Sunday 15 January 2012

Saturday 14th January 2012

Its difficult to imagine we are half way through January already. The  weather continues to be kind to us with a glorious sunny, crisp day.

10 Volunteers split into two teams, one in the Car Park  and one on site, salvaging bricks from the Vic Haines delivery on Wednesday.

The clearance work in the car park has been spectacular. This photo is from the south looking northwards. 3 bonfires were on the go. In the centre you see the pile of logs we we leave for local wood burning stove brigade to collect. They disappear each week so someone must value them!

The great progress made in the car park is largely down to Andy P and his chainsaw. He was in action on Saturday and he is setting such a good pace that the whole of the pathway will be cleared within the next month or two. Brilliant! Now all we have to do is to decide how we can sympathetically design the parking area to accommodate the maximum number of visitors.





On site the challenge was to separate out the good bricks donated by Vic Haines from the brick samples which were mounted on boards. The samples are to be used as infill behind Platform 1A. Here we see the diehards who worked all day at this task.

Robin here standing proudly  beside his hard work for the day, probably a a ton of useful ballast for infill.








 Steve and Clive  nearing the end of a a very tough day of smash and grab. The bricks extracted from packaging were re stacked on pallets and  equated to well over 1000 items. cheers Vic!









Lastly we had one of  the regular visits in the afternoon from Bernard Dudfield the GWSR Estates Director. Bernard was a founder member of the Railway and, having been through it all before (several times!), is able to give us a steer here and there when we ask for advice. We welcome Bernard's visits. He is always encouraging, always good humoured, always has a story to tell and, above all, is a thoroughly  decent chap.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a couple of ideas Bill. How about putting up a list of required things for the project. eg Ballast, old bricks, security locks.It might remind readers to fish out thir old hordes.

Any chance of opening the car park as a revenue generating public facility.It gets pretty crowded in Broadway.

Good luck with this massive project
- Titus

Anonymous said...

Clive Nicholls is the site manage at the demolition of the old Fords foundry in Leamington. I have his number- there are some Edwardian brick buildings on the site.... of any interest?

Bill said...

Titus,
Thanks for the suggestions. Our main focus at the moment is to get the Platforms finished and this requires blue imperial engineering bricks and us much clean hardcore as we can lay our hands on, both for platform infill and levelling in the car park. The car park will not be useable in any sense until it has been levelled.

On the question o the Leaminton demolition, the above applies also and we are finding transport costs prohibitive. However I appreciate all suggestions/ideas.
Bill

Anonymous said...

Bill,
I note your comments of the other day regarding the future development plans for Broadway Station.
Have you given any thought to include some Solar Panels in the roof of the proposed station buildings. Even though the government is changing the Feed in Tariff structure the GWSR may find it beneficial. Over the last 12 months I've generated 2,000 Kwh from an 8 panel 2.85Kwh array on my roof. As the station will be built to last it may be an expenditure well worth having not only as an income generator but as a means of reducing the cost of electricity used.

Anonymous said...

I always thought that the modern engineand c&w sheds at Toddington and Winchcome should have these panels fitted for the feed in tarrif. There are ways to do it with minimal capital outlay, where you dont have to buy them but you still get some of the feed-in tariff

Anonymous said...

I read that Railtrack are replacing the beautiful GWR foorbridge at Stratford on Avon Station.... presumably to replace it with a monster such as at Honeybourne! can we acquire it for Broadway?

Bill said...

Hi all,
On the issue of solar panels etc, we will look into the options. Remember thought that this is intended to be a replica of the old station and so any changes will have to be sympathetic to that principle.

On the subject of the Stratford footbridge , I am investigating it as we speak.
Bill

Anonymous said...

Network rail have just spent a considerable amount of money refurbishing the footbridge, so i doubt its for sale. i believe an additional footbridge (similar to the "little" one built at honeybourne) is to be built further down the platform to enable disabled passangers to change platform.
Andy

Anonymous said...

rolling bridge would enable disabled passengers to change platforms on the level. They work for canals. View the video.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rolling_Bridge

Regards,

Perry

Anonymous said...

The rolling bridge has been built in Meccano.

http://www.selmec.org.uk/article_0009_the_heatherwick_rolling_bridge.aspx

An alternative method to cross the tracks at platform level could be a swing bridge, if there is enough space between the up and down lines. The Southwold Railway crossed the River Blythe on a swing bridge; removed during WWll.

Regards,

Perry

Ken said...

Hi Perry. Nice idea but looking at how it works the 'fail' option for a Rolling Bridge is to lie flat. Fine for Waterways, but not for Railways.

Persons with mobility limitations will be adequately catered for by the installation of a 'Barrow Crossing'. Perhaps what should be of greater concern is how they are accommodated once within the train carriages. A matter which the Heritage scene, as a whole, has been slow to adapt to.