Preparing the first trackbed at Broadway

Two reports in one today - preparing the trackbed for the unloading point on the embankment by the Childswickham bridge, and a day with the canopy gang at Broadway.

Here is the start of the day view of the area we were working in on Thursday. On the right the future unloading area for all the kit for Broadway north, on the left the site of 4 additional panels of track that will be laid to stable the supply train, and in particular the sleeper wagons.

The trackbed needs to be dug out, and the heavy undergrowth around the fence removed. Then Terram, and 8 inches of fresh ballast on top.

Here is Steve, carefully scraping away the brambles and young tree growth from along the fence.

In the foreground a trackbed surface of dirty, dusty, spent ballast. That has to come out too.

After a while, Steve has removed some 25 yards and we drop in the Terram we had.

We were a bit hamstrung that day, because a roll of the stuff we had lying by Broadway station bridge has vanished. Where has it gone?

Ballasting had to stop until we got a new roll 24 hours later. It's not very commonly available.

Overnight, an appearance. Tarrah, the supply train is here! It's completely loaded with sleepers, 40 rails and Dogfish with ballast. No more unloading at Peasebrook, and the long drag north with sleepers.

Rumblings down in the car park too. An enormous 3 axle dumper was delivered, looks like a 20 tonner.

In the foreground the soil nails. They still need tightening up, after the cement has cured.

The big dumper was paired with a large 360 and together they set about levelling the Childswickham end of the car park. The ex Mythe rubble was loaded up and transported a few yards away to fill voids.

Our newly built access ramp unfortunately had to be removed again, as it took up too much space below. We think we can modify the existing one near station road bridge, to avoid the turnout that will be located at its current top end.

Steve also built up the vehicle crossing where the track crosses from west to east, with new (middle) and spent (outside ramps) ballast. The first customer to use it was - Steve !

Can you see me, mother? This morning early it was possible to catch a glimpse of the supply train on the embankment approaching Broadway. This picture was taken from the B4632. Behind the train you can see the spire of the Childswickham church. There have been no trains here since 1976, when the line was closed (demolition trains excepted)

Up on the canopy scaffolding at Broadway a few minutes later, you can see the supply train peeking round the corner. It's a first!
Now for a day riveting, see what's new at Broadway.

A concrete lorry and pump came today to pour the bases of the footbridge step supports.

The other side is not being done yet.

The towers are approx 8ft closer to the building than in GWR times.  The footbridge is located as far away from the building as the site permitted.

The canopy team did their best to work around the chimney that was built. Only one rivet was achieved, and that with a special air drill with a 90 degree head.

We've done all the easy rivets now, so progress slowed as we had to manoeuvre further up and into the structure, sometimes using a special jig such as here in order to allow the mag drill a firm footing. We slowly riveted our way north, until we came to the end where the canopy overhang to the footbridge should continue.

As this is not being built, special brackets were made up and installed to support a canopy end similar to the one on the southern end.

These brackets are green in this overall view.

Down below, two 'C' section modern steel profiles have been bought to support a small canopy over the front door.

Up above, riveting of the Broadway heritage canopy came to a successful conclusion today. We've done it! Some smaller jobs remain to be done, but these will not be hindered by sheeting work, so we are releasing the canopy for the continuation of the roofing.
As the 'piece de la resistance' we installed the two authentic works plates: E. Finch, 1903. These are exact copies of an original lent by a supporter, who recovered it from Broadway during the demolition in November 1963. No, one is not upside down, we'll leave that charming peculiarity to Toddington.

Here's the worksplate in context, seen through a truss and purlin, all now soundly riveted up.

This achievement deserves a reward...

The canopy team did it, a complete GWR heritage replica construction. We delivered. It was completed in the same week as the last brick was laid on the building.  Look up and gaze in wonder (when the scaffolding is down again).

Now a last look at Steve, who carried on today, armed with a new roll of Terram.

