Saturday 26 April 2014

Saturday 26th April 2014 - Sunshine and Showers

It turned out to be more showers than sunshine, but nevertheless some great progress was made by the 13 Volunteers on site.

The big push today was to get a good number of foundation blocks laid on Platform 1C. Clive got the show on the road, setting out the line of blocks.















Here Phil  drags out and cleans up the blocks ready to be laid.



The blocks consume a good deal of mortar and the mixer was going steadily all day.






Roger J was on mixer duty today and in so doing learnt the most valuable lesson - don't let the mixer run out of fuel!
Proper rain.....










By the end of the day Clive, Roger J, John S and Jo had laid 75 blocks which was great progress. It may not have beaten the record (100 in a day I recall) but considering the rain it was very impressive.
The end of day - what a success....













Jim Gets the Mansion Polish (now that's
 going back a bit!) out on the table......

Our new site office is virtually complete and by the end of the day we were able to put the filing system, table and chairs in situ. This was largely down to Jim Hitchen's determination to stick at the painting and decorating all day.

Jim Hitchen is the BAG Task Leader looking after the Broadway Footbridge renovation at Wishaw. We could do with a large team of  Volunteers going up this Wednesday to do a rust removal exercise. If you are a GWSR Volunteer and would like to help us out even as a one off, we would be most grateful. I can put you in touch with Jim, who I know would appreciate your help.




Other things ongoing:-

Peter Keneally arrived today with the 5 signal box windows he has fabricated from scratch. He has really made a great job of it. He really is  a master craftsman and such a nice chap as well! Thanks Peter!







Almost in the same league...... Jo has been renovating the cast iron signal box ventilator support tube here in the process of cleaning and rust proofing. The wide end sticks out of the apex of the roof, while the narrow end accepts the funnel indoors over the oil lamp.

Other things today - well Robin was on Brick Cleaning and Dave H was sorting the Avonmouth bricks and John B was  doing some running repairs to Marguerite's Shed.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

So those are the 'ground' floor windows?

Anonymous said...

I visited Sunday, after diverting off the A46, having delivered our son back to his university digs. Shame no one was on site, but then even the Broadway crew need a day of rest sometime I guess. The site was very tranquil, restful even. From the car park I could not work out where the run round loop starts. All looks great.

Jo said...

The 5 windows are for the ground floor locking room, and are exact copies. Extremely well done by a BAG member; we are delighted. Going in soon!

Anonymous said...

I can understand BR selling the rails for their scrap value, and also demolishing the buildings, but why did they spend money removing the platforms?

Anonymous said...

same reason we've demolished the honeybourne platform and avonmouth turntable I'd guess...

Laurence said...

They removed the platforms because once a station had closed, the platforms start to fall into disrepair (slabs coming loose, etc), and because the platforms are so close to the running line, they are a danger to passing trains, especially when they are no longer maintained. Also, some platforms tend to lean out towards the running line over the years, due to ground movement behind them, or foundations which weren't built substantially enough to keep them upright for a very long time.

Anonymous said...

I thought I'd seen a picture of cheltenham race course station with a grassed over trackbed, no buildings but with the platforms still there. But maybe not.

John R said...

I think the difference is that Broadway station closed long before the line did, hence the removal of platforms. In contrast, Racecourse was used for specials until fairly close to the final closure, so once closed there was no need to remove the platforms.

Nick J said...

Most platforms along the Stratford - Cheltenham route were removed as soon as they could be after passenger services ended in order to expedite the running of "out-of-gauge" (OOG) traffics. The railways, back in the day, used to carry all manner of goods traffic, and the availability of a route where slow moving traffic could be sent without worry of obstruction that could have been a problem on other routes would have been looked on very favourably by the operating department. Being built as late as it was, much of the Stratford to Cheltenham route was built to a fairly generous loading gauge compared to earlier standard-gauge lines. The loss of much of this sort of traffic as freight facilities were withdrawn all over the country made the route less and less useful - another factor in its closure.