Deeper into the jungle

A final working day on the extension ballasting today, with most of the action actually taking place in the jungle towards Broadway, and just a little ballast levelling remaining to be done nearest to the bridge.

Lots more ballast arrived today; for a moment, I thought that the drivers had neatly tipped all the way round my car, but there was an escape route after all. Phew !

The opening shot today shows the area just north of Peasebrook farm bridge, where old piles of greenery were partly cleared yesterday. You can see now that it was indeed once double track.

Further into the jungle then, looking back south from the vanishing point in the last picture. The trees left and right have to stay until the bird nesting season is over, and possibly longer, as this point is only stage 3 of the 3 stage track laying programme. If you want it to happen faster, the clearance gang will be delighted to hear from you, I can supply an email address.

The mini digger was slowly working its way backwards up to Pry Lane bridge, clearing grass, brambles and old bits of Terram. Just visible on the left is the sewage farm, destination of traffic under Pry Lane bridge. Although this (exceptionally brick built) bridge was the least damaged of the 5 'bridges to Broadway', a local resident explained that it was hit nonetheless by lorries going to the sewage farm. There is no escape from lorries, and this road is a dead end too!

The muck so collected was dumped further up the trackbed, allowing this view on the return journey, with the sewage farm now on the right. Nearer the Childswickham Road bridge the embankment is a lot clearer, as a result of earlier clearance work at this location.

In the afternoon the JCB was used to scrape the down side (instead of the up with those piles of greenery on it) and this activity was particularly dusty. The brown material in the foreground is a mixture of dust and a sort of peaty material, put down many years ago for a horse gallop along here. Lift this up and drop it into the dumper, and the dust flies on to the driver, who cannot escape, as the dumper needs moving every 2 minutes or so. The dust is also inhabited by flying ants!

We scraped away about 100yds of this, until we reached Pry Lane, in the picture above. The rest of the trackbed northwards is clear of this 'gallop' material.

You can see the Broadway goods shed peer out from in between the trees, this location is now quite close to it.

Looking the other way from Pry lane, you can see the strip on the down side that we have just cleared.

Running back along here with the dumper, very bouncy when not loaded, I suddenly heard a 'CRACK' . She doesn't usually make a noise like that, I thought.... it turned out that my plastic sandwich box, a gift from Mme, had worked its way loose, fallen in between the wheels and immediately got run over by 2 tons of steel and rubber. Those wheels are merciless, the beautiful sandwich box is no more. Alas.

Now to sell this when Mme returns home ! What will she say?




Seen along the trackside today:

Sparrowhawk
2 buzzards
A beautiful orange coated fox
Pheasant
Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, rabbits...... why doesn't the fox eat the rabbits?

At the end of the day, Steve returned to do a little more levelling, and that was the end of the ballasting week. We have enough level ballast to make a start on track laying, and will report as soon as it starts. Shouldn't be long now.

Down in the jungle

At last the heat receded today, to be replaced by a dribble and a refreshing hint of a breeze. The small gang, three contractors and a volunteer, continued with levelling, and made a forage into the (further) Broadway extension.

Today the lorries bringing in the ballast arrived during the day, so we can now see how they did this. They bring in 20T at a time, the source being Clearwell in the Forest of Dean.

You can see form the small pile that remains that we almost got through the deliveries yesterday, by covering the last stretch of Terram, and adding 6T here and there where various low spots were identified after initial levelling.

The drivers took quite an interest in our project - not being from around here -  and several stopped for a few moments after their long trip for a chat.

It was lovely to hear a new accent, this driver being from the village of Clearwell itself. Forest of Dean talk meets Gloucestershire burr. Arrrrrrr.

