Thursday 11 May 2017

A new build, and a repair

At Winchcombe, the new visitor centre continues to grow.

Last week the scaffolding was up on its first lift, and the Bradstone wall was starting to grow.






The three windows on the car park side are going in. They are made of PVC.







Today, the scaffolding was a level higher and the Bradstone was above window level. The much smaller main station building can be seen in the background.

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The B&S team have been busy - not with the visitor centre, which is being erected by contractors - but with repainting and repairing the end wall of the Flag and Whistle building in Toddington. It's a big job.





The south side is pretty much finished now. It's now in a very shiny chocolate colour.

Mike and Pete admire their work.










This is the side the customer doesn't usually see - it's the door to the boardroom!

It's been painted to the same high standard.






There are still a lot of odd bits to do, such as the window surrounds, a new surround for the new boardroom door, and new barge boards. We may also need a new lock for the door, as the old one refuses to work.
 
Finally, further inspection has revealed several areas of wood rot in the the south side of the north porch. This will need replacing too.
 
A quick job in between was a request to construct a base on platform 2 at Toddington. This will be for a memorial building, which is due to be put up on May 22nd. A path leading to this building will be laid next.

The gang have also helped with the construction of a foot crossing north of Laverton, which was quite a big job. You can see pictures of this on Andy P's drainage department Flickr site:

Back home in the shed, the gang have been busy manufacturing and now painting the running in board for Hayles Abbey. It's 10'6 wide, a big item supporting the replica 12'' cast letters.

Two posts and so-called granpa posts of concrete, which sit in the ground and hold the wooden posts up, away from any water, were also found and painted. They are now in situ at Hayles Abbey, waiting for the running in board to be mounted on them.



The right hand one is taller than the left hand one, because it will have a hook on top to hold a hurricane lamp.

You can see the grey 'granpa' posts underneath. They will help to conserve the wooden posts, which also received little hats of lead to keep the rain off the top.








Finally, upon a request from the Hayles group, one more wooden post and 'granpa' support were supplied by the B&S gang.

This will become the second lamp post at Hayles, to be situated at the bottom of the ramp.

10 comments:

  1. The windows in the new visitor center at Winchcombe will be wooden, what you see in the picture is the UPVC cavity closer which will be completely hidden by the window and the internal finishes.

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  2. Hello Jo, another great report, but now the questions, What is the memorial building for? Is it possible to get more frequent pictures /reports on the new visitor centre as it goes up? (know you are kept busy by all that is going on!) The work on the Flag & Whistle looks really good now, but has this building got a "life span" that will require it to be replaced? Keep up the good work.
    Regards
    Paul & Marion.

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    1. I'm afraid I don't know what this building will look like, nor what it is for.
      I can hardly give you more frequent pictures of the visitor centre, it hasn't changed much since the last time, just a few more rows of Bradstone.
      I don't know about any life span of the Flag and Whistle. At the moment it is fine.
      In a perfect world, if there was the money, I would suggest replacing it with a two story building, in GWR heritage brick, with the commercial side downstairs (restaurant and souvenir shop) and the admin offices upstairs. That would release the admin containers, and free up the station back to its original condition - booking hall, ticket office, first clas waiting room.
      It's just a personal idea!

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  3. Glad to see that the windows will be wooden and not upvc. There is too much plastic in use throughout the country. nay the World! Cannot help calling the building 'the platform dock goods shed'. Great work. A memorial building sounds good to me - presumably to commemorate the first and second World wars and other conflicts. Regards, Paul.

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  4. Memorial to the volunteers who are no longer with us?

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  5. Will the visitor centre windows be recessed to look less "1970's housing estate" than those on the toilet block?

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    Replies
    1. That's a question for the boardroom blog.

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