Beautiful loos

Just a quick picture report today - a picture speaks a thousand words.

The B&S plumbing team was busy in the Broadway toilets again today, and sent us this series of photographs for you to enjoy:

The end of a row of 5 toilets in the Ladies. The corner will be a small cupboard.

The same row in the Gents, who will have only two toilets, the planned third one having been offered up last minute for a cleaner's sink.

The Gents will have these three wash basins, with legs, all beautifully plumbed in with copper piping. Quality British plumbing still exists !

The Ladies will have 4 sinks, according to the plans. Pipework still ongoing here.

The Disabled toilet has the same heritage quarry tile floor and brick shaped wall tiles, but the fittings are a modern, compliant kit bought as a package. The handrails are dark blue.

Outside the slabs under the canopy have been completed, including the entrance to the Ladies in the LH corner here. The platform is now very useable looking, really impressive slabbing work here. Wainscotting in the Booking Hall was completed and work was going on fitting the skirting boards. There was talk of fitting picture rails too, a nice touch.
The granite kerbs on the forecourt have passed the main door, where they dipped briefly to allow wheeled access.
Extra hours are being put in by everyone in the Broadway gang, a heroic effort to get the station useable for the opening, which is marching towards us with giant steps.

Plumbing at Broadway

.... and lots of other stuff. B&S are very busy these days, so here is a little round up of the day yesterday.

In the workshop Mike continued top coating the 3 doors.  Two are for Winchcombe SB and the other is for a storeroom behind the toilet block at Toddington (the white one).

Thanks to Graham Morrison and his men the Winchcombe yard road is complete. No more bouncing over water filled potholes, brilliant. The PWay gang's Landie seems to have ground to a halt and the gang spilled out in disbelief. Whaaat?

Work has started on the anti dog fouling fence alongside the new Elf Centre.  The gate post at the top of the steps is now in.

Blue carpet tiles are now fitted in the upstairs room of the new Elf Centre.

Elsewhere upstairs a contractor was busy fitting out the kitchen area...

...and the cupboards/display cupboards to the rhs of this upper room.  

Apparently B & S are lined up to do the lhs in due course.  Presumably during a heat wave in the summer!!





However, the main job for the day was at Broadway again, where B&S are now helping on two fronts.

Austen was using the vibrating plate preparing the ground for further slab laying. The slabs have already been stacked against the wall, ready to go down with the vacuum pump parked on the right.

After laying a few rows of slabs and protecting these with scaffolding planks, Pete had a go on preparing the ground for the next two rows. There's a huge effort going on at Broadway now in slab laying, out in front as here, on the southern end behind the modesty screen, finishing off under the canopy, and still to come, the large area under the canopy extension on the northern side. Areas not slabbed will be covered in modern tarmac.

Having thoroughly vibrated the sandy area in front, Pete takes a breather to discuss progress with his namesake. The purpose of the wooden disk is as a drain protector - 'Made in Winchcombe'

Here's a little blast from the past to see what we are trying to recreate. B&S are building the pavement on the right, using the same slabs and granite kerb stones. They're doing very well, don't you think? The 5 bar fence up the drive has also been recreated.

This is the end of the (very rainy) day shot, showing another 5 rows of slabs laid. The pavement is a bit wider than before.
On the left you can see a modesty screen post, and a newly laid slab at the foot of it. A dropped concrete kerb in the foreground allows access to the side gate out of shot on the left. This wasn't here before, but was felt necessary due to the larger numbers of passengers the station will be handling in future, as well as giving quicker access to the kitchen door.

Mike and Phil worked in the toilets again.

 

Mike was busy in the Gents, where he was plumbing in the wash basins with beautiful copper pipe.

 

After considerable debate, and mainly due to the way the wastes were laid out earlier, it has been decided to fit modern wall mounted urinals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phil was fitting out the disabled toilet next door.

While it has the same heritage wall and floor tiles as the two adjacent toilets, the sanitaryware is a modern kit which exactly meets the legal requirements for a disabled toilet.

Meanwhile a contractor was fitting out the Ladies. You gents can have a priveledged look inside, but not for long....

 

The wash basins are not quite so far advanced as in the Gents. Here the frames have been positioned. 

The same toilet pans as in the gents are being fitted, with corner cut feet and basins, and lovely old fashioned handles.

Slabbing at Broadway

This week it was all hands on deck to the same place - Broadway.

Well, with the exception of one, who was painting some new doors made up. One, it is thought, is for Winchcombe signal box.

Someone has to keep the home fires burning, but the rest of the gang climbed into the truck and headed north.

The contractors putting in the new road were in early and were removing the straw put on the most recent pour, to protect it from frost.

This picture was taken from the gate, so you can see that the length left to do is getting much smaller now.

At Broadway, the gang found a new drain and gully installed to deal with water flowing off the forecourt, on the left. The actual drain runs under the footpath, on the right.

Before they could get started they had to remove a pallet full of new slabs. These had been off loaded right on top of the area they were about to work in.

