The Last week

 Week commencing 25th October 2021

Last week in October usually means that its the last week of the year we will see the trains running during the week into Broadway only the Christmas / New year week will we see them again . 

But over the past few days the passenger numbers seem very high must have been half term or people getting there last train ride fix of the year.

Monday saw the usual low number of volunteers , Dave, Peter Q, Brian and Pat.

What to do !

Well there is always the drive to sweep and drains to clear out !

Peter checking 

Brian sweeping.

Peter Sweeping and yours truly sweeping on the opposite side. afterwards Peter found a nice spot to do a bit of weeding.

Pat was somewhere to the north of the station doing what he does best with the brush cutter and strimmer. And Dave was Constructing a new A Board out of the scraps of wood from the dwindling wood pile.

Wednesday 

A few more volunteers turned out today , Peter Q and Dave headed to Toddington to look at a small job . to find fitting a door frame with door , stud wall and covering, insulating a ceiling and plaster boarding after is not a small job !!

Mean while when we returned to Broadway we found that .

Peter K had made a tool for pulling out the weeds from the ballast ( just to save our old backs from bending down )

Young Dave was on the car park .

Dave and Peter had brought back the Door frame and Peter gave it a quick coat of Prime.

The Wednesday gang had a discussion on what to do with the end of ramp on platform 2 . at the end of the day they had fitted 6 slabs and were filling the holes to make that area much easier to walk and run the wheel barrows over

Trains of the day were the Heritage DMU and the steam train was pulled by 4270

Don't forget the the weekend of November 6th / 7th is our  40th Anniversary Gala , with our intensive timetable of the Steam and Diesel locomotives.

Dave

Keeping things in Order

 Week commencing 18th October 2021

The year is marching on and at Broadway  things are slowing down . on Monday we had the grand total of 5 volunteers on site.

Vic was on the end of Platform 1 next to the little garden cutting back the overhanging branches. Later he headed down to the Drive garden to do more tiding up ready for the winter.

Down the drive Brian had had a lorry load of topsoil delivered , its use was to fill in the many holes in the driveway grassy area.

 Many trips with the wheelbarrow back and forth saw him complete his task of filling most of the holes all that was left was to scatter grass seed and let Nature do its job.

Back on platform 1 Pat was trying out his latest gadget , a much beefier version of his old portable hedge trimmer. 

It seemed to do the trick as he managed to trim at least half of the hedge .

Back down the drive more sweeping up.

Wednesday

Just before our arrival on Wednesday there had been a rather large storm pass through ,Platform 1 was a mess in places with areas of large Puddles and Needles 

Dave and Chris tackled the job and had it looking sort of pristine before the days travelers and visitors appeared.

Back on the hedge Pat was having another go .

Peter meanwhile was applying grass seed to the bare patches.

 

The trouble with chopping vegetation it creates lots of waste materials, 5 wheel barrows in fact.

Also around were Rod and Paul. they were at the end on Platform 2 North sorting out the transition from the crossing to the platform ramp. they made a start by fixing of the edging slabs .

The Motive power today was the Heritage DMU and " P and O "

 

Thursday 21st

Vic was Station Assistant today here are a few photos.

Early arrivals

Railcar in the sun

Coupling up

Digging for coal

Blue Skies over Broadway

Dave & Vic.

Where have all the volunteers gone ?

 Saturday Visitors

On the 9th we had a couple of visitors.

A young lady dressed to kill waiting for the train.

Also give a dog a bus.

Week commencing 11th October 2021

Monday , a fine old day so you may think we might have had more than the 3 of use who turned out.

Just myself , Brian and Pat !

I cant say we rushed off to do various jobs but after a chat we separated and dispersed  each doing there own thing.

Brian gave the Driveway grass a bit of a cut , and a the drive a bit of a brush up.

Dave headed to platform 2 to do a bit / alot of weeding.

Pat tackled the hedge behind platform 1, and in-between the charging of batteries Flymowed the grass.

Considering there was only 3 of us many full wheelbarrows of rubbish headed to the bonfire area.

Wednesday 

Just the 4 today Dave , Peter, Ian and Pat

Peter , Dave and Ian headed back down to The Flag and Whistle at Toddington to repair the second fire door step.

On the return to Broadway about lunchtime , we found Pat stoking up the bonfire , Pine needles and cones burn quite fast but the green stuff creates a bit of smoke.

The two trains today were the DMU and " Foremarke Hall "

Dave and Vic

What to Do ?

 Week commencing 4th October 2021

There had been a bit of a storm over the weekend , so as ever it was out with the brushes and brooms !

Vic swept up the seating area.

Whilst down on the drive  Brian , Peter Q and Dave set about the tiding up.

Pat also down the drive had found the Leaf Blower and was having a go , was it any easier  ? who knows  ! we are getting pretty good with our brushes.

 The heap where all this rubbish heads for was getting rather high , with the wind in the right direction and rain forecast for the next day. it was decided to light it. 

Brian gave the top of the bank a maybe final cut.

Peter and Dave have been given a small job off site down at the Flag and Whistle . it involves replacing the two door sills on the emergency / fire doors . both have rotted and broken away .

always up for the challenge , they have managed to construct something similar . above Peter ( looking happy in his work ) is seen applying primer to the first sill .

Wednesday

Peter and Dave gathered up some kit and headed down to Toddington.

 

Not knowing how easy or hard the job was , we only decided to do just the one sill.

The old sill was pretty rotten and was swiftly removed .

The new sill was installed , the hole was created for the door locking mechanism , and additional coat of undercoat applied . Next Wednesday the other door to do, and a bit sealant and maybe a top coat of paint ( if we can find some ? )

Back to Broadway and we found the rest of the volunteers clearing the tracks in between the trains !!

Pat had managed to fill 5 wheelbarrows , all removed to the bonfire area by young Dave, Ian and the other Ian .

Into October and a change of timetable , its now the one Steam and the Heritage DMU timetable.

Dinmore Manor pulling into Broadway

And the DMU waiting.

Dave