A few then carried on up to Naunton for a return load. Cotswold stone, while nearby, is of course completely unsuitable for our work, as it soon crumbles (viz my drive, after several skip lorries had been up and down it, the stone is now crushed to a  fine dust)

Whoa - things are starting to get a  bit crowded up here, as another lorry backed up the slope, not realising that the top was already occupied. But there is room to pass.
We still have several more loads to come, and are now stockpiling it on the Broadway side of the bridge, ready for top ballasting the track after it is laid. We saved quite a bit of money by getting the order in just prior to a rise in the price.

A couple of extra dumps were made in the curve, which Steve levelled out to make up to the required 8 inches.

Incidentally, the laser theodolite does not send out a single beam, but has a revolving laser source, so you can pick up the signal from anywhere around it, until you are out of sight round a curve. You then move the theodolite to the next point, and recalibrate. That is the time consuming bit.

With the 4 of us on site, work was split into 2 activities today. A second work site was started up this morning just beyond Peasebrok Farm bridge (Bridge 4). Standing at the bridge, we noticed the beautiful new fencing put up by our contractors. This is of course our obligation, as a railway. Nice job though.

Beyond Peasebrook farm, no clearance work has as yet been started - until now.

Making good use of the hired in dumper, it was decided to move some piles of greenery that have been an eyesore along the trackbed for a number of years.

Tom and Adam are on the job here, and you can see from Tom's Hi Viz vest that it's been raining.

Tom vanishes out of sight, in the direction of Broadway.

This is the trackbed, and that's after the dumper has been through several times.

This is an abandoned railway track in its purest form. Are we really going to be running trains along here in 3 years time? Just watch us !
Note the ruined platelayers' hut on the right.

Just for interest, here is a picture of the same site, taken 2 years ago. That hut's been abandoned for a very long time, there is a tree growing out of it through the roof. More trackside pictures on my Flickr site here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/73536293@N02/sets/

At lunch time, we had pleasant company to visit - the drainage gang, consisting of Andy and Alasdair. They were well equipped, with sand, cement, a genny, wheelbarrow, and - a picnic box. First things first, here. Bridge 5 makes a handy support for a lunchtime rest, the gang having already worked at another site in the morning.

Today's job was to complete the cross drain exit (it brings water run off from one side of the track to the other, following a gentle slope, and carefully avoiding the 6ft deep pit that is the road going under bridge 5)

Alasdair made a barrow of mortar, and then came a choice - walk it down the lorry approach road, under the bridge, back up the other side, and then along the field, or Geronimo, straight down the embankment?
It was 'Geronimo'.

The ditch mentioned in an earlier dispatch will be further dug out by Steve and the JCB, to ensure the water really does avoid the bridge and flow into a ditch a bit further along.

Andy seems surprised when Alasdair told him that the barrow was now empty of mortar. Have to make up another load then!

More digging tomorrow, and a further report should be available.

Nearing the end

A good day today, as the dumping and ballasting activity inched its way up the trackbed, and finally came to a halt near Little Buckland bridge.

Here is the last roll of Terram, which ran out just before the bridge, first thing in the morning. It's another hot day, up to 30 degrees, but with thunderstorms looming. The rails we have in stock should reach to just over the bridge in fact.

Before we start the dumping on Terram, Steve needed an extra three loads down by the beginning of the curve, where his laser guided measurements had detected a low spot. The overnight ballast lorries have now (on instruction) emptied their loads a little way into stage two of the extension, where a stockpile will be made. This will be used later to pack the newly laid track on stage 1.

Looking the other way, the curve continues towards bridge 4 at Peasebrook Farm, and then a straight line towards Broadway. It's all pretty level and clear around here, ready for the next jump.

Steve was working at the railhead end, putting some final touches on to the initial prepared length, which currently stretches up to the trees at the start of the curve. After putting three extra loads into a low spot in the middle, Steve was finally satisfied and we gave it a go with the roller. This has got to be the smoothest surface ever for track laying!

We have enough FB sleepers on site for an initial 5 panels. More are available elsewhere along the line, but the PWay train at Laverton will be isolated for 5 - 6 weeks while contractors sort out the small slip, and repair the culvert in the same area. The contractors are now expected to start on Monday. So there will be an initial burst of track laying, and then a pause.

