Jobs for the Heavy Gang

 Wednesday 26th January 2022

A good turn out on a pleasant January day , what to do !

Way down the cutting at the top of the bank a couple of old and rotting trees had come down , landing on and destroying one of the fence panels

First it had to be removed , getting at it required the removal of much vegetation and undergrowth. Some easy and some not. The old trees were cut up and removed.

A few had an ulterior motive for helping ( wood burners ) possibly 

The Old panel was removed and a new one constructed in its place , the team happy in their work headed back for a dinner break.

The morning saw Bob and Paul on the platform 2 ramp , constructing shuttering around the area near to the sloping access grid.

The area would be not suitable for slabbing so a concrete slab was going to be cast

The heavy gang after lunch set about mixing and filling the area with concrete .

Bob does the finishing off.

Elsewhere a few helped out lifting the roof sheets up onto the scaffolding along with the guttering , no sooner as it was put up there, the guttering on the platform side got installed.

And don't forget Pat , who was somewhere to the north of the station , on his quest keeping the ash from taking over the embankment.

Dave

Up In the Air, and a good sort out !

 Wednesday 19th January 2022

A typical sunny winters day at Broadway saw the volunteers split into two groups , the first group with their piles of wood headed up on to the canopy and the second to the north of the mess hut to do a bit of sorting and clearing up. 

Mike . Ron and Ian had a bit of discussion on what needed to be done !

Back up on the canopy , the team of Dave , Brian and the two Peters were fitting the soldiers to the metal facia .

Onto the soldiers were fitted the cross sections.

And after lunch the start of the dagger boards.

Brian and Peter nailing the top of the boards under the watchful eye of Ron.

Elsewhere another group had formed ( group of one ) , Pat turned up and decided to cut down the ever growing forest of ash trees growing on the cutting , he said that this pile had about a 100 or so ash saplings, and there are many more were they came from !

The other group had finished sorting out the area .

All looking neat and the slabs have been arranged in size .

A final view of the platform side of the canopy.

Dave

Helping Out

 Wednesday 12th January 2022

Depending where we volunteers lived depended on what weather we had to drive through to get to Broadway today , Myself from Tewkesbury was Frosty , Fog  then misty , some from the north Fog and sunshine others just sun then frost. But at Broadway it was cold and overcast for most of the day .

What we saw was that the metal work for the canopy had arrived on Monday and was in the process of being fixed permanently into place.

More on the canopy can be found on Jo`s  " Heritage Blog "

 

One of the groups of volunteers headed back over to the slope on platform 2.

There job was to fit the top of the manhole on the slope.

First a bit of back filling , then when the weather had warmed up , the lid was cemented into place.

over on platform 1 the remaining slab was cut and laid in place.

Dave , Brian and Peter had volunteered their services to the canopy team. Mainly to help them with fitting of the wood work..

First mission was to create lots of soldiers ( I called them uprights ) for the Fascia.24 in total . Front and back will have dagger boards fitted.

These would be fitted as below in blue.

Another  more technical piece of wood had to have an 18 degree chamfered edge on the top.

Its position is shown above in blue , this is fixed to the soldiers , it will hold the wood for the guttering and allow the roofing sheets to fix to it.

Should eventually look like this .

It all makes a change from sweeping the drive !

Dave

Just to say that the cameras on the station will be switched off during the days of work on their request !

they will be switched off at about 8.30am and back on at about 4.30pm .

 

Into The New Year

 Wednesday 5th January 2022

 A Cold and sunny start to the day and cold and wet at the end of the day saw a healthy 11 volunteers attend Broadway today.

We found the station was going though a bit of a change , they had started erecting the scaffolding at the north end of the building in readiness for the erection of the canopy extension.

But the first job for some of volunteers was to head to the café and take down the Christmas Decorations , and put them away for another year, it was a shame the  " Mince pie specials " had been  cancelled , so the café never opened .

Afterwards Dave and Brian headed down to Winchcombe on the hunt for a pillar drill suitable for our workshop, we have been after one for years .

Peter Q had a bit of a sweep up.

