An Excellent Day at Broadway

Wednesday 6th January 2016

A misty morning greeted 32 volunteers back to Broadway for the first Wednesday of the New Year. The promise of a dry day meant much could be done around the site and soon groups started to form.

The main group centred around the station building and soon the cement mixer was in operation, feeding the block and brick layers.

Just as everybody got started an Elliot lorry arrived and proceeded to empty 20 tonnes of type 1 ballast.

 This then produced a flurry of activity of wheel barrows and shovels to move the ballast into the station building in between the blockwork.

Here we see Gordon awaiting assistance after the break, and the size of the pile of ballast that has to be moved.

Soon lots of help appeared and over the next couple of hours the pile shrank.

At the end of the day most of the ballast had been moved and, as shown in the picture, blocks had been raised to nearly damp proof level.

Here is another delivery on the back of John`s ever useful pickup truck, this time it's planks and shuttering board for the signal box steps foundation.

After a few hours in the hands of Pete Q and Dave H, this is the final shuttering box ready to be filled with concrete.

Another group of volunteers lead by Rod, Terry and Brian headed back down to the stream and  embankment, from a distance the area they are clearing can be seen. At the end of the day there was a steady flow of tree trunks and vegetation heading back to the Broadway site for burning.

Brian removing a large tree

Terry in the ditch with the brush cutter

Another small job that was asked of Peter and Dave was to construct a setting out frame on the tower foundations so John B will be able to work out the exact location of the platform 2 tower foundation.

Also on site today was Vic gardening on the drive, and Keith looking after the shop in Julie's absence.