Steve had the Laser receptor attached to the JCB again, and this really works quite well. Here you see him backing away from the railhead with a final pass. The roller has been shunted to one side to give the theodolite an uninterupted field.

While we were doing this at one end of the site, Adam and Tom were working at the other end. The sheet rolled out in the first picture is here being covered in ballast, with the pilasters of Little Buckland bridge just visible behind. Nearly there! The sky has now darkened and a thunderstorm drifted along the Cotswold Edge, and a bolt of lightening was seen to strike a field adjacent to the line! It remained hot and humid.

One of the last dumps of the day. Little Buckland has been reached, just two more dumps are needed.

This picture was taken from the same position as yesterday's on the bridge- the ballast dumping is almost completed. Tomorrow should be a wind up day, with no work here on Friday (could change, we are flexible!).
Steve has roughly levelled out most of the new ballast round the curve, but the area in the picture still needs fine tuning.

Another update should be possible tomorrow.

Still more ballast

Today was announced hot, and - it was ! We're working out on an embankment here, and there is no shade, the sun is unrelenting, not a cloud in the sky. 29 degrees at lunchtime it was. Suncream factor 30, hats, high collars, two-litre bottles of water by your side. And more of the same is announced for tomorrow, with a slight increase in the temperature too. There is a slight rueing of the day I sat in my living room in January, complaining about the cost of heating it ...

So what did we do today?

First thing was to roll out another roll of Terram, which brought the end of it near the relocated ballast pile, once again freshly resupplied early on. Another 20T truck load arrived during the day.

After his adventures at Toddington yesterday, Steve was back on site with the JCB, to pursue the task of levelling the dumps of ballast.

Here is a picture of him attaching the receiver unit of the Laser level (actually a theodolite, I'm told) to the front of the JCB.

Just put the bucket down, and reverse away, keeping the indicators in the right field? It's more difficult than that. The trackbed falls away out of the cutting at Laverton, levels out, and then rises again at 1 in 440 up to the summit at Broadway. Where are the breaks in this then? And the existing trackbed, while of good quality, does undulate slightly, leading to thicker bits of ballast added, and then again thinner bits. How to stick to 8 ins of depth, without it getting too thin, or wasting money?

A second volunteer was also on site today - Andy Smith. This proved useful in handling the manual Laser receiver, and measuring the depth of the ballast here and there, while Steve got on with the levelling job a bit further along.

At first we spread about the ballast dumped here last week, later on with some low spots apparent, we had to resort to extra ballast from the guys working round the bend - yes, the prepared trackbed now stretches out of sight.

Then those Merlins paid us another visit. So impressive. That's 15 tons fully loaded up there, one of those! They seemed to fly around Broadway tower, describing a large circle which included a pass quite close to where we were working.

They got so close that I was able to take this shot of the fly-by. Is that flap open at the back there? They must be out on manoeuvres, dropping stuff off.

Here's another look - yep, that loading hatch is definitely ajar. That's our boys up there, good for them!

Then back to the serious stuff. Here is Steve explaining a finer PWay point to Andy, while in the background Tom is delivering one of the 'top up' loads to a low spot.

Pretty much the same scene, seen from the northern end. In the foreground lots of little ballast drops, which haven't been levelled out yet.
Andy spent a long time walking back and forth. Your lump hammer, tape measure, Stanley knife, water, coffee, sandwiches et al are always at the other end, 500yds away. It's like that. Or as a Polish engineman once explained to me: 'System.... !'
There's no argument with that.

While Steve, Andy and yours truly attended to the levelling at the railhead end, Tom and Adam carried on dropping fresh ballast on to the Terram rolled out this morning. You can see that they are approaching the end of it here. Remember that pole - it's by Little Buckland bridge, so progress is quite good.

