Concrete and picket fences

Nine B&S volunteers today, working in the heat that we all know.

In the shady but hot workshop at Winchcombe Mike and Ken were making more picket fence panels. With them was Bruce, who continued with the fabrication of the new Winchcombe running in board.

The gang has been working two days a week and this first picture shows them at work on Saturday. Pete is just finishing off the retaining wall outside the C&W container, while an initial dose of concrete has already been poured.

On Wednesday the concrete had dried and looked like this. Just a small stretch still to go.

But not for long. Here they are filling in the last little bit, with the concrete mixer moved right in front of the site. The gang have also acquired a new (blue) electric mixer, whereas before an unreliable petrol one was used. It was used straight away!

And, hey presto, that last stretch is filled in as well. Now there is a concrete surface all the way from the C&W main entrance to the pad outside their container.

Pete is just smoothing over the very last bit here, got to make a professional job of it.

Jim M and Austen were on handrail duty again, and this one is by the Gents toilet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Toddington, the fence panel team was busy again.

 

 

 

 

 

With new panels just arriving at the bottom of the picture, Vaughan can be seen removing the life expired ones a little further along.

 

 

 

The new panels were brought up on the truck and before mounting them Vaughan made some last minute, on the job adjustments.

 

 

An overview in this one showing another 4 panels installed. In total, 10 out of the 25 panels have now been replaced with new.

Note that there is collaboration with the Friends of Toddington, who have already started to paint the first few panels.

An impressive stockpile at Winchcombe, where another 12 panels await delivery to Toddington.

These two pictures show some regrettable damage done to the top half of Honeybourne signal box, the one that is located on the western edge of the car park.

It seems that a bus reversed into it during the recent bus gala. The B&S team made it safe by removing loose tiles displaced by the shove from the bus. Unfortunately the cast iron gutters on the corner were also smashed.

 

 

 

 

 

Vaughan and Jim H were out and about too. First they collected the blue electric mixer donated by a supporter, then they took a delivery of handrails and fittings to Winchcombe. Then back to Toddington to assist with the fitting of the 4 fence panels.

Lastly they fitted some caps to the sewer vent pipes at Toddington, in an attempt to limit the smell reported in the Flag & Whistle area. Another consequence of the very hot summer we've been having, and here's hoping they found a cure.

At Toddington

Two teams today, one at Winchcombe, and one at Toddington, ten people in all. At Winchcombe Ken and Mike were making more wooden fence panels in the workshop, where Bruce was also working on the bench and the renewal of the Winchcombe running in board.

While Ken and Mike were manufacturing - they are about half way now - the second half of the team was starting to fix them to the long car park fence at Toddington.

Here John can be seen mounting the first panel.

 

By lunch time the first three panels were in place at the loco shed end.

More panels were fitted after lunch, and this shot shows the stretch of renewed paneling at the end of the day.

GWR spearhead fencing would look more authentic here, and last much longer, but needs must.

Mounting the paneling allowed your photographer to be in exactly the right place for this fine shot of 4270 rumbling into Toddington.

During the day, Barrie, John and Jim H took two replacement signal box locking room doors to Toddington, together with their frames. These two pictures show the doors being fitted. The SB windows also need to be replaced; that will be a job for the closed season as it requires scaffolding to be placed on the running line.

A manhole cover was also taken to Toddington. This will go behind the toilet block.

At Winchcombe Jim M completed the second of the handrails started last week, and made a start on the third one. In the picture the third one can be seen by the C&W workshop exit.

Phil, Mike and Pete continued with the brick retaining wall. This will run parallel to the roadway up to the C&W storage container just visible at the back, so that the area between the container, the wall and the roadway can be concreted. 

In the picture Phil adjusts the manhole cover for level.

 

 

It was hot again - now 6 weeks on the trot, what a brilliant summer - and the person working the hardest in the heat was Mike on the mixer.

No need to go to Benidorm for your tan, just come and volunteer a bit on the railway.

Eager beneficiaries of Mike's concrete were Pete and Phil, who started a first panel of concrete behind their new retaining wall, by the C&W main entrance.

Made any more yet, Mike?

