DEVELOPMENT – PLATFORM AT BLAENAVON HIGH LEVEL STATION (Step
1.2.3) – Page 2
Platform
at Blaenavon (High Level) Station – Page 2 (uploaded
We continue the story from the beginning of November
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More than
anything, this shot from the north end of the platform, shows how the
platform wall veers sharply to the left beyond the signal box. To ensure that
the edge is parallel to the rails, the coping stones will have to project
further forward. (1492 4 Nov) |
Another load
of materials stands ready on the PWay train for delivery to Blaenavon (High
Level) 7 Nov 08 (1503 7
Nov) |
The light
is failing fast as we see the variable height shuttering laid ready to
receive its concrete infill.(9 Nov 08) |
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The sockets
to receive the wooden section joists are in place as Wayne Evans starts on
the shuttered ‘levelling’ course. Eric
Edwards stops to exchange a few words.
(1506 8 Nov) |
On the left can be seen the north
wall which has been built to about 120mm of its full height (100mm will be
provided by the coping stones). The
quoins will be built, as far as possible with stone, rather than concrete
blocks. The area is cleared down to
the floor, but some bricks remain to be re-laid (1514 11 Nov) |
Rain, which
progressed to monsoon proportions by the afternoon, washed out the concrete
laid earlier in the ‘adjusting course’.
The slow setting time at this time of year led to an easy cleanup and
repair (1515 11 Nov) |
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The 4 ¾ mile
milepost, was recovered from the pile of rubble shown on Page 1 and ‘planted’
without ceremony on 2 November. Here
it is seen is a better light a week later (1519 11 Nov) |
The view
from the south is hardly a pretty one at this stage. The left hand half will have a tarmac
cover, whilst the area to the right, which will behind a fence, will be
re-dressed with topsoil (1520 11 Nov) |
A miserable
evening with low cloud over the Clochdy ridge, shows bags of chippings
delivered earlier in the week, and the shuttered adjustment course, which
extends some 32m from the box – with 28 to go. (1555 16
Nov) |
Most, if not all, railway companies, probably as a
result of legal necessity, installed mileposts every quarter of a mile along
their lines of route. Various styles
were used. Here a concrete post is
simply marked ‘¾’, and it accurately marks the position that is 4 ¾ miles from
the point at which the original Brynmawr and Blaenavon Railway Company’s lines
deviated from the Merthyr Tredegar and Abergavenny route built by the then
London and North Western Railway Company.
The abbreviated form of mileposts, with the whole miles omitted, was a
LNWR peculiarity.
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Here the
timber for the joists and planking for the platform area in front of
Blaenavon (High Level) signal box is delivered to Furnace Sidings yard (1558 17
Nov) |
When the
Pway train is used as a supply train itis usually the Pway team who pitch in
to unload material for the platform.
Here they are unloading the creosoted planks at Blaenavon (High
Level) (1568 22 Nov) |
As to
unloading palleted concrete blocks, we find i’ts usually quicker to set up a
chain gang with the BHL gang and the Pway team working together (1570 24
Nov) |
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Compare
this image with the middle image four rows up – and particularly the heading
photo on page 1, and note the increased height of the platforms and the
changed proportions of the gap underneath. (1572 24
Nov) |
From the south
the new planked section looks impressive.
It also has to be quite sturdy since our plant will need to run over
it during the platform and building construction phase (1577 24 Nov) |
The signal
box and the waiting room had their rear walls perched atop the massive stone
wall here. A few residual bricks from
the signal box can be seen on the extreme left. The new buildings will be designed to
minimise the weight on this elderly wall.
(1581 24 Nov) |
Progress! (uploaded
You might think that reports on the platform at
Blaenavon (High Level) have been a little sparse of late, and infer that there
has been little progress. Perhaps one
day we’ll flesh out the history, but the news is that the platform itself is
essentially finished. We’ve still
to instal the lighting and fences and to a bit of tidying up . We should be
looking at a little hut from which to sell the tickets, but we’ve decided to
take the bull by the horns and remodel the complete original waiting room – or
at least as close as we can reasonably get in the time we have left.
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The
completed platform looking south. We
have to remove the old fence on the left, and move a lot of rubble from what
will become a grass verge, and possibly a herbaceous border. The verge will be backed by a LNWR style
fence. For those with a bent for
figures, the top surface is 81.302m long, the ramps add an extra13.297m to
give a total of 94.599m - quite enough for four coaches and a small loco img_2247rr.jpg |
After a
final flurry, the tarmac was laid on Wednesday 8 April – just one day before
the work was inspected by TCBC. The
milepost,seen on the right, and following a history of being seriously bashed
about, has been fitted with a stainless steel splint and now lies within a
few millimetres of its original position. img_2253rr.jpg |
It’s
sometimes hard to hold good volunteers back, and just four days later the
small development team had already made a start on rebuilding the waiting
room, before it ran out of materials.
At the nearest end, the remains of the gent’s loo have been exposed,
complete with channel, stone floor, and, in the corner, the base of a quadrant-shaped sink. The next room sat over a cellar and this is
being laboriously dug out by hand. img_2263r.jpg |
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