A roundup, and a trip to Broadway

News from Building Services has been a bit intermittent since Christmas, as a dose of the deadly 'Man Flu' has hit your correspondent.

Yesterday he was back in action, playing catch up, and here is what B&S have been up to.

Last Wednesday the wall by the Winchcombe weighbridge was being rebuilt, using pink mortar and bull nosed headers. It has been raised by 3 courses.

It's a shot from a passing Landie, but it counts.

Yesterday, a week later, the job was done. Doesn't it look neat, and authentic? Remember that previously the top of this wall was a rotten sleeper, which held up the neighbour's garden.

The door to the weighbridge was also refitted, after painting, and the job is now completed.




An amazing 11 volunteers turned up yesterday. It must be all the publicity they are getting via this blog, or perhaps it's because the days are finally getting longer again.

Three teams were about the railway.

 Team 1 was in the apex of the visitor centre, giving the walls in this roof space a final coat of paint.

The interior of this building will be quite modern and there is no attempt to make it look like an old railway building on the inside.

Upstairs will be a study centre.

The walls have been finished now.

This Saturday the gloss paint on the woodwork should be done, and then the floor will be covered.

The gang will then return and fit cupboards and shelves to the right hand side of the windows.

Team 2 was out in the Winchcombe car park, completing the anti dog fouling fence behind the toilet block. Back in B&S headuarters, Pat was beavering away making a final fence panel for this stretch.

At the top of the steps next to the new building the gang then excavated a hole to hold a fence post, which will support the modified gate that is going to be located here.

While at Toddington with the third gang there was an opportunity to photograph the frames of 76077 being shotblasted in a specially erected tent in the car park.

A quick look at the signal box, surrounded by scaffolding is also of interest.

We learned that the roof covering is being replaced by a contractor, and the windows will also be replaced, but later in spring when the weather is milder. This can be done without scaffolding.

The real reason for the trip to Toddington was to pick up a pile of granite kerbs that has been in storage in a corner there. These will be used in Broadway to construct an authentic forecourt pavement outside the new station building there.

The eagle eyes of the heritage group even spotted a single kerbstone by the goods shed, hidden under the green fascia board lying on the ground here. That was collected as well. We hope to have about 50m of granite kerbing at Broadway, which will give a softer, more period look than modern concrete.







The original Broadway kerbstones were in fact still in place, but buried by demolition rubble and a raised forecourt area.

Those that were found during the excavation of the building foundations were at first jettisoned, but later recovered and transported to Winchcombe, from which the Fairview lorry recovered them today.

 At Broadway the kerbstones were lifted off the Fairview lorry....

.... and stacked at the top of the drive, ready for laying. This is expected to start on Saturday, to create a footpath from the bottom of the drive up to the wall of the B&B. Concrete kerbs are being used along the drive.

Steve with his JCB passed by to dig a shallow trench for the granite ones along the side of the building.

The number of kerbstones recovered from Broadway and Toddington will not be enough to cover the full length of the building, and a complement has been sourced and ordered from a reclamation yard.

The footpath alongside the building by the forecourt will be paved in 3 x 2 foot slabs, as original, and as evidenced by a photograph we have found showing the situation before demolition.