Both posts

First a shot in the workshop of Mike painting the frame for a new door made by Barry for the storeroom on P2 at Toddington.

Here is the door painted up.









Again most of the action out on the road was at Cheltenham with a team concreting the holes around the two gate posts. 

A start was also made on welding four brackets to each of the posts which will support the large and very heavy fence panels which will run outwards from the gates.

The two pictures above show Mike welding the brackets on to one of the fence posts.

Here is the first fence post installed, complete with 4 brackets (in the background, behind the gate post in the foreground)

Post No. 2 with concrete.

Post 1 has shuttering in place and the concrete is being tamped.

 

 

Rob was on tamping duty, and you see him here on post No. 1 and on the right with post No.  2. 

Soon we will be able to hang the actual fencing panels.

Post scriptum:

Three more pictures have become available of the day:

The top one shows the entire team in action at CRC, while the other two show the concrete poured into the feet of the two cast iron posts from Broadway.

New Post (2)

First of all, news from Tyseley, where the edging stones recently acquired and re-palleted have now been collected.

As Tyseley were kind enough to offer to load them with their own fork lift, we saved some money on the transport costs by hiring a simple curtain sider lorry, rather than a flatbed with a HIAB.

And there he goes - Vic Haines, all loaded up.

We have used this Pershore company before at Broadway and are very pleased with the service.






Now back to Cheltenham, or rather, first to Winchcombe where the gang loaded up.

These tall fence panels need taking down to CRC, and are very heavy to lift. Luckily we have a Telehandler at Winchcombe, and it keeps itself very busy too. First these fence panels, then moving the stone on the Usk building, then blocks for the wall, a cement pallet into the hut, a point timber out of a hole and finally the sleepers on the stop block.

Here's the gang busy strapping down the first load.

Later they came back for a second one, borrowing the Telehandler driver from his activities with the Usketeers on the other side.

Once safely arrived at the north end of CRC, Pete unloaded the panels one by one with a mini digger. There were 9 of them in total, in the two loads.

Here's Pete with the last but one, which he is stacking in a pile close to where they will be installed. It looks as if the underside still needs a bit of topcoat though.

Last week the gang planted post No.1 and this week it was the turn of post No.2. Pete is making a start here with the mini digger by the second post hole.

The posts are made of a rather fragile cast iron, so they are not only heavy but this second one also needed repair at the base, which was broken off at Broadway, in situ, by some lorry hitting it a considerable time ago. It was already broken when it was dug up by the Broadway gang.

The post is safely lifted in here, a bit of a relief all round. You can see that at the bottom a sort of 'boot' of steel has been added to it to repair the breakage.

These posts are precious GWR heritage items and not something you can just go out and buy.

Here's post No.2 in the hole, placed over the 4 bolts but without the retaining nuts so far.

A little shuttering was then placed around it so that the bottom of the post could be grouted in.

This picture shows the foot of post No. 1 (without the boot)

Post No. 2 also got the shuttering, as well as some grout. Unfortunately the gang hadn't brought enough, so only one of the two posts got the grouting.

Finally Pete fixed the cast iron cap back on to the posts, so that they have their original look again.

Next week should see some serious concreting activity as a start is going to be made to fill in these two very large holes.



Post Scriptum:

 A last minute pair of photographs at the day's end shows the two posts fully grouted in:

Pete managed to get more grout and returned to CRC before knocking off time, so both posts are now ready for back filling.

New post (1)

Two little setbacks to report: Last week the pictures taken were unfortunately lost, as the camera card proved unreadable once back home, hence no report. Sadly the lifting in of the first post, which was quite an event, was lost to posterity, but the post is in now, anyway.

Secondly it was a lousy day, weatherwise, at CRC on Wednesday, but the team such as it was did move on ahead.

We can show you two pictures of the first post now in the ground and bolted up.

Some of the Team were delayed by attending a Personal Track Safety Course first thing, but the two pictures above show how the post and its base were on arrival late morning on Wednesday.




It was too wet to grout the base for post 1 on Wednesday, so most of the time was taken up with removing the template for post 2 and tidying up the bolts for same. 

This picture shows the foundation ready for fitting post 2, hopefully next week.

Last week the team also finished lifting and re-laying the slabs under the second bench to avoid the ponding problem. You can see the bench in its slightly higher position in the picture above.

Finally the Team did further preparatory work enlarging the holes and sorting out the levels for the first two fence posts which will go in towards the platform.  They also had a good tidy up and loaded up a lot of spoil to take back to Winchcombe. 

 

This picture shows the team in action: Austen, Rob, Jim M, and Pete, with Jim H behind the camera.

On Thursday members of the C&M team are off to Tyseley to load the large blue bricks that we have purchased. These would be suitable for topping off the pit of the turntable that is planned.  We should be able to show a picture of that little operation in next week's blog post.

A sunny day in Cheltenham

Following on from last week the Saturday Gang mixed and poured concrete around the template and over the securing bolts for the two gateposts at Cheltenham Race Course.  

 

 

The two photographs above show how this had gone off at the start of Wednesday.

Pete about to lay a slab back on new sand.

