Saturday 14th March 2015 and a Tug of War Team in the Offing!

The milder weather earlier in the week led us into false sense of springlike weather - man that wind had a chill to it today, You can understand how the majority of the  15 volunteers headed for bonfire duty!










It was ideal weather conditions for a bonfire in the sense that there was a steady wind blowing  south-west down the track bed. The only problem was keeping ahead of the fire to keep it going.










Much of the  the cut brushwood was nearer the top of the banks and made it tricky to drag down to the track bed. Here, Gord is pulling them down one at a time - a hard way to get warm!









As we had no vehicles on site to help out, another cunning plan was conceived - combining the efforts!

Here the end result, Phil in the lead, Tony calling the pull and Gord as anchor man.

Here Phil switches to Morris dancing and only Robin is in time.

A great job was done with nearly 50m cleared and the cutting  looking far more cared for.









Back down by the telephone kiosk Dave H was helping me out to re-position two security cameras. The job will be finished on Wednesday.

Jo spread some grass seed on the 1A and 2A embankments and is looking for some rain to help it along.

John B and Jim Boyles (on Shed duty)  fixed the front shelter on the Shed - we have to keep it going a bit longer! Jim did well with the visitors today - Julies got some competition!

On the other side of the bridge the PWay Gang were marking out the up running line, so that we can carry out a topographical survey of the embankment and the car park. (Jo is doing a post on the Broadway Extension Blog)Nigel Black  thought the embankment had enough solid breadth to it, to allow the track to be laid. If anyone knows he does! However, we need to do the whole survey in a structured way over the next month.

Lastly an extra item from Jo:

Behind the scenes there is progress too. The picture shows 3 x 12'' cast iron letters for the word 'BROADWAY' on the running in board. They are on loan from the SVR, to whom we are very grateful. They are off to a foundry to be copied, and further letters cast in the same style.

Jo's Toes......

The 'TICKETS' plate is an original found locally, and is also due to be copied. It will go under the two ticket windows in the booking hall, together with the words IN and OUT. Got to handle the expected queues, you know !

One crowd barrier post is with a foundry for replication, and the two originals are with a local shotblaster, who will also make the 4 plates that go underneath.

We are on the lookout for heritage items to decorate the station building in original GWR style. A big gap at the moment appears to be the ticket office, where ticket racks, windows, drawers, lamps etc would be very welcome if someone can point us in the right direction.

Jo