Wednesday 23 August 2017

Stacking lost sleepers today

The Wednesday gang split into three today, with a long list of tasks.

Team 1: Went to CRC, to address a number of back maintenance issues that we haven't been doing, owing to an extension being built. We're on the case now though.
Team 2: Went to Broadway, finished off the two buffer stops (drilling the sleepers and tightening down chair screws), and then went to Winchcombe to ascertain what sort of bullhead paraphenalia we have, bearing in mind what we need to lay in between the platforms at Broadway.
Team 3: Was sent to Peasebrook to recover  'about a dozen' random sleepers left in the undergrowth. The extension team has swept past here, and left these in their wake. We need to tidy up the lineside, and also see if any can be recovered.

I say, these are not as good as last week's? No, but there are lots of them...



First job of the day though was to test the doughnuts, graciously supplied by Paul.

Jules, Paul and Dave muse over whether Tesco's are as good as Asda's. What d'yer reckon?








Then it's off to Winchcombe to fetch some tools for No.3 gang, the sleepers stackers.

We need some bars.

Jules has just come back from a sporty sailing holiday. Whoa there, cowboy, you're stronger now than you think. Spare a thought for the tools, old chap.



A sight for sore eyes is the latest outshopping from our craftsmen in the C&W paintshop. It's even got its own little steam engine to pull it along (that's right, isn't it?).
The gurus say it's W51363, a Class 117 Driving Motor Brake Second. Doesn't it look splendid!





Then it's off to Peasebrook to find the reported 'dozen or so' sleepers hidden in the brambles.

Here they are - see them? We found you.







We had to develop our plot carefully, as the brambles were treacherous and hid many nasty traps.

Here Dave is looking a a pile of rail off cuts. See them? Thought not.

Adjacent was a huge roll of stock fencing, threaded through with bramble and loose wire. We took that off to the pile of redundant fencing, also nearby.


Then Dave took a dive at the pile, and managed to retrieve 5 in one go, but all jumbled up.

Here is Peter with a similar retrieval, plus a bonus of prickly brambles and an extra helping of wire wrapped round two of the sleepers.

We made two stacks on site, one of SHC sleepers, and one of Pandrols. Most of the latter had broken clips in them, which will need knocking out.

Once we had 8 SHC sleepers ready, Dave picked them up and took them to Childswickham half a mile away. As it was quite a long way away, and involved an awkward crossing of the line (the new vehicle crossing still needs more ballast to build up the approaches) he did just the one trip, but did manage to bring back more bearers, which we needed ugently.

Here is Dave with his cargo of 8 sleepers, carefully driving along the trackbed towards Broadway. The ballast in the foreground has been dropped in the next section that will be tamped and stressed, but we haven't finished the drops yet. Nor tamped it (as we hope you realise).


We found rather more sleepers, deep in the undergrowth, than we expected. We guessed the stacking would take two hours; then we could join the gang at Winchcombe, but in fact we were here until mid afternoon, after finding this second pile.

As it was all jumbled up, we had to pull the sleepers out one by one, which was rather slower than with the other pile in the morning.





A surprise discovery in the middle of the jumble was this rabbit, the brown ball centre left.

We thought it was stuck under a sleeper, but when we pulled the next one out it started to move, got bowled over upside down by the sleeper, recovered and eventually hopped off into the brambles unharmed. They are tough little creatures.






Here is Jules directing Dave into the deepest part of the brambles, to hook up one that was upside down. Dave stayed safely on board the Telehandler, as he was in shorts today and scratched his legs immediately on arrival. Ouch! Lesson learned.







Mid afternoon the Peasebrook Farm site was pretty much cleared. The track laid here seems to stretch into an interminable distance. What a lot of work we have done here.

Still on site in the jungle now are a pile of 8ft rails, and a huge knot of redundant fencing material.




The last shot of the day shows the recovery job completed, including two found further up the line, beyond the farm bridge. There are three stacks now and with the 8 taken to Childswickham, we located and stacked not twelve but fiftyfour sleepers. They are mostly of second quality, but many of the Pandrol ones have good structure and just need the clip ends removing.



At the end of the afternoon we took the tools and Telehandler back to Winchcombe, and decided to treat ourselves to tea and cakes in the Coffeepot.

This idea was enthusiastically adopted by the rest of the gang at Winchcombe, so here we are with well deserved cups of tea, and selections of raspberry sponge or coffee and walnut cake. What a great way to end the day.



