Gents in the Gents

Wailing Wall Construction Company are in action every Saturday and Tuesday.

Robin reports on yesterday's action..

Stevie P continued painting the station. Geoff was computerising stores items. Meanwhile Colin, Arthur and I were still soldiering on on the 'Gents' refurb.

[photos taken Thurs]

Owing to a magnificent effort by Colin, who put in another extra day yesterday, the plumbing is now completed and fully operational. I have been majorly involved in cleaning the whole area, which was filthy despite the much heralded 'Deep Cleaning' allegedly carried out by contractors.

 

Finally, having got the toilets in reasonable shape, Colin set about applying the grout to the newly laid tiled floor. Later, I removed the excess grout, leaving a light grey film which will be polished on Tuesday.

 

We did encounter one small problem, that being we were probably half a mix of grout short otherwise the floor would have been finished.

 

As part of our cleaning regime, much 'thick' bleach was deployed in all the sink plugholes, the urinals and the toilets themselves. We also took the opportunity to bleach the toilet brushes and their containers, clearly these items were equally invisible to the professional cleaners.

 

The few selected souls that have been allowed to enter these hallowed portals, all remarked how clean, bright and much sweeter smelling the facilities are.

On the Bench

Here at Bridgnorth we make our own station benches from scratch. We thus know exactly what it is in them, how they are constructed, and how easily they can be stripped down to refurbish in the future.

We have our own totally authentic castings here, using specially commissioned patterns and then cast by Barr and Grosvenor, Lye.

We use new hardwood from a local timber merchant.
 

Following discussions with Hugh McQuade and our own experience, we have developed a seven-layer painting regime which gives longer protection in the harsh outdoor environment plus acidic sooty deposits - two coats of aluminium primer, three of undercoat (which does the work) and two topcoats.

 

aluminium primer on new timber

Our winter/spring throughput of seven benches has needed only two replacement timbers as a result - a far cry from previous years when most timbers needed replacing every second overhaul. We are mostly now sanding and painting without the need to dismantle and replace.

 

try again!

 

Our benches are made to last for ever. All our new 'memorial' benches are made in this way.

We are happy to make commissions for other stations!

Station bench rolling maintenance

The station is the custodian of two original Great Western Railway Pitch-Pine benches which are usually kept under the canopy, to keep them out of the worst of the weather. As such they are valued by visitors to The Railwayman’s Arms, our 150 year old pub on the station platform.

One of these benches was the subject of a major rebuild and conservation three or four years ago under the care of our patternmaker, Brian.

Last summer it became clear work would be needed on the second bench as it had started to sag, and over the winter our volunteers have dismantled it as carefully as possible.

The rebuilding has now started....

Barring trimming of excess length of dowels/wedges and removal of excess PU adhesive RH Bench End is now complete.

I didn't manage to find the piece missing from the arm, that split off at a screw hole, so I have replaced it with new.

You'll also note it was necessary to replace the horizontal rail on this end too. I'm pretty certain the middle frame will need similar treatment too.