Broadway Bridges - Repairs

Oy! Less of the "old age pensioners," pal. I pick up my pension in two months and I can find anywhere, without a satnav, particularly if there's a pub there!

 

Oops, put me foot in it there perhaps I should have said senile - is that better, or worse?...

 

Careful, lad. Any more of this talk and I may have to report you to Victor!

 

Alright, I'll shut me trap

 

In the immortal words of J. R. "Bob" Dobbs: "You know how dumb the average person is? Well, by definition, half of 'em are even dumber than THAT." So true, alas....

Noel

 

Pedantically speaking, this is only true if the intelligence of the population exactly follows the normal distribution, which in reality is vanishingly unlikely.

 

I quite like John Cleese's explanation on stupidity

 

Today, 22 August, the Broadway Bridges Blog is reporting yet more excellent progress, with Bridge No 1 (Evesham Road) metalwork repairs nearly complete (I know there's much more work still to do) and Little Buckland Bridge also showing signs of completion (regarding the massive concreting task - one more pour to go!).
See: http://bridgestobroadway.blogspot.co.uk/

 

According to the GWSR Boardroom Blog, the Evesham Road Bridge repair work has now reached the stage that the bridge was reopened to road traffic yesterday, Mon 8 September. No photos seen yet but the "Bridges Blog" reporter is away on a well-deserved holiday. As usual, go away for a day or two and exciting things happen! Well done to the Contractor who finished the job on the Evesham Road bridge ahead of schedule. On to Broadway gets nearer!

 

Some tremendous news on the GWSR "Bridges to Broadway" share issue scheme that closes on 31 October. The GWSR is now preparing to advance the permanent way to Broadway. The share issue is still open as much funding is still required but exciting times beckon. Good news to see that a C&W storage shed is planned for Winchcombe too. See:
http://www.gwsr.com/news/latest-news/your-last-chance-to-invest-in-'bridges-to-broadway'.aspx

 

That article paints a much rosier picture than some of the pessimists have been moaning about, so excellent news. We definitely still need more money for rails though, I think at the moment we have enough for 2/3 of the permanent way. When we get to that point, hopefully an appeal for the last mile will be a very appealing donation offer, and will be long enough after the bridges for people not to think we're scroungers I don't know if the figure saying we had enough money for 2/3 of the track took into account the work needed to fix embankments though, that's not going to be a fun job, the whole of the trackbed from Laverton to Broadway is on an embankment IIRC.

I haven't seen the plans for Winchcombe yet, but from what I've heard it sounds good. I'm on holiday when they are revealed - hopefully I'll be able to see them somewhere. A carriage shed will be very much appreciated by the carriage cleaning team I'm sure, it can't be easy when they can only get to one side and even then not all the coaches are on the platform! At least we've solved the so called "Chocolate and beige" problem, we've stopped using varnish completely now we have our paintshop it takes less than a month to paint a carriage if there's just a light sand to do then slap the paint on. We're approaching my favourite time of the year in the work shops, when we are given the running rakes over the close period and told to do as much as possible, the amount of work that gets done is staggering!

One thing that particularly caught my eye in that article was this: "In the longer term there is no physical reason why part of the line can't be doubled once again. After all, this was once a double-track main line." That really will be something! The best bit would be the section between Toddington and Broadway as that will be the longest section when we get to Broadway; the Laverton run round is going to Broadway. But isn't there some kind of rule to do with viaducts?

Thank you to the few people who contacted me about bridges shares recently, much appreciated, you can clearly see where the money has gone, and all the bridge work is almost finished!

With all this expansion it means we will need plenty more volunteers, especially in departments like TTIs and guards, so if you can spare a few days you will be most welcome.

 

One thing in that that I'm not too sure about:

Work on bridges ... 4 (a small bridge at Peasebrook Farm) ... is substantially complete.

I got the impression from a recent 'Bridges to Broadway blog post (here, Peasebrook Farm section) that that bridge required a fair amount more work than they thought; perhaps it has gone very quickly, but my expectation is that as a result, it will be the last bridge done.

Noel

 

Re viaducts: you'll probably find your options are (1) single track, slewed towards the centre or (2) Central door locks on all carriages or (3) stewards on all doors that can't be centrally locked. (3) commits you to a massive volunteer overhead that arguably could be better used elsewhere; (2) is a capital expense and I'd also say is somewhat against the heritage aspect. So I'd imagine single track is the only practical solution.

Incidentally, with regards the Winchcombe carriage shed - is that a definite commitment, or an aspiration? I read the blog post more as an aspiration to make the point that there were many more pressing projects before anyone got too excited about continuing to Honeybourne, rather than as a definite "we are building a shed and we have it all planned out".

Tom

 

It is indeed a definite commitment now as I understand it, detailed plans of the redevelopment of Winchcombe are being unveiled at the volunteers meeting on the 1st of November as well as more detail on the Broadway extension plans which I'm hoping will be minuted as I won't be able to make it. Thanks for the rules on doors, I knew there was something. So basically that bit will have to remain slewed to the centre Wonder which bit could best be redoubled then? I suppose it depends on the stability of the embankments, I think in some places there is only room for one track as it has slipped.

 

Don't forget that it is common for extra work to be found on projects (and the bridges did require extra work) so one might expect additional costs on the bridge works.
I would certainly love to see the share issue able cover this, and then perhaps, if enough people chip in before it expires on 31st October, to buy some rail.
Broadway station buildings, and the HIA footbridge, also won't be cheap if we want quality.

 

How much money has already been spent on Broadway station and how much left to spend out of interest Jo? I'd imagine that although maybe about half the work has been done (platforms etc.) it probably hasn't cost hal as much because of all the reclaimed bricks, whereas the second half doing the buildings done with new bricks will cost more? Great news on the footbridge, I like the picture of it "in situ"! But what's gone wrong with the signal box?

 

Some sensitive issues there - better come round for a chat

 

I wondered if they might be, that's why I asked

I've said it many many times - I really must visit you one day! I genuinely haven't had much of a chance as Broadway's a bit out of the way for me, I'll see if I can persuade people that we need to visit Broadway again.

 

FS123-Unless you have a secure, encrypted system, When transmitting, remember BEADWINDOW!

 

I may be wrong but it does ring a bell that when the track was relaid on Stanway viaduct that from a structural point of view only having a single track was much the better option with a question mark over doubling being possible. Whether this is based on the standards of the builders (which given how part of the viaduct collapsed in building is plausible and backed up by the methods used in Chicken curve that were uncovered in the rebuilding) or simply that 100 years have taken their toll I don't know.