Sunday 18 March - JE

The VSOE upgrade visibly made progress on Sunday. I did some wallpaper stripping on the the rear wall of the information centre side (a fiddly but rewarding job at the end of the day). Bob completed the task of cladding the partition on the info centre side with MDF while making way for electrical cabling which Helen was doing more to.



(JE) Geoff after his soaking

Geoff probably had the most eventful day. He tried to remove the stopcock from where the tea/coffee machine was connected to and the water gushed right through. The building interior might have got soaked if Geoff wasn't in the way. As a result he was dripping wet! The water inlet has now been fixed and new plumbing will be repositioned onto the partition wall where the coffee/tea machine will be moved as well.

Weds 22 March

22 March - SG

Arrived today to find the new (secondhand) prefab toilet blocks have been delivered, one large and one small. We inspected these inside - they're not too bad but will need some work to spruce up and sort out the flooring.  We removed algae from the outside and flaking paint - first job will probably to perk up the outsides to make them more presentable once installed.  Meanwhile the tramways club have begun dismantling the protective structure over the tram bodies, so that these can be readied for the move.

Sunday 11 March - Jack Evans

Just a quick intro about myself for those who don't recognise my name. I am 16 years old and I have been an RVR volunteer since Spring 2009. Trevor Streeter has asked me if I would like to contribute to the volunteers blog and I said yes.

A lot of progress has been made yesterday with good attendance. Me and my dad Bob built the studding for the new partition wall which will separate the museum/information centre from the shop. This is part of the refurbishment of the VSOE building.

(Above) The frame of the new partition wall

Also in the afternoon, a majority of us helped David slide a new tarpaulin onto his Maunsell coach after two attempts.

(Above) David, Geoff and Bob pulling hard

Trevor and Geoff fitted two new PC monitors for the GBLV office.

It is anticipated that Bridge 1 will be lifted in place in about a week or two. I'm just eager to walk over the bridges straight to Northbridge Street.

Wednesday 7 March -SG

Non-stop rain today, but will that head off the predicted drought? We got ahead with preparations in the VSOE visitor centre for making up and putting together the new display units, which will also be used in the shop. A lorry load of MDF sheets arrived and had to be unloaded. Each will be cut up to form the sides and shelves in the units. Two heavy sheets of ply are for the mess van, to be cut to fit into the sides when we finally get around to narrowing the door frames so as to fit the 6 remaining doors we need to replace. One pair on the west, and two on the east. The ply will be routed to look like planking. I rescued a couple of very old iron rail chairs from the big heap that I spotted, probably for sale in due course.  The new office space in the mess van got a coat of paint and some coat hooks.  SG

RVR Sunday 26 February (SG)

Feels like Spring already, and this made for a good turnout of volunteers on Sunday.

Work began on further improvements to the VSOE building, which houses the shop and visitor centre. For the time being only the shop will be opening as works proceeds in the 'visitor' section to create new display units and boost wall space available for photos, maps and posters etc, by rearranging interior cupboards and erecting a new partition. Wiring and plumbing work will be needed.  The hot drinks service is suspended temporarily.

We admired the stacks of concrete-sleepered 30 ft track panels newly deliver to the site during the week, still complete with the pots that recently carried third and fourth rail electrification. Bit of a clue perhaps as to where these panels have originated! 

In the mess van we finally laid lino in the kitchen,  with some patching to follow around two edges.  Work continued on the rescued lamphut, removing old paint, and on painting the northern end of the mess van.

 

Wednesday 22 February

A dull windy day. I wandered down towards Bridge 1 and saw the newly delivered 30 ft panels of track freshly delivered, with more due in a few days. The bullhead is still bright steel on top!  Starting soon, these must be dismantled to allow the rails to be welded up into 60 fts, with the help of something to lift the panels off the stack and move the rails etc around.

I also took a look at the newly placed bridges once more, now that the walkways have been finished off and very impressive the whole project looks. Notches have been cut in the parapets of Bridge 2 to allow the trains on and off the bridge, in due course, and also to allow excavators to access westwards. As a result, Bridge 1's eastern abutment now sports a large hole behind it,  ready for formwork and placing of concrete, to take the bridge span kit.

Back at base we began reviewing the contents of the right hand van body to see what could be discarded immediately, as the start of our preparations for relocating to somewhere beyond the loading pad once the initial tracklaying work has finished. We have quite a few  heritage artefacts stored, buried behind the clutter. In the mess van our new volunteer cook did us proud with a juicy-fry up, and the office area now sports a built-in counter and looks to be fully clad already.  We also heard that plans to further improve the shop and visitor centre/museum area have been approved to proceed.    SG

Wednesday 15 February - SG

Nursing a slight hangover, I managed to lose a second quality digital camera in 12 months on the train down from London this morning. Phone pictures are not the same, but will upload a couple shortly.

When I arraived, work was underway using a pneumatic drill mounted on a small digger to trim the overheight concrete parapets on Bridge No 2 (the abutments of which had been erected a few years ago by the local water company). Work will then no doubt follow to complete Bridge No 1 abutments ready for the new bridge kit to be erected over the little river beneath. New to the site is a 360 degree excavator which has ro-rail capability, recently acquired by our contractor Andrew Young who is in almost permanent reisdence these days. He has now cleared most of the south side of the embankment west of bridge 1 and carried out some reprofiling and widening.  All that now remains on that side of the track is a large heap of rails plus various sleeper stacks, plus the Weatherhill loader awaiting collection by its new owner. A large area has been set up to receive new trackwork supplies due in shortly. The 'B' road has now been cut back to the loading pad, while the main running line has been cut back to the lorry crossing under the Oak Tree, to allow easier crane and lorry movements.   

Main event of the day was a shunt around in the station yard to allow the antique LNER van , which has also been sold, to be released from the south end of the platform. This entailed disconnecting the mess van's power, gas and water and ensuring the plates inside did not fall off the shelves, then reconnecting everything.  Dougal and Titan were both required for this exercise. The crossing from the platform road to the middle road was put to good use - possible for the first and last time, as the trackwork at the station end is due to be remodelled completely later this year.  Some work was done on the mess van office cladding, on the tanker wagon chassis, and on tidying-up in anticipation of spring!