November – no trains and no rains

Maybe the title of this blog post is not quite 100% accurate. Since the end of the normal running season on 31^st October, we may not have witnessed any passenger trains, but we ensured we stayed clear of shunting movements at both Winchcombe and Toddington. The later were in connection with the departure of the DMU cars to Scotland. For the rainfall, we should insert the word significant. The first two Thursdays in November started dull and damp with a little mist or drizzle but both stayed dry and kept warm. On the 14^th the sun even came out, enabling an al-fresco lunch-break at Hayles Abbey Halt. The important item is no heavy rain; immediately obvious in the watercourses we have inspected – the levels are much down from earlier this year and in comparison with this time last year.

Thursday 7^th November

Seven of the team in attendance; so we split into three groups to work at three different sites.

Jonathan, Polly and Martin continued with the toe ditch reinstatement on the down side alongside Archer Farm at Little Buckland. This included removing some tree stumps with a chain saw. The ditch now extends around 50 yards on the high mileage end of cross drain 5B; getting progressively shallower. As this is now where the adjoining field is slightly higher; there will not be much more excavation to complete.

The small mini-digger is ideal for excavating a narrow ditch in restricted space such as the toe of the embankment on the down side at Little Buckland high mileage of cross drain 5B. [Photo by Jonathan]

Roger and Dave worked on the section between Stanton Fields bridge 7 and Stanton Yard. Essentially this was brush cutting around anything other than culverts and cross drains. So included cess chambers (51 of them!); cess ditch covers, mileposts, slip markers, foundations of an old pway hut and Stanton Aqueduct. The wet summer and early autumn have not been kind to the aqueduct or the down side embankment there. Also noted was a apple tree that has fallen and is partially obstructing the vacant track bed between Stanton main road bridge 8 and Stanton Fields bridge 7.

A down side cess chamber with small retaining wall on the high mileage end of bridge 8, the B4632 main road at Stanton. [Photo by Dave]

 

On the up side just south (high mileage) of bridge 7 is this concrete base, we believe this was the location of an old PWay hut. [Photo by Roger]

Stuart and Andrew attended to culvert/cross drain clearance and visual inspections between Toddington yard exit and Didbrook No2 bridge (thus 14A, 14B, 15A). All had evidence of the heavy rains in September and October. At 14B, an old footbridge in the adjoining land had been washed away, three of the old sleepers from this were inside the bore of the culvert. It was just possible with a two man team to remove these once they had floated out into the outlet pond. Also removed two footballs and one tennis ball. At 15A we noted some displaced slabs in the inlet channel. To fix these will require a return visit with a larger workforce equipped with wellie boots.

Two of the old sleepers and one of the footballs removed from the bore of culvert 14B.

 

Inlet of culvert 15A with the concrete slabs forming the sides - a corner of one that has fallen is just visible in the stream.

Wildlife report: The local pheasants have noted the lack of trains; there were many of them on the line at all three locations. We spotted two weasels - one at Toddington and one at Didbrook (close enough to identify as weasels rather than the bigger stoats). A large patch of wild mint was detected by smell whilst cutting around milepost 10. Finally, with dusk being a lot earlier, we saw large numbers of starlings  heading for a roost near Hayles Abbey Halt.

Thursday 14^th November

Eight of the team attending with work at four sites. Hence not a straightforward allocation of staff to vehicles.

Jonathan and Ian recovered the mini digger from Little Buckland back to Churchward House Yard. Jonathan then cleaned and greased it. Afterwards Ian collected Andrew from Toddington to return to Little Buckland for a site meeting with the farmer at Archer Farm and his drainage contractor. The later is one of the local firms that have undertaken work for the railway in the past. The overflow from the farm’s pond to cross drain 5B has been replaced and whilst the larger digger is on site we agreed on improvements to the embankment toe ditch inside of the railway fence line.

Replacement 225mm twinwall pipe connecting the farm pond overflow with the inlet chamber of cross drain 5B. [Photo by Jonathan]

 

The old concrete pipes removed - most blocked with clay. [Photo by Jonathan]

Nigel, Dave and Martin spent the whole day on clearing two cross drains, one culvert and one bridge. These being 16A, 16B and 16C at Didbrook and bridge 17A south of Hayles Abbey Halt. 17A is big enough to be classed as a bridge. Here there was a considerable obstruction in the inlet stream – yet another instance of large branches and other debris washed down by the heavy rains in September and October.

