C&M Christmas 2019

Churchward House Update

During the last four weeks considerable progress has been made towards getting the building ready for occupation at the end of January/early February.

The electrical work to install additional sockets in the Admin, Finance, Operations and Meeting rooms has been completed. Additional 240 volt spur points have been provided to power the fire/security control units when these are installed, and also the IT hub, which is now connected to the fibre optic cable and live with it’s own UPS power supply.

Paul G supervising BT Openreach Engineer Installing New Fibre IT Service

On the first floor decoration is complete in the corridor, the Admin, Finance and Meeting rooms.  It is intended to leave the General Office for now.  A start has been made to strip out and make good in the Directors’ office, however this is needed as a temporary workshop for door modifications - see details below.

On the ground floor the walls in the corridor are painted and the woodwork is awaiting a top coat to complete. Here you can see Mike and Jim M and then Austen S and Jim M applying the Gardenia top coat.

Ground Floor Corridor - First a White Base Coat,

And then the Final Gardenia Top Coat

A start has been made in the entry hall, which just leaves the staircase and first floor landing still to be started.  It is intended that the first floor as well as the two offices on the ground floor will have their new carpet tiles fitted during week commencing 20^th January.

Unfortunately stripping out some of the old redundant equipment has caused some damage to the walls which has taken several sessions to rectify.

Colin M Removing the Old Trunking and Making Good in the Reception Area

There is now a requirement to improve the fire resilience of the building by fitting intumescent strips to all the fire doors as well as escutcheon plates to all the office doors.  

New Escutcheon Plates

The former requires the doors to be taken off and a groove cut into three edges of the door, into which is glued a special fire resistant strip. An escutcheon plate has also to be fitted to cover the key hole to prevent smoke escaping through it.  Hence the need to use the Directors’ office while work is carried out on the first floor doors. 

In addition three doors on the ground floor need to be replaced to meet modern requirements and a further two doors for security reasons. With the Christmas break the expected delivery date for these doors will mean that this work will now not be completed before the end of January.

Fortunately the asbestos survey has not revealed any concerns.

An order has been placed for a new intruder alarm/security system and it is expected that a contract for the Fire Alarm system will be placed later this month.

Commencing on the 6^th January a start will be made running data cables from the main IT Hub to all the desk positions to provide IT and telephone facilities.  It will be interesting to see how all the IT/Security/Fire System/Door Control cabling can be organised as the basic construction of the building at ground floor level does not make any provision for the routing of modern services.

Please accept our apologies for a lack of photographs, but getting a good photo inside a cramped building is not easy.

On the outside of the building Pete D has been busily working away on the scaffolding tower removing the large quantity of moss that was covering the eastern face of the roof. While he had the tower assembled he has cleaned out all the gutters and then made a start on trying to clean the fibreglass rooflight panels in the workshop.

A brief Distraction for Formarke Hall

Wednesday 4th December there was some busy activity out in the station yard. Apparently Foremarke Hall has had to leave the railway for a visit to Tyseley Workshops. The railhead at Toddington was blocked by the new construction work for the Welfare Facilities and so she had to be loaded onto the transporter at Winchcombe.

Access to the station is tight at the best of times for big lorries but a car had parked in the way on the double yellow lines just in the station entrance, and so it was a feat of great skill for the driver of the low loader to get his trailer into the yard.

On the way out he had to reverse the trailer complete with loco out onto the main road with a significant number of shuffles and lowering the bed of the trailer to get under the telephone wires with the chimney, and raising it at times to pass over the kerbs and crown of the slope.

Getting it Lined Up Ready

Reversing out under the Overhead Cables - Note the towelling on the Chimney

And finally out onto the Main Road

It was a case of really skilkful driving, taking their time, and good teamwork with the back axle driver. The assembled crowd were all very impressed !

Toddington Kerbs & Paving Project

The work at Toddington next to the North Gate is proceeding extremely well. The area directly in front of the gate - Zone 1 - was completed on time, and allowed the new access to be in use ready for the Santa Specials at the start of December.

Here you can see Rod W, Terry A and Bob W checking it's all OK before the public were given access.

Final Checks Before The Public Get to Use The New Paved Area

Zone 2 - The section up to the small brick building was fenced off from the public during the Santa Special days, but was still being worked on right up until the last C&M working day on 18th December.

