A small team of 7 on site today - and that was a peak. We started with 4, and finished the day with 4. But the weather was kind, there was no rain, so construction could continue merrily. The first thing that happened was that Fairview came with another load of 140 concrete blocks, and 20 x 25Kg sacks of cement. I thought I blogged that last week? Here they are again....

Two more dumpy bags of aggregate came, and it quickly dawned on us what the intention was - make more concrete! Oh-oh. Readers may remember that we started the 140m, 150m and 160m sections, and the concrete was required for the foundation leveling of the 150m section. In fact during the day we prepared the 160m section for a layer of concrete, so we now know what faces us next week.

But first - dealing with the rain. We had a bit, since we were here last week. Despite covering up the work, the water managed to sneak in underneath the plastic sheeting, and  fill up the gaps in the metric reds. In this picture you can see Keith extracting the water, gap by gap, from each of the affected bricks. Tony can't wait for him to finish, it's a slow job. After some experimenting (towels, Windowlene bottle, bits of hosepipe etc) we hit upon the idea of a battery tester with the inside removed. You then have a pipette, with a bulb on the end. Works a treat !

Tony and Pete finished off the top of the120m section corbelled last week, but no work was done on the three remaining corbelling courses on the 130m section, as we had only one 'blue' brick layer, and as you can see in the picture,. Bob (for it is he) was on his hands and knees laying a first course of blue stretchers on the 160m section.
So what did we achieve today?
- 120m section finished off
- 150m section given a bed of concrete
- Two rows of blues and reds on the 140m section (picture above)
- One row of blues and blocks laid out on the 160m section
- One third of the blocks laid on the 140m section.

Quite good, isn't it?

But there were other things happening at CRC, it was the place to be. Much digging was going on at the top of the cutting behind platform 1.

View from the top of the cutting. There was a lot of clay here, very sticky indeed. I have proof!

View from CRC1. Man with gauge on the right.

View from CRC2

Yes, the contractors working on the landslip were still there, and working flat out all day (tea breaks excepted) with two excavators at once. The red one was grading the slope, aided by a man with a neat triangular gauge, showing him the slope that was needed, while the yellow excavator passed the material along the top of the bank to a pile, from which lorries could be loaded to take the surplus away.
By the end of the day, the work had pretty much reached the end of the section, but at the time of writing some decisions were still awaited about the retaining wall at the bottom. It appears you can still get slag stone, from Port Talbot! Let's hope they keep it original, and don't go overboard with visible modern materials.

As we stood on the top of the cutting, a rail borne vehicle flashed by underneath, and it wasn't a train. What the heck.....?

We tracked it down to the cutting at Hunting Butts. It was a road-railer with a flail, hired in by the company to do lineside clearance.This was the start of its session, and soon after it moved on up the line.

At the end of the day, your scribe went on to Bridge 5, and finally to Broadway - all sites of activity and progress. Check it out on the other blogs tomorrow.

A day of excellent progress today. A gang of 10 enjoyed cool weather with plenty of sunshine and the occasional shower. Your blogger arrived a few minutes late, as he delivered another one of those enormously long ash disposal shovels to the loco dept. at Toddington. Although half of the 'spoon' was missing, this can be repaired it seems, and they were keen to have it, so back to the house of the donor to pick it up and somehow get it into the car. One end ended up in the front footwell, while the other touched the inside of the tailgate... we got there OK.

 By 08.30, Keith and John O were hard at work mixing concrete. This was required for the new 140m section, where a concrete strip is required to raise the foundations to the correct level for brick laying to start. It's a 10m strip, and each barrowfull advanced the work by 18ins. We reckoned that 15 barrowloads were needed, at 90 kg each. Say a ton and a half of concrete run down to the coal face. The barrows were very heavy, so we split the loads between the three of us.

Heave, Paul !

 A request came back that the last barrowload be extra big - we gave that one to push to Paul :-).

At the 140m coal face, John S and Tony were spreading each barrowload out nice and smooth over the strip. 90 concrete blocks have already been positioned at the rear, so next week we should be able to lay them on top of the concrete poured today.

Here is the concrete strip completed. In the foreground is Pete, preparing the 150m section for its first course of blues. This requires removal of any loose bricks from the foundations of the old wall, and cementing in replacements on a bed of mortar. In the background we can see Tony, John S and Bob working on the 120m section, with a final layer of corbelling being applied, and backed up. At the end of the day, we could say with some satisfaction that the 120m section is finished! In front of it is the 130m section, which now requires 3 rows of corbelling to finish. That's three days then, as only one row can be done per working day, each row having to 'go off' before the next is added on top of it.

Another load of concrete blocks arrives.

