More work at CRC

Yesterday 5 members of the B&S gang were back at the level crossing to progress the surface on the Malvern side.

The pathway from the end of platform 2 to the level crossing itself is now complete, and very neat it looks too.

Next, the bit of path right outside the signal box door was laid with its final surface of concrete, after installing a drain as well.

With that bit slowly going off, the team turned towards the crossing again, to start the path from the crossing to the signal box. Thanks to the edging stones laid last week, they can get this nice and level.

Off camera, a B&S member is mixing copious quantities of concrete, as the path gets longer and longer.

Finally, at the end of the day, the path reaches the connection to the door. Just a small panel left to do now. They didn't do the whole lot, because otherwise the signalman would be trapped inside his box. Can't have that.

A start was also made in digging a hole for another restraining post.

Next week then they will complete the far end of the signalman's walkway, as well as the central section (here on the left) for vehicle traffic. This will require a large readymix load of concrete.

Back to CRC

Another busy day was spent at CRC yesterday, working on the level crossing by the signal box.

Lining out

The first slabs go in

Some edging slabs were laid to mark the footpath line from platform 2 on to the level crossing.

Here it is completed at the end of the day, and now waiting for a topping off.

On the other side a similar path was prepared:

This one is for the signalman, for when he comes out of the box (door top right) and walks along the new path, over the crossing and on to platform 1 to exchange the tokens.

They then dug a hole - B&S like digging holes - and you can see them here with their arms well down it. It needed a good going over with the Hilti to get through the rubble in the ground.

This is for a new gate restraining post...

... which you can see here in situ, being fitted with a catch.

It gets windy round here, and we don't want the gate blowing about with all the people using the crossing.

Finally the gang dug a trench along the Malvern side of the new footpath leading from platform 2.

This is where a small retaining wall will be built to hold back the earth on the left, a lump of ground where the mess hut from the CRC2 platform construction team used to stand.

Happy were the days when we sat there drinking tea on this hump outside the mess hut, watching the activity of locos running round.

Lastly, a look at the weighbridge hut mentioned in the last blog post. You can see here that the roof is having some serious renewal being done to it to kick out the woodworm found there.

On the left are three large Grundon bins, and an authentic type solution is being worked on so that they are removed from the public eye. Plastic wheelie bins is not what we are about. More news on  that shortly we hope, in what could be a fun little project.

News roundup

The B&S gang have been busy with a large variety of (often unseen) jobs, of which we give below a selection to keep you up to date.

The end wall of the Flag & Whistle cafe, and the inside wall of the kitchen store room are now all renewed and painted up. A concrete slope to the boardroom door was also installed, so that no one has to stand in a puddle to open the door any more.

Nearby, and while at Toddington, they replaced the door to Dave Staniforth's store shed, as the old one had started to fall appart.

Moving on to Winchcombe, the two flat roofs on the Monmouth Troy building have had sealant coats added to prolong their life. The roof of the weighbridge opposite on inspection was found to be infested with woodworm which was also still active, so the decision to completely replace was agreed. While up on the roof, the top 3 courses of the chimney stack were found to be loose so these were removed, cleaned and cemented back on. Additional pointing work was found to be necessary, some other bricks were found to be loose so these were also relaid. The guttering on the other hand turned out to be in very good condition, apart from leaking joints. This has now been refurbished and awaits refixing. Most of the replacement timber has now been prepared and cut to approximate size but will not be fitted just yet as other priorities must be done first.

The weighbridge roof at winchcombe is a secondary project so it is being attended to whenever possible. Hopefully the rebuild will resume next week, as this is a total rebuild due to the woodworm infestation.

Also at Winchcombe, the new visitor centre is now externally complete, and the scaffolding has been removed, so that you can now better see what it looks like.

This is the platform side. We were told that replica sliding doors have still to be added, which will make it look the part from the visitor point of view.

This is a view under the canopy above the platform. The building is expected to be completed by the end of September. The building was erected by contractors.

At Gotherington the old events sign by the bridge was removed, and some temporary sand patches spread on the Cotswolds side platform to cover some voids detected there. It is hoped to complete the job with a more permanent surface soon, as there is now a very obvious mismatch in the colours.

Finally, the gang moved on to CRC to start work on completing the Malvern side approach to the level crossing.

With the new P2 footpath arriving here, the unsurfaced appearance of the crossing itself has become more apparent.

The first job was to remove about 10 tons of gravel, in order to make room for the new surface.

This gravel is still useable; it may be offered to Broadway to help with their P1 infill. Nothing goes to waste here!

In the foreground here is the neat new path from the rebuilt P2. What the B&S guys are doing here is, after levelling off the old surface, building new edgings around the outside, which will contain the concrete layer, which is still to come.

Here is the new edging, now in place. The signalman will also have a nice new surface to stand on, instead of the building site that he has had up to now.

The spoil heap on the other side of the tracks was also removed.

It is hoped to have the pad all concreted in before the end of September .

The gang also laid a base for the concrete fog hut (removed from Toddington), which will stand a few feet from the crossing.  Finally they rebuilt the water stop tap chamber, which was uncovered while digging the base. A new bib tap will be installed, fixed to the fog hut, so there is a water point at that end of platform 2 for use by the station staff.

In between they completed refurbishing the booking office roof at CRC, which thankfully turned out to be much easier than expected. The rain tried to delay them, but perseverance prevailed.