Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

This week was a three day working week. Team Tuesday, Sainsburys Wednesday and the Thursday Gang continued with work around the site.

The Tuesday volunteers have been busy recently with a new timber floor for the LowMac. Andy G's photo shows the first timbers in place, now to do the angled sections. This will be another useful vehicle for the works train.

The rest of Tuesday followed the usual pattern of p.way work, housekeeping and restoration.

The Wednesday team, comprised of our friends from Sainsburys, continued with improving the public face of the Oswestry site. The signal box, booking hall and the inside of the coach all received attention. Benches were painted and the door to Buffers was rubbed down ready for a fresh coat of paint.

The Thursday Gang continued with improving the track and infrastructure.
The middle road had attention to the fishplates and ballast was move around to suitable locations. On the drainage front more catchpits were cleaned and repaired as necessary.

Inside the shed restoration continued on the Suburban coach and the loco was prepared for service.

A busy week all round and we are not even at the weekend. Do come along and see what we are up to and if you like what you see consider supporting or working with us.
The Heritage Open Days offer an ideal way to see the progress on the project.  See the details on the post dated 26th August.

Thanks to all who participated in the working parties this week, to Andy G for the photo and to you for reading and supporting the blog.

Until next time.

Pointing at Weston

Last week the Thursday Gang started to lay out the northern point at Weston. This will use the recovered rails with some new sleepers as required.  Andy G was on hand to take some pictures.

The first lesson learned. As the point timbers get longer they also get heavier. With just muscle power available eventually we reached a limit, longer sleepers will need mechanical help. The second lesson is that new sleepers seem to weigh more.
In the first picture the sleeper ballet dance has begun to much cheering from the onlookers.

The correct sleepers were laid out in their almost final position.

The point kit is waiting to be moved into position, this will need serious machinery.

In the afternoon the team relocated back to Oswestry to carry on with other projects.

Thanks to the Thursday Gang and to Andy G for the pictures.

Until next time.

Heritage Open Days

CHR will again be participating in the national Heritage Open Days. The weekends of the 14/15th September and the 21st/22nd September we will have vintage buses connect the sites to the railway station at Gobowen.  Services should be operated by the vehicles shown in the photos.  The timetables are shown below. If you are coming please check the dates to get the correct times.  Services have been planned to connect with mainline trains as much as possible.

This is a chance to come and see what we have been up to and take tours to rarely seen parts of the railway. Both sites should be running trains and you can visit all without the car thanks to the free shuttle bus.

Please come and support this event and others going on around the town.

Until next time.

Tuesday Gang

One of the jobs started on Tuesday was the reflooring if the recently repainted Lowmac wagon. This useful vehicle will soon be in use working on the extension.  This will allow us to easily move equipment to the work site. As the running line extends it means a longer walk back to base. The use of a works train will allow us to reach the working locations without having to walk miles beforehand.

Around The Crossing

It has been another very important week on the railway with the link up to the next part of the extension to Weston. Today we will look at a few pictures as things happened. Thanks to CHR Facebook for the first set of pictures. Don't forget to visit and like the Facebook page.  The link is in the top right hand side of this page.

We start with the sleepers laid out at the crossing with just 75 feet separating the two ends of the track.

With help of mechanical means the rails have been swung into position and the fishplates bolted up.

The next operation is to lay some first ballast to hold the sleepers in position. The ballast is from the piles of screened and rain washed ballast recovered from the trackbed. Here the hopper wagon is waiting to be loaded.

The team continue to work on the crossing. The screener is in the foreground, a most useful machine which has provided the ballast that will be used to lock the sleepers in position.

Once the rails have been bolted up the first ballast drop can take place. In this view from the bridge the loaded hopper is waiting to move along the track to the crossing just beyond the wagons.

With the bolting up complete the works train prepares to move south.

The first drop is complete and the works train is parked beyond the crossing. The ballast is spread in to position.

From the crossing the works train moved on along the already relaid line to the cattle creep with every chair and joint being watched closely. At the end of the run the proud team stay still long enough for a group photo. Well Done!!!

That now takes us to about one mile from Oswestry station with about another 3/4 of a mile to go to reach Weston.  There is still much to do before passenger services can reach this point. If you would like to try your hand at any activities related to the railway and it's operation pop along and see what we are up to.

Thanks to CHR for the pictures.

Until next time.

Tuesday Gang

Tuesday it was back to the accommodation crossing to continue with the necessary works for completion.

The first job was to install additional warning signs at the pedestrian crossing gates. Rob W indicates where the sign is to go and invites volunteers to dig.

