GWSR General Discussion and Operations

The loading would be unequal for that precise reason, in that the viaduct would be carrying load on one side only, but with a permanent speed restriction, this may not be a problem.

[/QUOTE] IF the track is laid in the centre, you can't use rail mounted cherry picker inspection vehicles, and you lose the haul road that we have along the track elsewhere. That is very useful.[/QUOTE]I suspect that therein lies the answer.

 

I did mention that to someone, I think it's a great idea. We already have track up to the south end of it (it was where 76077 was stored)
A drawback is that you would lose the north carriage siding as is currently.

 

My footage of BR Standard 2MT No. 78019 in charge of services on the GWSR over the weekend of 29th-30th of July.

 

It was pointed out years ago, I wouldn’t expect attitudes to be any different now.

 

If folks could spare a minute, please nominate us to win £1000 towards our Stanway Viaduct appeal! Go to www.movementforgood.com/#nominateACharity , our Charity No. is 1133186 and type is Education and Skills.
The waterproofing has failed and we urgently need to repair it before the brickwork becomes too damaged. Find out more and donate yourself at www.gwrt.org.uk/donate/stanway-viaduct-appeal

 

Done!
The image is a tad confusing, the damaged brickwork is a separate image in the bottom LH corner.
On the main image you can see a whole lot of white streaks. These are evidence of water percolating through the brickwork and down the legs, with the resulting damage in the side image.
Please help!

 

My fault, I wanted to get the crumbling bricks at the base of the pier in as well as a good picture showing it all, but needed a single image for other social media!

 

Very enjoyable day on the railway today. I did a return trip in the morning with Dinmore Manor and another one in the afternoon with Foremarke Hall. In between the two I had an excellent lunch at The Flag & Whistle at Toddington. There were several coach trips visiting the line today, plus a big party of school children. Each of the 2 trains had at least 1 coach reserved for a large group booking. Volunteers all friendly and happy to chat, atmosphere welcoming and warm, ticket price excellent value at a very reasonable £24. Whereas other railways have gone more commercial, and more expensive, GWSR has retained that quintessential heritage atmosphere. It's a delight to visit.

 

Report of an additional issue found during work on Stanway Viaduct:

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2023/11/unwelcome-discovery-puts-dampener-on-stanway-viaduct-work.html

 

Can't resist posting this shot I took at close of play today, after painting steels for the P2 building for Broadway:



It's the first time I have seen the yard lamp that we planted a short while ago, actually working in the dark. It was not well located, at Winchcombe, and we replaced it with a taller platform lamp there, and took the yard lamp to Toddington, where it now stands watch over one of the pits. It has a new replica top made by a coppersmith, and it was worth all the trouble we took!

This is why we work on a heritage railway!

 

Beautiful - it looks every inch a mainline!

 

Happy new year everyone! Here's our annual roundup of everything we've achieved in GWSR C&W in 2023, as ever surprising how much we've done! https://gwsrcarriageandwagon.blogspot.com/2024/01/2023-roundup.html

 

You've come a long way, and now have fabulous facilities in three sheds, end to end.
It was all much more basic once:


In November 1988, after several years of repainting carriages in the open air at Toddington, the Winchcombe goods shed was being made ready for carriage repairs. In the picture the PWay gang is laying a turnout to the future carriage sidings behind the camera.

Four months later (March 1989) came the official opening:



Class 14 D9537 and a blue 0-6-0 steamer (I have forgotten the name, does anyone remember?) push the first carriage into the new maintenance facility, still in BR blue and grey. The shed sports new doors, but there's been no time yet to repair the broken windows above.
Inside, 3 bottles of champagne were given to the head of the PWay team, and a special cake cut for the occasion.
Photographs by John Lees.

 

Thanks, Pete, that is very helpful. Way before my time...

Even older is Cadbury No.1, currently rusting away outdoors with a tree growing out of the footplate. Who will save it?

 

I believe it is currently for sale.

 

I definitely read it recently, but now I can't find it!

 

Thought I'd try and join in with the wagon reports on here on a more regular basis, and now seems like a good time to do a bit of a catch up on what we've been up to for the last 6 months.

For a little while we had an idea to kill a number of birds with one stone. The siding featured in @Breva 's post above from December is prominently on view from passing trains but the contents thereof are somewhat tatty. So we wanted some wagons we could do up relatively easily to park there instead.
Concurrently, after a bit of a collection review, we had a number of wagons that were in poor cosmetic condition, but could be made to look good relatively easily, but not so much to make run, so were looking for a purpose in life.

So after a bit of measuring up as to what space we had to play with, we picked these 2 GWR dia. DD3 tank wagons:





They had previously been done up in fictional liveries for Thomas events, but we had better plans.



We also selected two GWR Tool Vans which were looking rather tatty.



Both tank wagons were grit blasted by a contractor to get back to bare metal, we liked this, it took away all the boring jobs! He also spray-primed them for us so it was dead easy to get them both painted up:





Both liveries based on works photos, a nice contrast for the two. The supporting timbers were in very poor condition, but where appropriate we're replacing with some plywood facsimiles just to complete the look.

The tool vans required a fair bit more prep, as we wanted to take them back to bare wood to treat the wood too.



Lots of sanding dust later we soaked one in linseed oil, the other in a rather expensive resin compound, to see what the difference in longevity might be.





Both were then fully repainted, and No.92 was also recanvassed and the skylights completely replaced as the old ones were totally rotten.

A very enjoyable little side project, all that remains is to shunt them into position, probably not until March when our P'way colleagues can get a chance to give that siding bit of attention first.

 

Good to see some attention to Tool Van 92. It was an ex-Bluebell vehicle but disposed of as not core to our collection and unlikely to be restored. I think it originally arrived with Maunsell Q class 541 which came from Ashchurch in your neck of the woods - hence the otherwise somewhat surprising first preservation location.

Tom