Sunday 28 February 2016

Cracking on

Saturday 27th February

17 volunteers in today on a dry if chilly day with an occasional glimpse of the sun. Three areas benefitted from their exertions today, footbridge, clearance and drainage.

But the first job was taking delivery of the remaining windows for the station building.

 
These were offloaded by Dave and John prior to being stored in container 3 whilst waiting for the paint everywhere gang to come in on Wednesday and give the frames their first coat of primer.


Turning to the footbridge...


The binmen (or should they be environmental operatives) in the shape of Roger J, Robin, Peter K and Jim H are still cleaning up after the shotblaster's efforts a week or so back and transferring the waste into more manageable containers before moving the bins to the collection point. This was a 'must do' job today so that the area would be ready for the return of the welder/ fabricator working on the repair of the bridge main span

 
The bins dutifully lined up, obviously Jim H had a hand in this, opposite the site main entrance waiting for the disposal contractor to empty them on Wednesday.
 
 
 
With the waste removed from the floor the blue tarpaulins can be made out again and also the extent of the progress made on the repair of the structure. The repair is not quite finished yet, the contractor is due back on Monday when it is expected that this phase will be completed. That will then leave the area free to have its final shotblasting which is programmed to start on Wednesday.
 
 
 
Vic, Steve, Stuart and Phil, Vic is the only one in view, not sure who owns the orange coat, continued with the task of clearing the arisings from the cutting sides and feeding the bonfire. Nothing more will be cut down this season but there is still a lot to be done to remove what has already been cut. The team have done really well to get this far before the nesting season kicks in.
 
 
 
On the station building Peter, John, Tony and Jo continued with the laying of the foul water drains. There is a noticeable and necessary fall in the pipe away from the camera which will eventually continue down the station drive to the main sewer. The drain will be collecting the foul water from the station toilets which will be located at the north end of the building. Once this stretch of pipework is completed the building inspector will be asked to inspect progress and if deemed to be satisfactory we will move to concreting in the manholes.........
 
 
 ...for which the carpentry dept., today consisting of Brian and Dave, are making shuttering boxes. 3 completed and a fourth well on the way but more will be needed it seems. It is noticeable that by making ever smaller shuttering boxes we are able to keep recycling the same plywood, wonder what will be next?
 
Well, on the station building front, with some half decent weather expected in the coming week, next will be the concreting of the floors, to a thickness of 100mm, in the various rooms. Once this is done bricklaying should be able to start in earnest.
 

 


9 comments:

  1. Does the footbridge span have further staircase sections that raise it above track level at each end as shown in the illustration by Mr Lee the artist? Are these on site or to be fabricated?

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  2. There will be staircase sections and these will be fabricated off site because the originals had to be scrapped due to their poor condition. The span will be fixed at each end to the towers which were erected a few weeks ago.

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  3. Fred Lea did two sketches of the station, so it depends which one you are looking at.
    The earlier one depicted the footbridge type with 2 parts to each staircase, with a 90 degree turn half way up and a short centre span. This is the type still at Stratford, and at St. Erth. It is an older type, about 1880.
    The later, amended, sketch showed the original Broadway type, from the turn of the century. This has straight staircases, and a straight, longer centre span. This is also the bridge that we actually managed to obtain, ex Henley in Arden.
    Other than the change in the footbridge type, the first sketch shows the SB without ventilators, whereas in the second they are fitted!

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  4. There's a big freeze! according for the weather forecast for the next few weeks until Easter and beyond, so I should get the concrete base done asap

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  5. Ah now I see, my Fred Lea picture is the original ( no ventilators on SB). Is there a link to Mr Leas later drawing? Much admiration for the great work BTW.

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  6. Is it OK to attach the footbridge span to the towers before the stairs sections are attached? Wondering about any wind loads on the structure which would normally be partly carried by the stairs structure.

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    Replies
    1. John Balderstone2 March 2016 at 19:36

      The Consulting Engineers have said that the structure is heavily overdesigned and heavily braced, with legs primarily that size to facilitate the connections. The surface area taking wind forces is relatively small and so there is not a lot to be concerned about. Unfortunately, we currently have no spare money to construct the stairs, so it may well be like that for up to 12 months.

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  7. 00.45 hours Wed. Morning. Do you know your security lights are out at Broadway?

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  8. F.Y.I. Security lights are still out at Broadway - Wed 19.15

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