Despite early morning drizzle the weather soon picked up and the 27 volunteers on site enjoyed a very pleasant day's work.
Today marked the completion of the first stage of the installation of the footbridge, with the roof now complete and painted with black bitumim paint. It really does look superb and the construction team lead by Peter Q and the painting team lead by Graham and Mike are very rightly proud of the finished article. The whole project was masterminded by John Balderstone, the GWR bridges expert, with John C providing his vast knowledge in overseeing the whole construction phase
To celebrate this milestone John B very kindly provided a delicious chocolate cake which was enjoyed by all at our mid morning break - thank you very much John.
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Tomorrow the upper stage of the scaffolding with be taken down so today was the last day it was possible to view the roof close at hand. Peter Q took this opportunity to escort visitors around the footbridge and to show them his team's fine handiwork. This is a view of the north side of the footbridge roof.
A final view from the footbridge scaffolding of the station building under construction. This view will not now be available until the staps are installed which may be sometime in the future as and when funding is available.
Up at the far end of the cutting a team led by Rod and Terry were busy installing more panels for security fencing along the Cotswold side of the cutting. The holes for the vertical posts are drilled by a motorized auger.
Rod and Terry are seen here setting up the correct spacing for the next post. Most of the holes were bored without too much trouble but unfortunately where tree roots or old rotten posts were encountered then it was back to basics with spades and metal bars.
Terry, assisted by Steve B and Rod, is tackling the remains of a very old stubborn fence post that just happened to be in the exact spot where the new post had to go. After much effort the old post was removed and the new one successfully installed.
At the end of the day 7 panels were erected and the length of fencing is looking very impressive - just another 100 or so panels to go!
At the end of the excellent day's work Rod and Terry are putting up the last of the palisade uprights.
There is now a very good length of fencing installed.
It's that time of the year again! The cutting just below where the fencing team were in action is covered with ragwort. The plant, while harmless to some wild life, is very harmful when digested by certain animals especially horses and cows and it is therefore import we try to eradicate it from our land so as to prevent it spreading to the neighboring farmland. Ian, Chris and David were given this task today and once it is pulled up it is taken down to the track bed and burned.
The last of the window frames on the station building are now in place.
Peter S is checking one of the window frames to ensure is correctly aligned.
Shown here are the window frames for the Ticket Office and Booking Hall and very fine they look too.
Having finished their work on the footbridge Graham and Mike are now turning their attention to putting the finishing touches to the paintwork on the signal box. Mike is seen here rubbing down the paintwork on the locking room door prior to a final coat of gloss paint being applied by Graham.
In the signal box the signalman's desk and chair for writing the daily log are now in place
Having finished their work ""upstairs" Peter Q and Dave H are now "downstairs" and were busy today making the formers to go round the base of the pillars of the footbridge to enable them to be encased in concrete.
The first former nearly completed and in place
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The 360 digger was not serviceable today but this is a view of the trench dug so far for the sewer pipe, which in addition to other services, will also be used to provide space for the ducting used to provide power for the driveway lighting columns.
We had a very productive day at Broadway and we hope we did not cause too much offence while we finally put the tin hat on it, got framed, formed a few dodgy opinions, glossed over a few things, lost our rag and finally nearly went down the drain!!
Post by Peter H
What about getting BT to use the trench to put the telephone lines underground,at least put a duct for them, then reposition the pole by the station, as surely this will need to be addressed before the station building is open to the public.
ReplyDeleteThis is in hand Steve and some work has already been carried out by BT
Deletesurprised that this type of fencing is so important in a rural location when funds are surely needed for other priorites like Station materials and Pway to get to Broadway .
ReplyDeleteJohn I too have wondered why expensive and ugly palisade fencing is required in a quiet location such as this....
ReplyDelete