There is a stream down there somewhere - the upstream side of bridge 17A before clearing. [Photo by Dave]

And after clearing - headwall of the bridge in the foreground. [Photo by Dave]

Roger and Polly (and initially Andrew) first attended to the cess chambers and other items that needed trimming between Toddington and the south end of Stanway viaduct. This includes the site of missing milepost 9¼. The new up side crest drain installed by Walsh earlier this year was inspected – the top section was dry but with signs of recent water flow.

An inspection chamber on the new up side crest drain at Toddington North, Stanway viaduct in the background. The stabled goods vehicles look authentic - but in the 1940s chambers did not have blue mesh lids. (Plus there would have been telegraph poles!)

The up side slip markers were checked, no noticeable movement detected. A worrying discover was signs of badger activity at the end of the Toddington North siding. There is a hole in the ballast in the 4 foot under the last wagon (a ballast hopper) by the buffer stop. On the down side there are holes in the embankment with fresh earth and on the up side behind mile post 9 there are signs of digging.

In Toddington car park, forlorn unrestored class 117 DMBS W51372 awaits it's transport back to Scotland.

Before joining the rest of the team at Hayles Abbey Halt for lunch, Roger, Polly, Ian and Andrew checked various chambers around Toddington Signal Box. This is were the complex feeds from the car park, loco shed and up and down cess merge, then flow eventually to the down side ditch towards cross drain 14A. Fortunately we did not find any obstructions.

Lunch time at Hayles Abbey Halt - left to right Nigel. Dave, Martin. Usually the weather requires us to use the shelter here rather than the outside bench.

After lunch, Nigel, Dave and Martin completed the clearance at bridge 17A; whilst Roger and Ian attended to clearing the cess chambers between Didbrook No2 bridge and Hayles Abbey Halt. Polly and Andrew undertook the visual inspection of cross drains 16A, 16B, and culvert 16C. We also cleared fallen leaves from the roadside gullies under Didbrook No2 bridge (16); this is another location where heavy rain can cause problems. Part of cross drain 16A empties into a roadside gully on the down side – here the headwall has been damaged, probably by a flail clearing the verge of the road. We measured up for the rebuilt – surprisingly at least 50 bricks will be needed!

Polly clears the roadside gullies under Didbrook No2 bridge.

The damaged headwall of the 16A down side outlet at Didbrook.

Wildlife report: A buzzard at Little Buckland; flocks of finches at Didbrook, evidence of badgers at Toddington North (see above). Unlike the past few weeks, we saw very few pheasants.

Double figures

Thursday 24^th October

This was a historic day for the team—for the first time ever in the GWSR history the number of drainage team members working was in double figures. Yes, all ten of us were in! Primarily this was to enable all the team to undertake the confined spaces training lead by Kevin Jarvis. Kevin also mentioned that this is the first time ever a whole department has completed this training in one session. The training (and exam) took about 90 minutes—so it was after morning coffee break we set out from Winchcombe.

Jonathan, Ian and Peter headed south to Cheltenham to attend to a couple of small jobs. First was to remove silt and debris from the road gully which runs just outside the down side crossing gate opposite Cheltenham Racecourse Signal box. They also deepened the soak away on the low mileage end of the crossing. Hopefully this will stop the large puddle forming on the crossing by the down (platform 1) line when there is heavy rain—and thus keep the signalman's feet dry when exchanging tokens.

Gully just outside of the down side of the crossing gate at Cheltenham Racecourse Signalbox cleared out. [Photo by Jonathan]

The second job was to secure the blue mesh chamber lid on the cess drain in the 6 foot right by the north portal of Hunting Butts tunnel. The clamps had been removed, possibly by trespassers or possibly by the contractors working for GCC on the cycleway.

It is a tight squeeze in the 6 foot at Hunting Butts; the sleeper ends touch the concrete rings of the chamber. Acceptable as these are sidings, not running lines. [Photo by Jonathan]

Our colleagues from the Wednesday Lineside Clearance team have been working at Hunting Butts in recent weeks to clear access for an external inspection of the tunnel portal. This view from above was taken on Wednesday 23rd October. There is no access for the Timberwolf chipper - so all cut material had to be burnt. [Photo by Ian S]

The other seven team members traveled north to Little Buckland. Nigel and Polly sorted out some minor brick work repairs to the down side of culvert 4A and later re-pointed most of the cracks on the up side.

