Don't Panic

Wednesday 14th March 2018

With 16 days to Good Friday, opening day, we find there are still many things to do to make our new station presentable to our visitors.
We were able to get on with several tasks as the day remained dry, although turning dull & windy - a bit like me!

First a few shots taken by David H on Monday 12th, showing the contractors laying tarmac on Platform 1 & the driveway footpath.

Inside Work
Mike T & Mike S were busy rubbing down paintwork and putting a final gloss coat on window frames.

Graham  is seen also adding a final coat to the hatch frames in the booking hall.

Later Graham is putting more top coat on the frames of the main entrance door.

Contractors delivered furniture & installed it in the booking office.

Neal C is seen preparing one of 4 cast stands, to receive it's circular steel base. 

 This gives you an idea of how the stands will look in the booking hall with their lovely moulded wooden rails. The picture obviously shows a pair of unpainted stands. Painting to the GWR tradition will be an intricate job for our painters! The stands & rails, when installed, will be crowd barriers positioned 3ft back from the ticket hatches in the booking hall .

Outside Work
Clive brushes the kiln dried sand into the expansion gaps between slabs, front of building. Graham progresses with top coat on the frames to the main entrance.

Bob W is bedding in the frames for the inspection covers, front of building, making sure the covers will be flush with the paving slabs.                                                                                                                     

Mike S carefully replaces all the glass in the lamps lining the driveway footpath. Not one breakage here today with the platform lamps !                                                                                                        

 Now that the tarmacking is complete it's time to smarten up the white line on the platform edge. Before repainting a good clean with Bob's pressure washer is in order. It's doing the trick nicely.

 Our painters worked on the running in boards, with filler in some screw holes & tidying up the lettering, generally getting them to a nice finished state. Peter Q on platform 1 , north end; David H on platform 2 , south end; Brian T on Platform 1, north end.

Our Man for All Seasons contactor, Stevie W, came along to do a quick bit of landscaping on the slope between  platform 1 & the driveway footpath. Steve & his mate were very careful not to disturb our new tarmac surface!

Last but not least:- Terry, John S, Rod, Keith & Hong Kong Ron toiled all day laying more paving slabs to the north of the station building. They made great progress, with time slipping away always at the back of their minds.

 First pic. shoes a section of platform prepared with blinding sand, levelled to 3" below required surface level & nicely compacted by Clive with the whacker plate. All ready for slab laying.

 Second & third pics. show careful levelling of slabs on beds of special mortar mix. Special because I made it, o.k.?

Final pic shows Keith & Ron getting the final area down to the right depth to receive some blinding  sand, the occasional high spots being encountered.

The Permanent Way gang can be seen at the North end of the railway, behind Keith & Ron. They were busy tidying up the ballast around the sleepers - a tedious job. No doubt Jo R will have covered their operations in detail.

Finally:
BAG have often been asked by the general public what were our jobs before volunteering at Broadway, & what is the average age of the group. I am conducting a survey amongst the 40 or so BAG members to help answer these two questions. It may take another 2 blogs before the results are available.


Paul Carter