Wednesday 16 October 2013

Wednesday 16th October 2013 - And a Pot of Gold!

I have always maintained that there is a "Pot of Gold" waiting for the GWSR
at Broadway - Today I rest my case! (Jo Roesen at his best)

It was certainly a game of two halves (or 3 thirds) at Broadway. The weather during the morning gradually went from showers until 11:00, and then for 2 hours the heavens opened! Lunch was taken early but a gang of 10 held their nerve and by 2:00 the sun was shining. Lesser mortals would have headed for home at lunchtime, but the gang stuck to the tasks in hand.

There were 2 construction activities in progress today - the continuance of brick laying on platform 2B and the setting of the slabs behind platform 2.


Roger B and Tony B managed to get 2 courses on section 1 of  2B and this is now up to the corbelling. Considering there was more than a 2 hour gap in the day, this was no mean achievement.




 


The team setting the slabs (Rod Gordon, Peter Q and Steve B) managed to get the final section completed and it now remains for the voids to be filled on either side!

This job was started by putting a layer of Mythe rubble in behind the wall. Four bags of rubble and seven runs with the dumper completed the next layer.
















Hand loading the dumper 7 times is  a great achievement but to then set them out at the other end is back breaking stuff. It was great job and we need to get some mechanical assistance to put a layer of ballast in on top of the bricks.




On other fronts the remainder of the hawthorn trees cut down last week were further lopped and taken to the bonfire site. Mike, Peter T and Peter H were on the job.


Gord and I  got our trusty theodolite out  and  accurately measured the gradients beyond Platform 1B - Pythagoras then came into play and it was like being back at school.

Julie and Doreen manned the Shed and some well soaked supporters came up, to buy their wares. I never ceased to be amazed at peoples interest, fair weather or foul, in progress at Broadway.
 

4 comments:

Toddington Ted said...

Given the requirement for funding to repair the bridges to connect Broadway to the rest of the GWSR (which seems to be going very well at the moment) let us hope that Jo's rainbow photo is indeed a welcome sign from the heavens. Brilliant blog as ever!

HowardGWR said...

Received my share certificate today, also with my complimentary ticket vouchers. I had hoped to exchange them for a trip to Broadway but as the vouchers expire 31 Oct 2014, I suspect I may be optimistic.

Jo said...

And what was at the end of the rainbow? Our valiant brick laying team :-)

mack said...

Great shot of that rainbow, touching down between the platforms. I noticed in another photo that bridge over the road looking a bit of a sorry sight. Is the plan to lift it out and weld it up? What's the extent of the damage to that one? Will it handle a merchant navy with 11 coaches!?.. Looks like it could do with a grit blast and paint, would the road need to be closed for that?