 Two courses of reds went down on the 120m section, on which you can see Tony working above. I say 'red' but as is plain to see, the actual bricks were yellow, because they were free, and you don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Meanwhile, Bob had the time to add a single row of blues to the new 150m section, jumping over the 140m section as it had the concrete drying on it. The 160m section is pegged out, and will be commenced next time. 210m is the ultimate target ! We are getting there, and with 150m now being worked on, that is just under three quarters of the way. Wow !

Don't even go there Keith, that is the last mini Swiss roll !

 After taking an extensive rest from concrete shifting, the non-bricklaying gang attacked the dwindling pile of bricks on top of the embankment. We started the day with 24 pallets up there (20 blues and 4 reds) and we ended the day with 21, so three pallets of reds were broken up, and ferried to the coal face. That's a ton and a half, and our backs knew it at the end of the day. We now have 8000 bricks left, for 80m not yet started. It does look as if some more will be required before we can finish the job, mostly reds as only one pallet of reds remains up there.

After a ton and a half of brick shifting. Tired, but healthy!

The many broken bricks in the picture above were found thus in the pallet, as we bought seconds and they are not perfect, for a much lower price of course.

An overview of the works at the end of the day.

In the picture above, you can see John S on the left pointing, Tony backing up with the yellow 'reds' , Bob laying a row of blues on the 150m section, and right in the distance, on the L/C, a delegation from the PWay examining the state of the L/C, which has not taken kindly to repeated use by giant dumper trucks and heavy lorries. It will be rebuilt very shortly, as soon as the Kier earth moving activity has been completed.

Finally, a picture which summarises our day - sunshine and showers. In this picture, you can see them both. In the background, beautiful Cleeve Hill, and view we enjoy every day when we have our tea. Aren't we lucky?

And now, an unexpected addendum:

What is going on here, you may rightly ask. Has the mating season for excavators begun?

In fact it is the start of works to grade the cutting side along platform 1. As readers may know, there has been an earth slip at the foot of the walkway down to the platform. There was too much material above the slag stone wall, and eventually it yielded and a whole lot of clay came down. This will now be addressed. The cutting side will be lightened and graded. There is a lot of material to remove, and the newly planted pine trees will be carefully removed and replanted at the end of the works, which will take up to 4 weeks. The lower excavator will do the grading, passing the material up to the second one in the foreground, which will load the material taken out on to a lorry. We will post with updates if possible.

We were given these two mugs to sell, from the collection of a former fireman at Gloucester. Seems to be slipware, both labelled GWRS (and not GWSR!). No marks underneath, good condition.

Can anyone tell us what they are?

Back to CRC2, and a big gang today, with up to 10 people laying bricks and shutteling around with mortar and supplies. And the weather was great - warm and dry. Just like our sense of humour :-)

To start with today, a little warm up exercise at the beginning of the day to get us going - lift 20 sacks of cement @ 25Kg each and carry them into the container. Brian can do it running !

Next job - tote that bale, shift those pipes. Our supply of 100mm drain pipes lay in the way of the next bit of platform wall extension, so had to be moved one by one to behind the 110m section. We can't lay them out yet, because they would get in the way of the bricklayers' feet. And we had five bricklayers today. In the foreground of the picture above you can see the upright blues weighing down a line of corbelling just achieved on the 120m section.

Then - mix that mortar! Problem - the mixer was on strike. The electric motor went round OK, but the drum wouldn't. John O gives up in frustration; Brian and Keith decide to investigate.

A few minutes later John O comes to explain that the problem is fixed. Something to do with the cambelt. Fixed it with a stocking did you? Keith can't believe his ears. It's much too warm for stockings.

Then, some serious work. With the 5 brick layers on site, John O was under pressure to keep them supplied. We keep patting ourselves on the back how much shorter the distance is for the wheelbarrows, but it's still 100yds to push every time. On this picture, you can see pretty well what has been achieved over the last week, esp. after Bob and John had another secret session mid week. The 130m section looks pretty high here. In fact it ended the day ready for corbelling. So fast...

Here is Bob laying the last plain brick on the 130m section. In the background we've got Tony and Peter Q backing up the run of corbelling Bob did earlier.

Yes, the brick laying was so efficient today that we were asked to bring down some more bricks from above. I counted the remaining piles first thing, and there were 26 of them. Down from something like 60 (or 80, I have forgotten just how many we started with) and that includes the second hand bricks that we brought down from Broadway and manipulated on to the site. We shifted two pallets worth down to the next section of wall that will be built, about 1000 bricks in all.
We break open a pallet of reds, bring them to the edge of the embankment, hand them down to Brian, he puts them on the PWay trolley (which holds exactly one pallet full) and then we roll the trolley along to the site where they are most needed. Your scribe prefers to handle bricks by armfuls; Brian and Keith decided on throwing them, but an instant of inattention, and you get a brick in your ear. Just warning you, Keith ! That happy smile could quickly turn upside down.