Polly attending to re-pointing around the barrel of the up (Malvern) side headwall of culvert 4A.

Dave, Stuart and Martin got stuck in with brush cutting. One section was on the down side low mileage of culvert 4A to reach a toe drain chamber and an badger set to enable inspection.

Badger sett entrance.

The other section was on the high mileage of cross drain 5B alongside Archer Farm, to ensure the mini digger can access the length where the toe ditch needs digging out.

South of 5B ready for re-excavating the toe ditch.

 

Roger and Andrew went to cross drain 3A at Peasbrook Farm to complete the inspection of this. This involved putting the confined spaces training and procedure into practice, as to clear logs and other wooden debris from the up side outlet chamber entry was required.

Outlet chamber of 3A at Peasbrook is a confined space - as demonstrated by Roger. Note the gas detection unit deployed before entering.

Then with the repairs to 4A completed, that was inspected. After lunch, it was clearing and inspecting of culvert 5C and cross drain 5D; plus some of the toe drain chambers alongside the up side boundary on the low mileage side of 5D.

Stuart clearing the outlet side of culvert 5C - this is one where the Broadway extension work is starting to show its age.

Wildlife report: The warm sunny weather had brought out the insects, several butterflies (Red Admiral) and lots of flies noted. A kestrel was spotted hovering over culvert 4A once we had finished - no doubt looking for small mammals. No sign of the badgers who occupy the sett on down side low mileage of culvert 4A today. Near to this under the hedge line we spotted a pheasant's nest. Also apparent was a multitude of fungi growing on the sections of south facing embankment that we have recently cleared at Little Buckland.

Sunday 27^th October

The second day of the Autumn Showcase (aka Mixed Traction Gala) is our traditional department day out. Seven of the team met at Winchcombe for a whole line round trip; with suitable breaks first at Broadway then at Toddington. An important aspect of the trip is to met and chat with other departments and teams. As we were all off duty, lunch was taken in the bar section of the Cotswold Halt – a very comfortable and peaceful spot. Quite a bit of our time at Toddington was spent chatting to the chaps on the 76077 Toddington Standard Locomotive stand; and inspecting the boiler for that locomotive. One of the team is also an active supporter of that group, so some of us bought raffle tickets. Maybe Lady Luck was smiling on us, as both the first and second prizes were won by members of our team.

2807 in world war II  unlined black livery with Caerphilly works style GWR lettering at Winchcombe - at least one team member mistook it for 3850 (also currently in black).

Green diesels in the C&W down side yard at Winchcombe.

Like a lot of folk, we ensured we took a ride on the class 117 DMU, as this was it’s last day in service before departing for Scotland. Certainly unusual to see the DMU getting as much attention as steam and diesel locomotives.

Enjoying the rear view from the 117 DMU leaving Winchcombe.

Last 3-car class 117 DMU arrival at Cheltenham.

Unusual view for us of the Malvern Hills framed by a Mk I compartment window.

We rounded the day off with a very enjoyable meal at Ye Olde Hobnails Inn at Little Washbourne. We did not encounter the resident pub ghost, but we certainly agreed the food was excellent both in quality and quantity.

Thursday 31^st October

A glorious autumn day—perfect for working outdoors, sunny, warm but not too hot and importantly no rain. And with two steam trains to interrupt work! Seven of the team enjoyed the day; the last normal operating day of the 2024 season.

The most significant item was the commencement of the excavation to the toe ditch on the down side high mileage of cross drain 5B alongside Archer Farm at Little Buckland. Jonathan was operating the mini digger, with Polly and Peter providing assistance with clearing more vegetation and broken bits of fence. At the end of the day the ditch extended through the hump on the high mileage side of the cross drain. With a short side extension into the farm's field the big puddle in the field started to drain. This really pleased the farm’s owner. Peter also spent some time clearing out more obstructions from the ditch on the low mileage side of 5B.

Jonathan operating the digger whilst Polly and Peter check the ditch on the low mileage side of 5B at Little Buckland.