5 jobs

10 volunteers, and it was hot too. There were no fewer than 5 jobs on the go, so here they are in order:

Job No.1: Refelting the roof of the compressor shed. Better in the sun than in the pouring rain...

Jim H, Phil and John did this. It seemed to require a vast amount of space, as the PWay Landie had difficulty getting past.

Beep - beeeeeep !

First of all the old felt was stripped off.

A strip of new felt was laid on the roof, and the sticky stuff applied

The front strip was soon on, nice and smooth.

And then the second strip and, Hey Presto, a newly refelted compressor shed.

Enjoy, C&W !






Job No. 2: Installation of hand rails by the C&W shed entrance.

 Here the holes for the first post are being drilled.

Further up came the second post. These hand rails will come into their own when there is snow and ice.






The rear handrail was fitted in this picture, while the foremost one was drilled and the posts planted. More on this next time.











Job No. 3: A foundation for a small brick retaining wall was laid.

Here the bottom is prepared. It will run between the C&W storage container and their main entrance.

Here is the foundation completed, ready for brick laying next week.

The wall should also give those two drain covers a bit more meaning, rather than have them stick out of the ground as up to now.

Pete, John, Phil and Jim were on this, with Jim on the distant mixer and out of shot (sadly)

Job No. 4: Carpentry work

Barrie fitted the two new doors for Toddington signal box into their frames.

Afterwards, he and Bruce prepared the timber for the replacement Winchcombe running in board.

Job No. 5 - Fencing panel production. 

 

Mike and Ken worked on this production line.

25 of these panels are needed to renew the fence line along the car park at Toddington. Originally this would have been in GWR spearhead fencing.

 One completed panel is now on site, and 7 more await collection.

Finally, a photograph of the finished footpath leading to the gents by the C&W rear exit. This was done a week earlier, but due to camera failure there were no pictures. 

Must try harder.

 

 

Slabs on a hot day

The hot days have affected more than one department (although some can work inside a dark shed, while others have arranged for a shady parasol and benches) and the B&S gang have worked out under a relentless sun with only occasional forrays into shade offered by buildings as the sun gradually moved round during the day.

There were 10 in the gang on Wednesday.

Pete and Mike however went off straight away to attend to an urgent call from CRC where a water leak was affecting the main supply to the P1 toilets, and, worse still, to the coffee machine! A temporary fix was achieved - coffee on tap again - and Mike then went off to buy parts for a permanent repair, which he will do very shortly.

The first job to be tackled was to infill the edges along the new roadway to the barrow crossing. This job is now completed, and you can park your car right up to it now without fear of being nudged by a ready mixed cement lorry.

Next, the gang moved on to the volunteers' toilet block, which hasn't really got a hard path leading up to it. Well, it's hard at the moment, but not so good in the middle of winter.

Here a start is being made with a Kango to excavate the shape of a row of slabs leading from the roadway.

After quite some excavation progress had taken place the volunteers decided to stand in the shade for a bit. Notice the hats, and shorts. White legs to the fore !

With the path route excavated it was time to barrow in some sand for the first of the slabs. Mike volunteered to cross the hot yard with the first load.

A little while later the row of slabs starts to look like something.

Before anyone asks, no, you can't walk along C&W's concrete path, as it slopes downhill away from the toilet block. This is going to be a proper path.

Phil stands in the sun in rather hot looking clothes to check his work.

By close of play the path had been laid with a total of 12 slabs, but a closing shot of the whole thing will have to come next time round. They still need grouting and the edges tidying up.

A background activity has been finishing off works to the signal box cable pit at the rear. Here is the pit with new covers fitted, another job completed.

The spoil from the excavation of the toilet block path was reused on the other side of the main roadway. It was shaped into a base for a set of 10 slabs laid outside the new storage containers. These people too will have dry and clean shoes next winter.

During the day our ops manager was seen taking the Baguley-Drewry rail inspection car for a run. You can see a little film of it at Broadway here:

https://youtu.be/rvY5hzS5z10

Finally, a quick peek inside the B&S shed where we find Bruce priming a set of original scripted bench ends. Planks have been undercoated behind him on the right. Another set of more modern, post 1935 'shirt button' type bench ends can be seen peeping out underneath the planks.