Windy! But we got a lot done. When I looked out of my bedroom window this morning, there was sleet coming down. Oh-oh. But minutes later, the sky was blue, and we set of for Cheltenham in good spirits.

It was a good day, as it turned out. The sky was bright and it was sunny. But a fierce wind howled through the site, making life a bit miserable for those high up, or directly exposed to it.  Brian knows all about it.

The two Johns set about finishing off the 150m section, which was one row short of completion. Here we see JC starting the final row of corbelling, and John S laying a last row of bricks on the 160m section. Unfortunately last week, in our haste to get everything under cover as the hailstorm rained mercilessly down upon us, the freshly laid reference corbelling brick on the corner in the foreground was knocked off, so John could not continue on to the 160m section.

An hour later, and an interlude. Fairview came with fresh supplies of sand and 72 concrete blocks for the next section, and once these were off the lorry, we took an hour of Richard's time to move the 22 dumpy bags filled with pea gravel away from the Race Course car parking area. They were very much second hand dumpy bags, having been used last year to recover the Avonmouth bricks, and it is well known that they weaken over time. Would they hold? Gingerly Richard takes the strain with the HIAB.

It held. We got 8 on the lorry. The coldest place today was up on the back of that lorry; Brian had to get off and fetch extra warm clothing!

We unloaded 20 of the 22 bags just inside our fence line. The last two bags failed us, and the straps went - but they weren't supplied by Fairview :-)

Your blogger recently went to visit Fairview's shop in Honeybourne, and was impressed by the free publicity they give the GWSR - several posters are hung up along their car park fence, and 'The Cornishman' is on sale on their counter! It was a number I hadn't even received in the mail yet. Very efficient.

Back to corbelling - here we see the progress to date, with JC working half way along the 150m section, and John S backing up behind.

At the end of the day, we had to remove all our materials (stacked bricks etc) from the trackside, because, annoyingly, trains start to run again end of the week. How they get in our way.

The wind tugged at our polythene sheets relentlessly, and twice your blogger had to run after an escapee that was cartwheeling towards Bishops Cleeve.

Once again, we had the benefit of 4 brick layers - JC and Bob on the front, Tony and John S on the rear. Bob laid two rows of blues along the front of this, the 170m section, and we see him in the background busy with two more rows low down on the 180m one. Bob laid 4 rows today, of which he was justifiably proud. Tony, seen here, and John S consumed vast quantities of brown mortar today, and helped complete the 150m section and raise the 170m section by two rows at the rear.

With the 72 concrete blocks delivered today, we were able to lay out the next row of concrete blocks along the rear of the 180m section. This will be next week's job. Bob worked hard, and is seen here on his hands and knees. Very tiring.

There comes a time when you have top stop, lean against the other platform, gasp a little, and ask yourself, why am I doing this? I must be mad.

The other really windy job today was painting the backs of the containers, which were still in their original rusty commercial colours, and not a good advertisement for the GWSR on the forthcoming race meeting. It was Brian again though, now standing in an elevated position on a ladder! Clearing the undergrowth around the container on the right, we discovered a whole series of one inch rust holes along the bottom - so this is where the mice get in. Luckily the container is only rented, and we will give it back on completion of the job.

At the end of the day we actually ran out of cement, and mortar became a scarce commodity. We were quite keen to finish off the 150m section with a waterproof top layer of mortar, and here is John O in typical pose, bringing mortar by hand. Every little bit helps, we know, but isn't this taking things a bit far?

It remained to John S to explain that mortar is brought in a shovel, or in a barrow. John O looks suitably admonished. But I've got rubber gloves on!

Here is the final piece of work on the 150 section, a layer of surface mortar at the rear, with freshly laid corbelling at the front. Woe betide him who leans on it. You die.

This final act on the 150m section allows us to formally sign it off. Here we see Bob adding the date: 2nd March 2015. Done !

Bob confided in your blogger that he would return as early as this Wednesday to finish off the corbelling on the 160m section too, brick laying on the signal box at Broadway having been completed.