Work on the paths

Despite an inauspicious start to the day weather-wise, the team did well and work on the concrete footpaths was further advanced. Ken also spent the day creosoting the fence between the SB and the end of the C&W building.

Phil, Martyn and Jim worked on the path leading to the end door of the C&W building, while Vince and Pete tackled the larger area which leads to the barrow crossing.

Here you can see them making a start on the shuttering on the path leading to the carpenter's workshop in C&W.

A few yards away similar shuttering was being paced on the wider path leading from the roadway to the barrow crossing.

The shuttering on the wider path from the roadway needed a lot more digging out, by hand this week as the mini digger had returned to base. It was very laborious, and care had to be taken not to damage a duct that crossed the site.

Eventually the C&W team were ready for the first load of concrete, which was mixed in-house of course, some distance away. It was decided to pour the concrete in three separate sections, as there are three separate gradients involved. Complicated, but not beyond the team's skills.

Installing the last piece of shuttering by the roadway.

The second section is filled in with concrete.

While a remainder is poured into the final section (to be completed next week) the second section is finished off to give a nice level edge.

All this time Jim H was on the mixer and then ferrying concrete around, so was unseen, behind the scenes as it were. Concrete and cameras don't really mix.

On the newly excavated section from the roadway to the barrow crossing Pete checks the shuttering for level on the LH side.

Not a lot to see here, but it's the path leading to the carpenters' workshop, with two out of the three sections filled with concrete, and covered over at the end of the day. A further session of rain in the afternoon did not help.

When the concreting has been done on this bit of connecting path the intention is to lay a smaller pathway of 2x2 slabs to connect the toilets with the roadway.

After last week's start on retrieving the 2x2 slabs, another two trips were made yesterday.

John and Barry went back to Bidford, where they met Jim No.2, and together they collected another 70 slabs over the two trips.

Here is a picture of them being unloaded after arrival at Winchcombe.

The slabs were unloaded by the B&S shed and carefully stacked.

One more trip next week should see the conclusion of this very useful recovery exercise.

 

While all this was going on, Jim H had a few moments to snap the trains passing through Winchcombe yesterday. This one shows P&O just collecting the token from the signalman.

Just before that, our guest loco 70013 Oliver Cromwell drifted into the station, to wait for the crossing train headed by P&O to arrive.

Large and small slabs

Under brilliant sunshine the gang continued with two tasks today.

Firstly, the concrete paths leading from the new road.

Last week a start was made on digging out the route to the barrow crossing. The next bit, to the actual road, is rather larger, so Adam was hired in with the mini digger. We see him here just getting going, the width of the path having been marked out in yellow.

With powered means it wasn't too long before the heavily compacted surface was broken and dug out.

In the background thoughts are being addressed to filling in last week's dig with actual concrete.

A view from the barrow crossing end, as Adam has manoeuvered on to the road for the final bit of excavating.


In the foreground shuttering has been put up round the first five feet, ready for filling in from a rather distant concrete mixing area, by the B&S shed.

B&S made themselves a nice sand and ballast storage area at the back end of their shed, and you see them here shoveling large quantities of ballast into the trusty little mixer, ready for barrowing over to the crossing. Mike is 'Maitre d' mixer'. Shorts were de rigeur on this hot day of course.

Next to Mike, Jim H was on the barrow run, while Pete was on the receiving end here, and tamped down each barrow load.

With Jim behind the camera, Mike on the mixer and Pete deciding to reveal his presence only with the end of a rake, it looks as if there is nobody there. Not so.

Ah, here is Pete, now rakeless, finishing off the surface of the first 5 feet cast into place.

The next bit is in the foreground, now fully dug out.

They then decided to call lunch, and let the mix go off a bit.

This is what the new bit looked like when seen along the fence line, looking towards Toddington and along the signal box.

Let's hope no one walks across it until it's dry. That's a busy barrow crossing otherwise, it's even had 6 ton dumpers over it when the ballast was renewed between the platforms.

