GWSR General Discussion and Operations

The next blog item reporting on the canopy work can be read here:

https://haylesabbeyhalt.blogspot.com/2022/01/final-preparations-for-big-lift.html

Thanks for your support. The work is being paid for the the GWR Trust, so if you want to help, I'm sure they would welcome a donation.

https://www.gwrt.org.uk/Make_a_Donation/New_Donations.html

 

That’s fair enough, I will say this though please don’t worry about people like myself, I really couldn’t give a toss whether loco x is appearing at somewhere like the GWR, SVR, Epping, GC etc, in the grand scheme of things for me railway’s are a way of enjoying my spare time and trying to relax (Trust me the Great British Public can be a massive pain in the bum)

I have (and I’m sure I’m not the only one on here) enough trouble in my day job and private life trying to keep various plates spinning all at the same time (and several of those are in different directions )

I really can’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t do but maybe it might be an idea to take a deep breath and just think before you post on here.
All the best, Matt

 

The big lift took place today, surprisingly. We thought it was booked for tomorrow, but the lorry driver had a chitty that said today
Oh well, we thought, let's press on.

The result is described in today's Heritage Herald blog:

https://haylesabbeyhalt.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-big-lift.html

Hope you have as much pleasure reading about the result, as we did putting it all up.

A great day for Broadway!

 

Wonderful! Don't you just love it when a plan comes together a day early? And without a hitch, either. Some fantastic teamwork in evidence, there, and such a huge visual difference already. Thinking about how quickly the main roof structure went up, I wonder if steel erectors worked that quickly in 1904?
Well done, all- you must feel dead chuffed, not to mention dead beat. You've earned your dinner, tonight, alright!

 

I can't remember where I saw this, but I believe they used a steam crane standing on the tracks.
I have a picture of Winchcombe station being built, and the station building is there in its bricks, but no steelwork. On the other hand, the platforms are in, and there is contractor's track through the station.
Doing it with a steam crane must have been slow. We had a hydraulic HIAB and the operator had a remote control, which enabled him to be on the scaffolding just a few feet from where the action was. He could move the truss by millimetres at a time, with one finger.
It would make sense for the manufacturer of all the steelwork (bridges, canopies, footbridges et al) E. Finch of Chepstow to mark the stuff up in the factory, then send it up by rail for assembly on site. It explains why the builder's plate at Toddington on the fascia board is upside down. They look the same this way up or that, but they are handed. An easy mistake to make in the factory.

 

I imagined that was something like how it was. Slow, yes, but still a darned sight quicker than sheer legs, ropes and tackle whick would have been the case a couple of decades earlier. HIABs are wonderful things, at least until one takes a big chunk out of the waybeams of your local bridge!

 

"I read the news today, oh boy! 80 holes in Broadway canopy.." (apologies to John Lennon)
The canopy team doing their impression of the Duracell Bunny:
http://haylesabbeyhalt.blogspot.com/2022/01/80-holes-to-drill.html?m=1
Good to know that the batteries are just as effective in sub-zero temperatures!

 

It just shows what a really dedicated team can achieve with good planning and support.

 

There's a new post on the Civil Engineering blog. You can view it here:
https://bridgestobroadway.blogspot.com/2022/01/bridge-8-repairs-start.html

This operation, to be concluded before trains return in March, will enable the bridge to be reopened to two lane road traffic.

A complete replacement of the bridge - the preferred option - just wasn't possible, so more repairs will be needed a year from now. The steelwork is tired, but replacement is very complicated with all the services that have been laid over it, and time / money are short.

 

Great to see work getting going on that, it's been on all our minds for quite some time now.

I meant to post a link to our summary C&W 2021 roundup blog post the other week, but I forgot, here it is now, see everything we did last year: https://gwsrcarriageandwagon.blogspot.com/2022/01/2021-round-up.html

And yesterday BSK 34929 emerged into the daylight after about 4 years work (with a Covid shutdown in the middle) and involved the complete remodelling of the former parcels/luggage end for wheelchair access:



Some more pictures including some "Before" photos are on Saturday's blog post: https://gwsrcarriageandwagon.blogspot.com/2022/01/saturday-15th-shunting-on-ice.html

 

Looks better than this one:


Any idea where it's going, FS123?

 

Havenstreet ...

Tom

 

No idea, it was first sold over the summer but the deal fell through and has been sat at Toddington ever since. I only heard it had been sold again yesterday when someone else asked me what it was doing sat in the yard! Pleased to hear we've found another buyer for it though.

 

Looking at the photos in posts 1230/31, what a difference a bit hell of a lot of tlc can make, even to a humble MK1 (I always love the NNR C&W blog). Issues of the IWSR's loading gauge aside, I sincerely hope we don't lose too many of the early examples left. One day, the skillsets to restore those currently often regarded as "past it" will be no more surprising than is today's capacity to handle the kind of serious boilerwork which heritage pioneers would've consigned to the 'TFD' file, fifty years ago.

 

Nah, it's not a kitchen car...

 

The Churnet Valley have been buying some very tired looking examples of late, and I think Wensleydale are inn the market for Mk 1s as well, so there's a couple of possibilities. #Spa Valley, perhaps, too?

 

If heading down to Kent Im sure @Jonnie would let us know.

 

On the last part of the Broadway canopy works, we have now started to fit the roof panels.

Check it out on the Heritage Herald blog here:

https://haylesabbeyhalt.blogspot.com/2022/01/we-make-start-with-roof.html

 

There's an update on the Bridge 8 repair works on the Civil Engineering blog as of today:
https://bridgestobroadway.blogspot.com/2022/02/bridge-8-progress-report.html

I must say, that platework is pretty much eaten away, and those 40 tonners continue to roar away over the top of it. All the utilities have taken a step back and said, not our problem, too long ago that damage.

Imagine what the bridges on the Honeybourne extension look like from underneath. We are (in part) repairing the 2007 repairs, those bridges didn't even get that. Three are so bad that they've had to be propped....

 

Which naturally begs the question, Jo, who will take responsibility for these bridges and when? Is any change afoot for transfer of ownership of Broadway to Honeybourne from RPL?