Was It Bill or Was It Ben?

Note for younger readers: The title of this entry is a catch phrase from a popular BBC Children’s TV programme of the 1950s, back in those days the brand was ‘Watch With Mother’. Bill and Ben were The Flowerpot men; they lived in some large flower pots. One of the items we cleared from the former Garden Centre rubbish pile at Toddington was a large flower pot. So was it Bill’s or was it Ben’s? Or maybe neither, since it was plastic!

Thursday 31^st March

Six of the team in today; one last minute no-show because of COVID-19 positive test and thus isolation.

Construction of culvert 24C haul road exit headwall at Working Lane progressed. Today the concrete backfill was added up to to the level of the blocks laid last week.

First backfill concrete mix for 24C haul road exit. That kept the mixer and the mixer operator busy all morning!

Today the first loads of material from the Garden Centre rubbish site at Toddington arrived at Working Lane. The contractor was using a tractor/trailer and a 42-tonne tipper wagon. We moved the piles of logs, recycled red bricks, and reusable paving slabs to allow better access for these vehicles. The material is very mixed, unfortunately removal of the large concrete rubble, metal items and tree stumps did not take place when loading at Toddington. Also the area where the hardstanding is being extended was too wet for the lorry and tractor to get on to. We are going to need either a bulldozer or a large 360 excavator to level this out. The contractor finished moving the material from Toddington on Friday. The area at Toddington will become the C&M material store.

One of the first loads of the very mixed 'infill' from the old garden centre site at Toddington is tipped at Working Lane.

A small amount of brush cutting was undertaken on the up side of the embankment at Working Lane to enable the Saturday Lineside Clearance team safe access to some trees to be felled.

Area cleared around the two trees to be felled on Working Lane embankment - Winchcombe up fixed distant visible at the top of the slope. We think this is the highest embankment on the line. Despite the blue sky, it felt more like winter than spring today.

Another attempt to CCTV the upstream culvert which becomes culvert 25A under Working Lane bridge was abandoned. Still too much water flowing. However, we examined the entry to this covered channel, it is about 100 yards up Gopshill Lane on the east side south of Apple Orchard Close. Upstream ditch from there has a lot of silt.

Another replacement milepost head fitted – this time to 13 & three quarters, between Gretton & Stanley Pontlarge.

Milepost 13¾ looking pristine. Photo by Roger.

 

Back in the workshop two lengths of bridge rail were painted with black Hammerite.

Thursday 7^th March

Again one team member away due to a COVID-19 positive test and thus isolation – but a different person than last week.

First item for the whole team was storing the items which one of our builders merchants had delivered the day before. Always worth while getting bags of cement under cover as quickly as possible.

Then a division into three sub teams of two each.

Construction sub-team progress at culvert 24C haul road exit; laid 7 courses of bricks and 2 courses of concrete blocks.

Getting higher; 24C haul road exit. Pipe to drain boundary ditch in place to enable marking and cutting of bricks and blocks. Photo by Polly.

Milepost installation & odd job sub team. Measured distances at Broadway from milepost 4 & half (north of Springfield Lane), taking this as our zero origin as it has not been disturbed from BR days. Removed milepost 4 & three quarter house number style head for replacement. Installed replacement milepost 5 using bridge rail at its correct location. Measured up the gap where coping stone is missing from up side low mileage wing wall on bridge (culvert 2A).

Milepost 5 - a complete replacement in heritage style with bridge rail post. This by the trackside access from the 'new' Broadway Car Park. Photo by Roger.

Milepost manufacturing sub team. Progressed priming with red oxide and painting black the lead numbers and the prepared steel bar for dividers and quarter marks. One bridge rail painted on all sides with Hammerite; two bridge rails painted on one side with Hammerite. Thanks to C&W for ‘loaning’ some more Hammerite – old bridge rail soaks up the paint! Two long lengths of bridge rai which were formerly fence posts were cut down to 6 foot; old fence fixtures removed and wire brushed down.

Another piece of bridge rail cut to length, fence fastenings removed and wirebrushed. Ready for painting with Hammerite. Photo by Dave.

Thursday 14^th April

Only five in today - one off sick (suspect COVID-19 again, the third team member in three weeks) and one on holiday.

Construction sub team of two continued on culvert 24C haul road exit at Working Lane. They laid 8 courses of concrete blocks and 6 courses of bricks. This has exhausted the supply of small concrete blocks - the final course will use the recovered big heavy hollow BR blocks. Also dug ditch from the new headwall back to the boundary hedge along side the haul road and inserted 14ft of flexible pipe. This will then take the water from that boundary ditch – clearing it out back to the entrance gate is one item on our ‘To Do’ list.

You can tell which courses were laid today - the mortar is still damp. The smaller diameter pipe entering in the angle between headwall and wingwall drains the boundary ditch by the haul road. Photo by Polly.

Looking the other way; the length of pipe now buried. Dig it out in the morning, fill it in the afternoon. Beats a workout at the gym! Photo by Polly.

Odd job team of three first went to Toddington Station, two in a Transit and one in the Telehandler. This was for the final clearance from the new C&M compound (old garden centre dump). Moved remaining tree trunks and stumps to outside the compound where our forestry contractor will be able to cut them up.

Jonathan driving the telehandler removing tree stumps from the C&M storage compound, the former garden centre dump at Toddington.

Also moved a metal turnstile to just outside the compound. Loaded up the remaining rubbish, including the big flowerpot and plastic mesh and took to general skip at Winchcombe. Whilst with the telehander at Toddington we were able to fullfill a request from the Friends of the station. This was to move to move three large concrete plant troughs back to be inline with the old access road.

Repositioning concrete plant troughs at Toddington.

Then it was off to Working Lane. Attempted to use telehandler to clear some of the rubble from around a willow tree stump which is now in the middle of what will be the hardstanding area. Not very successful; this rubble contains some items that are too big for the telehandler bucket and the haphazard arrangements of the piles makes it impossible to scoop much at a time.

Telehander versus big concrete rubble.

Finally more milepost work. We checked the mileposts between Bishops Cleeve and Gotherington (17 back to 15 & three quarter). All are at correct distances apart; and all are on bridge rail. We did intend fitting the new head to 16 & quarter, but the old bolts would not shift! Annoyingly we did not have a big spanner or a can of WD40 with us.

Milepost 15¾ at Gotherington is high on our list for replacement. The BR style yellow metal head is loose and the bridge rail post is leaning at the wrong angle in both planes.

Back at workshop we experimented with two method of fitting the new hollow milepost heads to the wooden posts used between Laverton & Childswickham Road. Decided use of two screws at an angle into the back of the head was best. Unless we find some more suitable lengths of bridge rail, we will have to continue to use wooden posts in some places.