A start was also made on concreting in the final section by the painting shed delivery door.

An overview at the end of the day. The front bit is now dug out, and the five feet nearest the crossing freshly concreted in, with a barrier on it to deter anyone with commemorative footprints in mind. (or handprints, as in Hollywood)

A somewhat unseen but nonetheless essential activity exercised by Mike, John and Jim (2) was the collection of a big pile of 2x2 ft slabs from an address in Bidford.

They went twice, collecting 70 slabs in total over the two runs with the truck. Amazingly, there are still plenty more to collect - that will  have to be another day.

These slabs come up from time to time, but not always when you want them, so when an opportunity presents itself, you have to jump to it. Many slabs for Broadway were collected like this over several years, and all used up there, lastly from a garden in nearby Alderton.

During the day, the whole gang stood back to admire our gala visitor S160 No. 5197 as it rumbled through Winchcombe several times.

Jim reports that approximately 2120 of these beasts were built by several firms in the USA for the war effort (this one by LIMA in 1945), and there are 8 surviving in the UK alone.

More work on the paths

With our usual B&S reporter held back by by grandparent duties, it was up to your PWay blogger between jobs to snatch a few photographs of the busy bees at Winchcombe.

A second gang had formed to start digging out the foundations for a concrete walkway to the level crossing.

The yard car park is much in demand these days, certainly noticed when the PWay Telehandler tried to get through the parked cars with forkfuls of concrete sleepers.

Did your car have a large dent in its roof?



Access to B&S's site today however was reserved using these plastic barriers.

Again the ground was so hard they had to use an SDS drill to get into it.

The material was then further loosened with a mattock, just off to the right of the picture.

Pete shoveled it into the wheelbarrow, on the left. Yep, the whole action is on this picture. No, it's not a pose, they really did work this hard.

When the first hole was (thought to be) big enough, they measured it just to be sure.

Is that 5 feet, or shall we have six?

Ahead is the Santa bay, at the moment filled with some rather attractive and freshly repainted goods vehicles.

Meanwhile, down by the other hole.... an interesting panel of concrete was being readied here. It slopes down to the back door of the paint shop. On a different slope altogether is the slope down from the road - where they meet it should be an interesting transition.

Here they are busy excavating the last bits from the hole started last week, and fitting the first bit of concrete shuttering.

'When is the concrete lorry coming then', we asked.

'There's no concrete lorry, we are mixing the concrete ourselves'.

And true enough, it was all mixed and barrowed in by hand, brave lot.

'Where are you going with that plank, Pete?'      'I'm off to make a film....'

The concrete was being barrowed over to here.

The path to the Gents has been blocked off with a barrier. Miscreants will be identified by their boot marks in the wet concrete, you have been warned !

Here the first section, that interesting slope, is almost complete. Just a few more shovel fulls to fill some shallow gaps are being applied.

A little overview here, to locate all those little bits of paths to various doors. Last week the two paths on the far right were laid, to the main door and an emergency exit. The new concrete paths were immediately tested on Wednesday with - an emergency exit. Just like the days of Red Robbo - everybody out!
Last of all a spaceman rushed out - it was our very own Eddy, dressed in a rather intimidating dust mask. Hot teas no doubt left standing, to slowly get cold....

The guys haven't finished yet. Next week they will complete the bit from the door here to the roadway. It seems the double doors in the picture are used for the delivery of heavy materials to C&W on some sort of trolley, which prefers a nice smooth surface. Your wish is our command.

Next, a footpath alongside the roadway is being contemplated. Watch this space.

More concrete

Nine people out and about yesterday, a lovely sunny day and great weather in which to lay concrete.

First of all, the two paths excavated last week were filled in on Saturday:

Path to fire door

Path to main entrance

So now you can have dry and above all clean feet walking from the main roadway right into the building. That will be appreciated next winter, and people will soon forget what a mudbath it used to be here next to the C&W shed.

Then we had Bruce and Pat replacing the wooden picket fence from the visitor centre, past the signal box and to the corner of the C&W building.

