A little interim update today, the weather being a bit on and off but there is progress.

Don't you just love this view? The blue sky, with the bracket signal. My favourite bit of Broadway. The sun sets here at the end of the day, sometimes the sky can get perfectly orange. Get a loco hauled train coming in at say 17.00 and the glint will be right on the engine.

But not yesterday morning. This picture was taken at 10 am, while waiting for the... 6th of the Bridges to Broadway to arrive ! Check out the Broadway blog for the news. It was an uplifting experience...

Having decided the last time that a bit more ballast would be an idea on the deck, George Law have done just that. Another lorry load of the stuff has been delivered and dumped in a pile.

An hour later, they were already busy leveling it out across the deck. Looks inviting, doesn't it? (well, if you were a track layer as I once was).

On that subject I can tell you that there are serious stirrings in the PWay dept. I won't tell you exactly what, as that will be made public on November 1st, but it will need financial help. If you want to participate, the share issue with its 30% tax rebate is still open for another 2 weeks. It's not just for the bridges, but all that follows as well, you know.  After 31st October, the EIS closes. You can still buy GWSR shares after that, as many as you like, but HMRC will close its dusty wallet again, and there won't be a rebate for you.

Back to the bridges. We haven't got any more pictures this time, but from a vantage point on the base of the signal box yesterday we could see metal cutting going on at Childswickham Road, and the contractor's van with the cutting gear shutteling up and down. Our structures engineer has been down there to check progress this morning, and he reports that all the pieces have now been cut out, and the fabricators are now returning to base for a few days to make up exact pieces of new steel to fill the holes they cut. This they did at Broadway too, and the end effect is very satisfying. The new rain strip should then channel that water off the deck in future, so that new rust holes don't appear.