By lunch time, the ballast supply was getting low, despite the extra load supplied mid morning, and an extra roll of Terram ordered had still not been delivered yet. Andy and I left, with progress as visible in this last picture - the new ballast bed is seen approaching Little Buckland bridge, from where the photograph was taken. Steve had, at this point, also levelled sufficient for the first 5 panels that we are mulling. That bit is ready.

More ballast

Today was the third day of ballasting, i.e. laying down an 8 inch layer of newly delivered ballast on top of rolls of Terram.

The day started with three of us, but soon Steve was called to Toddington with the JCB, leaving just Adam on the mini digger and yours truly on the 6T dumper. This Adam loaded surprisingly quickly each time, so the pressure was on, running up and down the extrension between the ballast heaps and the 'coal face' where the ballast was being dropped. This slowly moved northwards, about 6m at a time.

Here is the opening shot of the day. We're working from the ballast drop near Little Buckland, and in the distance, now into the curve, you can see some uncovered Terram, where worked stopped on Friday.

Although it's only a mini digger, it managed to fill the big dumper surprisingly quickly. It's got an expert driver! (you owe me now, Adam)

Our supply at this point was 120 tons, or 6 lorry loads. These come first thing in the morning. Adam has parked himself on top of the pile, which is a very efficient way of loading the bucket. Not so far to reach up each time either.

Soon we had covered the remaining Terram roll right up to the end, and it was time for a new one.

Before you can roll it out, the mini digger rectifies any unevenesses that have occurred, and the big roller then gives it a smooth surface, so that there are no projections that might puncture the sheet.

Here's a view from the ballast stockpile the other way, looking north.

In the distance, you can make out a telegraph pole - that is the site of Little Buckland bridge, the target for this first piece of track extension. It's a total of 800m from Laverton Loop. We've got all the kit for it. We should end up just beyond the bridge, with the rails we have in stock.

A couple of hours later, the piece of Terram Adam was rolling out, two pictures above, looked like this.

Lots of neat little dumps, which Steve still has to even out, and spread to the correct depth.

We have to be very exact, as this new ballast is expensive and we do not want to waste any, yet have enough thickness for the tamper to pass over it, without puncturing the Terram. A delicate balance then.

Before we roll this bit of Terram out any further, the mini digger has to even out the trackbed one final time (it's already been done once, but with all the traffic on it, more lumps seem to occur). Then back to the vibrating roller.

I've got an automatic watch, which is now wound up into the middle of next week ! Some vibrations, that.

You might be interested in this snapshot off Little Buckland bridge, looking towards Aston Somerville. Bottom left is the mouth of a drain, which Andy P has rebuilt most beautifully (a few more bricks due to go on, by the looks of it) and the most impressive thing is the channel leading away from it, by the hedge, which has seen a lot of dedicated spade work. It must have taken ages, but now the water will run away again, and not undermine the embankment any more.

Well done, that drainage gang !

This picture shows the new Terram roll fully unrolled, and with ballast tipped right up to the end of it. This is in fact the final dumper load of the day.

We are some way round the curve, as you can see.

Can you zoom in on this?

The picture shows, from most of the way round the curve, where worked stopped today, and in the distance on the left, you can see the starting point with the Pway wagons parked on the headshunt.

Today's last picture, work stopped here. That telegraph pole looks a lot nearer now. The next roll of Terram (each roll is 100m long) is ready for laying down, and the last thing we did was regrade the next 100m stretch, and roll it, ready for tomorrow morning. After that, we will need one final roll to get over the bridge.

Noted today: two Merlin helicopters (big jobs, they are) and a fox, 100 yds away, stood on our ballast dump, completely unconcerned by our activities. He even came back for a second look, very casually.

Tomorrow, we should all but reach Little Buckland bridge with the Terram/dumping. Steve will probably even out to the correct depth that which we have already dumped, and then...... there was talk of track laying !

Soon we shall be laying down the first 5 panels. This is what it's all about, and we hope to show you this milestone event.