Here we are - Mid Summer already and the first Wednesday for a long time that the steady rattle of the cement mixer could not be heard. Brick Layer Brislin was sucking on his nicotine inhaler more than usual! Nevertheless what a productive day, with 10 volunteers ( ex myself part time) undertaking some sweat provoking tasks. Having Graham Morrison and the JCB on site allowed us to carry out some major work.
In a chronological order then:
A new drain was installed across the trackbed from the north end of the platform wall and into a soak away by the centre drain. It an impressive piece of plumbing on a grand scale and I am sure it is going to eliminate a Winter flooding problem we had in this area.
Ron in a desperate bid to kerb his bricklaying withdrawal system took the strimmer down to the proposed entrance to the car park and cleared the area . This will allow the Highways Survey Team to do their stuff(technical term).
Gordon, Dave and I set to at marking the platform 1A "height" along the back edge of the platform. (See white marks on posts). This has allowed us to visualise the approaches to the ground works required and we are now confident that we have an excellent solution. More of this when we have been through the technical approval process.
The main task of the day was to continue with the back filling of the platform. As I've said before this is a back breaking task as the those with the shovels have to try and keep up with the speed that the JCB can dump the ballast over the wall! I take my hat off to Mike, Terry, Peter and Gordon, who went home tired and weary!
The Broadway Area Group are taking delivery next week of a GWR corrugated tin Lamp Hut which has been removed by Network Rail from Ascott under Wychwood. This will be used as a temporary material store for the building of 1A and will be a building of historical interest for the railway in the future. In order to site it conveniently but out of the way, an area was prepared using the JCB. Here is the JCB in action, airborne once again! If you want to know what the lamp Hut is all about follow this link to the GWR Society website.
http://www.r.heron.btinternet.co.uk/hothbuild.html#huts
Lastly and by no means least Pat Green's likely lads delivered 3 loads of slabs from Toddington. It is much appreciated and I hope we can take advantage of your help on many other tasks.
Note to Blog Readers :
Sorry for any typos in by Blog reports - I try and get them out promptly which puts a strain on my keyboard skills!
11 comments:
I do love reading your reports and keeping up to date with progress, thanks for taking the time to do them.
The photo reports from the Permanent Way have stopped, are actively laying track towards you or has the financial situation forced a tempoary stop.
Ian H.
The Pway photo has not stopped, a change in "platform" was required due to fotopic going bust! With mine and thousands of other pixs disappearing into the ether.
A new site with info from Jan 2011can be seen here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwr_permanent_way_photo_log/
Hopefully some track on the new site on the Broadway site shortly?!
Nigel
With track in place, any plans to get something like a dining car and open up for business!
Dave P from California
Many thanks for another update showing excellent progress. Just looking at images taken earlier this year and contrasting them with those taken this week shows just how much is being done. You probably know all this but at Honeybourne work is well underway with the rebuilding of the old island platform (which one day GWR trains will hopefully use again) and the contractors have uncovered the pipework and base of the old platform water column which appears to have been "put to one side." It would be very useful to the GWSR I would think!
Photos from the Cotswold Line redoubling Flickr site are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/sets/72157624136810327/
We are trying to get this section of platform totally finished (back filled, pointed and painted) so that we can use it for display purposes, which includes some adjacent track and an item or two of rolling stock! I think this will give a new dimension to the Station site, increasing interest and of course revenue opportunities!
Bill
hello the new platform looks superb, when do you expect the materials from honeybourne to arrive and has there been any news on what the new station building will be like.will you build new or use a rolacated building? good luck for the future.
The Honeybourne bricks have started to arrive this week. I will post an artist's impression of the new station shortly which is largely a replica of the old and will be built from scratch.
Great progress so far, what are the plans for the signalling at Broadway, is it still intended to use the Exminster box or will you build new?
keep up the superb work
Re The Signal Box. It is likely we will build a good likeness of the old signal box or a GWR box from scratch. I won't start up a thorny debate as to why we can't use the Exminster Box! Its position is yet to be decided. The old box was perfectly sited for its purpose being at the centre of the outer arc of the curve that runs from before Childswickham Bridge, through the Broadway Station site and beyond. We could speculated that it will be somewhere on the outer arc, rather than the inner.
Bill
Glad to say that the pipework from the old water columns has indeed been put aside for GWR use being very much needed to assist the water column works at Toddington.
Darren Fairley
Thanks Darren, that's very good news. I would imagine such examples of pipework like that are not exactly easy to get these days!
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