We were very fortunate today in having a perfect sunny day and the 29 volunteers on site took full advantage of it to tackle several important tasks. Unfortunately the hard frost overnight prevented the planned pour of concrete for the floor of the station building, This will hopefully happen next week, milder weather permitting.
Undeterred the construction team led by John C and Bob W continued with the drainage work started on Monday.
This is a view, looking north, of the work completed on Monday. Four inspection chambers have been installed and many outflow pipes connected.
Clive is marking out with blue spray paint the next section to be excavated by the mini digger.
The team made steady progress throughout the morning, more outflow pipes were connected to the drainage system and additional inspection chambers were incorporated.
At the end of the day only about 20 -30 ft of drainage remained to be completed, The drainage pipes were bedded in pea shingle and a further inspection chamber was installed at the end of the run, just out of sight at the foot of the picture
The Steel Fabricators were on site on Monday and Tuesday and made excellent progress with reinforcing and remedial work on the footbridge span. Large plates have been welded onto the base of the side panels. This is the right hand side looking north.
The left hand side remedial work, again showing the substantial metal that has been necessary to be added in order to strengthen the span ..
Some smaller but none the less important patches added to repair the corroded metal. It is hoped the all the remedial work on the span will be completed this week. The shot blasters will then return to finish stripping off all the old paintwork;they will then prime and paint the span in readiness for it the to be moved into place, hopefully in the next few weeks.
Mike and Graham applied bitumin paint to the first 45 mm of the tower legs on both platforms.. Once the span has been installed and bolted up the retaining bolts at the base will be cemented in, the drainage pipes installed (seen here on the platform) and the area backfilled with ballast.
The signal box sign is now in place and it looks superb in all it's glory!
The signal box, bathed in the perfect winter sunshine, showing one of the recently installed GWR style lamp posts and lantern.
Peter Q and Dave H installing the first top
mid-point rail. This was no easy task as all the timber had to be cut very accurately and to the correct angles.
All the rails have now been added and Graham is seen here applying "knotting" solution to the woodwork prior to painting next week. It really will be a fine sight when finished.
Authentic metal treads were trial fitted to the steps. They were subsequently removed in order to be painted black; they will be refitted once all the wood work has all been been primed and painted.
Further up the site on platform 1 Keith and Mike were busy painting the window frames destined for the station building. It has been a very big task and taken many hours of work to complete but they will look superb when fitted.
Just some of the window and door frames already painted and being kept in storage ready for when they are needed when the building station gets under way in the not too distant future.
Down in the car park work continued in earnest clearing the remaining undergrowth and ivy from the trees along the side of the stream. Ray and Terry are seen here getting the fire going.
Steve, Roger and Peter worked away at it all day and the end is now in sight.
Rod tackling some of the ivy that was well and truly wrapped around several of the trees along this part of the bank.
Terry in the ditch with the brush cutter on the go.
Hopefully after all this excellent work it will be possible to keep this area neat and tidy with a fraction of the effort put into it over the past few weeks, All the large obstacles have now been removed and the area in now in very good shape.
A view of the track bed looking north and showing the cleared cutting, A great effort all round to get the work finished before the 1st March. Brian and Roger J on chain saws, Chris, David, Ian and Vic cleared the cut timber and saplings from the cutting side, no easy task, This area will form the proposed head shunt when track is eventually in place at Broadway.
A rarely seen photograph of one of the french drains that are located on the Malvern side of the cutting towards the boundary to our land. This provides drainage for water from the neighboring farm fields to be funneled into the side drains along the track bed. They were uncovered and restored by a team last Autumn.
It was an excellent day's work by all the volunteers, aided by perfect winter sunshine.
The signal box looks excellent now it has the window handrails and it's nameplate, what a pity that Gotherington and CRC couldn't have been done to the same standard! Incidentally, I can supply a few more cast iron step treads if they're needed.
ReplyDeleteHi aarvark11, thanks for the offer. More step treads are certainly needed, how many do you have available?
DeleteI reckon I can lay my hands on about half a dozen.
DeleteThat's great. Can you deliver or would you like us to collect?
DeleteIt's time I paid a visit to inspect the site for real so I could deliver them in a couple of weeks unless you need them any earlier
DeleteIf you can tell me which day you will be visiting I will make sure I'm there to meet you and take you round the site.
DeleteI've managed to get hold of 7 of them. I'll try and get over this coming Saturday afternoon (12th March) If not it will be a couple of weeks later due to work commitments.
DeleteThat's brill aarvark11. If you ask for Blogmaster in the shop I'll come out to meet you.
DeleteRe. Bitumen painting - 45mm should read 45cm, I believe.
ReplyDeleteThe magnificent work at Broadway is a real credit to you all. Just shows what teamwork under good leadership can achieve, as long as the cash is available. I'm sure the regular informative blogs must help with the cash flow. Is there any chance of completing the white line on the edge of the platform in front of the box? It would look better in the share prospectus.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the footbridge repair, did you consider replacing the bottom flange angles where required and insetting a new webplate?
ReplyDeleteThe strengthening works were designed by an external Consulting Engineer, but the arrangement was largely developed to replace the steel that had been lost due to corrosion. This was primarily confined to the horizontal inner leg of the bottom angles, with much lesser reduction of the inner vertical leg, plus some quite localised thinning of the web plate just above the bottom angles. The external angle was almost perfect.
DeleteWe suspect that the structure originally had no roof leading to the timber floor joists, bearing on these inner angle legs, to cause the steel beneath to corrode much faster than the remainder. There are clear signs that the roof structure was partially "fabricated" on site.
John,
DeleteThanks for your reply.
I can see that it is the easier and cheaper option. To replace the bottom angle, even only the inner one, would require the rivets to be removed and replaced with bolts and all the extra work that would entail.
The footbridge did have a roof when built, there are pictures on the Warwickshire Railways website of the construction Henley-In-Arden Station which show the hoops in position.
Having a timber deck is always a problem on footbridges. I was a railway bridge engineer and found that the timber soaks up any rainwater like a sponge. This then causes corrosion to the inner angle over time as there is no, or little, drainage.
have you considered having a waterproof layer between the new deck and the supporting angle. This may be advantageous in the long run.
Keep up the good work.
I am intrigued. Looking at the drainage pipework at foot of station building. Were is the water going to come from ?
ReplyDeleteExcellent progress, well done to all of you for what must have been very hard, but enjoyable, work.
ReplyDelete