Here too an achievement today: the 4 panel trackbed on the Broadway goods shed embankment was dug out, ballasted and graded. It's ready.

Tomorrow: we lay track here! We are on our way.

Preparing to extend the track

Three parts to the PWay gang today. We are so multi-tasking, it's hard to follow who's doing what.

Team A was said to be loading sleepers at Winchcombe, but was not seen by yours truly, who was at Childswickham, where teams B and C were busy.

Elsewhere, our newly laid track was in regular service. Here is a long straight near Laverton, now in use, with the blue Flax field in the background. This is all CWR. It was the first new bit of rail we laid, after replacing the Laverton loop, and the extended storage siding north of it. Did we really lay all of that? It's so long...

Trains run over this stretch now all of the time, like this DMU set headed for - DAISY? Is that in Derbyshire somewhere?

Today's job at Childswickham was to dig out the trackbed starting on the Broadway embankment, sufficient for parking the supply train on it, there being nearly 80 sleepers on site, and plenty of (ex Laverton) rail.

This is where we want to park our train, a future jumping off point for Broadway and all points north.

The fence line between us and the caravan club is buried in brambles and spent ballast, so this has to come out. Steve is at the bridge end with the JCB, just making a start.

There are actually two fences here - a disused post and wire fence, coming out, and a stock fence, remaining in situ. Brambles all round! Steve has pulled some of the stuff into a heap in the foreground. It's a jumble of wire and rotten posts.

Once the fence line was pretty much cleared over the first 50 yards, Steve started to dig out the top layer of spent ballast, which was taken away.

Team B was busy packing the breather by Pry Lane, and here, the future vehicle crossing where the line changes sides. A supply of fresh ballast was dropped off to pack the wooden crossing sleepers, which have a void under them next to the taller concretes. This has to be filled and packed before the supply train is allowed to advance.

Teams B and C met for lunch. It's not a coincidence that this was under the only tree giving a bit of shadow for miles around. It was hot again today. Steve agreed to stop the front bucket just right so that we could sit on it; some others sat on - brambles! Ouch !

There was a bit of a worry about digging right next to a campervan, but after a while it seemed to us that the people had left for the day, and we dared remove the greenery from the fence near it. The occupants came back later in the day, and we apologised for the dust; they were fine with us.

Very gradually the trackbed was extended northwards. This was once track 3 of the 4 along here. Track 1 was the refuge siding on the left, track 2 the up line, track 3 the down line (along which we will build) and track 4 was a siding in front of the goods shed (sold in 2013, behind the fence)

We took off the spent ballast, revealing underneath the original trackbed bottom. It showed a rust line where the rails used to sit, and these grey pools of chippings, where measured shovel packing had been carried out under the sleepers many years ago. Proof that our track ran right here.

The spent ballast dug out was taken down to the sleeper line a few yards away, to level out some unevenesses in the future vehicle road alongside the new track.

This is the track we laid most recently, in a sweeping curve starting at Pry Lane by the sewage farm.

Where the chap in orange is standing is the future vehicle crossover, as the line changes sides there.

All this is now clipped up, as you can see. Not only that, but the welders came again on Tuesday and welded the joints that weren't already fishplated, so we are now all plated / welded up right up to one panel short of the rail head.

Gang B packed the breather and crossing sections - a very tough job in this heat - and then moved on to clipping up the last two panels on the Cotswolds side that weren't done by team Jim G. (who lost the clipping race to the rail head to the all conquering team Nigel)

Here they are, clipping up the last few bits before the end of the rails in the approach to the Childswickham Road bridge. This was hot !

Some of the damned clips wouldn't go in. You'd think that if all the other surrounding clips were in, the last one had to go in too. But no, it wouldn't. Was the rail bent?

Whatever, the answer was a 'Hey, Steve !'  and, bless him, he stopped to give it a nudge. That worked.