While this was happening at Winchcombe, a detachment of 3 went to Broadway in the Transit to collect a pile of Scaffolding boards. This pile used to live in the cafe, which is now (nearly) free of kit to allow work to continue with the fit out. Just a pile of plasterboard to remove now.

Jim set about collecting the scaffolding boards with great vigour, and you did well to stand a respectable distance away if you didn't want to be swept off the platform in Eric Sykes style.

The poor little Transit was soon groaning under a pile of scaffolding boards.

Q: How do you know it's the B&S Transit?

A: Because the cupholders are filled with 6 inch galvanised nails !

We have to say that Jim was ably assisted by Mike and Austen, but they successfully eluded the cameraman during the entire loading operation. But they were there.

Not long after they came back for a second helping, this time for 29 trestles, also from the cafe. It feels really roomy in there now, and nice and bright.

Jim did catch Austen and Mike at last, here in conversation behind the truck.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing they were all successfully stowed on the back of the Transit, in some sort of logical, space saving sequence.

While this shuttling was going on, the others back at Winchcombe had the back breaking job of digging out the next bit of future concrete pathway.

Pete, John, Barry and Ken had a good go at the excavation for the ramp to the double doors of the paintshop.

We like Pete's change from winter to summer attire (on the right). Unfortunately temperatures have plummetted again at the time of writing, so the seasonal clothing selection may need further review.

Quite a big hole needed digging out until the edge of the roadway was reached. Here they are having a breather.

They had to resort to an SDS drill to hack out the surface, compacted hard after 35 years of use.

After lunch they were assisted by the Broadway 3, so the job accelerated a bit then. The hole is now just about dug, with just a bit of fettling left to do on the levels when the shuttering is fitted.

Pete then tidied up at the end of the day.

Leaks and concrete

Some jobs done at Winchcombe on Wednesday, with apologies for the delayed posting, caused by a well deserved holiday for your poster.

Wednesday was that day with heavy showers, but nonetheless 7 members of the gang turned up. Work proceded, interupted by cloudbursts and ducking and diving for shelter as they came down.

Mike and Ken took the Transit to Batsford Timber to collect even more wooden fence rails and palings.

Jim H and Barry changed a tap in the Winchcombe Ladies, which was stuck in the 'open' position. No more wasted water now.

The visitor centre has a plan chest in it, but its drawers did not function well. Sagging caused by a heavy book case on top of the chest caused the drawers to stick. Jim and Barry emptied the drawers and stuck the bottoms back into the side frames.

Then a leak in the awning over the Gents toilet was investigated.

The rainwater here had been leaking for some time already.

A short length of fascia board was replaced, but all in all this is a temporary fix until the roof dries out and can be permanently repaired.

Work also proceded on laying the concrete connecting footpaths from the new concrete roadway to the C&W shed.
In the background is the blue S&T coach. It's a rather dilapidated Mk1 which has been their home for many years, which the railway intends to replace with better and more permanent facilities in the near future.

These two pictures show the shuttering placed by the gang in front of the C&W shed. One in front of the main entrance, and another in front of a fire door. These were due to be concreted on Saturday, weather permitting. There are two others still left to do.

 

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Should a volunteer need a holiday from the railway? He's retired, after all. Why yes, he has a family. But it proved irresistible to 'look over the fence' and see what other railways are up to.

 

A narrowboat holiday along the Mon and Brec provided the opportunity to visit the Torpantau tunnel site on the former Brecon to Merthyr railway.

Isn't this stunning scenery? This is just 90 mins from the GWSR, and you are looking at an American Baldwin barking up a steep hill to Torpantau summit station.

This plucky little loco was comprehensively derailed in South Africa, declared a write off, but was shipped back to Wales and restored for service on the BMR.

Here it is shortly after leaving the southern terminus at Pant.

The Baldwin is a surprisingly noisy locomotive too. Hear for yourself on this video:

https://youtu.be/naapXctI_IM