Progress with the turnout at last

It was another grim day. What is this, winter or something? Every time the Pway sets its foot outside the door, we have foul weather. This is the fourth week in a row. The forecast was for wind and rain, every hour from 9am to 5pm. And what hours do we work?

On the positive side, with Steve and Alan back, we made real progress with the turnout. First we have to get to work though.

Bye then....

I will protect this kingdom

Given the steady rain, there were two options:

Option A: Stand in the rain like a gnome and suffer
Option B: Cadge a lift with Steve and his nice warm cab (only for those who buy him a drink)

You will recall that we had pretty much finished the through road, but without Steve we couldn't lay back the plain track as intended last week. Well, Steve was back today, feeling better again, thank you.

He jumped straight in and scraped off the high bit at the far end. Three men had a crack with shovels last week, but there's nothing like horsepower. In seconds the 20 yard stretch was ready to lay.

Because the 20 yard stretch is quite short, we weren't able to slide the sleepers off the forks as usual, but had to pick them up with nips from the adjacent pile. They were jolly heavy - Jarrah sleepers, with chairs on, and soaking wet. Even if only one of the four on the nips, it was borderline heavy for some of us.

I say some, because others like Bert Ferrule here are younger and have these sort of sleepers for breakfast. With an almighty yank (who are you calling an almighty Yank?) he pulled the sleepers off the awkwardly proffered forks and straight into the crib. We gaped in awe.

Soon the plain stretch was filled with sleepers, all nicely lined up too. Next, a rail. We can't just put back the rails that were there, because a long turnout has taken their place, so we need to measure and cut.

Chris gets the cutting job. There is a huge meteor of sparks, as we stand and watch, collars turned up against the 2 degree wind.

Neil is the 'driller killer' today. Wanna know how to fit a new bit for the Rotabroach?

You stick it in here, and try not to break it, as they are expensive. But it did break ($+!!&***) because someone hit the rail he was drilling and the shaking snapped it.

This is the rail in front of Neil which he will drill, as it has been cut to size, so there are no fishplate holes at the cut end. A second rail is already being swung into position.



Here you can see a third rail being cut, and this one is for the curved road, which is missing a closure rail and a stock rail.

The smoke in the background is the clearance gang. Last week the smoke headed for Didbrook; this week it headed straight for - us! (cough)

Here's the closure rail being laid in. This one is the trickiest of them all, as it is on a curve and a rail in its rest state likes to be straight. You also have to allow for the curve when measuring up.

Oh yes, measuring up is very important when cutting a closure rail...

... because this one didn't fit. Or seemed not to. There was a half inch overlap. Blame the cutter. Or the measurer. Or someone. Please.

All part of the plan, we were reassured, once we introduce the curve it will pull back and fit.

The Duff jack (we have a new student volunteer called Jack and got a lot of mileage out of that) will soon push a curve into it. However, it must be straight at the fishplates.

At the other end a second Duff jack was installed to push the opposite way.

See, that will make it curve. Now it will fit.

Alas - it still didn't. It is hard though guessing exactly the amount of compensation to allow when measuring the length in a curve. We resorted to Chris to taking a tiny slice off the end.

Then it fitted. It just needed a little 'Duff' help and a jerk on the bar to get it in. Then it was 'fly fished' (bit of jargon here, it's a fish plate bolted just on one side to hold the next rail in place) and the base plates drilled, bolted down and clipped up. Job done, the through road is ready in raw form.

Meanwhile, Steve is already thinking ahead.

Here he is making a start on digging out the area of the short panel of track between the two turnouts we are building here.

With Ivor he also measured up the other lengths of FB rail we have on site with a rail gauge. This allows him to see what the wear is, and which piece could be best attached to the turnout so that a plain fishplate can be used.

Afterwards these two experienced oldies did a traditional lean on the shovel to discuss what the youth of today is doing all wrong. Behind them the plain panel of track is all clipped up and ready to roll.

Neil and Steve L had the TB2 out to secure the bolts on the curved closure rail we fitted.

Does anyone know why it's called a TB2? What happened to TB1? The machine is actually a Geismar-Stumec, made in Alsace. It has a torque that is considerably higher than that of the portable 'animal'.

