GWR – Permanent Way Progress - November 2007

At the end of October, we saw the brand new rails arrive at ‘Fort Stanton’ which meant the first weekend of November saw eight panels (16 rails) placed on the already-laid sleepers north of the aqueduct, pushing the rail head even closer to Broadway. With the diesel gala in progress, we were unable to use the Class 73 to move the train northwards – this was left for the following weekend.

The second weekend of the month saw another thee pairs of the brand new rails laid at Stanton as well as a massive 203 sleepers laid out ready for the next batch! With 26 sleepers to a standard 60ft panel, this equates to almost eight panels – 480feet!

On the 17th of November, 10 pairs of rails (20 in total!) were laid and reached just north of the repaired B4632 ‘skew’ road bridge. After a marathon clipping-up session, the P-way train was propelled up there and underneath the structure. Not content with stopping here, the gang laid another 83 sleepers (just over 3 panels’ worth) ready for the next lot of steel to be laid.

The 24th of November saw P-way finally reach Broadway… albeit in a slightly different manner than had been expected. In conjunction with the Caravan Club, a small 17ft length of bullhead track was laid inside the existing Goods Shed (in use as a toilet facility and shower area). This will be used to provide a plinth for a box van to be displayed on as a way of showing the local community we are on our way and to encourage them to perhaps join the railway.

Used to laying several full-size (60ft) panels of track per day, needless to say that it didn’t take long for this to be accomplished before everyone headed back to Stanton Fields to continue with ‘real’ track laying. Over 150 more sleepers were laid on the formation which now pokes out north of the Stanton Fields Farm road bridge. The site of the Laverton run-round loop is well within sight now and is a very realistic aim in the very short term… after our winter maintenance that is!