Out of the station, and... over the bridge !

Too wet last Saturday? Well, today it was too cold. Zero degrees to start with, rising to a vertiginous three degrees C. Woo-hoo. Our cup runneth over. And we were working at the bridge end of the Broadway platforms, a notoriously breezy spot too. Thick coats came out, hats galore. A thin winter sun illuminated our activities.

This low sun makes photography quite difficult, with dark shadows alternating with bright light. Here is the opening shot for the day, with two panels left to lay in between the Broadway platforms.
A clipping up session has started on platform 2, after the last panel was bolted on.

The 48 missing BH sleepers were soon added, followed by a first rail on the right.

Here we have Paul playing the Stilsons. Yes, it's maitre d', the very same. Spaghetti for 22, or a pair of Stilsons, it's all the same to Paul. Just check your plateful carefully next time.

(The Stilsons were used to rotate the BH rail properly into the bed of the chair)

48 sleepers and 4 rails later, both P1 and P2 tracks were neck and neck at the end of the platform ramp. You might say that this completes the Broadway relay, further south is next. However, that down line is pointing straight at the centre of the bridge, we need men on bars down here.

It's amazing really how something as heavy as a track panel can be moved by human effort with bars, if you throw enough of them at the problem. Soon after the photograph was taken, the track panel was straight.

We then started laying Pan 11 fitted sleepers on the up line. The first 4 here will support a barrow crossing.

Laying efforts were interupted by the noise of the rail disk cutter, which featured Chris all dolled up with safety gear, while the others stood around in a wide circle and watched the proceedings.

Rail cutting completed, the sleeper laying on the down line reached station road bridge, another milestone.

Two of us can be seen levelling the ballast bed, which has been rutted by the constant passing of vehicles. Note Jim in the centre shovelling ballast with his one good arm. How does he do it... marvellous how plucky our Jim is.

At lunch time a maximum number squeezed into the Broadway cabin and hogged the seats. Lovely and warm in there, but - oh no - Mrs. B's cakes were outside. How to score two fairy cakes, without losing your place?

Lunch was all too brief, and it was back to laying sleepers on to the bridge.

In the background Bert Ferrule and Stevie are bringing in FB rail, which starts at the barrow crossing.

It's quite tricky getting the rail to end up further ahead than the JCB can drive, but Steve did it.

Here is the first length of FB going in, on the up line. We were glad to have FB rail again, as the BH sags like wet maccaroni, and is difficult to manoeuvre.

Things got trickier still when we sort of built ourselves into a corner on the bridge. No room now, see, and that rail had to be dragged around a corner and had to end up in a position where it was not in the way of laying the next lot of sleepers on the down line.

The first two lengths of FB rail have now reached the bridge. A short length is cut off by Nigel, so that the rail joint is off the bridge, but not too far away to exclude a single length across it. We need one whole length across the bridge, with no joints in the middle.

The up line sleeper laying gang was prodigious, but unfortunately no one had told them to stop once they got to the other side of the bridge where the concrete sleepers start. We actually had to lift them again, just like BR in 1979.

Well laid, yes, thank you.

But in the wrong place.

Take them up again and put them in the down line.

The reduced number of sleepers was then fitted with the second pair of FB rails.

These are the ones that stretch right over the bridge, so that there is no joint in the middle.

Behind us, fishplate expert Leigh was bolting up the rails laid.

An interesting joint was this one, where bullhead rail meets flatbottom. This is an unusual combination, and needs a special fishplate.

To get just the right shaped fishplate, to accommodate the difference in height of the railheads, you need to measure up the relative thicknesses of the rails on both sides. This is what Leigh is doing here, with a special gauge.

A hybrid lifter fishplate is then used to bolt together FB and BH rail ends. You can just about make out that the RH side of the fishplate is higher than the left.

After bolting it all up, a last check is performed to make sure that the two ends of the rails are perfectly level, and that there is no bump when the wheels of the train pass over it. If there is after all, you soon get a dropped joint, and possibly a broken fishplate (one such on the running line was repaired by us today, as well as all of what you read here)

Station road, looking towards Broadway

Station road, looking towards Evesham.

With the PWay gang visible on the bridge today, passing traffic could see that we meant it when we said open by March 2018.

You could also hear us - the 'Animal' was used with great enthusiasm on the fishplates of the rails we laid today. A boot holds the bolt in pace until it is too tight to move any more.

This scene looking into the setting sun shows the bolting up in the foreground, and a rail being laid in in the background.

We are now definitely out of the platforms, and heading over the bridge.

Some end of the day shots now.

In this one you can see the full extent of the track laid today, with the up side over the bridge and even a first concrete sleeper pushed under the end.

The down side is one panel behind, but has most of the Pan 11 sleepers it needs in place. It was getting dark here, so we called it a day and put away the tools.

A last shot the other way now. Double track has reached the bridge. We ought to have some sort of celebration here. Quick, before the sun disappears over the horizon:

The track laying gang has now laid double track all the way from Springfield Lane bridge, through the station and over Broadway station road bridge. And we're proud of that. And it was all made possible by our kind supporters who bought shares in our venture. We couldn't have done it without you, and we didn't let you down. Hi there ! And THANK YOU !