Wednesday 19th June and Flaming June at Last!

Corbelling and backing up

The weather today was suddenly summer like! I was in the happy situation of having a visit from my Granddaughter Polly today and was away.

Twenty volunteers were on site and split into 3 teams. The bricklaying on Platform 2 was sub divided into a team corbelling, and  a team working on the final courses at the northern end.
It was sweltering weather  but work continued  until 17:00. We are now in a position to lay further coping slabs next week (A big thank you by the way to those generous supporters who continue to sponsor the laying of the slabs)

Up to level 6 on the Northern end!

Bob Jones almost nose to nose with the corbelling

At the southern end of platform 2 , Terry and Rod were finishing off the backing slabs that act as a rear buffer for the infill. Lifting the 2x2 slabs and barrowing the concrete is not a lot of fun in the heat, but they managed to complete it and pull forward some of the top soil at the back of the slabs. We should be able to put some ballast behind the wall to bring the height up to ducting level within the next week.

Peter and Gordon in action - remember the 60s Duo?
They've come out of retirement

We have made such great progress with Platform 2 that it is planned to put another 40m of footings in to continue the wall northwards. In order to achieve this we are having to move the mess room, the lamp huts, the toilet and the equipment lean-to. Today we were only able to start with moving the lean-to shelter for the dumper etc. The first stage is to partly disassemble it. A new area was levelled (thanks Ron). More on progress next week.










Finally and most importantly Chris Helm (Broadway Safety Officer) and Gordon Wood (CDM Coordinator) gave the Wednesday Gang the safety refresher course. It was difficult to find any shade, but it looks as though they managed it!

Sack Barrow

 A sack barrow nicely refurbished by Jo Roesen. Jo's covering comments:-

Here is a picture of the sack barrow you asked me to restore. I’ve stopped the wheels from wobbeling, greased them up, given it a ‘GWR’ repaint and lettered it, with the kind help of Richard Johnson. Now all we need is a station to put it on. Normally, the barrows were kept under the footbridge steps.

If you have any other such treasures that you would like to donate to Broadway Station, please get in touch.

Saturday 15th June 2013

A typical summers day with sunshine and some heavy showers. Nevertheless there was a good turnout today, with 15 volunteers on duty.

Heads down on the bricklaying 

Bricklaying was always going to be on the cards - the end game of this section of platform 2 is in sight.












Four courses are now on this last section, with four to go before the corbelling starts.

Peter, John and Ron

Further south on platform 2 the rear slabs were being placed and concreted in. This will allow the infill to progress and allow the cable ducting to be installed.


Peter Quick drew the short straw to  mix the concrete and barrow it  from the cement mixer. We were blessed with Peter's company because his Ryanair flight was cancelled earlier in the week because of the air  traffic controllers strike in France. Ryanair's loss was our gain!

By the end of play 2/3 of the slabs were in, straight and true, with the remainder to be done on Wednesday.






Now who says volunteering is  a bed of roses. Not so! Here John Blofield fends off  botulism with a fridge clean.


The other areas of work included the successful conversion of a cement mixer to petrol power. Also the refurbishing of some steps. Both these down to a long day put in by John Simms.

More bricks were cleaned.

Finally and most importantly Chris Helm gave all of the volunteers a refresher Site Safety presentation, highlighting the main criteria for sending people home in the same condition that they came.  More of this on Wednesday.

Thanks everybody!

Wednesday 12th June 2013

A great turnout again today - the Wednesday Gang are certainly consistent, with 20 Volunteers on Site.


The bricklaying crew have the completion of the current section of Platform 2 in there sights and the bricklaying, cement mixing, and brick stacking were working a like a well oiled machine. Every one of these is vital to achieving the end result.

I think Clive's getting worried about the number of times
he ends up in front of Jo's lens!

I didn't get a 'bricks laid' count today, but there were teams in 3 places on the line, so it must have been approaching a record.