Luckily it was Monday (for the trolley going up and down the loop) and there were no trains. Wrong! So wrong... Mid afternoon Dinmore Manor coasted in with a 4 coach special with photographers on board.

This has the (I presume) unintended effect of stopping all work while we gape in awe. But not everybody is so impressed.

Here John S calmly carries on unperturbed, pointing his recently laid brickwork, as the Manor rumbles around the station. Handy, those milk crates. You can stack them, and enjoy a stress free bit of pointing. Notice that we point behind the platform as well, in the bit that will be back filled. Very proud of our work, we are.

At the end of the afternoon, Dinmore Manor left again with its short train. Quite noisy too, for such a modestly sized engine. We carry on with our bricks.

We have now almost completed the 110 - 130m sections. 110m is signed off, 120m has two courses of corbelling laid, and 130m is up to corbelling. Sounds like a lot of corbelling to do next time then.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, a small team will be pegging out the next 2 - 3 sections, and will lay a few corbelling bricks. Next Monday we can lay more corbels, and start on sections 140m and 150m with a first row of blues and some concrete to even out the foundations.

Good progress today, well done chaps !

A follow up day on fishplate greasing with the Wednesday gang. After the gang called the BAG for help with this huge exercise, 4 members turned up a fortnight ago, and yours truly again today for the follow up. The fresh air, good company and physical exercise were irresistible. Oh yes, and there was lunch on offer !

A pukka freight train - that's what you get with the PWay.

After a cheering cup of tea in the gang's very own mess coach, our train lurched into life and trundled through Winchcombe station and the tunnel out to Gotherington. We were here to finish off what was left undone, after we ran out of fuel the last time.

It's heavy.

We parked at the Gotherington platform, and out came all the heavy tools required for the job of mechanised fishplate greasing. First the generator, which was equipped like a wheelbarrow so that you could push it. Well, like an overloaded, top heavy wheelbarrow. That takes two men to push.

It's heavy - part II

Then came the nut remover (known on the K&ESR as the 'Nurdler') which was so heavy it came with a special set of wheels to go under it. Unfortunately, you had to lift it on and off as well. That took at least 4 people, with a fifth to hold the wheels in place.

It's heavy - part III

Then came the nut replacer (also known as a 'Nurdler' on the K&ESR, we SE-teners are a folk of few words). This one was fiendish, as it had a diesel engine, which was not only like moving an anvil, but also a b...h to start.

Now it's incredibly heavy !

Finally came the PWay trolley, which was so heavy it came in two halves (4 people to each half, if you please) and when you have to lift that over set of points set against you, it's he whole team that is required.Count the heads - there are eight!

Paul has dropped his contact lens... is that in the four foot, or the six foot?

The petrol generator-in-a-wheelbarrow was wrestled on to the PWay trolley and, flanked by the two nut removing machines, the team set off to finish Gotherington loop. The first machine removes the nuts, a powered grease gun squirts a dose of sticky black stuff behind the fish plate (and after a day's squirting, invariably on the operators as well) and the second machine does the nuts up again.
Robert did a lot of the squirting, and your scribe was amazed to find him in shorts, with leopard spotted shins covered in sticky black grease. Why not wear trousers? Apparently it is easier to clean the bare legs under the shower, than to wash the trousers. OK....... And a hot tip for those without Swarfega in the house - mix some sugar into washing up liquid, and it does the job just as well. We suppose the sugar takes the soapy taste away ?

Have spanner, will tighten nuts.

We were delighted to greet a new recruit today. Unfortunately, with advancing age my memory for names, already poor, does not improve, but I believe his name was John. I do recall that many years ago he was a fireman at Swindon, hence the interest in the GWR. Welcome !

Unfortunately someone played the usual mean trick on new arrivals, by giving him the spanner with the shortest handle.




In the morning, we finished off the loop and proceeded further southwards beyond the bracket signal, round the curve and on to the straight in the direction of Bishops Cleeve.

Yes, that is really a tea bag in there...

Just as we were starting to flag a bit, it was lunch time. Alas that is not the whole story, as we had to walk back to our mess coach in the train, by now a good mile away. What a trudge over the ballast. But the walk was worth it, for waiting for us with a large kettle of hot water, and a considerable supply of mugs, was Dave. Dave was 'mother', and the tea was jolly refreshing too.





But this was only the start of the catering - yes catering - arrangements. Haven't the Wednesday gang got themselves a lovely and cosy little arrangement in that mess coach. The centre of the coach has been equipped with a full kitchen, and it was humming.

 

Two short order cooks.

A delicious savoury smell wafted down the corridor, prompting your scribe to take a peep at its source in the kitchen. Here our two chefs were preparing 16 meals of faggots, peas, mash and gravy. This is the real deal....

