Drive way Bank has a tidy up.

 Week Commencing 7th July 2025

Last week

Nothing much to write about ! , Monday it was far too hot so the flowers got a watering and we then went home . Wednesday just tidying up.

Our new portable water container !

Kevin watering the sign garden , whilst over the other side of the road more weeds were cut than grass !

Monday

All quiet on platform 2 Holiday for some .

Just Kevin and myself and the big job of the day was to try and tidy up the drive bank !

All the kit required.

A bit of a wildflower mess .

Kevin hit the top , whilst I worked my way up.

Job done only took us the morning .

Afternoon saw the raking down of the bank and moving the rubbish to the bonfire area.

Wednesday

Chris joined us today , a job in the shade was the cutting back of the shrubbery by the car park so we can see the cat parking signs.

Getting our kit down to the bank is becoming a bit pain to say the least , one way is to climb over the fence , one is to battle your way following the fence all the way down , with the lamp posts and bushes in the way and finally go through the gate at the top and virtually fall down the bank with your kit.

So time for a gate ! quite straight forward , 2 pieces of new uprights , couple of hinges , a piece of wood for the diagonal and a new lock and there you have one gate . Just needs a bit of wood treatment which we will do on Monday.

Locomotives on the Green timetable today were The Class 37 and P and O

Dave

 

Done at Last

 Week Commencing 23rd June 2025

Monday

Just the 2 of use , Kevin and Myself , poor Ian's knee is becoming a bit of a saga and last reports he was still in Hospital , 2 weeks and counting.

It was quite a hot day so we did a few odd jobs. First some people have reported the camera wobbles in the wind ( who doesn't ?)

When I first put it up the vertical piece of wood that the camera is attached to was tight between the two L shaped girders , over time the wood has shrunk !

A new wedge at the top sorted it out.

Grass or what's left of it was cut behind platform 1, mostly consisted of  chopping the heads of the weeds.

A delivery of sand for platform 2 , it needed wheeling around to the other side , always glad to give a hand.

Wednesday

Up to 4 again , with Chris and his son Dave joining us for another go at the bank on platform 2 .

our aim today to cut down the brambles, ash and thorn bushes to line up from the signal.

Kevin on battery Brush cutter on the thin stuff , mysel on the thick stuff with the petrol Brush cutter and Chris and Dave rake it down to near the track bed .

A good mornings work from all , after the signal is traditionally the territory of the lineside clearance. it would take us many months to do just that bank never mind the opposite side. 

A bit of a lazy afternoon due to the temperature rise , besides we were knackered !

Green timetable saw 1 of steam  " P and O " and 1 of Diesel Class 45

Dave

Back on 2

 Week Commencing 16th June 2025

Monday

Just Kevin on Monday, who helping the platform 2 builders with a delivery , then he said he did a bit of mowing and Garden tidying. 

Wednesday

Back to just the 4 of us on a very sunny and hot day.

Over on platform 2 there has been more internal block work 

Last weeks cuttings on platform 2 had finally dried out and Chris and Dave raked it down and then it headed to the bonfire area.

The next section was full of Brambles , Hawthorn and young Ash trees which required the petrol brush cutter , above it was a slightly less dense patch which Kevin with the battery version tackled .

Kevins seedlings are coming on , what wont be put into our flower beds will be sold in the shed .

Half the patch was completed before it got too hot , time for an ice cream !

Something Chris had be working on was the refurbishment of the GWR boot scrapped , with a nice new addition to celebrate 200 years of the railways .

Steam and Diesel day with 3850 and 37215 on Duty.

Dave

Platform 2 has to have it !

 Week Commencing 9th June 2025

Monday

Just Kevin , Peter and myself on the Monday .

The cowslips have finally had their day so Kevin tidied up around the GWSR garden , and did a bit of arranging of the stones for the letters .

Gas bottles needed changing down at Toddington , so I found 2 new temporary helpers , as poor Ian is off with Knee problems.

Time later to start again on the area behind platform 2 .

Kevin started on the wrong side. !

Wednesday

More action over on Platform 2 new build , more internal block work , hidden by the north wall .

Just Kevin and myself today but we seamed to do quite a lot. Myself with the petrol strimmer taking on the big stuff and Kevin with the battery version took on the grassy areas. 

Most of  the area opposite platform 1 had been cleared.

The area behind the gabions was a different matter , mostly wild plants mixed with brambles ! This time I used the petrol brush cutter , and Kevin had the battery version . Just needs racking down and tiding up , leave that till Monday as both of us were exhausted.

One mystery was who put this in the car park garden ? A bit of colour in a green garden.

 

Dave

First week of Summer

 Week Commencing 2nd June 2025

Monday

Just Myself , Kevin and Peter on a bright summers day . Poor Ian's done his knee in so maybe a none attendance for a couple of weeks ?

Peter took the mower down the drive , trying to keep on top of the weeds.

Kevin with the trimmer , edged the edges .

Myself tackled the back of platform 1 with the petrol strimmer.

And that was about it for the Monday.

Wednesday

On platform 2 nothing obvious could be seen , except the internal block work is slowly rising especially on the northern end.

Up to 4 on Wednesday , Chris and Dave with Kevin headed mob handed down the drive to remove the cones and broken branches after the previous days rain.

Too many twisted ankles caused by too many cones , Kevin filled the wheelbarrow and Dave emptied .

Just the 3 barrow full today.

Chris on the other side of the drive took to removing dandelions .

Myself took to the bank on platform 2 especially behind the containers with the petrol strimmer and brush cutter , from my lofty position 2807 trunddled by on its run around.

No mow May came to an end today on platform 2 !

The other Locos on duty today were 3850 and D6948

Dave