A Walk to Honeybourne ( and back )

 Its Lockdown 2 , there is no volunteer work until December ( hopefully ) It had been raining for days and I needed a walk .

The weather looked okayish for Monday and the call of  Broadway and the Honeybourne line pulled me.

I have walked most of the route in bits and bobs , so lets go from Broadway to the Main line railway bridge at Honeybourne in one go and make a video, looking at the condition of the track bed and see what's left .

This is my short video of the route starting at Springfield lane , the quality is what you would get after 2 days of learning how to use video editing software so don't moan please.

The distance is approx 4.2 miles ( and 4.2 miles back , plus walking from the station ) and I was joined  ( as per government guidelines ) for part of the route by Pat . 

Below are some of the more interesting finds from our walk .

The Start the other side of the fence from the station.

A small brick hut , not far from the West loop sidings , it had redundant electrical boxes , scatted outside.

Remains of the signal box lay not far away

 

Plenty of old electrical boxes hidden in the undergrowth

The Site of Western Sub Edge Halt was given away by the nearby Corsican Pines

About a mile from Broadway station , what I thought was a trig point turned out to be a marker for Water !

Not much else around , the usual few old fencing rails and old bits of sleepers , any signs of Willersley halt looks to have totally vanished.

 Must go back and have a good look.

Shutting up Shop

 Week Commencing 2nd November 2020

With the news of 2nd lookdown happening on Thursday then the possibility of no trains till December it was decided to put the Station into Hibernation so to speak . A bright Morning saw the usual suspects at Broadway today , it was going to be their last Monday anyway as the Winter days draw in, the jobs around the Station get less and less. It had already been decided that we were only going to attend on Wednesdays till the spring.

First job was to get the all our benches under cover .

Sack trucks out.

Brian and Peter doing the driving , Tony and Dave doing the lifting.

Benches first the the bins all put under the canopy , out of the ravagers of the winter weather.

One bench we cant move ( as its bolted down ) is wrapped up.

Pete having a rest !

and its only 9.30am

After the recent storm over the weekend it was on to the drive for a quick brush up .

Tony , Peter and Brian on the brushes , Dave on the wheelbarrow. 

Many hands made light work and it was looking a lot better by lunch time , for now at least.

Elsewhere Mike and Ian were continuing the painting of the various types of fencing.

The wind had brought down an old Hazel bush at the top of platform 2 embankment , Dave and Tony armed with loppers and saws headed to tidy the area up.

Funny how the people with the log burners suddenly turn up.

Wednesday started with a frost, the team that were putting up the spear fencing were there early and soon on the go, once they had signed in.

Its signing in on your phones nowadays.

First Hole of the day , Terry with his arm down the hole, Rod on Auger , Ian and Keith the lifters and fetchers and Tony making sure everything is going to plan .

 They managed to fit 3 spear fencing panels on that side ,stopping where a gate post will eventually go. and after lunch and after Peter K had manufactured some attachments to the existing post , they started on the other side of the signal box.

Rods picture at close of the day , three panels on the left and five on the right.

Cue Mike with his pot of paint ready to touch up the parts missed.

He also gave the new post a lick of paint.

Down the drive and on platform 1 , Peter Q and Dave were giving the area a final tidy up ready before lock down , I wonder what its going to be like in a months time. Pat was down the track with his bush cutter , heard but not seen.

So that was it on our last day for a month !

Stay safe everyone .

See you in December

Dave