More dismanteling at Laverton

A small team from the Wednesday gang took out further track at Laverton today.

A change in the MO was decided upon, and we are now doing it with the forks and two sets of chains. We lift them out and on to a pair of bearers, then scoop them up for stacking at the end of the loop. Slower, but surer that way. We'll have to load them on to the bogie flat another day, but it proved very difficult to do so on the very narrow remaining trackbed.

Here the telehandler has just lifted out a pair of sleepers, and has started on its journey north to the stacking point.

At the northern Laverton turnout, 60 sleepers have been stacked to allow the replacement of the pointwork in the foreground with plain rail. The others sleepers are being parked here, and will be taken up to Broadway eventually.

Behind the telehandler, this is all that is left of Laverton loop today. Just one more pair of rails to be taken out and dragged north, and a few more sleepers. A day's work could see this completed.

Looking the other way from the top of the bogie flats, you can see the last remaining stretch of rails. The sleeper stacking gang is busy in the background. A very welcome van load of new wooden bearers was also delivered. These are invaluable for stacking the sleepers, not only here at Laverton, but also at the sleeper depot at Skew Bridge. This is a brilliant source of free bearers found by a member of the PWay gang.

The rail has been dragged north to a point beyond the turnout. At a later date, it will be further dragged along the trackbed to Broadway. The two turnouts will be dismantled and taken by truck.

Ready for dismanteling, the turnout timbers have already been marked up in numerical order. In the distance is the bumpy former Laverton headshunt, that also has to be renewed. The gang will be at Laverton for a little while yet then.

Later in the afternoon, and with a squall in the distance, the gang decided to call it a day, as they had to return to the telehandler to Winchcombe and lock up the tools. The tiny stretch of track remaining can be seen in the distance.

Earlier in the day, the formal launch of the EIS share issue took place at Broadway. The biggest cost item in the 'Last Mile' is rails and ballast, so please heed Pete's call and help. We can't do it without you.


Edit
In response to a desperate Mr. Baker :-)

But no money for the steps, unless the share issue is oversubscribed!

Dismanteling - part II

Today we had another day on recovering the loop at Laverton, with something over half dismantled by the end of a very windy day.

Last week we worked at the northern end of the loop, taking out a number of rails and stacking the corresponding sleepers in a nearby pile. Today, we addressed the southern end of the loop.

All of the loop had already been de-clipped, and today we gathered up the remaining biscuits and SHC clips and put them in the Landie for storage at Winchcombe. A trolley was used to ferry the baskets around that held the track fastening materials.

While the trolley was still about gathering up the loose fittings, a second team started taking out the rails - oi ! We were supposed to run our trolley back through there!

Oh well - we will have to lift it across to the 'main line' - you can't do that with a real train though.
Here the telehandler is dragging back the first rails for storage by the turnout.

Meanwhile, a third team continued de-clipping the main line southwards, with at the moment every other clip removed. The end of this job is one panel short of the 'breather' joint in the continuously welded rail (CWR) which here is at the level of the DMU, which has stopped at the current limit of operations. The last panel will be a 'fixed panel' in the future CWR extension.

Looking back the other way, we can see the limit of current operations, and on the right, the CWR breather. Once all the new rails are in place and the track welded up, this will become one continuous stretch of CWR right up to the Childswickham Road bridge.

At Laverton Loop, it is the loop (here on the right hand side) that is coming out, for transport to Broadway. It is of slightly lighter section, but good for the station. The main line is 113lbs flat bottom rail, and will stay in place. However, as it will be welded to form CWR, each rail will have to be cut to remove the bolt holes, and shifted south to close the gaps, then welded. The two north and south loop turnouts will be removed, and replaced with plain 113lbs rails. This is the reason for the stacks of sleepers at each end.

As it happens, the Clearance and PWay gangs are working in parallel at Laverton at the moment.

In the foreground Dave is removing the turnout fishplates, while on the left a large clearance gang is removing bramble growth from the lineside - this reappears very quickly.

For lunch, the clearance gang form a circle of folding chairs in a secluded spot, and eat outdoors.


The PWay, however....

 ... make a dash back to Winchcombe, where a bevy of top rated chefs have been preparing a superb meal for us all morning.

Mushroom soup, soaked up with bread and butter, followed by hamburger, beans and chips done to perfection.

This is followed by tea, and a cupcake from Mrs. B's kitchen, this time topped by two very seasonal chocolate Easter eggs. Who could resist?

Have another? Why, yes....