First job for the digger was to clear a flat area to enable safe work to commence on the excavation of the ditch. [Photo by Jonathan]

Peter waves to 3850 on a down train passing Archer Farm - hedge/fence/ditch clearing has opened up this location. [Note - this picture was taken from the grounds of Archer Farm with permission of the farm's owner.]

 

Reinstated down side toe ditch south of 5B - dug out to the low point in the adjoining field. More to dig next week! [Photo by Jonathan]

Side ditch into the field already filling with water. [Photo by Jonathan]

The other four attendees first attended to some clearance and inspection items left over from last week. Nigel and Dave attended to the up side toe drain chambers north of Laverton Meadow Lane bridge.

Nigel locates one of the up side toe drain chambers - this drain runs almost the whole length between culvert 5C and cross drain 5D. [Photo by Dave]

Whilst Roger and Andrew tackled the down side north of of culvert 4A. This is the site of a badger sett, with many entrances. Unlike the two entrances uncovered last week, some of these appear still to be active. We also found badger bedding inside the toe drain chamber by rail length 18 of milepost 6.

Summer lodging for a badger - it will be too wet in the winter!

 

Once the 12.15 from Broadway passes it is time for lunch. Quite rare for us to be in just the right place at just the right time on a day with just the right weather - and for the loco crew to oblige with a fine exhaust. (35006 P&O at Laverton Meadow Lane)

After lunch the gang of four completed the clearance and inspection of cross drain 6A, culvert 6B, cross drain 6C and culvert 7A. Also cleared around milepost 7 & quarter (the one that was lost in the undergrowth a few years ago); the fences at the foot crossing by culvert 6B and it's sound whistle signs.  Between culvert 7A and bridge 8 (B4632 main road at Stanton) a safe vehicle parking spot was cleared.

A scenic view to illustrate the location of cross drain 6A - that is Bredon Hill in the distance.

To avoid entering confined spaces, for some inspections we use a remotely operated camera. This is the outlet (up side) of 6A.

Outlet side of syphon culvert 7A, showing the depth of water due to the shallowness of the ditch in the adjoining property.

The outlet of culvert 7A on the upside is going to need some more work, but the main problem here is the ditch in the adjoining property is too shallow. There is some flow out, but our observations indicate quite a bit of the flow from the stream which comes under the B4632 road appears to be going into the cess drains then flowing north to culvert 6B.

Autumn glory - with the sunshine now from the up side, 3850 approaches the B4632 main road bridge (8) at Staverton with a mid-afternoon down train.

Wildlife report: Not a great deal of interest noted (apart from the evidence of badgers at Little Buckland). Several crows, one buzzard and a few pheasants were noted. Plus quite a few unidentified fungi.

Aspects of Maintenance

Almost all the tasks that the Drainage team undertake come under the general description of maintenance. That is probably true for most of the other engineering departments on the GWSR, and on other heritage railways. Some of our infrastructure is over 120 years old, so it is not surprising we need to refurbish or rebuild some items from time to time. Whether a rebuild or a restoration is strictly maintenance is a debatable point. However, it is very rare for us to build something entirely new.

When I worked in the IT industry, we tried to make maintenance more glamorous. We coined the description that ‘maintenance was undertaking the development which had not happened in the development stage of a project’. It sort of worked!

Another common IT term is ‘preventative maintenance’. This covers the regular activities of fixing things before they broke.

Our recent activities have included examples of both types of maintenance. Regular clearing of silt at Laverton Meadow Lane is certainly preventative maintenance; whilst the work we completed at Stanton this year and that we have just started at Little Buckland are definitely categorised as improvements.

Thursday 3^rd October

Eight of the team in attendance. This is now 80% of the team, as new team recruit Peter joined us. He will be dividing his time between track patrols with PWay and us.

With blue sky, lots of sunshine, almost no wind and by the afternoon warm temperatures, it was almost summer again! However the wet spell over the past two weeks meant some re-planning of the day's tasks. Main casualty was the leveling out of Gotherington yard - the ground was too wet and the clay too sticky for the telehandler. [Three weeks later the situation has not changed!]

We split into two teams — one of three and one of five. 

