After the longest scheduled winter closure, it’s now two weeks until Open House weekend starts the 2022 season.
We hope to get lots of visitors, and a warm welcome awaits them. We’ll also be encouraging interest in volunteering.
Two weeks
Category: volunteering
Fully booked
Remember back in early February, our 162 year old booking hall was being prepared for its annual repaint
Now with less than three weeks to reopening, it’s looking very smart
Great job – and a bright smart welcome to our passengers 🙂
Signs
Since the new refreshment and toilet rooms were completed, the signs have needed some attention as the weather has shown up the not-quite up to WW standard of the workmanship.
So during this closure, this and the Gentlemen signs have been taken down for some WW-level of TLC.
Letters unscrewed
Stripping down
Sign under repair, letters being cleaned
New gloss black for Gentlemen sign
Repair process underway
Running in
Five years ago this
looked like this
Because the timber had rotted
Didn’t it look a mess
so the backing board was repaired
and all the letters sanded, primed and repainted – which takes quite a while
and hung up to dry thoroughly
ready for the reassembly back to
A smart booking
Some weeks ago the annual prep and repaint of our 162 year old booking hall got underway, with much sanding, plastering and undercoating.
The platform canopy valance also needed lots of fettling with glue and clamps to replace rotten teeth.
Now as we get nearer to reopening, it’s all looking very smart, and redecoration is nearly complete.
The lobby is looking much smarter – bright and welcoming.
The doors onto platform 1 have been repainted.
And the canopy valance had a complete repaint following the repairs.
Great work by our station and wailing wall teams who work together during closure combining skills and enthusiasm.
Shovelling and barrowing
15 cubic meters (two truck loads) of ready mixed concrete got delivered yesterday for the infill on the LT jacks, the new cast iron storage outside and infill at the north end of the pit on road 2 in the yard.
Preparation had been going on for some time by our WW seconded team who had measured, cut, fitted, and checked the relevant areas:
Then the weekly loco missive requested ‘Assistance with shovelling, spreading, barrowing, compacting etc will be needed please’. Some 20 turned out to shovel, spread, barrow and compact.
cast iron storage outside – concrete pad for brake blocks and fire bars – note the rail reuse with concrete sleepers for the retaining wall
The Wailing Wall team involved have now returned to their normal work, with relief – after a job very well done.
Parking the rail
The Wailing Wall Construction Company has tackled many jobs in its time, big and small. One of the more strenuous tasks is digging holes, and this was needed last month in preparation for the new ANPR parking control system that goes live after tomorrow.
The signs have to be mounted at very precise points and heights – all laid down in the planning consent (needed because of us being in the conservation area). Reusing rail lengths makes for very sturdy and appropriate posts. In this case they were cut by the PWay team to 3 yards apiece, and we needed five of them, weighing in at about 270lbs each.
To meet the specification, holes had to be dug 2ft6in deep, to support the height of the signs, and in the positions where there was no existing structure to fix to.
Availability of the rail meant we had no time to paint it before installing, which would have been much easier. Fortunately the weather was kind and the black gloss was quickly applied.
Relaying the footpath, part 1
On this day in 2012, relaying the brick footpath to the front of the station building had got this far…
so looking very smart
To reach this stage had taken many months of painstaking and cheerful effort which started the previous autumn. The cause was the risk to pedestrians from collision by vehicles as the path had sunken so far that the curb had become level with the driveway.
The remedy was to lift every single brick off the sand base and put aside carefully, then relay on a raised mortar base within new higher curbs also carefully mortared down. At regular intervals a protective post of cut-off rail was installed to ensure no vehicular intrusion.
More to come…
Opening the view
This vista from the Castle Walk dates back a while but does reveal the imposing position that the station was built on to create a prominent scene.
One of the facets of the restoration and redevelopment scheme was to open up the view again, and the work carried out by qualified volunteers back in 2015 has resulted in expansive views opened up from the front of the station across the high and low towns.
Since this clearance, the scene has changed a lot more – to be covered in a future post.
Annual booking
Every winter closure brings our booking hall its annual date with sandpaper and paint brushes. The same team plan and carry out the process – Stephen, Ann, Chris – taking pride in making the first impression for our passengers the best possible one.
As the station dates back to 1862, it’s not surprising that weather has taken its toll on the stability of the internal plaster. Each year this gets patched very gently – too rough and more falls off – to give the smoothest surface for a fresh coat of buttermilk, chosen to be warm and bright, and dark chocolate gloss.
It takes many weeks to complete the whole process – each layer of plaster, primer, topcoat, takes a long time to dry – and the team are only available on Saturdays, but gradually it all comes together.
With the longer closure this year, a more thorough job has been possible. The ‘after’ pictures will look very smart!
SVR Bridgnorth Station 