The photo below shows the progress at the end of work on 11th of December with the final complicated bits still to do.

Progress As of 11th December

In the photo below you can see the level of accuracy Rod and the team are working to when they decided to make the paving slabs a perfect fit around the original postbox.

It takes skill to get this such a good fit

And here is the final result of all the hard work on the evening of Wednesday 18th December when we finished for Christmas.

Zone 2 - Ready for the Final Slab and Grouting Up

Zone 2 is almost finished. The camera does not show how dark it had got by this point and so reluctantly the team had to stop. There was one small slab left to cut but the light had gone and it was not safe to carry on with the petrol disk cutter.

We could not do all the final grouting around the posts and fencing as our suppliers have had great difficulty sourcing the specialist material we need to finish the job, and so that will get done early in January when the materials are due in.

The Paving Zones Explained

We have had queries about the various zones, and so here is an explanation. When we put forward the proposed design of the paving, concern was expressed about the impact that the new works could have on visitors coming to the Santa Specials. In order to ensure that C&M caused no disruption to normal running the work was broken down into four discrete areas of work, each of which had to be completed within time-limited slots. These were designed to fit in with the operating calendar.

Zone 1 is the area around the north pedestrian gate.
Zone 2 is the remainder of the northern area.
Zone 3 is the area around the south pedestrian gate.
Zone 4 is the brick paved area the road side of the main station building.

Here is a copy of the original submission approved by the Commercial Director and the Santa Special organising team. 

As the weather has not been as bad as it could have been over the period, Zone 2 activity was brought forward on the basis of mid-week working, and the other dates adjusted to allow the work to proceed as quickly as possible, but without impinging on the operation of the railway.

Looking Ahead

So what have C&M got to look forward to in 2020 :

1. Churchward House completion of Phase 1 ready for the office move from Toddington Station.

2. Kerbs and Paving for Zones 3 and 4 at Toddington Station.

3. Station repair activities at CRC, Winchcombe and Toddington.

4. Completing Broadway Footbridge and starting the new Platform 2 building.

5. Building Platform 3 brickwork at Winchcombe and the new Weighbridge Hut being built with the Heritage Team.

6. CRC Station modifications and extensions.

7. Electrical inspections at many locations.

8. Various Broadway projects.

9. And lots, lots more..........

And trying to keep on top of the ever increasing number of facilities requiring remedial activities or replacement around the railway.


Happy New Year from all of us in Construction & Maintenance !

Churchward House Update and Toddington Kerbs & Paving

Churchward House Report from Jim H - C&M Project Lead

Well a month has flown by since our last Blog and here is my long overdue report on progress.  During that time our efforts have been concentrated on some structural and electrical alterations to the offices which are going to become operational early in the New Year.

In addition a major effort has been made to decorate those offices, painting the walls in Gardenia to hide the awful pale blue. Hopefully when the new brown carpet tiles are fitted these offices will have a plausible GWR “chocolate and cream” theme.

Here are the floor plans for the office accommodation :

First Floor :

Ground Floor :

The structural works have involved removing a surplus door and it’s frame from the Finance Office on the first floor.  A hole then had to be made in the internal wall for this door and frame to become the entrance door to the Operations Office on the ground floor. 

A new stud wall has been built to separate off the Operations Office from the Messroom 

New stud wall separating the Ops Office from the Messroom

New stud wall clad and ready for plastering

and another to fill in the gap left where the surplus door was taken out of the Finance office.  Both these walls have now been plastered and decorated.

Before - Unnecessary Finance
doorway being removed

And after - New stud walling, 
plastering and redecoration

Before

& 

After

Electrical work carried out by Steve L has included an additional 240 volt socket in the Operations Office plus re controlling the lights in that office so they work on the same switch rather than one from the Messroom area. An additional light has also been installed in the entry area to the Gents toilet which was rather dark. Other alterations are ongoing.

On the first floor we have all but completed decorating the Administration and Finance Offices, the Meeting room and the main corridor. Just the radiators need painting plus a couple of snagging items.

The Future Admin Office looking towards
 the station before work started

And looking rearward towards the yard

Before & After

After redecoration - Looking forward

And again - Looking rearward towards the yard

On the ground floor redecoration of the Reception Office is complete including painting the radiators. 