The Rest headed down to the barrow crossing to have a meeting , too cold to stand around lads , as you can see by the frost still on the sleepers.

Terry , Rod, Peter and Keith were on platform 1 ramp slabbing up the slope. 

Whilst on the platform 2 slope the drainage cover which was flat needed to be at an angle to match the slope.

Bob was doing the technical bit .

And  Paul was doing the brick and slab cutting, helped by Ian and Ron. 

Brian was working on a new board for the bottom of the drive , whilst Dave was in the dry putting a coat of varnish on his new A board for the shop.

A good start to the new year and a lot happening around the station .

Dave

 

Mince Pies Galore

WEDNESDAY 22-12-2021

A cold and frosty start to the day saw volunteer numbers go up and down all day.

First there was Dave and Ian , then Brian and the returning Ron but they left to do their PTS course down at Winchcombe ( Track safety ).

Terry and Keith had popped  down to Cheltenham Station to finish off the brushing of the dry kiln sand into the cracks. 

They returned mid morning.

Mike S turned up wished everybody a happy Christmas then went home

Chris also appeared , went on the scrounge for various bits and pieces including an old dustbin ! and then he vanished off to Winchcombe.

Breaktime saw everyone break out the mince pies , luckily most of us love then . 

Terry and Keith set about working on the platform ramps. 

With the help of Ron and Ian

 

Dave was working on a new A Board for the Shop and rescuing an existing one for the cafe.

End of the day they had put down quite a few slabs , next time they will start going up the slope.

And that was it for the last working day before Christmas , no " Mince Pie Specials  "next week due to Co - Vid Restrictions so the platform furniture stayed undercover.

But all that's left is for me to say is

That we wish you a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year from the volunteers at Broadway

Dave

Clocks Back

 Wednesday 15th December 2021

 A grey old day at Broadway Station , but we had 9 volunteers turn up , 2 Rod and Terry immediately left for Cheltenham Race course station. Their job down there was to brush dry kiln sand into cracks of the newly re-laid platform slabs .

That left Vic with his loppers pruning the  trees and bushes in the car park garden.

Guess what the rest were up to  ?

Brian was progressing in his construction of a new sign for the bottom of the drive.

Ian and Peter Q were getting the kit ready.

Down the Station drive Peter Q , Dave , Ian and Peter K  Started to give the area a good brush up.

A few volunteers disappeared after lunch, Rod and Terry returned for afar and carried on with slabbing the ramp on platform 1. Dave and Ian then had a good fire going with the days rubbish.

Ian S had a walk down the far end of the track to see if we had had any more damage on the stored wagons . but on the way back he spotted a fallen tree or two high on the fence line.

Two trees had in fact come down and made a mess of one of the panels 

Terry had a quick tidy up to see what would be needed to fix the problem .Maybe next week ?

And a welcome return of the Clock that resides in the Café , just back from the repairers , prognosis is not good , It does work but for how long ?

Poor thing is getting on ,and its innards are wearing out and in some cases wore out, the fact it was an old North Eastern Railway clock ( someone put GWR on the face ) puts it maybe over 100 years old.

But at least it looks good over the fireplace.

Dave

Storm Barra

 Saturday 4th December

40 Broadway Area Group (BAG) met at the Inn in Childswickham, this was for our annual Christmas Lunch. It was a fine menu enjoyed by all and a number of raffle prizes were scattered around the tables.

A Plum Pudding with a difference half a plum sat on top.

Wednesday 9th December 2021

A bit of a wild one greeted the Volunteers this Wednesday.

A fallen branch nearly took out the overhead span that takes the feed from the camera back to the router in the office.

More fallen branches on Platform 1

All the debris from Storm Barra was being collected. The two Peters, Dave and Brian were busy with the brushes. Pat collecting from the track bed.

Vic was in the shrubbery doing a bit of Pruning . 

At the North end of Platform 1,  Terry, Rod and Keith were continuing the barrow crossing improvements.

Neal was sorting out bits for the footbridge with Dave and the Station Platform was being a paint shop.

Rod, Terry and Keith were at the end of platform 1 ,edging an area that was in need of tiding up , next week they hope to make a start slabbing.

Vic and Dave