Fences, fences

Three groups out today, two at Toddington and two in the shed at Winchcombe.

Toddington 1

This is the result of the previous fence replacement, all new wood.

In order to further stabilise the wooden fence, it was decided to add grandfather posts.

Here are Rod and Terry installing one of the posts.
Grandfather posts are made of concrete and have holes for bolts in them. They give fence posts extra stability, and as they do not rot, they last longer in the ground level area where the decay usually occurs.

This photograph shows two of the grandfather posts in place, and in the foreground some of the Postmix that was used to fix them in the ground.

Toddington 2

The second team at Toddington was working on the renewal of the picket fence, which is now almost completed. They did the easy bit in earlier weeks; now they are up against the second hand book stall which is parked really close to the fence.

Pete, John, Jim H, Jim M, and Austen set up a little workshop on the 'Parlour Road' where the final two panels needed cutting to shape to cope with a change in the ground level.

This photograph shows how the ground dips away, and the second to last panel had to have a diagonal slash cut into it.

Jim M on the Kango

An area of ground also had to be broken up with a Kango to allow the fitting of a new post.

The new post was duly concreted in. Although the fence is now fully in place, another 4 posts need replacement as they are rotten at the base. That's a lot of hard work with the Kango and the mixer. The ground below is difficult to dig as it is full of debris.

In this last one you can see the final part of the job completed. The change in ground level by the concrete pad, and the proximity of the mobile bookshop are evident.

Winchcombe

Here a new fenced compound is being constructed next to the Weighbridge hut. (an original from 1905).
The fence is being put up to hide the green Grundon bins, which otherwise detract from the GWR atmosphere we are trying to achieve.

It looks like another 8 panels are needed to finish this one off.

A new title

A change in the blog header today, to mark the morphing of the Building and Services department into the new Construction and Maintenance department. Members of the former Broadway Area Group have been invited to join. The blog address will remain the same, so don't worry, your bookmarks will still work.

Four volunteers from Broadway came yesterday to help with the repair of a fence - see below.

To begin with, a quick shot of two short benches made up in the C&M building at Winchcombe. They have cast iron seat ends of two different generations. The upper one is the original scripted type in use until 1934, and the lower one is the more modern 'shirt button' type, which was in use for a relatively short period from 1934 to 1942. The company was nationalised in 1948, and a few seat ends were even cast with 'WR' on them. So one needs to pick ones period.

One bench will be placed outside the Winchcombe visitor centre (Winchcombe being a 1950s era station) and the other in the picnic area at Broadway, a station of 1904.

The Transit van was out and about today with John and Jim H shuttling things hither and thither. Firstly to Toddington with some concrete posts for a fencing job tackled by Rod, Terry, Ron and Keith. Then to Broadway with a supply of 2'x2' slabs, and to collect the motorised auger for use at Toddington.

A dip in the roof of the admin Portacabin has allowed water to accumulate.

A quick inspection of a leaking roof in the admin building was made, before returning with the van to Winchcombe, where some roof sealant was picked up. This was taken to Toddington to patch up the leaking area.

After patching up the leaking roof, the old car park fencing panels were collected and taken to the loco dept lighting up store on the other side of the Toddington site. There followed a quick trip to the building site next to The Pheasant pub to collect some broken pallets for the loco dept.

Here you can see the Transit backing carefully along the approach road leading to the store of pallets behind the camera.

Finally the Transit went back to Broadway again to collect surplus Heras fencing and scaffolding planks to take them to Winchcombe for storage.

In the workshop Bruce continued with his running in board and Ken was making up more fence panels.  Barrie was at Toddington surveying his next job, a replacement door to the C & W store on P2.

Meanwhile, Pete, Mike, Austen and Jim M were digging a hole in P1 at Winchcombe looking for a  water leak.

They found it OK, and know what is required, but to fix it will mean switching off the station water supply. This will therefore have to wait for a non running day. The leak is only small and not considered urgent for the moment. 

The same gang then went on to start digging holes for a new fence to hide the Grundon bins in the car park at Winchcombe.

Whilst at Toddy it was discovered that a blue badge driver had run into the brand new fencing installed only last week.  

