End of February 2020

Churchward House Goes Live !

Report from Jim H.

As reported last month it was intended that the offices were to go live on the 4th February and I’m pleased to report that the move did in fact take place on that date.  It was however a close shave and several activities went down to the wire.

Now that the dust has settled, and most of the sorting out is completed, you can really appreciate what a fabulous facility this will be for the office based staff.  No more going outside to fetch water for the kettle or having to go to the toilet in the rain for example!!

Here is how things looked before the move on Saturday the 29th January.

Carpet tiles going down in the Admin Office 

The Contractors still had a bit to do on the fire alarm system

And this is how things were on Saturday 22nd February !

The main Admin Office

The Meeting Room

Mail boxes on the First Floor Landing

The Entrance Hallway / Reception Office

The First Floor corridor as viewed from the Admin Office

However the work for the C & M Department is ongoing as we have a number of snagging issues still to deal with, as well as touching up the paintwork where this has been damaged by various activities.

We are now busy decorating the mess room area and fitting out the toilet area so we, and the other departments based at Winchcombe, can start to use these facilities.  

C&M are hoping to move in during March, assuming all goes to plan.  Here are a few photographs showing this work in progress.

Roger touching up the paintwork in the
First Floor corridor

Roger, Colin & John painting in the mess room

Mike G tiling in the toilet area

Ken painting the Mess Room door frame

John painting notice boards in the workshop

Toddington Kerbs & Paving Progressing Well !

Report from Rob W

The team of Terry A, Bob W, Keith S, Paul C, and John S spurred on by occasional visits from a slowly recovering Rod W have been making good progress since our last blog. The new wider path to the South Gate has been completed along with its new disabled ramp and increased fall to remove the tendency for puddles to linger after rain storms. A new heavy duty slot drain has been installed below the gate and connected up to the platform drainage system to take the path runoff away .

Terry is painstakingly filling all the
 joints with kiln dried sand

You can see in this picture the new kerbing, ramp and
 difference in profile of the new path from the old brick paviors

Here Terry is ensuring that all the joints are well packed with
fine sand. You can also see the new drain under the gate

Having got the path finished the team are having to blend in the adjoining paviors to ensure a smooth transition from the old to the new paving. This means lifting all the old bricks, removing any cracked or frost damaged ones and re-profiling the whole area to make the smooth transition.

Bob W removing all the old bricks

The team then have to replace the bricks, cutting a number of them during the relay to achieve a similar pattern to the one that was there before.

John S working out the pattern and complex joints

And so here is the latest position at the end of February. The right hand side of the brick paved area has now been completed. Work is now starting on the left hand side of the path so we aim to be where we hoped ready for the new operating season.

The team have done a lovely job of
merging the old and new paved areas

The left hand brick paving is going to be a much more complex task because we have to raise the big manhole cover and blend that into the three dimensional grading for the brickwork. We are probably going to leave that complexity until after the busy period during races week.

The next activity is to continue the new kerbing all the way along the back of the station to join up with the recent work done at the North Gate.

The new kerbs at the rear of the station building

As you all know, we have had some very heavy downpours since we started work on the new kerbing and the North and South paths. We are pleased to be able to report that the station has not flooded, and both paths have shed the water as planned, this gives the team great satisfaction to know that they have finally rectified this age old problem that has afflicted the station building.

 That's all for now, Sorry for the lateness of this blog. We have so much work on at the moment it's difficult finding time to get this information out.

Rob W