Eight Volunteers today as we pushed on with the Platform 2 (2B or not 2B that is the question... well 2B it is!). We have generously been lent a 6 tonne dumper by Thwaites and to make full use of it, we started the 40m footings on 2B.
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| Guess who.... |
Steve Warren came for the day with JCB and some remarkably good progress was made.
It was the intention only to do the surface groundwork, but this was completed by lunch and so the trench was started.
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My passable Sergeant Wilson pose, looking
at the side drain obstruction with Captain Mainwaring.... |
All went well until we reached the side drains. It is unpredictable how the alignment of the side drain pipe and concreted bed will impact on the new trench. In this case it nicely blocked the embankment side of the new trench. We new it was there, but it couldn't have come in a more awkward place.
Do we have a solution? Yes we do, but there will be an additional cost to apply to the next 30m of trench. It is one of the problems of building longer platforms - they sometimes come at a significant cost. It will get resolved and sorted next week. Its one of the many challenges involved in bringing Broadway back to life!
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| A good shot of Jo on the Thwaites Dumper |
Down on the east-side driveway the ground was being levelled to erect a new fencing. Jim H and new volunteer Peter C (we have four Peters now so happily I will be calling everyone Peter!).
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| Peter C and Dave in the jungle |
Finally as posted on Wednesday the Ragwort season is upon us and I had my second request from local farmers with livestock to try and eliminate that which is growing on Railway property. An impossible thing to do. However all the accessible ragwort has been remove from the car park area. I now think we have some Japanese knot-weed to contend with. Now there's a challenge.
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The Glums -
Steve Warren Peter C and John C,
having a cuppa and looking pensive |
It was a successful enough day, frustrated by the curtailment of the 2B trench digging. Sometimes you have to take the rough with the smooth!
A big Thank You to Thwaites for the loan of the Dumper - it made the exercise so much quicker and easier.
12 comments:
Can't find a mention of the visitors who travelled by vintage bus from Toddington to Broadway on Sunday 14th to witness your good work - did nobody turn up and maybe put something in the donation box?
Regarding Japanese knotweed, have you contacted the 'Line Clearance' folk? They are somewhat draconian in their methods but if you don't get the JK attacked now before it sets seed, you will be up against it, I fear. The Highways Agency has been at it near me for a decade now and it is still appearing. They are winning though and it gives an idea of what is going to be needed. I don't see a link to their web site but it's
http://www.gwrclear.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Summer_2013_gallery.htm
Hi Bill.
Very interested to learn that Thwaites have lent you a Dumper. How did that come about?
(I have no connection to Thwaites other than visiting them as a suppliers representative some 25 years ago, but always rated them as a good outfit - seems I was right!).
Dear Bill,
Very sorry to see the scale of the weed problem. Getting the ragwort back from the fence at least might be manageable, where the animals can't reach it. Here's the RHS on JKW
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=218#section3
Best regards,
Charles.
HowardGWR and all,
Thanks for the comments. We will take best advice and try to at least contain the problem if we cannot eradicate it.
Still no mention or pictures of the visitors who travelled by vintage bus from Toddington to Broadway on Sunday 14th to witness your good work - did nobody turn up and put something in the donation box?
Apologies!
The buses did turn up in the afternoon and passengers viewed progress. A breakdown in communications however meant that the shed was not open for sales. A missed opportunity I feel!
Gott in Himmel! Why all this concern about buses? There is plenty of info on the GWSR website.
In answer to TT, the buses in themselves were not important; it was what they brought with them - people, with money in their pockets, an interest in what was being done by the dedicated, hard working BAG volunteers and the potential to spread the word about the project.
its a mystery to me that the govt cannot fund the employment of able bodied persons to help with some of the donkey work illustrated.
Buses not important!!!Perhaps the gentleman who hides away as Anonymous should take a look at the increased footfall and financial gain the railway makes each year on the Bus Rally Days.Last year alone the number of people riding the trains tripled on the day due to the buses.It is a great shame that communications get screwed up as the buses did there bit by taking people to the site when they could just as easily have turned right at the Cheltenham rd junction and taken a ride up the high st instead.
You may well have guessed that I am a bus owner who supports what is being achieved at Broadway and feel that in some small way my bus does it's bit,OK so perhaps not everyone that travels on my bus makes a donation there and then but they have been made well and truly aware of what is going on and may well return at a later date.
To sum up I think buses are important to this project and will continue to be so even when trains are running to Broadway.It's a long walk from the Station into Broadway,you could also ask the South Devon Railway if they would consider doing away with their bus.
Just to round this one off, my view is that the bus has been and always will be an integral part of the Heritage Railway scene. I love the classic buses that come to the GWR. Lovingly restored and maintained by their owners, they immediately take me back to my youth when I used to hop on a Bristol Lodekka and go train spotting on the end of Gloucester Eastgate, looking across to the Horton Road Sheds for any interesting loco visitors.
Graham Smith and his Routemaster have already been a great asset to us at Broadway, bringing enthusiasts along to see our progress. Long may it continue.
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