By the time Clive arrived with the reinforcements, Rick (top right) had already eaten his fill and looked to be quite full.

Winchcombe is always a magical place, as trains cross here and it can look very busy. There is no better place to enjoy this than seated under the canopy outside the Coffepot cafe. We hope this scene can be repeated at Broadway soon, but the cafe there needs a name. Something related to the Honeybourne line. We've got the Coffepot, what else could we call it?


History Corner

Following the appeal in the last blog post,  a number of people have offered to share photographs of the early days of the GWSR, and we have put these on the Flickr site for you to enjoy. You can click on it here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/73536293@N02/albums/72157628884568463

The picture above shows Cadbury No.1, the railway's first working steam loco, at the end of the initial 700 yard run on Didbrook No.2 bridge (the one repaired by BR). Note that the coach is still in BR blue and grey, so this would be an early picture, probably from the spring of 1984. Services started on 22nd April that year, now 34 years ago.

If you've got pictures of the very earliest days of the society, we'd be interested to hear. People thought that, with the bare trackbed and demolished stations, we'd never do it, but we did ! Heroic days, those. It just goes to show, aim high and don't give up.


35 comments:

  1. Hello Jo, what is the next bit of track to be laid, will it be south through the station or north past the goods shed? I assume that all the materials required are now available or ordered. You mention in your (excellent) blog bull head fittings, will the station have bullhead on wooden sleepers? Keep up the amazing work and the notifications on doughnut quality!! regards Graham

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    Replies
    1. We need to complete the two turnouts north of the station and - this is no guarantee - it is likely that we will then resume laying from Childswickham in the second half of September.
      Don't quote me though! We need to stay flexible.

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  2. Jo

    Cafe names, you have probably already thought of:
    The Beekeeper
    The Beehive
    The Honeypot
    The Bourne Restoration

    I'll get my coat...

    Eric

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    Replies
    1. I must say, I like the Honeypot ! A great suggestion.

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  3. Coffee Pot at Winchcombe. How about the Tea Pot or, given the Broadway extension's revenue earning potential, The Honey Pot? Richard.

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  4. I'm guessing you'll be needing to order a whole batch of new wooden sleepers shortly for the next section from Childswickham through the station to Broadway Nrth turnout correct? I'm assuming they will be wood for track circuiting purposes.

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  5. Whistling Kettle, as engines whistle and steam engines are sometimes referred to as "kettles". Just a thought.

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  6. You'll probably find that the other side of that coach *was* chocolate and cream, as that would have been the platform side, and that was all that was done in the early days! So dating photos by that method may be difficult unless you orientated yourself correctly - a photo with a coach that's painted on the non platform side will be later in date!

    Alex

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  7. Honey Pot should be reserved for facilities at next stop Honeybourne .... how about "Whistle Stop" for Broadway?

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  8. In your blog of 19th. August in the picture of the six men with shovels, the third from the left is Charles Martin, one of the "originals" and furthest right is Jerry (can't remember his surname) who was a precursor to Mick Collins, our once security guard at Toddington.

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  9. My predictive text is on hyper drive sorry. .. votes, Honey . ..

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  10. What about "The Platelayer". I have seen a cafe with this name on a mainline station.

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  11. I like the 'Whistle stop' café, as suggested by 'K C Jones'. No doubt you could serve up fried green tomatoes then! A little American, I know. Well done on the sleeper hunt today. Regards, Paul.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'Whistle Stop' might be a slight problem. There's a chain of convenience stores by that name which operate at main line stations. The company doesn't seem to have an overall website, but here's the Waterloo branch...

      http://wearewaterloo.co.uk/business/whistlestop

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  12. Honey stop? otherwise I vote for honey pot

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  13. Pity they didn't keep one rake of blue and grey..I miss them.

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    Replies
    1. At that time it wasn't a rake just 2 or 3 coaches.

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  14. My suggestions for the Broadway tearoom are:
    Brief Encounter Tearoom
    Whistlestop Tearoom

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  15. The Honeypot for me. We could then have maybe Winnie the Pooh events instead of Thomas!

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  16. Honeypot,or The Cornishman,I,think!. Anthony.

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  17. There's always 'The Grange', or 'The Manor'. Can't have 'The King and Castle' because the SVR already have that at Kidderminster. Could have 'The Castle' though. Regards, Paul.

