Thursday 28 September 2017

The CRC2 wall is built

The gang once again arrived with a truck full of kit and material for building the wall along the P2 footpath.





Arriving at Cheltenham, this time with two wheelbarrows on board. Seven volunteers were there to unload it all.

Nice concrete roadway to stand on, guys!







There were no fewer than three activities planned for the day. The first was to build the wall along the slope, on top of the foundations laid last week. It's being back filled here.






The front of the new wall is being faced with second hand imperials for a more period look.







At the end of the day, all of the blocks along the back were up, over half of the facing bricks, and here in the foreground a start has been made on topping out with plinth headers. Nice.




The second job of the day was to install a pair of gates, to allow the footpath off the platform to be closed if need be.

A length of fencing was also put up here, all with the intention of affording the masses of alighting passengers a safe and guided passage from one platform to the other.



One gate has already been hung here, while the second is on the way.

This is an overview of the end of the footpath, showing fencing, gates, concrete footpath and roadway in the foreground, all recently installed by the B&S gang.

The third activity of the day was on the mirror image of the path, over on P1.




To begin with, the ground had to be cleared so that a 1.5m wide footpath down from the platform can be built.

Up to now the northern exit from P1 led through a (mostly closed) gate into the race course grounds next door. Transit from one platform to the other was not made easy, least of all by the absence of a properly built pedestrian crossing.

Now it's all coming into shape.






6 comments:

  1. Very nice indeed! Now all we need is a set of proper level crossing gates. Regards, Paul.

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  2. Looking good, small touches like this really enhance the overall appearance of the station, even though, to some observers apparently, the CRC signal box is a carbuncle on the landscape! There was a pair of level crossing gates lying in the old station yard at Waddington, Lincs, for years but the site has now been built on and the gates most likely burnt during site clearance. /No one was interested in them. They are, by necessity, large and heavy structures. New ones would be very expensive to have made but if you're offering.....

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  3. With a normal "Ledge and Brace gate or door" the diagonal brace should go from the top opening side to the bottom hinged side. This gives the structure maximum strength. The gates hung at the end of platform two are incorrect.
    Mike Rose

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    Replies
    1. You're right. It's easily done.

      My Dad did a similar thing when he replaced our garden gates. He put them on the wrong way round, right on left and left on right, so the braces were upside down. He only noticed after the were nicely installed.

      His solution was to add another set of braces, so they formed an X. Wasn't perfect, but helped.

      Eric

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  4. The galv hinges are correct, the lower one acting as a pivot and the upper one as a strap. Good idea Eric,you might be able to fit another brace behind the existing ones on the other side of the gate to form a cross. At Toddington there are some steel,entrance gates to the station building with some curious welding that have the same problem.
    Mike Rose.

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  5. Good spot! It's actually quite obvious really when you look at the gates in situ but I didn't notice either. Facepalm!

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