
A Wednesday Special – How to Occupy your grandson

There were 7 volunteers on site today. It was a humid day weatherise, but that did not stop good progress being made. Bob, in his usual regular fashion, has sent the following report and I have added a short item at the end, covering our activities on the new container groundworks.
Dear Bill,
Two reports today, the first from Tim Winstanley, who continued with the container ground work preparation and then a general roundup from Bob Stark.
Tim reports:-
Bill,
I didn’t remove the offending stump but I did reduce it in height
sufficiently (I hope) – see attached. The advantages of having Robin with
me were that I didn’t need to work alone and he always remembers to wear his
orange vest.
I did a few extra measurements – with additional planks, bits of string and
pegs. There is a certain amount of height reduction required here and
there. Should be set fair for Saturday.
Bob may also have snap or 2.
Tim
Bob Stark has sent me the following report of the morning’s activities:-
It was a glorious day weather wise at CRCS this morning and the 7 Volunteers on duty made some great progress.
In no particular order then, the first activity was the replacement of a wheel on the CAG trolley. Here John Leeson is about to give it a road test, having not only replaced the new wheel but removed the others, before applying grease to the axles. Having then taken the trolley for a spin, John topped up the pressure in all the tyres and returned to base. It’s ready for a Soapbox Derby now!
Back in in the sunshine Bob and Mick were digging in a new duct for the power cable to the relocated pods.
Here Mick is toiling in the heat (look at that blue sky!), digging a trench for the duct. It required a few gentle curves to reach the power source, but much perspiration saw the job done. Below is “Cobber” Stark sorting out the final section ensuring the draw string is in place.
By lunchtime the mains cable was in and power returned to the nearest pod. This was a really determined effort on Bob and Mick’s part to completed this task. Brilliant!
My task for the morning was to tidy up the debris from Tuesday’s pod moving exercise and mark out the approximate position of the footings for the new container. This involved a good deal of dodging around the “workers” so as not to impede progress. Nevertheless by the end of the morning this task was completed also. Here the open ground ready for the footing to be accurately set out.
Last but not least, its difficult for a GWR loco enthusiast like me, not to take a look at the inbound trains. Here Foremarke Hall basks in the dapple shade ready for the run around. Beautiful!
Postscript
All credit to the gardening team who, with their careful planting (and weeding!) have made all of the public areas of CRCS so colourful. The Ledamun Brothers with there weekly mowing of grass just sets this off nicely – add the sunshine and its all a joy to behold!
Bill
Bob Stark has sent me a post of his take on the day, as follows:-
Dear Bill,
Tim Winstanley and I were on site at CRCS today to organise the move of the Pods into their new resting place. The Vic Haines lorry with the HIAB crane was behind schedule so the time was filled by further tidying of the site and placing the last piece of anti climb wire mesh on the boundary fence. The rig arrived at last and it was all hands to the strops to proceed with lifts.
Here Ben the VH Driver is attaching the strops to the lifting chains. Note the 2 pieces of timber on the roof which when in place, were used to stop the roof line being crushed.
After a good deal of difficult manoeuvring ( the HIAB was at its limit of range) the job was completed. Here are the Pods in their new positions and the Vic Haines rig packed up and ready to go! My thanks goes to driver Ben Brotherton and Vic Haines for their cooperation on this exercise.
I noticed that S & T were preparing the new platform 2 signal post for painting. It was coming along nicely!
Bill
A site cataloguing the hard work of the GWSR Volunteers working to Maintain Cheltenham Racecourse Station
A site cataloguing the hard work of the GWSR Volunteers working to Maintain Cheltenham Racecourse Station
A site cataloguing the hard work of the GWSR Volunteers working to Maintain Cheltenham Racecourse Station