After lunch, back into the job in hand at Laverton. Here the Telehandler has started to extract the concrete sleepers from the space under the rails removed from the southern end of the loop. Another group has de-clipped the curved section of both turnouts.

We are being watched....

Although a Latin American creature, this Anaconda has escaped from a local zoo, and was surprised from its winter slumber by the noise from the clearance gang. Stand well back !

Oblivious to the danger from this redoubtable creature, Alan and 'Bert' continue extracting sleepers from the loop, and stacking them in a pile by the southern turnout, ready for use when this is replaced by plain track.

About 60 sleepers are required for each of the two pieces of plain track. After that, the remaining sleepers, now from the central section of the loop, are stacked on the bogie flats, ready for use elsewhere.

After the loop has been dismantled, the gang is ready to work on the actual extension again. The share issue is now open, and the biggest item on the extension budget is ballast and rails to get us to Broadway. Will you help?

Dismanteling starts

Now that the running season has started, the Pway team is able to revert to the task in hand, laying track to Broadway!

The next task is to dismantle the loop at Laverton, and take it to Broadway. During this morning, the team started unclipping and took out the first few yards of rail.

The fishplates were removed, leaving a pair of rails on the sleepers, just enough for a rail trolley to roll over them.

In the background is the PWay train with the rest of the newly purchased stock of rail last year, which will go in here, replacing older rail laid on a temporary basis.

Why no Pway gang members visible? Well, they couldn't resist the lure of a cooked dinner in the PWay mess coach at Winchcombe, so went back to base for lunch.

Yours truly had a hot - almost too hot - dinner by the fire being built here by the clearance gang. They are working along the Malvern side of the embankment along Laverton loop. The extension from here on is now fully cleared by a joint effort between volunteers, and a contractor with a flail.

The PWay gang was soon back from lunch and attacked the remaining clips with vigour. The SHC clips, especially those with a fish tail, proved quite resistant to extraction. The 'biscuits' were prised out on hands and knees and scraping away at the ballast and brambles.

Meanwhile, normal services continue, but stop short of the loop. Here you can see the DMU that has arrived at the repositioned stop board, having come from Toddington.

At the northern end of the loop, rails and then concrete sleepers were being lifted and stacked along the former headshunt. The trolley is bringing clips, pads and biscuits for further use at Broadway. They were manhandled on to the Landie for safe keeping at Winchcombe.

The intention is to start at the far end of Broadway station with the headshunt and northernmost point, with a siding next to it. This and the loop will give the appearance of double track. When and how they will be taken to Broadway has not yet been decided.

On the to-do list is also the bit between the Laverton loop headshunt, and the start of new rail near the curve in the background. The bit in the middle is temporary track only, and has to come out again and be replaced by main line quality rail.

RIP your blogger's camera, defeated by the PWay dust. It made a little crunching noise in the lens, having ingested a particle of granite. A new one will have to be organised before the next posting.

Another trainload of ballast

A second trainload of ballast was dropped on the Broadway extension today.

The class 73 pushed 6 Dogfish and a Shark brake further out along the extension, starting from the foot crossing at the beginning of the curve to Little Buckland, to a point approximately half way round it.

A small gang of 5 met at Laverton to shunt the PWay train, leaving the bogie bolsters in the loop.

The ballast train then reversed up the headshunt and on to the first ballasted section. It was a cold and dark afternoon, with temperatures barely above freezing.

Here the train has arrived on the previously ballasted section, ready to open the hopper doors.

Almost there - the class 73 reverses carefully to precisely the right spot to release the ballast. The foot crossing is by the tree. And the sun has come out after all.

With the train still stationary, each centre door is opened, so allowing the fresh ballast to fall out until it is stopped by its own pile underneath.

The doors are notoriously stiff to operate. Only seconds earlier the same people were having a cultured discussion in the Shark about the preferred eating places in this part of the Cotswolds. Then the culture goes out of the window, and brute force comes in to play....



Here's a little clip of the train reversing up the new piece of track: https://youtu.be/TOgpdiQLe-0

With all six centre doors open, the class 73 reverses at walking pace further up the extension. The ballast empties into the 4 foot, and the Shark plough pushes the excess outside on to the shoulders.
This is the first train ever on this new section. In the future you'd be able to take some fine evening pictures here, as there is a public footpath alongside here.

Sadly, 120 tons of ballast don't go very far, and the journey is soon over. We are only half way round the curve too - the end is by the pole in the distance, that's where Little Buckland bridge is (Bridge 5). The hopper doors are closed again, and a member of the gang pokes out any remaining ballast that might jam the closing process.