Reception Area - Redecorated and waiting for carpet

Another view within the Reception Area
with the Car Park visible through the windows

The Operations Office is ready for top coating and radiator painting. The corridor will be next in line for attention.  Oh and we mustn’t forget the tiny Literature Store which is complete and ready to take the new Timetables when these become available. 

We have already started painting both the Ladies and the Gents toilets.

On other issues, the fibre optic cable is now installed as is the new IT cubicle with it’s UPS supply.  The new telephone system will be a VOIP one. I believe this means that Maxine can take her ‘phone with her on holiday, and when plugged in abroad, can answer calls as if she were in her office in Churchward House.  Not a feature I expect to be used very often!! 

So plenty happening but whether it will all come together in January remains to be seen.  Watch this space!!

Jim H.

Toddington Kerbs & Paving Works - Rob W - Designer

There has been a long-term history of flooding of the northern end of the platform and the north pedestrian access gate. This summer a detailed study was done of the kerb levels, the fall of the paving slabs and the storm water flows down the kerb line during heavy rain.  The survey also highlighted a problem of kerb overtopping and standing water remaining on the southern pedestrian access path after storms.

A scheme to rectify these problems was designed and approved to be implemented as quickly as possible during the off season, but without interfering with the Santa Specials or Christmas timetable.

The work was broken into four phases, each of which can be implemented as a discrete sub-project. Only one working area will be tackled at a time, and each work area has been designed to be closed off when customers are going to be be given access nearby.

The first phase started on 30th October when all the necessary plant and equipment were taken from Winchcombe to Toddington, and supplies dropped off by our external suppliers.

Monday 4th November work began in earnest. The first area to be tackled was the north pedestrian access. All the kerbs in this area were lifted and replaced by larger kerbs that gave a 100mm freeboard to keep the stormwater on the road and prevent it crossing the paving and onto the platform, as shown in this picture taken by Stu H from Lineside Drainage recently.

Recent flooding - Showing the route the stormwater
normally takes on its way to the platform

The team of Rod W, Terry A, Keith S, Paul C, Bob W, joined by Rob W began lifting the kerbs from the vehicle gate to the yard right up to the old postbox. 

The first kerbs to be set were the tapers and dropped kerb for the ramp.

Here Rod and Terry are using the kerb lifter to get the first kerbs into position.

Along the way there were a number of important discoveries such as four cables that work the gate hidden just under the surface of the road and concreted into the old kerb line. Each one had to be dealt with by very careful use of power tools and incorporated properly into the new kerbing.

There were also old cable ducts which Neil C gave permission to remove where no longer needed.

By the end of day 1 fantastic progress had been made. All the new kerbs were in their final positions. You can see the difference in kerb height from the last kerb sitting next to the old one.

End of Day 1

On day 2 work started on the complex layout of slabs that create the disabled access ramp whilst maintaining the 100mm freeboard.

Here Rod W, Terry A and Bob W have got the first ramp slab into position and got the critical heights set correctly. This is now being followed by cut side slabs that will maintain the critical freeboard height.

It was critical here that the top edge of the ramp was the same height as the top of the full kerbs.

The next task was to obtain an even slope from the back edge of the ramp to the slot drain under the gate, which is the limit of the new paved area. The old slabs were removed, and as you can see, this is a complex piece of setting out by the team whilst Rod breaks out the old cable tray base.

The whole area was covered in granular material and then vibrated hard to give a solid base on which to lay the mortar bed.

More slabs were added to the rear of the ramp and then a single line of level slabs set to follow the kerb top level towards the post box.

Here are the finished slabs and ramp at the north gate, just waiting for the specialist mortar to point the joints on the ramp area and around the fence posts.

The day after these photos were taken the heavens opened and all the surrounding areas were totally inundated by flooding (see Lineside Drainage's Blog for details) and yet for the first time in recent years the platform at the north end of the station did not flood - Well that proved that the design was sound, and that the C&M Team had got it in just in time !!

Here is the latest update from the team taken at the end of today (27/11/19).

We are very pleased to have hit our target of getting the north gate ready for the Santa Specials this weekend. The area will now remain fenced off to keep the public safe during the festive period.

That's all for now !

We all hope you find this blog interesting.

Rob W

Churchward House Dominates C&M Workload

Churchward House Update

Work on Churchward House has been C&M's primary focus since our last blog. We are desperately trying to get the building ready for the Admin Team to transfer location ideally in January 2020, but with an absolute transfer deadline of March 2020 ready for the new operating season.