With the closure rail in, attention turned to the curved stock rails. In fact this one is fitted with check rails, so is straight as it passes the crossing. But the far end will need a bit of curving to align with the stub of the switch in the distance.

The plain curved stock rail was also measured up and laid in, Chris here inching it towards the stub of the switch, until there is an equal 1/4 inch gap at each end. Rest assured, we only cut this one once!





By this time the temperature had recovered considerably, from +2 and a high wind in the morning, to +7 and little if any wind at all. It became almost pleasant. But light was beginning to fade, and with this last stock rail we felt we had achieved something very satisfying - the assembly of the main line turnout.

Here's the view from above at the end of the day. The complete turnout is in, as well as the section of plain track just beyond. The curve points tantalisingly towards the next job on the left.

Isn't it brilliant how this small plucky gang can lay an extension to Broadway on time, and turn round a week later and get stuck in straight away with the major winter maintenance job?

At the end of the day the gang enjoy the sight of the assembly job complete - we built this!

It isn't completely finished of course, there is some more bolting down to do, a smaller base plate has to be found where the standard one didn't fit, the stretcher bars have to be fitted, but it looks the part now.

Next week we finish off those odd jobs, while a start will be made on the second turnout behind Steve here. The plain track there has to be dismantled and the bed dug out.

Can we have some fairer weather next week, for once? Your blogger's woodburner is not keeping up with the drying out of the sodden leather gloves....

A last look here, from the other direction. Note the height difference between the main line and  the siding beyond. That will be interesting to deal with.










And finally...

Another item from Ivor Dixon's treasure trove of 'Early GWSR' scenes:

Here he is at the controls of 50021 Rodney, on the 10th of July 1994. Ivor was one of a small number of people passed out to drive the class 50. Wouldn't it be nice to have one based on the railway now?

Out and about in the c-c-c-cold

Minus four and a half today! Haven't seen that in a long while.

The bottom drawer temperature did allow one or two 'pretty' pictures to be taken though, before a hurried retreat to the warmth of the mess coach was preferred. The signal box roof looks done. Very neat; and the scaffolding is gone too. The STOP board is still there; perhaps it refers now to the big hole in the track further along (cough). We should fill that again on Saturday. Steve is back at work, digging an urgent trench for a water pipe at Broadway, and hence the planned ballasting today was cancelled. We shall find another day for it.

We love creating replica heritage assets and it's great to see other people at it as well, but a tiny niggle here: The size of this building is not convincing for what the sign says.

Must try harder!

This man will not get cold! Or overlooked....

Picture by Bob Locke

After our tea and briefing we split into two gangs. One went to Broadway to attend to the clearing of excess ballast of two turnouts, while the other went to Winchcombe to sort out the yard, which meant several smaller jobs, all interesting.

Add caption

On our way, we were asked to take this TB2 or nut runner with us in the Landie. It was diesel powered and very heavy. No crane was available, and the picture shows the moment the gang are contemplating what to do next. In fact, anything but lift it up by hand.

We lifted it up by hand....

Arriving at Winchcombe, one TB2 loaded on the back by hand, we found that the new roadway up the yard was almost done. A new panel had just been poured and was covered in straw, and there are two more to go. Isn't it odd that this lovely new road goes exactly up to the front door of C&W? Do they have connections?

At the other end there was lifting capacity available in the form of the Telehandler.

The non-starting TB2 was taken care of by Jonathan and Clive, and after a trip to C&W with a begging bowl they came back with a welded repair and managed to start it successfully. Cooperation has worked once again.

The next job was to get the Landie on to its rail wheels so that it could pull a Permaquip trolley.

This happens fairly rarely, in fact it's only the second time in 6 years your blogger has seen it done, so enjoy.

The back goes on first, then the front, as that is manoeuverable - see the front wheel turning in.

 Here is the full 'train', ready to roll. The road wheels stay on the rails to provide the propulsion, while the rail wheels provide the direction.

That's your blogger on his first ever driving turn on the GWSR.

Too busy to look though. The steering wheel is locked, but we still got round Chicken Curve. That's the wonder of science for you.

Going along, you can take both hands off the wheel, and even play with your camera phone, and it's completely legal!