The meal was served - at the table, if you please - in the dining room, with chequered table cloths, condiments and extra helpings of mash and peas, after all had been served. The faggots were delicious, specially prepared by a butcher in Tewkesbury, and extra large. Fishplate greasing seemed so far away. And the cost of this princely meal? £2.50. And it wasn't even Christmas.

Andy's road-railer Landrover - there's only a single spare seat, so book early.

In the afternoon, further fishplate greasing proceeded, until we had reached this point. Recognise those Scots pines in the distance? Bishops Cleeve, that is. Another greasing session is intended in a couple of weeks, but in the next section lies a considerable stretch of CWR, so perhaps we'll find another new arrival to grease that.

The long road home. This way to Gotherington...

At the end of the afternoon, about turn, time to head for home and load up the tools. But it's a long trudge back. That is only the distant signal, then it's the home, then the loop, then the station. Keep pushing, back there.

Back in the mess coach and a last cup of coffee.

An RCF you say?

Clive got out a thick and voluminous binder - listen carefully, at the back. The subject of the lecture was RCFs and squatting. I had no idea we were suffering from this condition, caused by high speed trains. High speed? Here?

Another fun day, with a great gang.

A fine day at last, ideal weather for brick laying. Most of us got to CRC2 rather late (by half an hour in my case) because of some horrendous snarl up round Bishops Cleeve. But we got there in the end, to find the local boys John and Bob already well at work.

Shortly afterwards, Richard from Fairview came with a welcome supply of corbelling bricks, and 5T of sand. We get through this stuff with amazing speed, and every pound of it is barrowed to the coal face, mostly by John O. Well done, John !
After a while, Bob and John confessed that they had also done a little Saturday session, and revealed that between them they had put a second course of corbelling on the 110m section,and a final header course on the 120m section.

At the beginning of the day; work on all three sections proceeds.

So today we already had a little head start, and the day's progress was boosted by the presence of once again 8 volunteers - we seem to have quite a regular crew.

E6036 draws out the wagons from Hunting Butts.

The exciting bit today was that we had a PWay train headed by the class 73 come to sort out some wagons from the Hunting Butts headshunt. Of course the wagons you want are right in the middle, or even at the very end, so rather than just come and pick them up, the class 73 first ended up with a very long train indeed of all sorts of wagons, some of which had been on fire thanks to our local vandals. Much shunting backwards and forwards ensured, before the correct vehicles had been extracted and formed into a short train. The wagons are required to carry the rail we are buying from the Laverton headshunt up to the Broadway extension railhead, so you can see that there are definite signs of movement here now. I wonder if the share issue has raised enough money to pay for the bridges, as well as for the rails? It's not impossible, as the issue has now breached the £500.000 mark. Wonderful, to get such support.
In between, brick laying continued. Bob put down the final row of corbelling on the 110m section, which was swiftly backed up by Tony and Pete, so that at the end of the day, we can declare this next section - finished!

The 110m section nears completion in the hands of Tony and Pete. A proud moment. Note the empty (-er) Hunting Butts headshunt behind!

Bob then moved on to the 130m section. This is the current end one, and here he added two rows of blues. On the cutting side, John S backed this up with two courses of reds. At the end of the day, we had laid 750 bricks in total, pretty good going for a day's work.

During the day a second team of three (Derek, your scribe and Brian) brought down additional backing up bricks from the top of the cutting. These were essentially the second hand reds and yellows that had been scattered about the field by our traveller visitors, and gathered up again and stacked inside the fence by Bob Stark and his men. We brought down two stacks of reds, and a stack of yellows, about 1300 bricks in all. We were very tired at the end, with only 3 men on the job. Basically this means that each part of the logistics is performed by only one man, so it feels as if you have done everything yourself, e.g. picked up every single brick from the stack, or put every single brick on the trolley.

In this picture, you can see Derek picking the bricks off the trolley and passing them to Brian, who is stacking them behind the current working area ready for immediate use.

Wot? Me? All these?

When we say immediate use, this means the pressure is on John to get on with it, as the stack behind him grows ever bigger...

While all this brick moving was going on, the class 73 was shunting to and fro at the tunnel mouth, and we worried in case it might finally decide to pull away with its newly formed train, and want to run around. We didn't want to get tooted at with our trolley. We kept a wary eye on the loco, even having lunch in order to give it a chance to appear. Eventually it did, pulled in with 5 wagons loaded principally with (unwanted?) bullhead rail and ran round with the Toad. It tooted, we waved, all very slow and friendly.

Finally the PWay train was ready. Neil and Malcolm shared a few words, and it was off. You can see it leave here:
http://youtu.be/Mh-5SkLP2Uk
Not a massively exciting video, but it's a bit of a milestone as it signifies the start of the Broadway extension. We are on our way !