Nigel, Dave and Martin took the 'new' white short wheel base Transit van to Working Lane.  Some difficulty was experienced driving up the haul road to Royal Oak — the vehicle does not have off-road rear tyres with a good grip. Once at the top they drove to south of Gretton for the days clearing operations. First task was to clear to the edge of the embankment to provide safe spaces to park a vehicle the required 3m away from the running line. They then cleared the inlets and outlets of cross drain 27A, culvert 27B and cross drain 27C and the access all of these on both sides of the line. Next was cross drain 28A at Stanley Pontlarge. This was mainly a silt removal from the outlet chamber by the road in Keith Davies' field – there was a lot of silt this year. Finally they cleared the long steep zig-zag access to culvert 30A on the down side high mileage of bridge 30; plus the inlet of the culvert. (Sorry no photographs, all three were too busy with the actual work!)

Meanwhile, Jonathan, Polly, Stuart, Peter and Andrew headed to Little Buckland. This was planned just as an inspection of the down (Cotswold) side of the section alongside Archer Farm, between Little Buckland (bridge 5) and the foot crossing near mile post 6 & three quarters. We had arranged to meet the owner of Archer Farm, he had noticed a large area of pooling water on one of his fields following the September heavy rain. An area of the field by the boundary fence just south of cross drain 5B was still under water. Immediately north of 5B the embankment toe ditch was flowing for a short distance, but became pools of standing water further along. 

The flooded area in Archer Farm, south of cross drain 5B, two day before our first visit. [Photo from the farmer]

The farm owner explained his plans which includes keeping sheep in the fields, hence the need to have a sound fence and reduce the flooding. He has given us permission to access the toe of the embankment through the farm to carry out the remedial work on our side of the boundary. He is also planning some drainage work on the farm. The overflow from the farm pond runs to cross drain 5B — we observed water leaving the pond but nothing entering the 5B inlet chamber. The other discovery was that there is a hump in embankment foot just south (high mileage) of 5B. Seems like the toe ditch here was not reinstated during the build back to Broadway. (A case of deferred development!) Excavating appropriately 30m here is the first item on our improvements. We do need all the boundary fence/hedge line cleared from bridge 5 to the foot crossing so that we can get a full picture. Hence we spent the rest of the day making a good start on this. We also managed the clearance of the up side of 5B so undertook the visual inspection of that. Progress was hindered a little by a temperamental brushcutter, one of our older ones (the Gretton team had the new ones!)

Peter clearing the down side toe ditch north (low mileage) of 5B. Wellies essential.

 

On the high mileage side (south) of 5b, Polly and Jonathan stand on the mound where the toe ditch should be.

5A inlet and dry toe ditch - our aim is to clear the whole length like this.

Wildlife report: The 'top' sighting was a stoat at Little Buckland. Actually two stoats as it was an adult (probably female) with a pup in her mouth. They quickly disappeared down the just cut access to down side 5A. Bigger mammals were spotted at Stanley Pontlarge — deer, probably muntjac but maybe roe. As usual they ran off before a positive identification was possible. On the flora side, we noticed many large fungi at Little Buckland.

Thursday 10^th October

From a weather perspective, this was a day of improvement. Certainly from the precipitation point of view — but the effects of the past few wet weeks are still apparent. Both temperature and sunshine amounts vindicated the team member who insisted we took the deckchairs for lunchtime!

Dave, Nigel, Roger and Jonathan first attended to bridge 6, Laverton Meadow. This was a spot of preventative maintenance, clearing out the roadside gullies under the bridge to reduce incidents of road flooding in the coming months. Surprisingly in view of the heavy rain of recent weeks, the amount of silt in the gullies was less than expected, but all was under water. Besides removing all of the silt, the grills into the GCC drains were cleared of debris. Hopefully this should suffice for a while - we plan to revisit before Christmas.

Just running water under bridge 6; no silt, no floods, no stranded vehicles. [Photo by Dave]

 

Silt traps cleared. [Photo by Dave]

Also we cleared the vegetation obscuring the road signs.

Before .... [Photo by Jonathan]

... and after the attention of the Roadside Clearance team. [Photo by Jonathan]

 

Martin and Andrew went to Little Buckland bridge 5 - the first task being to improve the access to the trackside by removing the vegetation around the gate, and then to clear two safe vehicle parking spaces on the vacant trackbed (one by cross drain 5A and one by cross drain 5B). Then we completed the clearance of cross drain 5A and it's internal visual inspection.