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  18. "2 Buffers Stop" or "Broadway Buffet"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi

      I like the alliteration of the 'Broadway Bufferstop'

      Another tack would be a 'Broadway stage' theme, i.e.
      The Stage Door
      The Footlights
      The Grand Circle

      Eric

      PS I suspect a couple of these may already be in common use, so not unique enough...

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    2. Which brings us to Broadway Bufferstop Buffet; printed in Broadway font. I can't show that font here. Check it in Word. It's very GWR Art Deco 1930s.

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  19. "destinations" sounds good. Décor then could centre around some of the local and further flung parts of the GWR empire.and now (almost) accessible from the GWSR!! good luck

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  20. Birmingham Moor Street has the Centenary Lounge. Very stylish. Always worth getting to the station early to enjoy the facilities.

    https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186402-d3456454-Reviews-Centenary_Lounge-Birmingham_West_Midlands_England.html

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  21. Surely The Bourne Restoration has to be reserved for Honeybourne assuming that GWR are allowed to "develop" their platform there. I know (sadly) it's going to be quite a while before the GWR reaches there but does anyone doubt now that they will?

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    1. Yes, I doubt it very much, Such an extension will require far more money and resources than the GWSR can or could afford for the foreseeable future, especially given the likely growth in inflation. It could happen but would require external funding from another source. Toddington Ted

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    2. A few years ago people doubted that we would ever reach Broadway, so never say never when the will power is there. What about incorporating the year date in the title of the cafe as a permanent reminder, as hopefully it will be there for many years to come.

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    3. T T why so negative? Considering what has been achieved in the last 30+ years who knows what the next 30 will bring, don't forget the railways name Gloucester Warwickshire Railway, well they've reached Worcestershire, so unless they intend changing the name I presume they still have the ambition not only to reach Honeybourne but maybe go even further, although with other aspirations for that bit of track-bed I would agree that really is a pipe dream.

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    4. Because even the amount of funding needed to bring the section from Broadway to Honeybourne up to a standard to run heritage trains has been conservatively estimated at £5 million (about a million a mile). There will be other costs as, in some places, trackbed encroachment has occurred (which I'll admit might not be too difficult to rectify). May I also remind readers that the GWSR does not own the trackbed from the fence line north of Broadway to Honeybourne and will have to enter into agreements with the trackbed owner to renovate the decaying trackbed before any track could even be laid. Another 5 miles of line means another 10 miles of fencing and 5 miles of troublesome culverts etc. The return on investment may be worth it of course (although I very much doubt it) but the problem will be convincing a third party to come up with the money. It is just not possible to keep asking members of the general public to stump up millions of £s just so that the train set is 5 miles longer. I joined the GWSR in 1981 and it has taken until 2018 to get to Broadway. Indeed that has still been a great achievement considering the 2 serious landslips earlier this century (which required us to ask for significant amounts of money). Sadly the next 30 years will definitely bring the demise of people of a certain age who remember railways as they were in the period up to the late 1960s and who have disposable income to support heritage railways. Younger people generally can't own property and have seen their wages fall in real terms so they will not have the same disposable income or good pensions to do what many current baby-boomers do. I actually forecast a decline in heritage railways over the next 20 years. However, given its geographical location and, hopefully the benefits of linking into the tourist magnet of Broadway, the GWSR should weather the storm. However, expansion further without external funding just isn't going to happen. I would be absolutely delighted to be proved wrong! Toddington Ted

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    5. You point out the problems very well and which I understand. This was why I was not suggesting anything further would/could happen in the next 5 or 10 years or so. I do appreciate that once you start using something new/re conditioned it starts to wear out straight away and it all has to be maintained and there will be a finite no. of customers etc. lets hope that the Broadway extension kicks starts the ambition to go further and eventually get that main line connection which could in-turn be the key to finding new customers and maybe be the incentive that finds that missing third party. I also think having such a large diesel presence (when compared to some other lines) may be the key to extending the GWSR heritage lifespan, because of the generation to come that will be wanting to preserve HST's 60's modern DMU's etc. possibly among them will be that third party. I am not a railway man just an observant customer who has seen the GWSR grow and grow and wants (like you) to see it continue to do so, I also agree that overall the heritage rail industry will in general tail off in the future but the big boys ( and I count the GWSR as one of the biggest) with careful manage/investment etc I think will survive quite a lot longer then we think they will, I hope so anyway.

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