 Luckily the contact with the fence was made where a post still needs to be replaced, so no lasting damage has occurred.

To close with here are some shots of the Broadway gang of 4 at work on the fence repair at Toddington. Due to the height of the fence here the post holes need to give the taller posts a good foundation.

The auger has seen plenty of use at Broadway, so the team is well experienced. Here we see them excavating the holes for the tall fence posts.

Whiffy Toddington

Almost all of the gang of 11 worked at Toddington today, with just one volunteer beavering away in the workshop.

By the car park at Toddington work continued replacing 25 fencing panels with a stock of new, manufactured in the B&S workshop at Winchcombe.

The run of new, starting at the loco shed end, has almost reached the station end now. At the end of the day there were just 3 or 4 left to do.

A few of the posts had rotten feet, and these have had to be replaced as well. With some difficulty, as they were embedded in concrete.

Here is Martin trying to break out the concrete from a rotted post, using an SDS drill.

In this warm but slightly less sunny weather lunch outdoors is very pleasant. Here is the gang with their picnics next to the Flag & Whistle, and not far from their next job - behind the toilets. Nice.

Also with this nice warm weather, the back of the toilets has been a bit whiffy. It's hard to tell exactly where a smell is coming from, so three potential sources were tackled.

Firstly, the breather pipe here was extended above the guttering (grey elbow bend) so that any smells being vented would do so higher up.

Secondly, an old hole in the concrete was identified. This was filled with new concrete, as visible by the dark grey patch at the bottom of the pipe.

Finally, Martin and Phil installed a new manhole cover. That should do the job, it's now air tight.  Or rather, smell tight.

Let's hope that cured the whiffy problem. No doubt another picnic in close proximity will be arranged for next week, to test the new arrangements.

Lastly, we should not forget Bruce, the stalwart who stayed behind in the hot B&S workshop at Winchcombe. Bruce continued with the manufacture of a replacement running in board for Winchcombe. From now on, no more peeling plywood letters, the next generation will be aluminium castings made from 12 inch GWR originals. We have already used replica GWR castings at Broadway and at Hayles Abbey halt.


BTW, did you know you can get an email advising you when a new blog entry has been made, by adding your email address into the box at the top right hand of the blog page. Works a treat.

Concrete and picket fences

Nine B&S volunteers today, working in the heat that we all know.

In the shady but hot workshop at Winchcombe Mike and Ken were making more picket fence panels. With them was Bruce, who continued with the fabrication of the new Winchcombe running in board.

The gang has been working two days a week and this first picture shows them at work on Saturday. Pete is just finishing off the retaining wall outside the C&W container, while an initial dose of concrete has already been poured.

On Wednesday the concrete had dried and looked like this. Just a small stretch still to go.

But not for long. Here they are filling in the last little bit, with the concrete mixer moved right in front of the site. The gang have also acquired a new (blue) electric mixer, whereas before an unreliable petrol one was used. It was used straight away!

And, hey presto, that last stretch is filled in as well. Now there is a concrete surface all the way from the C&W main entrance to the pad outside their container.

Pete is just smoothing over the very last bit here, got to make a professional job of it.

Jim M and Austen were on handrail duty again, and this one is by the Gents toilet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Toddington, the fence panel team was busy again.

 

 

 

 

 

With new panels just arriving at the bottom of the picture, Vaughan can be seen removing the life expired ones a little further along.

 

 

 

The new panels were brought up on the truck and before mounting them Vaughan made some last minute, on the job adjustments.

 

 

An overview in this one showing another 4 panels installed. In total, 10 out of the 25 panels have now been replaced with new.

Note that there is collaboration with the Friends of Toddington, who have already started to paint the first few panels.

An impressive stockpile at Winchcombe, where another 12 panels await delivery to Toddington.

These two pictures show some regrettable damage done to the top half of Honeybourne signal box, the one that is located on the western edge of the car park.

It seems that a bus reversed into it during the recent bus gala. The B&S team made it safe by removing loose tiles displaced by the shove from the bus. Unfortunately the cast iron gutters on the corner were also smashed.

