I thoroughly enjoyed my morning at Broadway today! The site was buzzing, not just with the dumpers and excavator but with 20 Volunteers giving of their best and making great progress.
The main mission of the day was to continue with the platform 2 infill. We needed an excavator and extra dumper to do this efficiently. The Ballast was used to sandwich single layers of Mythe rubble. When the correct level was reached the lamppost ducting was laid in a bed of sand.
The rear vertical slabs then had soil packed behind them to keep them level and true.
This process introduced a great diversion! The soil was taken from the site of the old gents toilet adjacent to the Platform 2 Waiting Room. Jo has been convinced for some time that another post and/or finial was lurking in the bulldozed embankment. Well I won't spoil his thunder - here is Jo's account of the find!
It was still attached to
its post, which was snapped off at ground level. A few months ago we already
found its base in a bed of concrete, so as the break is a clean one, there is a
chance someone might be able to weld it for us. The post is a corner post, with
lugs at right angles, so rather unusual. I wonder if there is anyone in the
loco dept that can weld this for us?
On other fronts the brick cleaning gang were in action. Chris and David were back from their second French sojourn and were amazed at the progress made and Chris opening greeting was "where have all the bricks gone?" mainly in the wall and 2000 oversize ones to Building Services for building the drains......
The carpentry team (Peter Q and Peter H) were making great progress with the bricklaying shelter which will keep the worst of the winter rain off the working area.
On other fronts Brian was back with his gear to continue the tidying up of the north west embankment. It really looks a treat now. Vic was continuing with his tidying up of front borders in the car park. Keep going Vic only another 30m to go! Julie was in attendance today, running the Shed. Come along and see her - she has a very persuasive selling technique!
Top treat of the day - Bob White brought a nice sponge along which slipped down a treat with a cup of tea, Bake off standard Sue.....
The rear vertical slabs then had soil packed behind them to keep them level and true.
This process introduced a great diversion! The soil was taken from the site of the old gents toilet adjacent to the Platform 2 Waiting Room. Jo has been convinced for some time that another post and/or finial was lurking in the bulldozed embankment. Well I won't spoil his thunder - here is Jo's account of the find!
John
slightly widened the platform 2 waiting room base, and so dug around the area
of the former toilet and accompanying modesty screen and posts. As you know, it
is here under a tree that the original GWR finial was found, which was used to
make 4 copies. The original final had become dislodged from its post when the
platform 2 waiting room was bulldozed in November 1963.
I have always
suspected that the finial from the second post might also be in the same area,
but despite a lot of probing in the undergrowth, I was never able to find it.
Steve, John and I carefully vetted every bucketful today as we dug out the
area, and finally, to my delight, I spotted a brown crescent in the earth, and
I immediately knew what it was – the second finial.
It was still attached to
its post, which was snapped off at ground level. A few months ago we already
found its base in a bed of concrete, so as the break is a clean one, there is a
chance someone might be able to weld it for us. The post is a corner post, with
lugs at right angles, so rather unusual. I wonder if there is anyone in the
loco dept that can weld this for us? |
| Roger on the corbelling and the frame of the shelter in the background |
It was a great find and had Jo beaming for the rest of the day!
The bricklaying team were not to be outdone today either. A combination of corbelling and laying a first course on the last stretch of 2B was the task before them. What a great job - I am looking forward to seeing it on Saturday.
 |
| Sitting Down on the Job.... |
On other fronts the brick cleaning gang were in action. Chris and David were back from their second French sojourn and were amazed at the progress made and Chris opening greeting was "where have all the bricks gone?" mainly in the wall and 2000 oversize ones to Building Services for building the drains......
The carpentry team (Peter Q and Peter H) were making great progress with the bricklaying shelter which will keep the worst of the winter rain off the working area.
On other fronts Brian was back with his gear to continue the tidying up of the north west embankment. It really looks a treat now. Vic was continuing with his tidying up of front borders in the car park. Keep going Vic only another 30m to go! Julie was in attendance today, running the Shed. Come along and see her - she has a very persuasive selling technique!
Top treat of the day - Bob White brought a nice sponge along which slipped down a treat with a cup of tea, Bake off standard Sue.....
4 comments:
Great work as always Bill and the Team. Something that did occur to me on my evening commute this evening back from the ever changing building site that is Reading Station - There is a fairly substantial GWR Building in the lower part of the former Reading Depot along with a (by the looks of it) original Western Region water tank - As these would all be up for demolition - along with the depot I once worked in), would it be worth getting in touch with Network Rail to see if the GWR could benefit from any of those? The building was in use until very recently as an outpost for Freightliner and mostly used by track and plant crews for the various tamping/grinding and other track machines used across the network.
Keep up the excellent work, with the Bridges to Broadway doing rather well, It wont be soon before long before we start seeing the track at this rate.
Can you provide a picture of the tank, perhaps we could interest out loco dept in it for Broadway?
Hi Jo, I'll see what I can take from the 150 on Friday - the best picture I can find on the internet are these two of two of the tanks on site - the first one with the tank & building in the back ground are probably the closest match - http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/96/78/1967841_3c0d0daa.jpg
However there are also two smaller tanks on the former depot site as well - http://www.rcts.org.uk/branches/thames%20valley/show.htm?img=Reading- by lower depot site - works for flyover - 1 Reading 07Oct13&serial=8
Network Rail would probably be the first point of call, Don't know how much FGW took out when they moved over to the newer depot over the summer.
I understand from a visitor to the site today that 'the tank' is going to the WSR, but having seen you picture, I don't know which one that would be.
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