GWSR Infrastructure News

We didn't seem to have a thread for GWSR news that wasn't Broadway-related, so here's one now.

First item: there's a informative new update on the Bridges blog, covering major repairs to a bridge on the line.

Noel

 

Thanks Noel,
A good idea, particularly as the Boardroom Blog is hardly ever used now.
No doubt FS123 and other supporters will arrive here shortly .

Mike

 

Hmm what, who, me? I must say it's disappointing the boardroom blog is so rarely used now, especially given the number of promises that it would be. Last time I heard each director was supposed to be posting at least once a month. One welcome addition has been Richard Johnson's board meeting summaries though.

What do other people think of our website, given plans to have a new one? I must say in general I've rather liked it, other than mobile unfriendliness and and few bits that need tidying up. I certainly prefer one definite main website and other clearly satellite websites (e.g. our blogs are clearly related to a niche aspect) rather than the model adopted by some railways with a joe public website and enthusiasts website, often with overlapping and conflicting information.

 

Ha, I thought you'd not be far away, FS . 'Though you've been very quiet since the summer holidays. Busy elsewhere ?

Agree about Richard's board meeting summaries. Even though they are a little short on detail sometimes they do at least give the rest of us some idea of what is happening and why.
The GWSR website is fine for me and, yes, the current layout with the specialist blogs and albums accessible from the home page is ideal. Sometimes "Jo Public" can be turned into an enthusiast by good publicity and, as the old Broadway Blog showed, it can certainly attract financial support .

Incidentaly : Your sign-off includes a link to the My Donate page for the Broadway Group. This seems to have been closed off in September. Perhaps you could look into it.

Mike

 

Yes, those are very good - I try and make a point of complimenting them, so he knows they are read, and very much appreciated.

Noel

 

Been busy on the railway! And school work with the new term of course. I can't seem to find any way of donating specifically to Broadway online at the moment, closest I can find is this form which seems a little out of date - beginning of 2018 has been the aim for while now. You can of course still purchase normal shares, although I'd suggest that if you are contemplating buying more shares to wait until the spring when the next Broadway share issue comes out, which I understand will have the same EIS benefits as the last one did. The travel benefits really are rather good. Having looked at some of this stuff in detail on the website perhaps it is at least time for a refresh, some documents still refer to the limited company! I hope the overall structure of one main website linking to all of the dept. blogs etc is retained though, I did hear rumour that there would be two separate ones.

Edit - having looked some more, if you fancy visiting the site, I'm sure they would be able to take any cheques made payable to GWR Broadway Area Group. Or of course buy something in the shop.

 

I think I'm correct in stating that any donations received by the Railway endorsed "For Broadway" (or similar), will be so aportioned.

My thoughts on any website change/re-design, although I avoided being specific, can be found here:-
http://railways.national-preservation.com/threads/marketing-and-pester-power.558923/

With regard to the Boardroom Blog, it was started in the days when Malcolm Temple was at the helm and, TBH, I 'cringed' at some of the entries he made. On Gala days he would announce the (not inconsiderable) takings for a particular day. It read almost as an invitation for 'scrotes' to Rob/Burgle (herewith avoiding the Americanisation of 'Burglarize') the Railway. Notwithstanding that the total monetary takings would have been at three differing locations and that many would have been Card transactions, the 'headline' numbers oft quoted could have made Station Staff vulnerable to being victims of (perhaps violent) Crime.

Does the Boardroom Blog still have a place? I'm not sure it does. Much of what needs to be disseminated could be, and often is, done by way of Volunteer Announcements. At least with (email) Volunteer Announcements there is a means to reply "FAO" when querying/questioning any particular item within the content. Whereas the Boardroom Blog, along with the other Blogs, provides merely a 'Comment' facility.

Given a choice, I would place it in Room 101.

 

Another noteworthy happening: today was the last day for the gang re-creating the second platform at Cheltenham Racecourse Station. They're done!!

Congratulations, guys [I don't recall seeing mention of any ladies :-]! That was a heck of a job - hard to believe that a small gang of volunteers accomplished that on a mostly one-day-a-week schedule! Like they say, 'A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step..'

Noel

 

Lots of good progress on the extension front looking on the extension blog, lots of ballast drop, and more rail tomorrow. I'm sure P'way's Flickr site will have lots of pictures of that by the end of the weekend. The Shark Ballast Plough has been waved goodbye from C+W and presumably isn't far off being ready to be used, looking at the calendar a whole week of tamping is booked after the races have finished. I don't know how soon, but I'm fairly confident that the DMU will be travelling up to Little Bucklands when it's doing the shuttle run once that bit's ready. Certainly it'll be going beyond Laverton before Broadway.

 

The track welding sequence is well presented, does a lot to explain the process.
Funny that we have a couple of teams from Haigh Rail with us this week.

 

The shark has been used in the week and is currently located on the train of re-loaded ballast wagons sat out on the running line at Winchcombe ready for next week's drop prior to the planned tamping. Yes lots of rail in right to the end of the sleepers, 16 panels in all. No the DMU won't go up to Little Buckland, as from next year all trains will stop short of the loop as the loop is being removed, components are to be re-used at Broadway.

 

I'm sure I heard that the DMU would be travelling a bit further than Laverton at some point before Broadway? As I said, I wasn't sure about timescales though. Maybe it was just an idea! Does that mean there'll be some track at Broadway some time next year, or will it just be sitting around in storage waiting until later?

 

A bit more infrastructure news:

Our Building and Services dept. have started a new blog, to report on their activities. You can access it here:
http://gwsrbuildingservices.blogspot.co.uk/

B & S do all sorts of construction work around the railway, it's a very varied activity. Lastly they were involved with the rebuild of platform 2 at Cheltenham Race Course, and now they have just started on extending platform 1 at Winchcombe. Do drop into the new blog, see what you think.

 

Thought I'd bring this to the front just to mention Hayles Abbey halt reconstruction has begun. You can see the first picture on the link in the above post, and also a picture on the P'way site. Good to see the (few!) local residents are in favour.

 

The Hayles Abbey Halt reconstruction is proceeding ahead of plan, with most of the wall almost finished. Mind you, that's not the end of the job by any means, but it looks like a platform already.

We've been following its progress on the Building and Services blog, but at the request of the project supervisor we've set up a blog of its own for Hayles.

You can see it here: http://haylesabbeyhalt.blogspot.co.uk/

A first post, covering today's progress, has just been published. Do call in and say hello !

 

Isn't it 'Hailes'?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I believe the abbey is Hailes, but the station is Hayles. Ask the Great Western!

 

I do hope so, because I have ordered the 12 inch letters for the running in board

 

Don't panic. <BJ>
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hailes-abbey/features/hayles-abbey-halt

 

That timelines is a tad longer than I was previously led to believe, was the person I was talking to overly optimistic or is that site a tad pessimistic?