Thursday 16 February 2012

Wednesday 15th February 2012

 A milder day and the prospect of lots to do brought 19 Volunteers out  today.  The most important return to work was Ron Brizlin who had been off with pneumonia for 5 weeks. Welcome back Ron. The priority task was to complete the back fill of Platform 1A. In order to do this efficiently we hired a mini excavator to load our dumper truck. Of the order of 50 tons of soil were shifted during the day!




Here Ron explains that it doesn't take four volunteers to fill a barrow. The soil is being taken from the Platform 2A site and the signal box footing area specifically. By the end of the day the Signal box footings area was virtually clear down to ground level.






It was good to see Dot back in action having had her fuel lines and filters replaced she was on song all day. Dot was used to shift the remaining 1A old  foundations down to the car park area and clean off the old 2A footings. We are in a position to do some measuring out of 2A and I will keep you posted as to how we will proceed.






Here Steve and John C manoeuvre a coping slab on to 1A. Steve can now take the top of a soft boiled egg with Dot and we are grateful to Bernard Dudfield for his support in getting Dot sorted out.






The end  of day result for 1A was nothing less than brilliant! Here shown with a setting sun in the background the neatly contoured rear infill completed.






My thanks to all the visitors that came today. Your support is much appreciated.

Thanks again for the excellent pics Jo!

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's all very nice.... But when's the track going down !

Bill said...

Everything comes to he who waits!

SWrural said...

We all thought 'I expect that's my slab in pic 4'.

Richard said...

It's great to see such progress. Looking ahead, have you been able to identify the source(s) of material for the actual station buildings that will grace platform 1? What a pity that nearby disused station, now demolished, was no good. Will re-instating platform 2 have priority over reconstruction of the buildings?

Bill said...

Richard,
Rebuilding the platforms is labour intensive but relatively low cost.
The buildings have a design process, planning approval and a funding regime to go through. Funding and building the platforms will not substitute for buildings.

richard said...

Ooo 2 Richard's posting now!!!! am I the original one though??

Great to see such progress and the commitment and enthusiasm to build 2 platforms which I think is sadly missing at Cheltenham.

Anonymous said...

oh great...so the station buildings have got to be up before the track goes down?! Y cant u just run the track all the way to honeyborne, n do all the other stuff after... n whilst yr there, double track the whole lot, with flat bottom rail and a 60mph limit. then you could run the honeyborne express from cheltenham ;)an get that beast p&o opened up! lol

Toddington Ted said...

I don't think that the station building(s) have to be up before the track is installed. However, time and care taken at this stage with planning etc will ensure we will have a station to be proud of. I also understand that there's the matter of 2 bridges south of Broadway which need some tlc before track can be connected from Laverton. The overbridge that you see north of Broadway marks, I believe, the northern limit of the GWSR owned trackbed, so, if we want to get to Honeybourne, which I know we do, we will need to be nice to people! I like the 60mph idea though!
Regarding the comment of the lack of a 2nd platform at Cheltenham, I agree it is most unfortunate that the exisiting platform had to be demolished as it was leaning out. Had we not had 2 major line collapses I'm sure there would be a second platform there now - Cheltenham RC station really needs it. However, we know who to send there once Broadway's Platform 2 is done!

Ken said...

However, we know who to send there once Broadway's Platform 2 is done!

Nah! Too far to travel. The Honeybourne platform gets preference.

Richard (the 1st) said...

Thanks, Bill, but you didn't answer my question, which is: "Looking ahead, have you been able to identify the source(s) of material for the actual station buildings that will grace platform 1?" Also, it's a shame a rebuild of a previously existing railway structure (as opposed to a truly new build on virgin land) still requires planning permission. Lastly, am I right in thinking that the buildings were already demolished before GWSR became a prospective buyer?

Keith Patterson said...

Makes a lot of sense to do the construction of the platforms before the trains start operating. This does not stop construction of the station buidldings as well once the platform is completed in front of them.
Anyhow. Well done to all the team for your considerable efforts over the past few weeks. The result speaks for itself!!!
Regards
Keith Patterson

Bill said...

Hi Richard ,
The old buildings were long gone when GWSR took over. We are currently recovering some of those bricks on site from which the old Station was built. Of course we have an exact replica of the Broadway Station at Toddington to use as a model, albeit in reverse end to end. We will get the right red bricks from a number of sources - for instance we are about to seek permission to recover all the reds from the old GWR stables at Ashurch Station. These might form part of our station brick stock. Whatever we do the Station will look and feel authentic!, I promise!

Anonymous said...

Ashchurch wasnt GWR....

Bill said...

Quite right - a senior moment........

Anonymous said...

i know its contentious, and I dont want to reopen old wounds, but is the Broadway goods shed sold or not? I keep seeing conflicting stories.... I thought the sale had been raised as a possibility a year ago, but had been avoided? just a 'yes it is sold' or 'no it is not' will suffice, as we dont need more acrimony.

Bill said...

Yes, sold.

Anonymous said...

Ta :(