Mid afternoon the clipping gang B had finished and left for home, hot, tired an dirty. A cross of bearers was left to mark the maximum useable track, to which the supply train can now be shunted. This will happen on Saturday, so watch this space for the train now much nearer. Rails will then be dragged off to be laid in the sleepers up to the bridge.

On the Broadway embankment, we were pleased to have achieved today's mission - to dig out a sufficient stretch to lay more sleepers for a short siding over the bridge, so that supplies can be unloaded, ready for the leap to Broadway north.

This newly dug out area will be filled tomorrow with fresh ballast, ready for sleeper laying here.

Down below, the contractors returned late afternoon today, and started on further levelling the remaining piles of debris in the 'car park' area. In the picture, the 360 is parked on top of some of the 'Mythe' rubble.

We believe the mission is to level everything in such a way that the area is potentially useable as a temporary car park for a limited number of days per year. As outlined during the recent plc AGM, discussions with Wychavon continue for more definite arrangements.

The contractors will also be laying some drainage ditches to take seepage away from the bottom of the embankment slope.

Closing the gap

Today was the day we closed the gap - sleepers now flow uninterupted all the way to the Childswickham Road bridge.

A quick peek into the yard at Toddington revealed that the loco dept was faster at making tea than the PWay dept, who were still turning up when this picture was taken. The man shining the number plate had the most enormous bottle of Brasso. You can't buy that in Tesco's. It's what you need with a GWR engine; if you had a Continental one, say a German 01.10 pacific, you wouldn't need any Brasso at all. Look at that shine though.

We had a new recruit today, Jack. Jack is a student of civil engineering, and for his first day with us he introduced himself with a large supply of doughnuts, for the priveleged ones some were even covered in chocolate. This young lad will go far, we predict. Welcome, Jack!

While arriving for work at Childswickham, we immediately noticed a JCB carrying sleepers cross the bridge over the road. Bit of a milestone that, isn't it? We are now stacking sleepers in our new unloading area there, ready to lay track over the bridge and on towards Broadway.

Soon after Stevie arrived with a second load, which was put on the stack at the rear. This area is not used by the embankment contractors. While the soil nailers have left, the site has not yet been released back to us, as some site reinstatement work is still outstanding.

While Stevie returns with empty forks, Nigel is bringing up a much larger load from the supply train at Peasebrook.

At the gap we have left, there is heavy traffic. A bit of a ballet, to let everyone through, and end up facing the right way.

For the next run, Nigel dropped off a balance of 3 concrete sleepers, which we will need today on top of the others already there, including a handful of timber sleepers which will support the crossing of rubber pads. We have decided to close the gap.

Leigh, our fishplate specialist, completed the gaps the Wednesday gang had drilled, but left unplated. Some of the rails had moved along in the heat, and the Wednesday gang didn't have the means to move the last pair of rails.

We did - they got a little nudge from Steve.

You'd think this was easy, using the front bucket of the JCB to prod the 1 ton rail along a bit, but it wasn't. The length was already fully clipped up, and every time the JCB let go, the rail sprung back into its previous position. It needed a lot of persuasion.

Finally, Leigh was able to insert the bolts through the fishplate and secure this length. We have the 14 rails dragged off the sleeper wagons a couple of weeks back, and we want to get them all in today and safely plated up, as we intend to move the next load of rail on wagons all the way up here.

New recruit Jack is already doing well, he's even got the fishplate the right way up. Top marks here!

While Leigh and jack were plating up the last length, the others began to close that gap. Timber sleepers are being laid out here, and two sets of rubber pads will be laid on top to allow road vehicles to cross from right to left.

Then the last sleeper goes in, a concrete one. It's a bit of a milestone that, now the sleepers stretch uninterupted all the way from the end of the rails (behind the camera) to a few feet beyond the Childswickham road bridge.

With these two rails we then finally closed the gap, and advanced the rail head another 18m. The future crossing is by the knot of orange jacketed men. It does mean that the Telehandler is trapped on one side, and the JCB on the other, until we have laid the pads in and put some ballast round.