 

 

 

 

 

Vaughan and Jim H were out and about too. First they collected the blue electric mixer donated by a supporter, then they took a delivery of handrails and fittings to Winchcombe. Then back to Toddington to assist with the fitting of the 4 fence panels.

Lastly they fitted some caps to the sewer vent pipes at Toddington, in an attempt to limit the smell reported in the Flag & Whistle area. Another consequence of the very hot summer we've been having, and here's hoping they found a cure.

At Toddington

Two teams today, one at Winchcombe, and one at Toddington, ten people in all. At Winchcombe Ken and Mike were making more wooden fence panels in the workshop, where Bruce was also working on the bench and the renewal of the Winchcombe running in board.

While Ken and Mike were manufacturing - they are about half way now - the second half of the team was starting to fix them to the long car park fence at Toddington.

Here John can be seen mounting the first panel.

 

By lunch time the first three panels were in place at the loco shed end.

More panels were fitted after lunch, and this shot shows the stretch of renewed paneling at the end of the day.

GWR spearhead fencing would look more authentic here, and last much longer, but needs must.

Mounting the paneling allowed your photographer to be in exactly the right place for this fine shot of 4270 rumbling into Toddington.

During the day, Barrie, John and Jim H took two replacement signal box locking room doors to Toddington, together with their frames. These two pictures show the doors being fitted. The SB windows also need to be replaced; that will be a job for the closed season as it requires scaffolding to be placed on the running line.

A manhole cover was also taken to Toddington. This will go behind the toilet block.

At Winchcombe Jim M completed the second of the handrails started last week, and made a start on the third one. In the picture the third one can be seen by the C&W workshop exit.

Phil, Mike and Pete continued with the brick retaining wall. This will run parallel to the roadway up to the C&W storage container just visible at the back, so that the area between the container, the wall and the roadway can be concreted. 

In the picture Phil adjusts the manhole cover for level.

 

 

It was hot again - now 6 weeks on the trot, what a brilliant summer - and the person working the hardest in the heat was Mike on the mixer.

No need to go to Benidorm for your tan, just come and volunteer a bit on the railway.

Eager beneficiaries of Mike's concrete were Pete and Phil, who started a first panel of concrete behind their new retaining wall, by the C&W main entrance.

Made any more yet, Mike?

5 jobs

10 volunteers, and it was hot too. There were no fewer than 5 jobs on the go, so here they are in order:

Job No.1: Refelting the roof of the compressor shed. Better in the sun than in the pouring rain...

Jim H, Phil and John did this. It seemed to require a vast amount of space, as the PWay Landie had difficulty getting past.

Beep - beeeeeep !

First of all the old felt was stripped off.

A strip of new felt was laid on the roof, and the sticky stuff applied

The front strip was soon on, nice and smooth.

And then the second strip and, Hey Presto, a newly refelted compressor shed.

Enjoy, C&W !






Job No. 2: Installation of hand rails by the C&W shed entrance.

 Here the holes for the first post are being drilled.

Further up came the second post. These hand rails will come into their own when there is snow and ice.






The rear handrail was fitted in this picture, while the foremost one was drilled and the posts planted. More on this next time.











Job No. 3: A foundation for a small brick retaining wall was laid.

Here the bottom is prepared. It will run between the C&W storage container and their main entrance.

Here is the foundation completed, ready for brick laying next week.

The wall should also give those two drain covers a bit more meaning, rather than have them stick out of the ground as up to now.

Pete, John, Phil and Jim were on this, with Jim on the distant mixer and out of shot (sadly)

Job No. 4: Carpentry work

Barrie fitted the two new doors for Toddington signal box into their frames.

Afterwards, he and Bruce prepared the timber for the replacement Winchcombe running in board.

Job No. 5 - Fencing panel production. 

 

Mike and Ken worked on this production line.

25 of these panels are needed to renew the fence line along the car park at Toddington. Originally this would have been in GWR spearhead fencing.

 One completed panel is now on site, and 7 more await collection.

Finally, a photograph of the finished footpath leading to the gents by the C&W rear exit. This was done a week earlier, but due to camera failure there were no pictures. 

Must try harder.