They`re Back !

Week Commencing 14th October 2024

Monday 

Just the four of us , and we were amazed to see the station clocks were back , it must have hapened last Friday when the station was on a none running day . Anyway its nice to see them back and working.

One of our on going jobs was to fix our neighbours post , which had been hit and broken by either the dustbin waon or a coach ! a replaceement post had been sourced and the old one dug out and replaced.

Around the damp station worked continued !

Pat and Ron on his last day  ( before returning home to Hong Kong ) took to the track bed and platform 2 clearing away the pine needles !

Wednesday

A gloomy wet day , saw just Ian and Myself pottering around the station.

Over on platform 2 some more Plynth headers at the front had been laid and a few reds had appeared on the far end .

Scaffolding had returned first thing on Wednesday ! The hour hand on the one side was out of alignment ! All got sorted before the station opened.

Having a sort out in the mess hut revealed an old photograph of the station drive way from back in the day , it looked much nicer and had that country station feel ! Shame it had to change.

Locomotives around today were "3850 " and the DMU.

Dave

More volunteers for a change !

 Week Commencing 7th October 2024

Monday

Sunny start to the day compared with last week , 4 of us around , plus some action over on platform 2 !

Ron and Ian were still sorting out the drains around the station , some still needed a good clean out .

Drain covers were lifted and given a clean out too. 

Wednesday

Not a pleasant day , very overcast and the threat of rain in the air , but we had a good turn out !! What to do on a miserable day ?

Bob did a bit of weeding and tidying up on the bottom garden

Chris did the platform edging

We all did the garden at the end of platform 1 , giving it an extreme make over .

Spare grasses were taken down to the bottom garden , just need a bit of colour down there now .

Pat was heard cutting down brambles and shrubbery in the distance , only drowned out when the trains appeared .

Which today was " P and O " and the soon to go to new  pastures the DMU

Dave

More Damp Weather

 Week Commencing 30th September 2024

Monday

More rain for the 3 of us that turned up at Broadway Today , the picture below shows the general state of the station after the weekends wind and rain.

A job carried over from last week was the unblocking of the drains and down pipes. Ron below was working at the bottom whist I was clearing the pipe from above. Ian of course was holding the ladder.

That one sorted we moved on to the kitchen end of the station , more dismantling of the down pipe and drain just to get to the sump , which we found was clogged up with muck and pine needles.

Whilst we down that end we investigated where all the drains went for future reference , which included lifting the lid on the big manhole , But we dropped half of the lid into it and some mug had to retrieve it , luckily for me it was a dry manhole.

Wednesday

After more rain this was the state of platform 1 to the south. Ron and I managed before the passengers arrived to clear most of it off the platform 

The drive way and footpath were next , and it was too wet for  " Billy " but many hands make light work , we were joined by Chris and his son  and did it the old way with brooms and brushes.

One less sign now at the bottom of the drive !

All quite on platform 2 .

Cold days are approaching and Ron has found a Jacket to keep him warm and dry.

Pat had the petrol strimmer out behind platform 2.

Afternoon saw more cleaning up around the seating area.

Only 1 steam engine on show today and that was " P & O " the other mode of transport was the DMU.

Dave

WET WET WET !

 Week Commencing 23rd September 2024

Monday

Who would turn up on a miserable rainy Monday  ? well 2 of us did,  myself and Ian !

The gas bottles on train 1 needed changing and Ian in Pats absence decided to give me a hand.

but first a walk round the station saw one down pipe blocked and overflowing and this one by the south end of the building was blocked and running onto the pavement. luckily for us the kitchen door entrance was a bit higher than the overflow or it could have flooded the kitchen and café !

It was the wettest change over I've done for a long time and it was on the wrong and awkward platform  .

The reason it was over the other side was to let the road railer deliver supplies to Broadway for the Platform 2 build.

Bags of sand and bags were dropped of in their respective required places and afterwards a bit of shuffling around of materials to get them in their right place.

Ian and myself had a go at seeing which manhole was blocked or not, but we finally called it a day and left it till Wednesday.

Wednesday

Look at the weather ! It didn't last .

Platform 2 had seen more plinth headers had been laid.

A bit of tidying up on the platform 2 side , old pallets and covers headed to the wet bonfire area.

One job we can do in the wet is put together some trugs for the shed.

Whilst the rain didn't arrive till 2 o'clock it was dry enough for Pat to mow the driveway grass and Chris and young Dave to give the driveway area a bit of a tidy up too.

Whilst is was discovering and removing more old station debris from the bank , I dug this out , a head gasket from an old engine , any body got any ides of which ?

One or two guess , a ford gasket , to fit a E93A .

The 2 Class 2800`s were on duty today , 3850 and 2807 

Dave

More Quite Days

 Week Commencing 16th September 2024

Each day saw 2 and a half volunteers attend which means one of us leaves at midday for various reasons .

But while we are at the station we try our best to keep the place respectable.

Monday

Ian and myself headed down to the bottom of the drive to give it a bit of a tidy up.

Whilst Chris took to removing the Ivy of the trees.

The Bottom area, after we gave it a good going over.

Lots of needles and debris around after the session , so Ian got the Billy out and did the pavement and Platform 1 too.

Wednesday

Over on platform 2 some Plinth headers have been put on the north end and back of the building plus at the far end a door frame has been temperately erected.

Some attention was needed to some of the wheelbarrows !

A job that's seams to grow every time we are down the drive is the appearance of the old station through the soil ! Last time I was picking up cones and debris I counted at least 7 potential bricks and concrete problems. Bob was seen attacking the first !

First barrow load was sent over the other side of platform 2 to be used as infill around the new building.

The biggest lump was a slab of reenforced concrete which took more than a few blows with the sledgehammer by Ian to reduce it to rubble.

It was my turn for a half day so I don't know what accrued in the afternoon but hopefully more anti mower blocks got removed !

Dave