 

It was a good warming up excercise. The new slab lifter could also be tried out. It has a little vacuum pump in it, and works a treat. Very clever, those Germans.

No further granite kerbs could be laid as both mini digger and operator were employed digging a new trench down the approach road for a water supply pipe.

Instead it was decided to start laying slabs behind the stretch of kerbs laid previously.

 

Here the first one goes down, next to the pile of new slabs just moved.

The second row was then prepared, with a nice layer of mix spread out by John.

The slabs were laid in the same way as in an old picture that we have, at right angles to the building.

Once you have laid the first few and have somewhere to build from, the rest gets much easier.

The vacuum slab lifter is very busy now.

A merry lunch was had by the whole gang, sitting on either ice cold granite kerbs, or more pallets of slabs. Unfortunately you might start off sitting in the sun but as the day progresses the sun moves round and you finish your lunch in the cold shadows.

Visitors come in a steady stream and like to have a chat, which makes everything very sociable. Here John C is having a day on the GWSR and is enjoying a rest from digging in fence poles, he told us. We also learned that he was a big fan of our new Hayles Abbey halt, having both alighted from and joined trains there. We almost signed him up as a member too - maybe one more push, next time.

After lunch slab laying resumed, now in the shadow.

Here the team is already on row four.

At the end of the day the team had laid down 5 rows. 

 

You can now see what it's all going to look like.

Mickey also came from a day's work in the toilets to see how things were getting on. Sand is put down to achieve the final pre-slabbing level. Further kerb stones are in the foreground.

Here's a sideways on view of the job done on Wednesday. The very pale new slabs should darken after a while.

A bit more (black) infill was also brought in by dumper to get the levels right. The kerbs look nice and level. The trench for them in the foreground still needs further exavation, up to the B&B property line.

B&S member Mickey has spent several days at Broadway with Phil fitting the sanitaryware.

Here two corner cut pans and cisterns have been fitted. The third, planned to sit on the right, was sacrificed for a cleaner's sink instead.

Cubicle dividers will be fitted in due course, following a question from a visitor. The first answer provided shocked him a little; 'our toilets will be open plan !'

Note also the copper piping.

On the left in the Gents as you go in is a line of heritage Edwardian basins with authentic taps.

We learned that the legs were more expensive than the basins, but don't they just look the part ! They also provide useful support at the front.

A modern hand drier is on the wall.

Laying granite kerbs at Broadway

Two centres of activity for the gang today:

Winchcombe

Ken stayed in the workshop to continue painting primer on the CRC fence panels.  Last week saw one side thus painted on 2 panels.

Mike continued painting primer on the other side of 3 wooden doors which we think are destined for Winchcombe.

In Winchcombe yard a new roadway was being laid in heavy duty concrete. On the left is the S&T coach, and on the right the entrance to C&W.

Broadway

At Broadway the main gang was laying the authentic granite kerb stones. They had been retrieved from Winchcombe and Toddington, and stacked along the drive.

The mini digger was equipped with a special grab - like a pair of sugar tongs - and with this Pete was able to pick up the kerbs one by one and transport them to the site where they were being laid. Up the drive the edging slabs are concrete, with modern tarmac.

At the corner of the building the concrete and tarmac stop, and the footpath becomes more heritage, using granite kerbs and 3x2 slabs for the footpath surface, all along the front of the building.

The kerbs are laid in a trench, on a bed of concrete.

The driveway and forecourt will be tarmaced, but at a later date.

Here is Pete in the mini digger, and with a heavy kerbstone in the grab, a bit further along. He is manoeuvering to ge himself end on to the job, backwards and forwards, while at the same time all sorts of traffic tries to squeeze past behind him.

Gingerly one of the slabs is dropped on to its bed of concrete, while other slabs, dropped earlier and pressure washed clean by Jim, await their turn in the foreground.

At the beginning of the authentic stretch a concrete strip is laid to divide modern tarmac from heritage style 3x2 slabs.

The dropped kerb in the foreground leads to a double gate in the spearhead fencing, as a secondary access point to the platforms.

Mixing in with Pete's manoeuverings in the mini digger and the comings and goings of visitor cars and deliveries is the little Thwaites dumper bringing infill behind the newly laid row of kerbs.

Near the end of the day the row of kerbs was approaching the front door. The 4 windows in the foreground belong to the cafe.

The end of the day shot shows the run of kerbs so far. The channel for them beyond still needs to be dug out, and another delivery of granite kerbs is expected shortly from a reclamation centre.

In the afternoon a pile of new slabs was delivered, seen in the middle here.

 

The Heras fencing has been put back, and the infill spread out to the correct depth, ready for slab laying.

The gang will be back at Broadway to continue on Saturday.   

 

All the heritage style toilet fittings and sanitaryware was delivered during the afternoon, a whole LWB Transit full.  

 

Metal Micky and Phil have offered to go in on Monday and start to fit/plumb it all in to the three toilets in question.  Not in one day though!!