Thursday 25 May 2017

What a Glorious Day

Wednesday 24th May




When 24 volunteers turned up on this glorious morning most were in for a surprise. This was the sight that greeted us, the beautiful roof and canopy steelwork had appeared atop the station building as if by magic. Our colleagues from the steam loco department, who have manufactured most of it, had been hard at work yesterday erecting the main trusses and purlins. See the Extension blog, link through the icons heading this page, for more pictures and a write up of the proceedings.

   




So to our own work for the day, the painters were soon hard at it. I caught Graham hoovering on the signal box steps, I thought it was a bit OTT for the open evening, but it turned out he was putting another coat on the steps.










Ray spent his day undercoating the spear fencing at the rear of platform1, this is going to turn into a Forth bridge job. Later on in the day Keith, Rod and Terry added two more panels for him to paint in the area where the viewing platform has been taken down. The rest of the fence up to the station will have to wait until the gap in platform 1 is closed and the ground made up to the correct levels.





At the other end of the site Clive and Tony are clearing the mortar from the top of the platform wall where some of the platform edging slabs have been removed. These slabs are to make up the shortfall for the aforementioned gap, we want to match the existing slabs. This area and the slope extensions will have ex Cheltenham slabs fitted. Centre background you can see one of the three signal posts that S & T have erected prior to the laying of the head shunt.



   


Afterwards Clive and Tony carried on with the corbelling of the slope extensions. In the foreground our trusty Thwaites dumper is loaded with the 300 red and blue bricks required to finish this job. They were delivered by the shifters, Keith, Martin, Terry and Rod assisted by Paul having a break from muck mixing and brick cutting.
 



  





Paul only functions on copious amounts of tea. As we were working near the newly sited mess room, which John C and his son, an electrical contractor, had recently reconnected the supply to including the tea urn, he thought he should top up. Terry looks on in amazement at the quantities involved.














Mike S suitably kitted up for wire brushing the recently made spear fencing panels, before going on to help with the priming.












Paul now suitably refreshed gets back to cutting the bricks at the required angle to finish off the slope extension before corbelling. Clive waits, probably trowel in hand, to lay them.









In the carpenters shelter, after a delivery of new stock of timber, Keith and Brian carry on the process of dagger board production by cutting the planks to the required length.

Down the drive the lifting gang went on to preposition about sixty kerb stones in readiness for extending the path now the viewing platform has gone. Also a general tidy up of the area and re positioning of the Heras fencing took place. Vic was mowing and tidying the grass areas and Julie and Steve had a steady stream of visitors to the shed.




A final couple of shots of the canopy. Ian and Neal from the loco dept, aided by John S and Jo,  worked all day on the steelwork drilling, welding and bolting the various parts together. I'm told all visible bolts will eventually be replaced by rivets. Well done chaps it looks great.








I assure you the pictures do not do it justice, so now you have another reason to visit us on Friday for our open evening.
It's forecast to be a lovely day so come and join us 1830 until 2030.

Just a reminder that unfortunately there is no parking, except some disabled, at the station, but you can ride a vintage Routemaster from the Childswickham Road car park.


Posted by Rod W.

5 comments:

  1. Rod, are you admitting to not checking the blogs on a daily basis? We all had a great surprise yesterday after seeing the report about the steelwork. what a difference that makes to the build! Great work by the team on the steelwork. Just hope that the Permanent Way team let you know when the rails go in!!
    Can we have plenty of pictures about Friday night please, unfortunately we cannot now get to the bash due to family illness. We both really wanted to see the changes since last year and after seeing the steelwork going in were looking forward to see the progress, but that is life at our age. Don't let this spoil the event for others though. We intend to visit in June no matter what and if we get there on a working day there will be doughnuts all round with the tea! Got to keep the team going somehow!! Thanks for the reports so far, looking forward to more.
    Regards
    Paul & Marion

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  2. Thanks for the update. I'm looking forward to visiting tomorrow evening as I've never had the chance to visit on a Broadway Open Evening before - and this will be the last one I guess!

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  3. Many thanks for the continuing updates on the Broadway station rebuild. It really is looking excellent and will be the 'set piece' of the railway when completed. I had thought about coming along tomorrow evening but am working in Cardiff until six o'clock. Are you able to tell me when the shuttle bus will stop running from the Childswickham car park please? I am due to bring some signalling items from my collection in the near future for the fitting out of the signal box at Broadway. I am looking forward to their being put back to proper use in your show piece box. All the best to the team from another avid tea drinker! Barry D. Friend

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    1. Unfortunately Barry I can't give you a definitive answer at present. The bus is owned by a supporter of the railway and he has volunteered to run the shuttle for the duration of the event, which is from 1830 until 2030. I would think he will make the last return to the car park around the closing time. Rod W

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  4. Yes, I had a surprise when I read the Extension blog to see that the roof steelwork had been installed. What a difference it makes to the building even at this stage. Well done to the loco dept. or creating the pieces and also Jo from P Way for providing the pictures as well as assisting in the build and squeezing in P Way work as well! AND Hayles Abbey! One busy person! The signals installed by S&T certainly make a difference also. Getting to be more like a railway station now. Regards, Paul.

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