Pounds lighter, the empty train trundles back down to Laverton Loop, where the hoppers are re-attached to the bogie bolsters and parked.

How did they do? Judge for yourself. This is the newly ballasted stretch, looking towards Broadway.

What next? Well, we're in the low season at the moment, and at the end of the financial year when money is tight. All the PWay efforts are currently directed at the Winchcombe ballast and sleeper replacement operation. It's urgent, as the closed season is short and the hired in tamper is back at the end of next month.

Once trains get up and running again, the PWay will start to dismantle Laverton Loop and turn it into heavyweight, plain track. The S&T dept has already taken out the ground frames, so changing the points wasn't so easy today. No levers, just a boot!
The materials from Laverton will, in the first instance, be stored in the area of the Broadway headshunt, by Springfield Lane bridge. Why not reinstall them straight away? Because for that you need funds, and this is the low season. All eyes are now on our Easter share issue - will we raise enough to get all the way there? It's going to have to be big - a track extension, the civils under the track, a new signal box and of course a new GWR station. All at once.

It's up to us all to play our part, for as much as we can afford. You can already register your interest, and they'll put you on the mailing list for the prospectus. Go for it ! We on the ground will make it happen.

Ballasting the new track

A start was made today with ballasting the first 200m of new track laid. We have 6 Dogfish, and these were filled at our  ballast depot at Stanton and brought out by the class 73.

The train was pushed carefully over the headshunt beyond the loop, and then on to the new track laid, up to the footpath crossing at the start of the curve in the distance.

On board the 'SHARK' brake van, Steve and Rick are discussing today's  planned manoeuvres. Behind them you can see the recently repaired embankment on the left, and the reinstated track immediately in front. This forms part of the Laverton Loop headshunt, a piece of track that will need to be replaced as part of the extension works.

A bit further along, it is easier to see the difference between the temporary headshunt, and the start of new track laying.

The headshunt this side of the loop was roughly laid around 2011 in a slightly lighter rail, which will be replaced with the standard rail we are using for the definite extension. There is no ballast at all here, so we progress very gingerly.

The ballast train is parked so that the first Dogfish is on the start of the curve. A full hopper will treat 1 1/2 track panels, so we need to be about 10 panels away from the start, and work back.

The other way, in the curve towards Broadway, is at this point not quite ready to receive ballast, as there are still some remains from the welding crews in the four foot, and a number of sleepers at each weld need repositioning and straightening.

With the train stationary, the plough is lowered, and all the centre doors on the Dogfish are opened at once. Some of the ballast falls out, but is soon stopped by the pile that builds up underneath. The train is then pulled over the stretch that needs ballasting. You can see this here:
https://youtu.be/U1N1xhClYSM

This is the view from the rear - all the ballast has been dropped, and the SHARK plough has pushed the excess over the rails and outside the sleeper ends. In the distance the newly laid track curves to the right towards Little Buckland, and Broadway beyond. The embankment has been cleared, and there is new fencing down both sides. A lot of work and expense has already gone into this area, but is not well known about.

Looking the other way, towards Laverton Loop, we can see the temporary headshunt undulating in the weeds. The empty train will now return to Stanton for refilling with fresh ballast, which takes about 2 hours.

The small gang of 5 today take this 2 hour gap to prepare the next piece for ballasting, the curve towards Little Buckland.

After the sleepers have been checked and adjusted for positioning, the alignment is improved by little tweaks with the JCB here and there.

One guy doing, two guys giving orders - well, isn't it always like that ?

Dave and Peter point which way the track has to move. Many times they agreed with each other too.

Behind them is the piece that was ballasted an hour earlier.

With the curve reasonably kink free, we sat down for a brief lunch. Not a good place to do this, here. The wind whistled down off the Cotswolds today, and the ice cold rail, when sat upon, has an amazing ability to soak all the heat out of your backside.

Meanwhile, back at Stanton, the train has been refilled with fresh ballast. Unfortunately we lost our loco driver in the afternoon, so this drop on the curve will be for another day.

The JCB then moved up to Little Buckland to clear the area, just south of the bridge, where a pipe running through the embankment has to be replaced, as it has collapsed in the middle. Another one of those unseen jobs, but they have to be done. Good working drainage is crucial on this line along the Cotswold edge.

The welders are back

Haigh Rail have come back to weld up the 16 lengths we laid on the 400 sleepers.

It was a blustery day, with an almost cloudless sky. What you don't see in the picture was the short but very wet downburst at lunchtime, which the lucky few sat out in the backs of their vans. Not every crew was so lucky!