We trundled along at a respectful 10mph, those rail wheels are tiny.

Here we are at a service stop just south of Hayles Abbey halt.

It was beautiful with all the white snow and the blue sky.

Eventually we got back to Winchcombe, where we stopped by the inner home signal, just like a proper train. When, oh when, will that signalman wake up? Should we be obeying Rule 55? Does a phone call count? Not if it's to his mother.

We tidied up the yard and moved a lot of Broadway imperials over to the other side, as they had been unloaded in the middle of the PWay yard area.

After the tidy up, a smaller gang started to dismantle the temporary storage siding on the other side of the yard. The vehicles that stood here have been removed by their owner to a new location. More vehicles are to follow - see the background.

It was observed that these (unconnected) sidings were placed there by the nascent Wednesday gang as one of their first ever jobs as a new mid-week gang, many years ago. All this area has to be cleared, as we now plan to use it for more permanent yard development.

While at Winchcombe, we took the opportunity of collecting these fabulous crowd barrier tops, destined for Broadway. They have been expertly crafted by our own C&W workshops, a brilliant achievement and very kind of them. We guarantee that every customer at Broadway will see them, and some of them may even lean their backsides against them...

These crowd barriers were placed by the GWR in front of their ticket hatches to regulate the flow of customers. These carved wooden tops sat between two beautiful cast iron posts, about waist high, installed 30ins away from the ticket hatches. We couldn't believe our luck at Broadway when we found two originals burried in the demolition rubble about the site. They were carefully dug out of the mud, shotblasted and powder coated, and now await installation once the booking hall floor is finished. Two more posts were cast using a perfect example (i.e. one that had not been buried in clay for 50 years), lent to us by a friendly neighbouring railway - thank you Mick !

At Broadway, the other gang had finished one turnout and was digging out the second.

Two van loads of surplus materials were gathered up from the lineside, and also returned to HQ at Winchcombe. We like to leave a neat site.

This digging out was very tiring, especially in the morning, when the ballast was still frozen. The sunny areas mostly melted and allowed the job to proceed, but in the shadows the ground remained hard and frozen.

There came a point when the collective feeling was 'enough already' and wearily they trudged back to the car park

On the way back through the station we cast a glance into the Gents. The sanitaryware has arrived. It is being installed by volunteers from B&S department, another case of good cooperation. More of them were laying slabs outside; you will see this work in their own blog in due course.

Just look at these Edwardian style wash basins. Aren't they fabulous !

Making a fine point of it

We turned up at Toddington today and screeched to a stop at the top of the drive - it was full up with parked cars! What's going on?

It was just one and a half degrees outside, and raining, so the temptation to get out of the car was not great. But why this traffic jam?

Aha! A strike. Or no - a lock out? What is it then?

It turned out that the gate was jammed shut. It is a moody thing, as this is not the first time, and the combined knowledge of the people in the picture was not enough to make it change its mind. That was reserved for our office manager, bless her. It obviously needed more charm applied to it than we could muster.

Today was the fifth consecutive PWay working day that it rained, but at least it wasn't snowing and we could see the ground. There were just 11 of us, after two last minute cancellations. Probably looked out of the window from their beds!

A good way to warm up is to shovel some ballast, and three of us decided to give the ballast bed on the plain track here a bit of a scrape by hand. It certainly warmed us up, but in the end it turned out to be futile as the whole 20m length needed lowering, which was too much for manual labour. We had counted on the presence of the JCB to lift in rail and scrape this trackbed, but to our great disappointment Stevie called in sick. We would have to cope without him. Evil tongues suggested that he became unwell at the sight of his bar bill; kinder ones felt that he had succumbed to the lurgi that many of us have had since Christmas. It is very common.

Last week saw much of this new turnout laid out, but not actually bolted down. That was to become the main job today, in the absence of Steve. To boot, we missed the services of our regular Telehandler driver, who being also a board director, found himself in a day long meeting today. Nigel therefore had to drive, as well has shout out orders, which is a bit hard if you are in a nice warm cab with the heating on and the windows shut.

In this picture Bert Ferrule is lining up the crossing itself, while Tim is barring it this way and that until it is acceptably straight, ready for drilling the sleepers.