After the sudden rush failed to materialised Rob picks up the tools and digs the hole.

Dave and Noel watch as fill material is bought in and laid alongside the crossing.

The levels have been built up for the vehicle side, further work is required before we can fit the crossing timbers.

Work will continue along the line to bring this part of the railway to operating condition.

Thanks to Andy G for the pictures and to the team for moving the project forward.

Until next time.

The Link In Pictures

Thanks to Guy N here are some pictures of the recently made connection at the accommodation crossing behind Travis Perkins. For the moment there is a walking crossing only. There will be further work to install the crossing for agricultural vehicles.

We start with a view from the road side of the crossing, still plenty to be done.

Next we look across the still to be made vehicle part of the crossing.

From the field side we now look back towards the road.

Finally we have the track views, first looking south.

 And now we look north to Oswestry.

As you can see only the rails have been laid. The crossing requires further work to be fully operational.

Thanks to Guy for the pictures.

Until next time.

We Have Link Up

OK so a little bit after the Apollo mission but Ladies and Gentlemen, we have link up. Link up of the first parts of the Weston extension.

Andy G was on hand to capture the link up and the first movement of the works train over the now joined up sections.

We start with a view of the rails in position with a first drop of ballast to fix the position.

The ballast around the footpath was built up to allow a level walking route.

With the basic link up complete Andy R took the works train up to the cattle creep at a very slow crawl with every sleeper and joint being visually checked by Pete Mc.

Once the train reached the cattle creep it was time to come back. The last picture is the view from the brake van on the return trip with the cattle creep in the distance.

There is still plenty of work to complete before this section can carry passengers but trains now run again.

A big thank you to everyone who has contributed in any way to reach this important milestone.  Thanks to Andy G for the pictures.  Sorry for the delay in posting. I have spent five lovely hours waiting for a ferry in Calais with thousands of other people all trying to use the internet. Didn't they know that there was important CHR news to publish!

Until next time.

Thursday Gang Crossing Time

Along  the with the usual work on site at Oswestry, five members of the Thursday Gang worked on the crossing behind Travis Perkins. Hopefully the previous difficulties have been overcome and maybe this weekend will see the crossing installed.

Dave, Tom, Norman, Noel and photographer Andy G got stuck in to lay out the last of the sleepers.

In the first picture we can see the sleepers laid out whilst the site fencing is reinstalled

The correct sleeper spacing is obtained using the jigs, one of which can be seen alongside the freshly laid sleepers.

As there is still a footpath across the line at this point a couple of sleepers were moved to allow a level access until the crossing is installed.  The site fencing was then reinstalled. Noel and Tom are finishing off securing the fencing before returning back to base.

If the Great British weather permits hopefully this weekend will allow the rails to be installed and the crossing surface completed.  

Thanks to all who participated and to Andy G who took the pictures.

Until next time.

A Bit More Park Hall

Guy took a couple of pictures showing the latest status at the halt platform and what you can now see.

We start with a general view looking north. The original halt was just a platform on the far side of the bridge.  As the nearby army camp expanded the platform was lengthened under the rebuilt road bridge.

The halt was of very simple construction, the camp was only supposed to be temporary during the war.  The camp grew and the halt became a permanent fixture. Looking north we can see details of the platform construction.

The halt continued to serve what became a hospital.  After closure of the line the hospital grew and is now the Shropshire  Orthopedic Hospital.  The halt adjoins the car park. In this view looking south we see the posts for the station name board on the now cleared platform.

The view from the platform shows how close we are to the hospital car park.

It's nice to see further parts of the line coming out if the undergrowth. If you would like to help along the line please get in touch.

Thanks to Guy N for the pictures.

Until next time.

Thursday Gang

The Thursday Gang were in full swing under the hot Oswestry sunshine, it's not that often you can put those words together but yesterday was a case in point.

As well as the physical railway it is important to have period details which add to the heritage experience.  Over time we will be adding to these details where possible.

Platform benches are a prime example and we are gradually supplementing the existing benches with reproductions of the GWR type.

Dave R has been busy with two new benches

Here is Dave with the undercoat going on after the wood has been prepared.

The finished benches always seem to be a handy place to store tools. Soon these will be supporting our visitors as they wait for the train to Weston.

There was a call for assistance with some work on the diesel locomotive Cyril. Andy G stepped in to lend a hand.

It's good to see the station details coming along, this trespasser notice was installed at the south end of the station.

In the final picture the team head back off to work after lunch in Buffers with both types of sign in evidence, the old and the new. I know which one I prefer.

Many thanks to all who came along and to Guy N for the pictures.

Until next time.