There are about 30 welds to be done on this stretch, and today saw two thirds of the job completed - they will be back tomorrow morning to finish off the rest.

These two pictures show the gang cutting a rail end off to achieve the correct welding gap, and the second shows the rail grinder being used to smooth off the excess after a hydraulic cutter has taken off the worst bits. Long views across the Evesham vale extend into the background.

One  of these hydraulic cutters can be seen in the foreground here, with a second weld waiting to be done on the left. Other welds that have been done are represented by the silver tubs that stretch out into the distance. These are the remains of the single use crucibles that most of the teams were using (there were several on site today). Little Buckland bridge is in the distance where the silver car is parked. The space without sleepers includes the area of a broken drainage pipe that passes under the trackbed, and which needs replacing by digging out. Any further sleeper laying will be limited by the hole that will be dug there for a while.

Looking the other way, we can see the team in action that started at the Laverton end of the 16 lengths. In the distance is the PWay relaying train, and nearer to the camera is the multi use crucible in action, temporarily turned to one side while the blow torch heats up the rail ends with the characteristic 'Vee' of exhausting flames.

The crucible is then swung into place, and lit - stand well clear ! A little mini-volcano at work.

This shows the northern end of the rail welding job, with Andy Smith of the PWay gang in discussion with one of the crews. A small number of PWay volunteers is needed to accompany the crews to provide logistical support, and tidy up the site afterwards.

Here is what you get after welding say 20 joints. Lots of empty single use crucibles, left over blocks of molten Aluminium, bits of excess molten steel, foundry sand, sharp bits of wire and packaging material. Just about  a van full today - well done Andy for clearing all this up. It will be sorted at Winchcombe to go into a skip or be recycled where practical.

The flail was at work again and has made great progress. The stretch up to Little Buckland is now done, and most of the next stretch to Broadway seems clear now too. Great stuff!

Contract clearance

Once again, activity could be seen down the trackbed from Broadway today, and a quick tour of inspection after completing a job on the SB tunnel roof showed that a 360 equipped with a flail was busy on the Cotswold side embankment just north of Pry Lane bridge.

In fact the contractor, employed to make the shape of the embankment north of Little Buckland visible for inspection, had alread cleared quite a stretch of the Malvern side, and was working his way back south. On the right of the picture is the sewage works at the end of Pry Lane, Malvern side.

The machine is a regular 360 excavator, fitted with a special flail attachment. With the wing wall of Pry lane bridge just visible on the right, we see the machine here repeatedly dropping the flail on to the brushwood and reducing it to tiny bits.

Yours truly once helped to clear a modest 5m stretch of this embankment to reveal a culvert below, and can testify to the difficulty of standing on a 45 degree slope of rolling ballast, and dragging prickly bits of Hawthorn back to the top. This machine is a Godsend.

On seeing us approach with great caution, the driver of the machine paused to let us nearer, and stopped briefly to tell us a bit more about the job.

This flail attachment is a very modern piece of kit, with an up to the minute piece of design. The teeth are tipped in tungsten steel, but nonetheless a couple have already lost the battle with tough pieces of ancient Brunel bridge rail hidden in the undergrowth.

Telegraph pole guy rope holders left in the ground after the demolition train were initially also an enemy of the flail, but the learning curve has been steep and the operator now knows where to expect them every 50 yards, even if invisible in the bramble.

The teeth are of course replaceable, being bolted on. But not cheap.

A peep across Pry lane bridge shows that most of the Malvern side has already been done, here revealing a wooden PWay hut that is asking to become someone's pet project for attention.

Looking back towards Broadway, the Malvern side is clear but for some more recent growth near the Childswickham Road bridge (this area has already been cleared once, but the self seeded trees quickly regrow). Broadway goods shed is in the middle.

A final picture from the PWay gang yesterday - they were out with a ballast train and dropped +/- 100 tons of ballast at Gotherington in support of the maintenance tamping that has taken place in that area. The dropped ballast was then 'sharked' using this 'Shark' brake van to distribute it evenly along the line using a specially shaped plough slung under the van. The big wheel in the foreground (after many, many turns) drops the plough down to rail level, and, eventually, back up. A wonderful piece of Victoriana, and still useful today. We are a museum after all. The bridge in the picture is 'Working Lane' bridge, a charming name and one which refers to the nearby former the navvy village at the southern end of Greet tunnel.

On the extension side welding of rail lengths recently laid is due to take place next week, while at Skew Bridge at Gotherington a further pile of 400 sleepers is being extracted, sorted and stacked, ready for loading and transport to Little Buckland.