The last slab about to go back in.

 

A start had also been made on relaying the slabs under one of the platform benches on P1, also at Cheltenham.  The photograph on the left shows where this had got to on Saturday.  The reason for relaying these slabs is to lift them up by about 30 mm so water doesn't settle under the bench.  We have two to do on P1.

 

 

The heat of the day was illustrated by the first train of the day, pulled by 4270, which set fire to some brush in the four foot by the water tower.

 

Jim H was pressed into action to douse this with water. While the sleepers are concrete ones, there are plastic clips which can be damaged by such fires, so it's best to put them out asap. 

Behind the dashing firefighting action the slab laying continued unabated, and here we can see the pad for the bench back in place, now the necessary 30mm higher.

John tidies the site up after the tarmac had been tamped down.

And here's the job completed. One raised bench, if you please. Another neat job, signed off by our C&M department.

Note that our friendly on train catering representative jumped out to give it a once over, before it was tested by our neatly uniformed colleagues.

The small team of four then continued with preparing the holes for the two gate posts at the northern end of P2. You can see the two posts lying in the grass in the picture.

Rob here checked the template for the first post, before it was removed ready for the post to be be fitted.

Template removed showing the fixing bolts in position

Mounting plate in situ on the fixing bolts

On Saturday we will be in a position where we can make a start on relaying the second bench slabs, and hopefully set up the template for the second gate post.  Then on Wednesday we hope to lift in the first gate post subject to a mini digger being available.

A template for CRC.

A wet start to the day kept the numbers down and made working outdoors very unpleasant until after lunch.  There was also a H & S meeting for some.

 

A refurbished bench awaiting some muscle to transport back to Winchcombe platform.

Phil spent the morning modifying an old steel cabinet which we will use as secure storage for petrol in future.  

 

Gatepost template as constructed in the workshop.

 

 

 

 

 

Roy and Jim H went to Gotherington to survey the area around Gotherington signal box for a possible future job.  

 

Also in the workshop Phil and Roy put the finishing touches to a wooden template which will shortly be cast in one of the holes at CRC to provide the securing bolts for a gatepost.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gatepost template being adjusted prior to trial fitting.

 

 

 

 

Finally as the skies cleared we ventured out to CRC to trial fit the wooden template and to deliver materials in anticipation of resuming outdoor operations on Saturday, weather permitting as concreting is involved.

Template in position.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gatepost template is slowly lowered down the hole dug last week, and fixed into position at the correct depth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some further adjustment prior to the final placing.

 

 

Digging a hole at Cheltenham

Wednesday at CRC

The team was a bit thin on the ground today, but after what seems like weeks at Toddington work finally resumed on the replacement gates at CRC. These are for access from the north end, by the level crossing. The original cast iron gate posts removed from Broadway can be seen next to the hole in the picture below.

 

Barry Pete and John getting organised for yet more digging.

Ron, a new volunteer,  joined the team and took on the job of re-surveying the area where the new fence, gates and gate posts are to go.  As a result it was decided to modify the gate post foundations.  Unfortunately this meant removing the thin (6") layer of concrete already carefully laid in the bottom of both the holes, followed by further digging to remove another foot or so of very sticky clay.  This was then barrowed over the crossing to the rear of P2 for dumping.  

 

After lunch it rained but the team persisted, although not a lot of fun was had today.

John starting on the second hole

Pete digs out the old concrete which John has broken up with the crow bar

 

Since the previous blog post C & M have completed the re-grouting of the platform copers on P1 at CRC.  Mike R came along to recover the gap supports and to paint the edge of the recently installed replacement door to the Gents.  Sadly we have no photos of this 'enthralling' activity.

 

Ron doing some re-measuring

Pete in wet weather gear continues digging hole 1 deeper.

By close of play both holes were 1100 mm deep and just about ready for a fresh concrete pour next time.  Note the small ladder needed to get out of the hole!!

A brief report

A somewhat brief report for today as the gang was a bit thin in numbers due to meetings and training courses.

The main effort was in the children's play area at Toddington.  The new furniture has arrived and C&M have been asked by the Friends of Toddington do the hard work excavating holes for this furniture.

Phil in action trying to loosen up the clay in one of the four large holes

Phil gets the mechanical auger fired up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rod came along to offer advice on using the mechanical auger which Phil then operated.  There was a lot of discussion regarding the position of the new slide since as, as first positioned, we felt we would damage the new sewer pipe.  So a couple of test holes later the slide was resited.  

 

Jim M and Austen get to grips with one of the 9 posts for the new slide

 

 

9 no 6" diameter holes were required but following equipment failure and the sleet we only managed 3.  The other 4 holes were approx 2ft square and nearly 2ft deep.  We used the auger to loosen up the clay which sticks to everything.  Again for the same reasons we managed to complete 2 holes and got about halfway down the remaining 2 before being sleeted off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Winchcombe in the workshop one of the benches was having its planks repainted.

Also at Winchcombe in the workshop the bench in question had its scripted bench ends repainted into chocolate and cream.

Due to the absence of the principal photographer Jim the next report on the C&M blog will be at the beginning of May.