Whiffy Toddington

Almost all of the gang of 11 worked at Toddington today, with just one volunteer beavering away in the workshop.

By the car park at Toddington work continued replacing 25 fencing panels with a stock of new, manufactured in the B&S workshop at Winchcombe.

The run of new, starting at the loco shed end, has almost reached the station end now. At the end of the day there were just 3 or 4 left to do.

A few of the posts had rotten feet, and these have had to be replaced as well. With some difficulty, as they were embedded in concrete.

Here is Martin trying to break out the concrete from a rotted post, using an SDS drill.

In this warm but slightly less sunny weather lunch outdoors is very pleasant. Here is the gang with their picnics next to the Flag & Whistle, and not far from their next job - behind the toilets. Nice.

Also with this nice warm weather, the back of the toilets has been a bit whiffy. It's hard to tell exactly where a smell is coming from, so three potential sources were tackled.

Firstly, the breather pipe here was extended above the guttering (grey elbow bend) so that any smells being vented would do so higher up.

Secondly, an old hole in the concrete was identified. This was filled with new concrete, as visible by the dark grey patch at the bottom of the pipe.

Finally, Martin and Phil installed a new manhole cover. That should do the job, it's now air tight.  Or rather, smell tight.

Let's hope that cured the whiffy problem. No doubt another picnic in close proximity will be arranged for next week, to test the new arrangements.

Lastly, we should not forget Bruce, the stalwart who stayed behind in the hot B&S workshop at Winchcombe. Bruce continued with the manufacture of a replacement running in board for Winchcombe. From now on, no more peeling plywood letters, the next generation will be aluminium castings made from 12 inch GWR originals. We have already used replica GWR castings at Broadway and at Hayles Abbey halt.


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