So Many Tasks and Not Enough Volunteers

There has been a lot of work underway in C&M since our last blog. With the volume of work underway it has been difficult to get the blog together. All Projects underway have had to be re-thought due to the revised working constraints brought in to minimise the risk of Covid-19 to our volunteers. 

Unfortunately the current constraints have meant that some jobs that were due to be underway have been suspended indefinitely as the risks of working in close confinement are just too high. Projects that are able to comply with the constraints and are currently underway include the following :

Racecourse Station - New Ticket Office

Work started on finishing off the new wall between the shop and the new ticket office early in July. A two man team completed all the work on the new wall including decoration to match the rest of the room. The retail shelving units were rebuilt and placed in required position ready for the shop team to populate them with new souvenirs for our visitors. The shop area was handed back to the retail team on 15th July.

The new shop wall after the modifications

The new ticket office door and frame has had additional coats of primer, undercoat and gloss in colours that match the other doors on site. 

View from Platform 2 showing the new Ticket Office at the right hand end

We are unable to proceed further with the Ticket Office construction work as it requires multiple people to be in the confined space at once, and the immediate rush to get this facility ready for running trains has now gone away with the new Covid-19 train running regime. The volunteers that were earmarked to work on this have now been diverted to other critical projects in the short-term.

The two man team was Bob W and Rob W.

Winchcombe - Footbridge Painting

From the end of June work started in earnest on the footbridge at Winchcombe. The paintwork was showing its age and it had been decided to rub the surfaces right down and in some cases back to the bare metal. The project was given urgency as the Covid-19 shutdown had given an opportunity to take possession of the track and erect scaffolding towers under the bridge. This meant Jim H working in close cooperation with Neil Carr on when possession could be granted to the tracks. We are grateful to Neil and C & W for keeping the tracks clear of coaches despite the need to shunt and reform the sets.

Setting up scaffolding each day was a major exercise

Not everybody likes working at height and so a limited number of volunteers were prepared to work at height from the scaffolding towers, particularly the height over the track. Due to the height each move required a partial dismantling followed by a careful move and rebuild. 

At the end of each Wednesday the towers had to be dismantled and the lines handed back.

Colin M taking the paint back to the galvanising

Not all volunteers want to work at these heights
Some love it (Colin & Pete)

The structure was pressure washed first to remove any loose or flaking paint followed by sheer hard graft sanding and rubbing down to give a smooth surface ready for the new paint provided by the Friends of Winchcombe Station.

Once the centre part of the bridge had been done the focus turned to the areas that could be reached by scaffolding towers sitting on the platforms and the sloping sides and handrailing.

Here Colin M is loosening the old paint with the
pressure washer aided by Jim M

John W working on the handrails, sides and steps

It's a long laborious process but preparation time pays dividends

The new red primer paint looks so much better already

This is where have got to so far.
We need more track access time and good weather to make more progress.

The bridge is not finished yet as train movements in preparation for the return to operation have limited the team's ability to get track access time. Last week the temperatures were so high in the heatwave that painting had to be abandoned by 10am as the paint was going off before it could be properly applied by brush.

The team that have been working on the bridge are Jim H, Pete D, Colin M, John W, Austen S, Ken W, Mike S, and Roger J.

You may find this old picture of the original Winchcombe footbridge from 1905 interesting. If you look closely you can see that somebody is working on the daggerboards and roofing. Health and Safety has clearly moved on from those days, just look at the scaffolding, planks and lack of handrails in contrast to the recent photos.

The original Winchcombe footbridge undergoing work in 1905.

Toddington - New Kerbs and Paving

A limited number of The Toddington Kerb and Paving Team started site preparation work on Wednesday 29th July. Their first job was to remove all the large weeds that had invaded the working area during the shutdown. Once this had been done the next job was to lift the brick paviors at the back of the station building ready for the new slab path that will run parallel to the road.

On Wednesday 5th August the full team were back on site and raring to go, some just released from their five month long lockdown. With sufficient numbers on site we have been able to start slab laying again, whilst remaining vigilant of the Covid-19 restrictions to our working practices.

Rod W and Terry A placing the slabs with the lifter after Bob W has prepared the mortar bedding

The new kerbing and path to keep pedestrians off the road behind the station.
The brick paved area between the path and building is to be lifted and re-profiled.

By last Wednesday the team had managed to complete the new path all the way from the South Gate up to the keypad just inside the site fence. By then it had got so hot that they had to stop the slab work as the mortar was going off before they could set the slabs. It was still a feat of endurance for them to have managed to lay so many slabs despite it being the hottest day of the heatwave.

The gluttons for punishment are Rod W, Terry A, Keith S, Paul C, Bob W & Mike S.

 

Toddington Winchcombe & Cheltenham Racecourse - Platform Maintenance

From the middle of July a small team led by Pete D has been working on the platforms at the above stations, dealing with the slow settlement of the tarmac areas of the platforms where they butt up against the large platform edging slabs. In places a small amount of settlement has taken place under the tarmac which could have provided a trip hazard if it had not been dealt with. In these cases a section of tarmac is cut out and new tarmac laid to give a smooth transition from the tarmac to the stone.

In some places the white platform edge line was fading and so new white lining has been applied where necessary.

Unfortunately we don't have any photos of the team in action on this work.

The Team was Pete D, Ken W and John W

 

Churchward House - Ongoing Improvements

At Churchward House two initiatives have been ongoing since June. 

Plumbing and fitting out new toilets

The first is the continuation of work to provide new toilet and messroom facilities for the teams working out of the new workshop on site. This has involved a significant amount of plumbing, refurbishment of the original hot and cold water services and some disruption to the facilities used by the Admin and Ops staff based in the building. When these works are finally complete the door between the clean and dirty sides of the building can stay closed to maintain segregation of the two separate environments.

The team working on this was Jim M and Rob W.

Surface Water Drainage Works

The second is the re-laying of the surface water drains at the rear of the Churchward House workshop. Surface water seepage from the bank to the rear has been historically run as a stream at times to a concrete chamber and unsealed section of pipe before being channelled into the surface water drainage system that runs through the yard. Much of this water clearly did not go into the drains but ended up raising the groundwater level in the area between Churchward House and Halls workshop acting as a giant soakaway. 

The stream coming from the bank at the rear of our workshop
The previous occupants had bodged this together to take the water away.

In early August our new drainage works removed the old clay pipes and installed new plastic drainage pipes that connected into the existing manhole and then terminated with a deep trap gulley and a second branch to collect rainwater direct from from the main roof downpipe. 

Where possible we are aiming to capture any seepage water coming from the rear bank and divert it into the new gulley which will take it off to the stormwater drains serving the station yard.

Due to the waterlogged ground in that area the new pipework had to be designed to minimise deep dig operations and had to be done during a period of dry weather when the seepage from the rear bank was at its minimum and within our ability to keep the trench dry during pipe laying operations. Particularly the connection into the base of the manhole.

Here Jim M is fitting the new deep trapped gulley with grating to catch any loose debris.

The area after the drain works were completed before our final tidy up.
It just needs a new layer of stone laid on the path to finish the job off.

The area has now been reinstated and all surplus material removed. We just need a layer of the new stone on the path to finish off this work.

The team working on this was Jim M, Austen S and Rob W.

That's all for this month's update. These are the bigger jobs we have been involved in recently. Alongside these have been a number of minor repair and maintenance activities, too many to detail here.

I hope you found it useful. If you would like to join us and take part, please feel free to get in touch with Dave Bowie our Head of Department.

Rob W