The long timber across the end marks the northern extremity of the turnout, so beyond this plain track starts, with bullhead rail on the left instead of flatbottom. We need to equalise the lengths of the rails, which is why Steve L here is cutting the end to size.

Only 2 people visible too. The others were all in  a huddle behind the camerman.

After cutting the LH rail to length on the through road, we drilled the RH rail ready to accept the next stretch, that length of plain track. It's already had a bit lopped off, as you can see in the foreground. Neil does the honours. He was fresh on site today, after several weeks in Oz. Let him to the hard work then.

While Mike and Neil were drilling the other side, a second team in the middle was drilling the chair screw holes in the crossing that was aligned earlier. Now that it's in the right place it can be bolted down. After that the plain rail with the check on it can be bolted down after checking the gauge from the crossing.

We had the idea of putting in the length of plain track today, if only to dispose of the chaired up sleepers still on the Warflats at the back. We need to empty those. But with the absence of Stevie we had to postpone this effort to next week, so the chaired up sleepers taken off the Warflat were stacked in the brambles next to the road.
Here Nigel is bringing in two older sleepers to act as bearers.

And there we go - one pile of sleepers ready to go in next week, and not in the way of anyone.

Time to start the second drill. Another machine with moody periods. Tim pulled and pulled at it in the cold, until it finally yielded and buzzed into life. It's a two stroke with a tiny engine on top.

After a few holes had been drilled we started to put in the chair screws, and Steve L followed on behind with the big STUMEC chair screw machine.

Once again we are on top of an embankment, but at least we have a beautiful view of Didbrook village and the Cotswolds near Hailes Abbey behind. A few desultory flakes of melting snow billowed around.

Without the help of the front and back ends of the JCB we had to be innovative, and here you can see the Telehandler being used to inch the rails around the crossing tiny distances this way and that.

After each tug forwards or backwards Mike went in to check the gauge achieved. If correct, Bert Ferrule on the drill then sank the holes and the base plate in question was quickly secured in place.

The area of the fishplate seemed to be tight of gauge, so here it was pushed out a tiny bit using the tips of the forks. Again Mike chcks the gauge until it is just right.

We had a late lunch today, but at least the mess coach is reasonably near, and it does you good to stretch the muscles a bit with a good walk. We passed the signal box, now with an impressive new roof.

Aftre lunch it was back to work, but it was still raining steadily. This picture might give you an idea of the conditions underfoot. It's 4 inches of thick mud, interupted by the tracks of the Telehandler and Landrover which allow the rain to form into little puddles, until it is squelched out again by the next set of wheels.

Any volunteers to valet our Landie? Just look at the step caked in mud.

The only sensible person on site today was John, here passively regarding the activities in the February rain. He had his umbrella with him again, although it is no longer in the flower of its youth and is now less than perfectly round. It has a hard life with the PWay.

Towards the end of the afternoon we were almost there. The through road was nearing completion as far as bolting down was concerned.

Nigel here points out a ferrule that hasn't been drilled yet.

Tim had the best rainwear today, with an impressive tent around his head. Us others make do with flat caps and beanies. Simple is sometimes best, but not always waterproof.

In a moment without rain John L waits patiently with the keying hammer for his moment to strike.

Neil bars up the timber, so that Tim can drill it straight.

And then John L pounces ! The oiled up chair screw just inserted by Richard gets a whack on the head.

This makes sure that the STUMEC machine gets a good grip on it. Otherwise, if not exactly over its hole, the chairscrew can spin round and round, in defiance of the horsepower applied behind it. So John L and his umbrella play a key role.

At the end of the afternoon, in the failing light, the remaining gang of only 9 men line up to inspect the job done today. The through road (straight ahead) is in and bolted down. With this in, trains could theoretically run, were it not for the panel of plain track still missing immediately behind the group of men.

Next week: We replace the panel of plain track, and lay in the two closure rails You can see where they might go, we did everything to ready for it, but without the JCB we couldn't complete the job.

Addendum:

There is a new post on the bridges blog, keeping you updated on the works at bridge 34 at Gotherington:
http://bridgestobroadway.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/update-on-bridge-34-at-gotherington.html

The bridges blog link has now been restored to the company website.