Jim Hitchen is C&M's Project Manager reporting to Projects Director Alan Miller and Head of C&M Department Dave Bowie.

There are many changes needing to be made to the building to allow the various teams to have the office space they require and a number of practical difficulties to be overcome such as maintaining fire escape routes whilst altering the layout of some of the offices and creating different work zones in the workshop area.

The first task was to complete the clearance of the remnants left behind in the yard by the previous occupants. the largest of which was the two steel shipping containers.

9th October - Structural Work is Starting

This Wednesday most of the available C&M Team were deployed on Churchward House. Meetings were held to discuss the scope of the works, the critical tasks and any dependencies. It is clear that the more work we do and the more problems we find that the scope is going to keep creeping upwards.

Alan M, Dave B, Jim H, Pete D and Rob W are having to try and stay on top of these issues. Jim is directing operations and Pete is deploying team members to the various tasks. 

During the day Rob W and Rod W broke through the old blocked up doorway off the corridor to form a new doorway to the Operations Manager's new office.

Colin M, John W, Pete D, Mike W and Jim M took down the internal cupboards from what will become the admin office and began the redecoration.

Rod W and Rob W carefully removed a surplus door and frame from the first floor office and prepared it for re-use as the Operations Manager's new office door. 

All the studding removed from the ground floor doorway was de-nailed and then taken upstairs ready to fill the vacant doorway.

In the meantime the outside gang were clearing away all the contaminated gravel with the telehandler and taking it away from Churchward House and tipping it further down the railway yard. 

The water was still coming into the yard at quite a rate and so more trials were done by Pete D, Colin M and Austen S to try and see how we can get the water away. 

10th October - Removing The Old Shipping Containers

Jim H had arranged for a specialist removal company to take these containers away. The original plan was to have an empty container lorry come from slough, arrive at Winchcombe, load one container and take it to the disposal site at Gloucester, come back, repeat the exercise and depart back to Slough.

Unfortunately it didn't quite work out as Jim was led to believe. Here is Jim's record of the whole exercise.

The wagon arrived an hour later than agreed, and when it did arrive strapped to the bed of the wagon was a large double axled trailer.

The trailer was unloaded using the double Hiab unit and put to one side. The first container was then loaded onto the trailer.

The trailer was hooked up to the lorry and the pair maneuvered to the second container. The second container was then lifted onto the lorry bed.

When all were secured there was a major exercise getting both out of the yard.

Despite coning off part of the car park Jim had to get one car moved in the public parking area, and with a very tight squeeze the convoy just managed to get out of the yard and head off out of the station, much to Jim's relief.

In the meantime all the electrical circuits in the building and workshop are being tested by our independent electrical contractor Buzz Electrics. The central heating has been run up and tested and kept on for a day to prove everything works correctly.

All the old phone cables and sockets are being removed from the walls and any holes filled and made good.

12th October - Saturday Working

Pete D, John W and others started investigatory work on cladding and beams so that the new stud wall could be anchored safely. This wall will separate the Operations Manager's new office from the general meeting room on the ground floor.

More work was done on removing unnecessary fitments and electrical equipment and work was done to work out where the services could be routed to form the new mess room.

The group also recycled the old stud timbers to form a new stud infill where the superfluous office door had been removed. This will soon be covered with plasterboard both sides and skimmed with plaster.

16th October - The Office Refit Gains Pace

With all free C&M members dispatched to work on Churchward House again the planning group began to assess all the new issues that had arisen since last week and began to plan how these would be addressed.

In the meantime Rod W and Phil T set about building the Operations Manager's new office door from all the component parts retrieved from the office upstairs. 

Believe it or not, the downstairs doors are different sizes to those upstairs and so the lads had to make a 50mm infill panel above this door to fix the door framing to the brickwork opening

Finally the door fittings were fitted and the architrave added. You would never have guessed that this door its frame and all the fittings were recycled from upstairs !

In this last picture the structural framing has been exposed ready for the new stud walling to be built below to split this large area up into two separate office spaces.

Pete D, Colin M, John W, Jim M and Austen S all set to re-decorating the new Admin office. Here Colin who is camera shy can be seen busy painting the walls.

Downstairs in the workshop John W has new skirting boards and architraves and is cutting them to size before applying several coats of paint.

There's loads more happening on a daily basis, but that's all for now ....