At the southern end of of Platform 2 the paving slabs were set out for incorporation in the back edge of the platform. When this is completed the lamppost ducting can be laid and the infill brought up to platform level .

Gordon explains why a risk assessment has to be
completed before a job, not after it!

Back at the northern end bricks were cleaned for general stocks. I also stripped down an old 240v mixer to upgrade it to a petrol version. We will see what 0-60 time we can get out of it when fully tuned.

Rod on the chain gang.

And  Platform 2 at 5 pm - just remarkable!

Saturday 8th June 2013 and to Cap it All.......

 Pat, Robin and Keith
Yes that's blue sky...

A sunny Saturday at last and 10 volunteers made the most of the sunshine.  There were 3 main jobs on the go.

Brick cleaning always seems to be left til the last in the blog posts, with an honorable mention. Not so today, 3 of the regular cleaners were present, continuing with the stocking up of reds.

Steve Roger and Clive on the line.....

On platform 2 brick laying was continuing with a team of 3 laying 350 bricks by the close of play.












The challenge of the day was to return the 4 cwt capping stone on the North East pilaster on the Evesham Road bridge. I had promised John Balderstone (GWR Bridges and Structure expert) some while ago that this would be done, and today was day.


 After careful consideration of all the risk factors, we decided to do it by the tried and tested method with block and tackle and scaffolding.  It took John Crawford, John Simms and Jim Hitchen a good 5 hours, but  by 5 o'clock the job was done.

John Crawford points up....

It was a brilliant job, much of it down to John Crawford's ingenuity and the close help of John and Jim. A small part of one bridge restored, but it gave us a warm feeling to have succeeded on what turned to out be quite a tricky task.

Back in its proper position..... Job done

Finally, and by no means least, John Blofield and Stuart Warnants took the gazebo up to the Vintage Car Show on the Green in Broadway and had a very successful day, both financially, and from a PR point of view. The vintages cars were there in abundance and a sunny day brought all the enthusiasts out.
It turned out to be busy but enjoyable day.

All in all a great day!

Wednesday Gang!

Some volunteers turned up in their Speedos today expecting sunshine - not quite the blazing hot day forecast, but 19 troops were on site, focused on the bricklaying on  platform 2.

 A couple of smiles that we were all pleased to see........

Also 2 teams of brick cleaners were in action, replenishing the stock of reds. I am sure we will have enough to finish this section of wall, and the Mythe bricks will be arriving in 4 weeks.












 Farther down the the line Bob Jones was ploughing a loan furrow with the next section of corbelling. It looks a treat.











On other fronts, Peter Quick put the new floor in the phone box which is now virtually complete, apart from the lighting.
.
Many other small  tasks were completed also, shelves put up, signs painted, Joyce's bric a brac retrieved from Toddington -  all vital to progress, but beyond Jo's camera....

After tea break this morning we had meeting of minds, to discuss how we could offer some assistance at Cheltenham to get the CRC Platform 2 wall underway without slowing momentum at Broadway. I came away with some ideas and a tentative plan to gives some assistance with bricklaying, until such time as Cheltenham has its own bricklaying resource.




Finally a request from Jo:-

We have been given this regulator for sale, but do not know from which engine (type) it came. Can anyone help?

The shape is very similar to the regulator in the Pannier tank that came. There is one difference though – there is a spring loaded catch at one end, which I have not seen before.

After cleaning, we found two numbers stamped on it:

6062 crossed out, replaced by 6142. The latter was a GWR tank loco, the former does not seem to exist as a number.

Who can say more about it? Any offers to buy it? All proceeds will go to the Broadway project.

Any help gratefully received!

A Visit to the Gwili Railway

On the way back from Pembrokeshire (a  long weekend at Picton Castle - highly recommended this time of year for the rhododendrons) I called in at the Gwili. I like everything about this heritage railway.  It is a modest and unpretentious  line, full of character, with the common  ingredient of enthusiastic volunteers  keeping it going. A few pictures here, not taken by Jo this time!