Here's an illustration of that situation. The Landie has arrived from Winchcombe with a large, floppy dump bag of Pandrol clips, which the JCB, on the other side, is unloading on to a trolley. This will be trundled up the loosely laid track to provide Pandrols for the clipping up gang as it goes along.

And there you have it - the dumpy bag fell off! We did say 'loosely laid', and so it proved, as the trolley hit a slight difference in height between two rails not yet plated up.

The trolley stopped, but the dumpy bag went on....

We only had Stevie for half a day today, so as a priority we set about laying in the 14 lengths left in the cess. So doing, we laid 7 panels - 126m - using all the rail we had. More is arriving on Monday.

A jolly lunch was held 'al fresco' on top of the long embankment between bridges 3 and 2. Mrs. B's cake baking has, we are glad to report, resumed full production after the holidays, and today we were treated to a new almond and raspberry recipe, which went down extremely well, judging by the fistfuls of cake being held on the left.

Come on Steve, we'll never get to Broadway like that!

With 7 lengths of rail laid out in front of him, Leigh spent the afternoon drilling all the holes required, so that we could secure them with fishplates. Every other gap of course will be a weld.

A liberal dose of grease is applied to the rail ends. With a long stick to apply the stuff, and gloves, you'd think you could escape the gunge, but Steve L managed to shuffle backwards into the pot and said it attacked his trousers. And now to drive home in the car....

Following the fishplating team, no fewer than 11 other gang members were clipping up in two groups, one Cotswolds, one Malvern. Malvern won by one length, reaching the end of the rail laid first. Behind on the right is the sewage farm, so quickly receded into the distance.

This is where we got to at the end of the day - all the rail that we had left now laid in. The Malvern side is all clipped up, the Cotswolds side nearly so. Another 6 lengths will see us through to the bridge. Another calculation from today is that the next delivery of new rail will take us across the goods shed embankment and to within 4 lengths of bridge 1, the one over Broadway station road. That is approximately where the first turnout will be placed, forming the start of the loop.

A quick look over the Childwickham Road bridge shows rail, formerly in the Laverton loop, stacked on the left, and in the centre a newly arrived stack of 80 sleepers, all that was left on the supply train which is now ready for reloading with what is left at Skew Bridge. In the distance you can see the yellow streak that is the Broadway footbridge.

So what is left at Skew bridge? Yesterday 9 piles of 20 sleepers remained sorted and stacked. A few smaller piles of odd ones are in the middle, and two stacks of rejects also exist. We will sift through these to see if any can, after all, be used at Broadway north, near the head shunt.

Why the search through the rejects? Because all the others have gone! Unbelievable, but we have taken them all. This area used to contain around 7000 second hand concrete sleepers, and almost all have been used on the Broadway extension, taking the line to the Childswickham road.





We think 7000 sleepers is a lot, but in May a freight train from Belgium to Italy suffered a broken axle near the French border in one of the two last wagons of 25, which derailed but remained attached to the train. They bumped along behind for 13km, damaging 21.700 concrete sleepers in their wake. Now that is a lot of sleepers! (Source: Infrabel)


Finally, a little appeal. We have been looking to manufacture replica door plates for Broadway station, in keeping with the 1904 period. In order to suit the pre-grouping style, they need to have a chamfered edge, not a straight one (which came later). We already have several replicas in store, eg Stationmaster, Booking Office, Tickets, Waiting room and others. With patience and ingenuity you can make up your set.

Earlier this week, we were very lucky to be able to borrow this one from a local museum. The original cast iron plate will be taken to a small foundry to have an aluminium replica made.

Now we still need two more:

GENTLEMEN and
REFRESHMENTS or BUFFET

Does anyone have one of these that we could borrow? Any offers gratefully received by
breva2011 (at) hotmail.co.uk.