Saturday 17th March 2012 - Part 2 Swindon

Some of Volunteers went AWOL today, taking a trip to the Steam Museum at Swindon. The Museum is great place  if your a Great Western Railway enthusiast, the museum having been set up within the old Swindon Works and oozes nostalgia for the halcyon days when 3 beautifully made locos were turned out each day. Our Group had an introductory talk by Keith who had been employed at the works and had some great stories to tell of the camaraderie and pride  in the workmanship that spanned generations of his family.

I took the opportunity to go up to Swindon by train from Cheltenham with 2 chums (Ron and John B). It's a lovely trip up through the Golden Valley, stopping at Stonehouse, Stroud and Kemble before arriving at Swindon. We were greeted in the main hall by Caerphilly Castle and it reminded me of my time as a  train spotting kid when my Dad used to take me  up to London on the Cheltenham Flyer for a day out, catching it at Gloucester at 8:15  and then back exhausted, having  caught the return Flyer from Platform 1 at Paddington, leaving at 4:55 precisely! Happy Days - my Dad was lovely chap and though long deceased I still feel his gentle hand on my shoulder giving me a steer, here and there.

Our Group spent an enjoyable couple of hours mooching around the exhibits and casting our thoughts back to Broadway. Here Gord, Jo, myself, Terry and Paul (Also Paul C behind the camera!) sit on a mock up of a GWR Station. It will be Broadway soon chaps - hold that thought!

It was the right day for reminiscing , here John B stands by GWR Railcar No.4 which he was pretty sure he made local trips on from Cheltenham.

Some discussions are coming up on the platform Signal Box at Broadway. It will be interesting to see how they turn out. Here at Steam is a modest 14 lever affair, which enjoyed by the kids as a computer puts a budding signalman through their paces. Brilliant!


Any finally Rod and Tina take a look at Lode Star. The ladies in our lives are very patient with us and our hobby and it was great to see Tina and Jo's wife Hilary in  support today.

Saturday 17th March 2012 - Part1 Broadway

The Volunteers who were not off on a jolly continued the work on Platform 1B. This is John Crawford's report:-

Hi Bill,

Hope you and the lads had a good day in Swindon.

Work has continued apace and the small but beautifully formed group comprising Ken,Clive,John C,Bob and new member Brian made up the famous five for the day.

Pointing on 1A slabs was completed up to the last slab laid on Wednesday and Clive continued the plain bricklaying on 1B and by mid morning had laid the LAST BRICK in the main wall leaving only the corbelling to be completed.  John and Clive combined forces and laid nearly all the remaining first course corbelling while Bob provided back up and efforts were made to correct some rather wonky rear brickwork - more to follow on Wednesday.  Ken and Brian concentrated on cleaning and stocking up the bricklayers piles of blue bricks for the final push on Wednesday next which may well see all brickwork on 1B COMPLETED  -  WATCH THIS SPACE .

Regret no pictures this week  - all photographers taking picy's down in Swindon.

Regards

John C

This is great progress indeed and I am hopeful that the Worcester College Students can help finish the corbelling off and lay a couple of coping slabs before they take there Easter break.

Wednesday 14th March 2012 - A Record Attendance!

I am pleased to say that the combined Volunteer/Student attendance today was 28+ - I lost count but it was a great sight seeing so many orange hi viz vests. Thank you all for coming.

The focus of the construction work was on the 1B Platform wall. Volunteers and Students combined to bring the final few days of brick laying in sight.

 At the other end of the site more coping slabs have been laid on 1A to about the half way point. Here we see the finished result in the end of day sunshine.

We have had loads of enquiries as to progress on Platform 2A and today we started a big push to do the preliminary setting out and moving materials within reach.



Here we see the cleaned off footings marked out with the line of wall  In the foreground you can see the first of a number of inspection holes dug to assess the state of the footings.

In anticipation of work proceeding in the near future some 150 blocks have been moved from the north end to the south.

Here Dot is doing what Dot does best!

And finally the blocks are deposited adjacent to the southern end of 2A. Thanks again to everyone who turned out today including Pete and his buddy from Building Services at Winchcombe, Mark Young who gave us a steer on the next steps on  the 2A footings and  of course to our posse of brick cleaners who are the unsung heroes of the volunteers at Broadway.

PS Jo's is back with his camera!

Station Site Layout

A supporter asked me to provide a bit more detail as to the Station Site Plan. The diagram above is not to scale, neither has it been through any approval process, but it gives an idea as to what's in my head!

Saturday - Spring Sunshine!

A warm and sunny day today and 14 Volunteers were on site to enjoy the Spring-like weather. The major construction activity was on bricklaying on 1B and remarkable progress was made. Here are the troops in action.  The end result is under wraps here, ready for the Worcester College lads to continue on Wednesday.







Further brick shifting ensured that there is a clear "road" passed Platform 2. Just some coping slabs to be cleared now and then we will be able to scrape Platform 2 footings.

John B managed to finish the raised bed around the sign at the bottom of the drive - its ready for planting up.
 Finally John  S continued to clear the car park ditch - he's a real glutton for punishment!

Thanks for all the visitors today - please keep coming and giving both moral and financial support - between us we will get there!

Sorry that this is a short report - I got distracted on a particular job that I will report on another time!

Wednesday 7th March 2012

Either the weathers getting unfriendlier or I'm getting older! It was certainly wet, cold and windy on site today!That didn't stop 20 volunteers turning out for some more punishment.

We are trying to sustain a big push on getting 1B finished up to and including corbelling and getting 1A finished off in its entirety. The Worcester College lads are pressing on with 1B, with Roger  B trying to keep the corbelling going behind them.

On 1A Richard came along and assisted with laying 11 more slabs - two more weeks and we should see it done! Here Steve John and Ray (welcome back Ray) ease slab number 5 into place.

On other fronts a Terry and Rod continue to shift around the stocks of bricks so that they are in the most convenient place for laying. I don't know how many bricks they shifted, but it was a significant number and their backs will tell them exactly how many in the morning.

Last but not least Gordon, Ken and Co continued to reclaim as many bricks out of the old Platform 2 Waiting Room as possible. Its an arduous task with hammer and chisel. I must not forget the brick cleaning gang who chip their way through hundreds of brick each session.

Thanks everybody!









On

Saturday 3rd March 2012

Sorry for the delay in posting  - I accidentally deleted a whole post on the last word - not something I will do twice! What a plonker!

The A Team Posing!

Not quite Spring yet, but some spring-like weather after the early showers. 10 Volunteers were on site today with a variety of tidying up jobs to be getting on with.

The main task of the day was to complete the 'finishing off' of the installation of the the wagon moved out of the goods shed and onto a grass area adjacent to the caravan club car park. This consisted  of ballesting up the the rail that the wagon is sitting on and placing top soil around the perimeter. It took four loads of old ballast from the main track bed and 2 tons of new ballast to complete the job. A dumper load of top soil was brought over to finish off.

The wagon is  a restored 4 plank London and South Western Railway  circa 1908. 


It belongs to John Randall, a long serving member of the GWSR, and a thoroughly nice chap. The Caravan Club are very supportive of our Group and. I would like to thank Lou for all his help.

In other areas today Marguerite was busy at the shed. Please come and support us!   Also John B made a new raised bed around the sign at the bottom of the drive. My efforts to help meant me largely getting in the way.

Dave Bowie is keen to get any reports of birds nesting in the boxes in the car park. He has put a sign up by the car park. Please let him know if you see any activity.


Thanks to Jim Hitchen for the photos - Jo is moonlighting on the K&ESR for 2 weeks!