Well there's a surprise .

 Wednesday 23rd February 2022

The Wednesday Volunteers turned up expecting the worse after the 2 storms had passed through since we last attended.

Plenty of bits and pieces had been blown down and last weeks clean up  was re - enacted 

As usual Ron was first on the case , on the track bed picking up bits of broken twigs.

One of the more serious problems was a rather large branch had broken off a tree behind platform 2, it had fallen on top of the span that brings the BT line/ Broadband , Camera feeds etc to the Office. Neal and John on Monday had cut up the said branch . and on Wednesday the lads above moved the broken bits to the Bonfire area.  

Dave with a little help had to erect a new pole and reattach the services as the existing pole was slightly bent in the branch fall.

 

 Camera 1 reattached , just needs a bit of tiding up.

 Out on the drive Chris  was shoveling up what looks like Mud ? washed down the driveway from the houses on the hill . Ian too was brushing down the main drive.

Pat was being careful not to strim the appearing Daffodils on the embankment .

Bottom of the drive saw Tony and Paul removing the covers to clean out more mud brought down the driveway by the rain.

By next week the scaffolding should have been taken down under Canopy extension , it could be all hands to get that area looking good for the opening on the 12th March.

And finally a picture from the embankment , a sign of Winter is nearly over with , and Spring and Steam Trains are on their way .

Dave

Tidying up before the Storms !!

 Wednesday 16th February 2022

It seamed like a strange thing to do before the latest Storms make there presence known over the country and at Broadway . Lets have a tidy up . Weather was good in the morning , in the afternoon clouds rolled in and it looked like we were going to have downpour but nothing happened.

First out of the traps was Ron , starting clearing the track bed of debris and pine needles .

Followed by Terry , Keith and soon Peter K

Down on the drive Peter Q , Brian and Dave were on the Brushes.

In fact there were so many people there wasn't enough brushes to go round.

What there was enough to go round were " Profiteroles ". It was Peter Q`s ( 1st on the left ) birthday  " 80 plus "  , he brought in a selection of goodies for all to share. And just in case he forgot to bring any,  Brian also brought in some more Profiteroles .

After the break , Rod was back on the track bed with his leaf vacuum , trying to catch the missing needles. 

Pat was picking on something smaller than the usual ash trees , he was trying to remove moss that was growing on the platform 1 ramp.

By Late afternoon the gang had nearly reached the barrow crossing  at the end on the Station.

Many wheelbarrows full needles and debris had made their way down to the fire .

Lets see what this weekend storms brings , I have a feeling that we may be doing all again next week , except for the " Profiteroles " of course !!

Not had a picture of a Loco lately and not until early March on our railway .so last Monday a trip to Hereford gave me an opportunity to see 46100 " Royal Scot "

Dave

Going up in the World !

Wednesday 9th - February 2022

It was one of those days  what to do , weather okay`ish until diner time then we had a few showers , so most volunteers then drifted away.

Vic headed to the gardens to do a bit of tidying but least the Snowdrops are out. 

Peter Q and Dave headed upwards to the guttering that surrounds the station building to give it good clean out. Only 2 wheelbarrows full this time !

Vic had a good go at cleaning the windows inside and out , whilst above him Mike was giving the newly erected canopy extension a lick of paint. 

Brian was using up the last of the wood preserver on the drive way fence. Later he headed up onto the scaffolding to help with the painting with Mike.

Tony and Peter K gave the car park drains and adjacent paths a clean up.

Half way through the morning a delivery of sand and more paving slabs saw a break in the cleaning up.

Its a long way from this part of the station to the storage area but Pete ( almost 81 ) is still up to the job.

Talking of a long way away.

Spot the smoke in the distance , well that's where Pat is , he make a little heap of chopped down shrubbery and occasionally sets fire to it.

 

Keith and Ron had them selves a nice job ?

Re filling the cracks between the platform slabs , fair play they managed to get to the end of the platform 1 before the rain started.

Fellow Blogger Jo is still off with the Covid , so no pictures are out showing what the lads on the canopy extension are up to.

This picture of the extension taken about 2 days ago , what is happening at the moment is the installation of the Guttering and pipe work on both sides. The daggerboards for the gable end and the run off for the stair case all fiddly stuff which takes time.

Dave

 

Finishing off the ramps

 Wednesday 2nd February 2022

It didn't feel like a winters day in February, this Wednesday had a feel of spring in the air.

But first a bit of recovery for the Volunteers with wood burners.

Last weeks fence rebuild left a few piles of  trees up on the nearby cutting , they couldn't leave them there to rot, the smaller pieces were recovered and the larger pieces eventually found their way to the workbench to be dissected into a size that fitted into the boot of a car !

Ron was on the bench recovering none bent parts of the recovered fence , when a large log suddenly appeared for resizing.

After the mid morning break it was lifting time again , after last weeks sheet lifting session, it was this time the turn of the glass sheets for the canopy . Once we got organized they all had been put onto the scaffolding without any breakages !

Over on ramp 2 last weeks shuttering was removed from around the concrete and the last of the slabs were cut and laid .

Terry poised , waiting help to lift the next slab into position,

Afterwards the area was levelled out and finished off . All the slabs on 1 and 2 had the dry kiln sand treatment and then larger gabs filled with cement.

Those not involved with the ramps moved onto Gardening or helping out shifting various bits of wood to the canopy.

Peter Q did a bit of strimming on the embankment

Brian gave the driveway grass the first cut of the year . whilst elsewhere Pat was in a northerly direction attacking vegetation of a larger size.

With an excess of cement left Paul, Terry and Keith headed to the platform edge and began replacing and refilling the gaps between the slabs.

Not a job if you have bad knees and they managed to do both platforms before the end of the day !

Dave