Men in boots

Today was the day a big lorry load of concrete came.

The path from roadway to barrow crossing is a wide one and too big to be filled with hand mixed concrete (even with Jim shovelling!) so a lorry load was ordered.

Now you can see the reason for the boots, you have to get stuck right in there and get them dirty.

The lorry came just as they were about to have their coffee, so Mike was dispatched to get some on a tray and in this way the main gang could carry on with the raking.

The gang made good progress, aided by a special hole left for Austen to stand in and continue tamping.

The end was soon reached, and a very neat job it looks too.

At the close of play it was all in. The temptation to leave a Hollywood style handprint was resisted by yours truly, but it needed a lot of willpower. Somebody had also thought ahead, and brought a sleeved notice prohibiting those very same naughty thoughts.

 

 

While the concrete pour was going on, work continued behind the scenes on these post 1935 'shirt button' period bench ends.

Ken was creosoting again, and why not from the comfort of a garden chair?

At the back of the signal box this cable pit was investigated by Vaughan. It looked a little unfinished.

It was decided to give the pit an extra course of bricks, so that a lid could be fitted.

All that is needed now is to trim the result, and fit the lids next week.

Pete has gone off on a long 3 week holiday, but the gang won't be idle, as he has left a long list of jobs for the others to sort out. Penalties for those not yet done when he returns were not made public...

The paths continue

A good nine volunteers today on a glorious, sunny day which made it a real pleasure to work at Winchcombe.

There were several different activities, the first of which was to barrow 20 of the newly collected slabs over to platform 2. Here Jim has received the go ahead to use the crossing. Note the immaculate covered GWR van in the background.

The 20 slabs were stacked on the other side for the time being, and are destined for a new path to the water treatment plant.

Back in the shed, Ken was busy repairing the concrete mixer, which was needed urgently to make the mix to finish off the path to the back end of the C&W workshop.









Jim was on the mixer then, off camera as the latter was firmly in his back pocket as he shoveled away.

Phil then tipped the result into the last panel of the rather complicated path to the C&W shed rear door.
It's a tricky manoeuvre to get the 100kg barrow up in the air, changing over from pulling at the handles to pushing, while the front wheel is trying to roll away with the load all the time.

Barry adjusting the gate catch to compensate for a slight drop

Phil tips the first load into the last panel

 

 Finally, when the last panel had been filled in, Austen and Phil leveled it off to a perfect finish.

And there we have it - job finished. Now to test the three planes with a marble, to see if it rolls from the road straight in through the door.

Next - the shuttering and reinforcement matting for the road to the barrow crossing.

It took quite a long time to get the shuttering correctly dug in to the right level, what with all the stones embedded in the ground.

It doesn't help if your colleagues keep running over it with heavy barrows either.

All finished.

Vaughan puts down the reinforcing mats.

At the end of the day the path to the barrow crossing was ready to receive the Readymix lorry.

Also not forgetting Mike on fence painting - why not in comfort - and also some initial preparation was undertaken to fit covers to a cable pit at the rear of the signal box (top of picture).

Lastly, a start was made on a footpath to run between the C&W shed and the new roadway.

The reward for the day was coffee under the canopy in front of the coffeepot.

Have you all got a platform ticket?

We noticed a very similar picture here showing the PWay gang - there is clearly something very attractive about a sociable chat here on a hot day.

Particularly when you can watch the blue King here glide in majestically. Just a few more days now, catch him quick !