GWR Permanent Way progress year to date 2009

January

The year started with the whole gang concentrating on installing a brand new turnout just to the north of Toddington station as part of the re-modelling in readiness for the extension to Laverton to open. The new turnout, utilising 113lb rail is an 'EV15' turnout. This means that large 'E' switches and a 1:15 crossing have been used which will give a nice smooth ride. The 'V' part of the 'EV15' indicates that the rails are sitting vertically rather than inclined which is normal practise.

This work took quite a few weeks to achieve as the gang had to start from scratch positioning all the timbers and rails.

As part of the re-modelling, the north headshunt siding was shortened slightly as a new turnout was put in to reconnect this siding to the running line. For safety reasons, a trap point has also been installed on the headshunt to prevent any run away vehicles fouling the running line.

Also as part of winter maintenance, several timbers on the mainline crossover by Toddington signalbox were changed as these timbers were getting tired and there was evidence of minor gauge spread which may have got worse has we not attended to the problem now. 

February

Work continued on the new turnout at Toddington on several weeks interspersed with general maintenance on the running line; this time we lifted the barrow crossing at Toddington and replaced rotten sleepers on both the running lines before the crossing was replaced and re-concreted. With the aid of the new Colmar road-rail machine now on site, this job was speeded up greatly!

March

By mid-March the new turnout at Toddington was complete just in time for train services to re-commence. The turnout and area around it was ballasted to keep the formation correct. The approaches have since been tamped and lined resulting in a very professional look.

Other work on the extension included the fitting of insulated fishplates in readiness for the track circuiting work to start.

With the re-introduction of a 'midweek gang', work is also progressing on the northern part of the Laverton extension. More sleepers and rails are laid out and clipped up resulting in the railhead creeping ever so slightly towards our (current) destination!

Elsewhere, the gang have been doing the odd job here and there in Toddington yard which is an on-going project. In the next few months we will be concentrating on the yard so we're making the most of being 'on tour' at the moment...

April

The midweek gang laid three new sidings at Winchcombe to allow some of the more 'select' rolling stock to be stabled in an area which wasn't seeing much use. The idea is that these lines will, once a building is erected, eventually form the sidings for the carriage shed. This was achieved in a few weeks interspersed with working on the extension.

Other work on the extension has been the welding of joints which is being done by Sky Blue Welding. On some occasions, no fewer than three welding teams have been on site which has progressed this essential part of the work rapidly!

The main Saturday gang have been concentrating on work in Toddington yard. This has included laying concrete sleepers (rather than wooden ones) for a more permanent layout.

May

Work continued apace on the new layout in Toddington yard. This month saw a new turnout installed off siding 2 which will run along the old roadway and branch off to roads 8, 9, 10 and 11 (two roads of the David Page shed and the latter two roads being the Dowty Shed). Over the course of this month, this sidings gradually got longer and longer. Towards the end of the month, another turnout (a 1:7) started to be installed. This will split off and head into roads 8 and 9 (to the right) and roads 10 and 11 (to the left).

On the extension, a few more panels were laid by the midweek gang and the area which will eventually be the location of the run-round loop was cleared and graded by the JCB.

June

We always said it would take a long time! As per last month, work continued in Toddington yard. Working on installing more turnouts and sidings continued - the positioning of them caused somewhat of a headache - no sooner were they laid in roughly the "right" position, they had to be moved a couple of feet for one reason or another....!

Also in June, we saw the arrival of two complete turnouts which have arrived ex-Llandarcy oil refinery (south west Wales). These will be installed in the yard in two-halves which will hopefully speed things up a little!

July

This month saw the new siding on road 9 re-connected (which also has the extra benefit of having the second pit available for use now. Without getting anyone's hopes up too much with the prospect of two pits available, road 8 was disconnected so a better approach could be laid. This was duly achieved with some slewing and the end result is a lot more pleasing on the eye.

On the running line, Chicken Curve has been giving us more problems again lately and a midweek bash at correcting the dip resulted in a better ride although this won't last for long - it never does and a more permanent result needs to be undertaken as soon as someone can come up with a solution!

August

Guess where we were this month? Yes! Toddington yard again - good job we love it so much! By the end of this month we had worked up to where the location of another turnout was going to go which would split into roads 10 and 11 of the Dowty Shed. The work on this turnout also started towards the end of August and was completed in early September.

As well as working on the new siding and the connections to the Dowty/David Page sheds, the gang have recovered some now-redundant parts from other locations in the yard, this includes one of the turnouts which used to be next to the diesel pit as well as some of the connections from what used to be the turnout between roads 5 (unloading road) and road 6.

September

After only a matter of weeks, some more attention was directed to Chicken Curve on the second day of the month as the 'twist' (and a dip) in the track had re-appeared so thanks to the efforts of the midweek gang once again, the line is level again...but for how long...?

Back in the yard at Toddington, the track which forms road 10 (the right hand road into the Dowty shed) was reconnected and our P-way train was re-located to this line in order to provide a slightly different view at lunchtimes(!) - the real reason of course it being in the way elsewhere in the yard and hopefully won't get moved too often if we're parked here. Just a reconnection to road 11 is all that remains for the time being.

On the extension, the JCB has been working on gradually raising the level of the trackbed from the existing formation to the height of the new bridge at Laverton (which is marginally higher than the original).

Photos of weekly updates can be found here: http://nigel-black.fotopic.net and to a lesser extent here: http://gloswarksp-way.fotopic.net.