May 2007
article by: Paul Fuller
An update of events to date this year...
January 2007
During the closed season we were able to get our train out and
spent much of the time doing routine maintenance on the running
line. Fishplate greasing and rotten sleeper replacement took up the
majority of time this month, as well as assisting with the track
works in connection with the Toddington Yard remodelling.
Towards the end of the month, three mid-week days were chosen to
undertake ballasting where required on the Cheltenham extension as
well as in the Gretton area. The twist by the foot crossing on the
approach to Cheltenham Racecourse was also levelled and packed,
although it has started to slip again slightly.
February 2007
February's work was much the same as January's. This time quite
a few hours were put in to once-again lift, level and pack Chicken
Curve. This has always been, and always will be, a trouble spot for
the GWR - and that's not just the Gloucestershire Warwickshire
Railway - embankment trouble here started as soon as the line was
built and continually proved to be problematic throughout British
Rail days!
Towards the end of February, the gang replaced the panel of
track outside Toddington Signal Box once the drainage pipes had
been laid for the yard and panel was then re-ballasted.
March 2007
With weekend service trains resuming for the rest of the year,
running line maintenance became more localised - i.e. where we
could easily get to without our P-way train. A few more rotten
sleepers were changed (as this can safely be done between trains)
on the line between Toddington and Winchcombe, but this is always
an on-going process - all the sleepers marked with a big 'X' are
due for changing this year.
A Tuesday gang convened on the 20th of the month to have a
further bash at fishplate greasing - completing no less than one
mile of joints - not bad going!
The last two weekends of March saw us working at Toddington
yard. On the 24th we replaced the rails on the unloading line and
on the 31st the rails on road 6 into the David Page shed were
reconnected following completion of the drainage work.
April 2007
With the lovely (and hot!) spring weather, April saw the P-way
gang working in the Gretton area replacing rotten sleepers near the
back of the Royal Oak pub and up towards Stanley Pontlarge.
Approximately 30 sleepers were changed in the three weeks we were
working there - a helping hand being provided by the JCB!
At the end of April and with thanks to the full signalling
between Winchcombe and Cheltenham, we were able to take the 73 and
our P-way train down to Cheltenham as this was our next port of
call. At the southernmost point of the railway, we were once again
laying track - but not southwards as we might have hoped, but
extending one of the sidings in Hunting Butts cutting. This
involved a rather complicated shunt move to start with, as there is
no turnout down there connecting the two sidings! So, we had to
drag a certain number of wagons out of the cutting, disconnect the
track, slew it all over to connect with the left-hand siding,
dispose of a wagon, slew the track back to the right hand side,
pick up some more wagons and finally slew the track back to the
left hand side! Phew! It took most of the morning as you can
probably imagine!
May 2007
The first two weekends of this month were spent continuing the
siding laying at Hunting Butts cutting. Of the dozen panels to be
laid, we have so far completed 7 in three weeks. This may not sound
much for three weeks' work, but you must remember that we have to
work a slightly different way down there - with one siding already
laid and full of wagons, with the help of the JCB, we have to lay
one panels' worth of sleepers, then lay the two rails on, fishplate
and clip up. Each panel has to be done one-by-one unlike extending
on the northern extension, where we can lay many hundreds of
sleepers out first one week, then plonk the rails in the next
because the JCB can work on the vacant side of the trackbed.
Indeed, on the 19th of May, this is exactly what we were doing.
From the southernmost point of the line to the northernmost, we
re-started work on the Broadway extension for a week. A grand total
of 193 sleepers were laid out from the rail head at Stanton
northwards, reaching a significant distance north of Stanton Road
Bridge. 193 sleepers equated to almost 8 panels worth of track
(each panel being approximately 60ft long with 26 sleepers). Two
pairs of rails were also laid onto these sleepers, resulting in the
rail head creeping another 120ft northwards. We have started now to
use brand-new rail having used up our stock of second-hand
slightly-worn rail - which for us is still perfectly up to the job.
As the P-way train inches north over these new metals it will be
the first time a train has used this brand new track!
The third mid-week work gang convened on Tuesday 22nd May.
Originally it was planned to complete the fishplate greasing
between Toddington and Winchcombe, but due to a corporate event day
being held on the same day (what were the chances!?!), the small
gang met at Stanton on the northern extension and prepared some
more rail joints for when Carillion next come and do some welding -
preparation which involves getting the rails a certain distance
apart and getting both rail heads to the correct height.
On the final weekend of the month, and after two whole days
mid-week of shunting numerous wagons in the north headshunt, the
P-way train ventured north again on the 26th May where five pairs
of rails were laid and clipped up on the sleepers laid the previous
weekend. During that very afternoon, 73129 gingerly pushed the
P-way train over these new rails and under Stanton Road bridge -
the latest in the railways' achievements. We must be working
approximately one mile north of Toddington station now.