Wednesday saw a gang of 6 on site, and a start was made on laying the concrete blocks. About 60 were laid, which is quite a row. More was also done on the front wall of the old slope area , but this still proved problematic, and had to be taken down and relaid or adjusted twice.
Some back filling was started in the same area, and hopefully now the novices know what to do progress will be faster next time.
Two pillars were raised in front of the concrete blocks ready for the facing bricks to go in next week for the first three rows.
I'm sorry there are no pictures this week, so as a consolation prize, here is a historical one by John Diston, taken on 12th October 1963.
Can you guess where it was taken? Any other comments you have about it? (I know where it was, but I'm not giving it away :-) )
Over to you!
Could it be Cheltenham Lansdown station?
ReplyDeleteTerry
Malvern Road?
ReplyDeleteI wondered whether with an ex GWR engine on SR stock, it could be Reading?
ReplyDeleteit is Lansdowne Road I hope , is the Castle 'The Gloucestershire Regiment' with the line below saying something like a date ? john M
ReplyDeleteIt is Cheltenham Lansdown. The canopy roofs are a little different now but the supports are the same ones. The Loco is 7005 Sir Edward Elgar and below the name it says Castle Class, not a date John. If you save the image, the filename prompt has all this info. You'll have to be more cunning Jo.
ReplyDeleteDrat!
ReplyDeleteOK, 7005 took the train over here, but which loco brought it in then?
45552 bought the train in, one of 6 used on the round trip from london
ReplyDeleteAn interesting picture - it shows a Great Western loco hauling Southern stock (the first carriage looks like a Bullied 'Toplight' design) at an LMS station.
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting to see how short the platforms were at Cheltenham Lansdown at the time. At some point in the 1960s platform 2 in the foreground was extended over the area occupied by the siding - it's still possible to see the join between the 'new' and old sections.
As a child, going on holiday with my family, I saw the old Midland Railway glass canopies being demolished. This must've been around 1969. We were waiting on the station for The Cornishman (which by that time was running via the Midland route) while the glass was being taken out and replaced - as I recall - with some rather flimsy hardboard-type stuff. I remember this because some panes of glass fell onto the platform and shattered with a huge crash - and some very colourful language from above!
We still talk abut this incident in my family. I suppose we were lucky not to be hit by the falling glass.
It's amazing to think the work was going on while the station was open and in use. I don't even think they'd cordoned off the work area on the platform. Heath & Safety hadn't been invented then, obviously!