white caravan. That corrugated iron hut in the bushes on the left is where the Usk hut and platform are today. Hall Green signal box is being rebuilt. We remarked only on Saturday how well established that box looks, but it's a replacement as you can see.

 

 

Back to Saturday in 2024, and here is STEVIE swinging round one of the 60 or so sleepers lifted.

They were stacked on the trolley, and removed from there at the end of the day.

A second trolley load was collected, and then the 3 panels in question were clear of rail and sleepers.

This view was taken from the top of the signal box steps.

This shot down the tracks shows the extent of the works, which are expected to be complete in about two weeks (but no trains are running anyway).

 

On the C&W side the larger team had just completed laying in the last of the sleepers.

Beyond is the end of the new FO, on which the sponsor (as we understand it) was taking conservatory measures.

The sleepers nearest the FO are of the thinner economy type, ex Didbrook relay (part 2 of that is our main winter works project).

They suit the location, as the FO is standing on very low profile steel sleepers, so that track has to meet that level.

The rails were rolled back in by men on bars, in the traditional way.

The last of the 4 rails on the Malvern side didn't fit...

This was caused by over generous gapping in the previous three. Rather than unclip all three of them again and move them along a few mm, it was easier to cut the end off.

 

 

Tony did that, no problem.

 

 

 

Then it was just a question of clipping up (here) and refitting the fishplates.

Some sort of ballast will be needed here, as with several different sleepers types some packing is clearly needed.

 

 

 

It just so happens that we are getting some spent ballast out of the relay by the signal box, where the trackbed was dug out by STEVIE. 

That RRV is proving quite invaluable.

That spent ballast was being piled up by the road crossing, from where it can be loaded for transporting to the siding relay site.

In the meantime Simon is unloading the second pile of sleepers with chairs from the trolley.

All in all, Saturday was a very productive day, albeit a short one. A delayed start, and a rapid loss of daylight after lunch.

Monday by the Usk hut.

A request was made to change the surface of the track that bypasses the Usk hut (intended as some sort of emergency release for PWay vehicles, in case the crossing by the C&W shed is blocked).

Neal and Yours Truly were volunteered to scrape away the surface material. We were joined by Paul and Margaret.

 

The intention was to use the mini digger to scrape away surface material, and the dumper to carry it away.

We found the mini digger absent, reportedly parked up in another yard, and the dumper locked, with no key present. That rather frustrated our intentions, so we made do with what was available - the Telehandler.

 

After scraping the surface as much as we could - the Telehandler was too big for this job really - we did use it however to bring in fresh material, to extend the width of the road over the adjacent toe drain, which we converted to a perforated pipe.

 

Afterwards, the wider road with a refreshed surface was rolled by Neal, after an extensive head scratching session on how to get the vribator on the roller going.

We did eventually get the Good Vibrations... the actuating cable seemed to have seized up.

The road is now ready for a new surface layer, which will be applied by visiting volunteers from Colas, we learned. They enjoyed their last visit to us, and want to come again!

 

 

In an idle hour during the day we applied another pair of corporate GWSR stickers to one of our Transits, this one being the latest arrival.

We used to put these stickers on our carriages, but have now decided not to brand them any more. The small remaining stock has found a new and very suitable purpose though, as you can see.

Tuesday at Broadway.

One of several very dull days in a row, which end in it getting dark. Not much fun to work in.

John completed the third row along the front, and then turned the corner and made a start on the north end, second row.

 

To be honest, there's a bit of chopping and changing, as the mood takes us.

Here is John on the north end, but if you look carefully, you can see that he has also started on the back

Here is evidence of his productivity along the back - a long row of headers, which goes to just beyond the half way point.

Yours Truly was completely covered in pink dust from cutting bricks in half, trying to keep up with John, and also building up a stock for when we are otherwise occupied with the digger and dumper, filling the trucks which are due.

 

At the end of Tuesday John had laid 150 bricks, all headers (i.e. half bricks). 

But also this corner, with the lovely bullnose on top.

 

On Wednesday the now empty goods wagons were brought back, to be filled again with clay during the non-running season.

We still have spoil from the building's foundations to clear from the top of the cutting, and then there is a big hole to be dug at the bottom of the steps for a big concrete block, which will support three posts for the canopy between the building and the bottom of the stairs.  We are likely to start on that some time next week.

 

Meanwhile, a mysterious parcel has arrived in the blogger workshop.

Thursday should see a trip to pick up another mysterious parcel, and we hope to show you both next time.