A Post of Two Halves

After the excitement of the AGM, this weekend turned back to the ongoing job of inspection and upgrading of the line.  Work centred on two main areas

On the Weston section work continued with clearance around the cattle creep, recovering useful material and sorting out the rubbish to be disposed of.  The track bed has been further scraped and the  mix of ballast and soil is lined up ready for screening.  Mechanisation takes some of the hard work out of the job but it’s not all leaning on shovels and drinking tea. Sometimes we have to lean on other things as well.  If you have ever shovelled ballast or mixed concrete by hand you will know why people take a breather now and again, it’s flippin’ hard work!

The bricks recovered from the cattle creep will be used to rebuild other details along the line so nothing is ever wasted.

The first view is looking back to Oswestry on the section now being worked on and you can see the old beams on the left, these are life expired and need to be replaced.  The sleepers and rails here have been removed and you can see the excavator working her way along scraping out the ballast / earth mix ready for screening.

Looking South you can see next section along after the cattle creep, this will be tackled next but we need the funds to replace the girders, donations are arriving and the quicker we get the beams in place the quicker we move forward.

The working weekend was kept busy with work on the trackbed and watching the excavator do her thing helping with the clean up.

The second half of the weekend was dedicated to a line inspection and the opportunity to take a run along the formation, almost up to the point where some time ago some mischievous souls have liberated a few lengths of rail.  These will be put back to allow the intrepid explorers to venture further in to the undergrowth, no timescale as yet as all hands are on the Weston Front

Colin made a video of the trip and you can experience the thrill of a ride on the go-kart, but to get the real flavour of it you need to sit on a hard seat and turn the volume full up.  But the view is magic.

From the A483 to Llynclys Pool

Many thanks for posting the video.

Here are a few pictures from the trip which picked up a few areas to be worked on.

One day this view will be across open fields like the photo below, now can't you just imagine a train running along here?

Thanks to Tony Jones for the photos and compliments to all who contributed during the weekend.

Not forgetting the most important part of the trip was a stop for a brew up, here we see the true meaning of Tea(m) Work.  It takes dedication and true Cambrian improvisation to be able to have a cuppa anywhere, with a team as determined as that success is assured!

Thanks to Colin for the picture

Now time for a bit of fun.  

Caption Competition

The winner will get an honourable mention on the next blog post. You can post captions in the comments below.  So fire away and let's see what you can come up with.

Until next time

Weekly Update

A bit of a quiet week but plenty of good things happening all the same.

The Oswestry Station Building Trust has received lottery fund money to help fund the purchase of Gobowen station.  Although it will be a while yet until that part of the railway project is developed it is good to see that the Italianate style buildings will be in good hands and being made ready for the  future.  The bay platform is already there and waiting,

During the last weekend the Annual General Meetings of the various supporting organisations were held at Oswestry, so it was a chance to catch up on overall policy and the financial well-being of the company.  Financially we are in the black but now with major expansion plans and bigger draws on the money it is important to push for more income.  There will be a number of themed and special events alongside regular running in 2018 so make a plan to come along to visit and see what we are up to and what the future holds in store.

Work wise there is never a dull moment and several other pieces of the jigsaw are being worked on.  The steam loco is safely tucked up against the cold and is undergoing some routine maintenance. 

Time has also been taken to tidy up the working area and restore some of the older tools and tooling that will be useful going forward. 

Photo CHR Facebook

As the nights get longer and the temperatures get colder there will be more indoor work and catching up on jobs that are difficult to find time for when running trains.

The next big weekend working party will be this weekend, 18^th and 19^th November   The objective is to tackle lineside growth not only on the active sections, think of it as long distance gardening.  Gradually the lineside vegetation is being pushed back but there is still a way to go.

Just to give you a taste here are links to two videos of the run of a section on which has been cleared and then further on to a section where clearance covers just the running rails.

South from the A483 crossing

Towards Blodwel

Pointing Towards Weston

It’s not all just sleepers and tea drinking you know.  Some days there are other jobs to be done, whilst still leaving time for tea. 

Going towards Weston there are relatively few civil engineering features, which helps with keeping the workload and costs manageable.  One major structure on the way is the old cattle creep. After years of being buried under muck and accumulated tipped waste, the cattle creep was cleared not long ago to allow inspection of the structure.

Photos: CHR Facebook Page

The beams were declared life expired and have been removed.  Generally the supporting structure is sound but like anyone wishing to show their best face after years of hiding, a few cosmetic touches are required. So this week the Thursday Gang have been preparing the ground for the facelift.  The supporting walls require some repointing where they have been submerged under the mound of waste.

The build up of general muck and damp rubbish around the bricks can lead to long term problems particularly with frost expanding the entrapped moisture when it ices up, this leads to the face of the bricks cracking off, apart from looking bad if left unchecked further action weakens the whole brick and compromises the structural integrity.

In this case the solution is to repoint the affected areas. Grinding out the loose mortar, raking out the loose stuff and then repointing is an important job and it’s another step on the way to bringing structures on the line back up to full working order.

Being out in the country, any power tools require an energy source and the use of the generator.  Hopefully when the line under the bridge has been regraded it will be possible to bring tools down by train from Oswestry Station, for the moment all tools have to be manually carried or pushed to the working location.  The joy of extensions is that it’s a longer trip back to base each time, but it makes lunch seem much tastier.

Many thanks to the Thursday Gang for this important work and we hope to see trains over the replaced cattle creep before too long.   Please see Dave’s picture album of the latest work and many thanks to him for taking the photographs.

Photo Album: Thursday Gang

To get to Weston will require a significant investment for CHR and following the TWAO process funds are limited.

The TWAO (basically the legal permission to operate the railway) is now in place and this took longer and cost more than expected draining our funds.  So to help us reach Weston please come along and support the railway by taking a ride on operating days or make a donation (link top right of the page) or come and join in.  Tea drinking skills are especially appreciated.

The replacement beams over the gap will be about £4000.

Details and booking for Santa Specials are now on the website so if you have a little one, or not so little one and feel the need to meet the man in the red suit, please come along.

 CHR Santa Booking Details

Thanks once again for looking in and keep a watch out for the next update with more news.