'Lake Archer'

 

Then the full complement of attendees continued with the clearance of the down side toe ditch alongside Archer Farm. A contractor working for the farm’s owner had cleared along the fence line on the low mileage side of cross drain 5B - we removed fallen vegetation from that section. Also we cut another access down the embankment to that ditch. The contractor had made a start of removing the copse by the inlet of 5B; we continued with this as this is where we need to bring in our mini-digger for the excavation of the ditch. Unusually for the drainage team this, and some tree removal from the ditch, meant a chainsaw in use for most the day.  On the high mileage side of 5B we made progress with the clearing of the toe of the embankment. This has revealed the full length where water is pooling. The flooded area in the field was larger and deeper than last week.

Initial clearing of the ditch and fence line on the low mileage side of 5B has already made a big difference.

Finally we rodded the inlet to cross drain 5B from the farm's pond, this dislodged some silt and improved the flow. We marked the distance where our rods were encountering an obstruction. We anticipate quite a few more days work here, probably with the mini-digger starting ditch excavation in November. The farm owner is being extremely cooperative — we have been granted access through the farm and can put cut vegetation on heaps in his fields. He will certainly have some large bonfires this winter!

Jonathan feeding drain rods into the inlet chamber of 5B.

 

A small flow detected from the pond overflow into the inlet of 5B (lower pipe); the bigger flow from the pipe on the left is from the low mileage toe ditch.

Wildlife report: At lunchtime we had a close encounter with a  curious pheasant the other side of the four foot at Little Buckland; later we noticed a raptor in a tree eyeing up the pheasant. Plenty of mushrooms/toadstools in the damp areas of the embankment and adjoining field.

Thursday 17^th October

Only half the team (5) in attendance — consequently a reduced number of tasks from the 'to do' list ticked off.

Jonathan and Andrew headed south to Stanley Pontlarge. They undertook the visual inspections of cross drains 28A, 27C and 27A, and culvert 27B. At 27A they spoke with the ground works team working on the new housing development on the up side next to the White Cottage.  Six houses are being built here (you could say squeezed in, they will not have very large gardens!). Next on the list was the inspection of cross drain 25B, but this was postponed as the the water level was still too high. Some dredging of the outlet ditch in the adjoining field is required here. 

Observations during or just after heavy rain are very worthwhile. This is the inlet to 27C, running very fast. Some of the flow goes straight on through the bore, whilst the rest turns right and then flows in the toe drain north to culvert 27B.

This is the same flow (plus a bit more) entering the inlet chamber of culvert 27B by Townsend Farm.

 

Next it was installation of the new 'Do not trespass' signs on the down side alongside the Royal Oak pub at Gretton. One is close to the boundary fence by culvert 24A, low mileage of the pub garden; and the other is between the cess and the hedge by the high mileage end of the pub garden.

Jonathan attaches one of the new Trespass warning signs by the Royal Oak. One advantage of a wet spell is that the ground is soft, so hammering in the post was not difficult!

 

Then a look at the down side boundary fence on the tunnel cutting at the point where the pub's shepherd hut field joins the adjacent field. Trespassers (probably train photographers) have damaged the fence here, removing several lengths of barbed wire. The two-man team made temporary repairs with what they had to hand; it needs a proper repair and another  'Do not trespass' sign installed. [Both scheduled for our fencing contractor to attend to later this autumn]. After lunch, the top of the haul road has arguably the best view on the railway, the two joined the other three team members at Little Buckland.

Yes a very good spot for photographing trains - but please keep to the field side of the fence.

Roger, Dave and Polly headed for Little Buckland first thing. Their initial job was to clear the old field gate just south of bridge 4 — this to enable vehicles to turn safely. However due to the restricted width and the wet grass, we only recommend turning 4-wheel drive vehicles there (so NOT the Transits).

 

Soon to be a historic picture, the three car class 117 DMU passing the cleared old field entrance just south of Peasbrook Farm.

 

Then it was vegetation clearance of cross drain 3A and culvert 3B. Two more where the wet summer has had its effect — outlet of 3B on the down side was too dangerous to cut (wet and steep); whilst the inlet of 3A took a considerable time to clear as it was full of timber detritus from a nearby willow tree.

The inlet of cross drain 3A before clearance - full of bits of willow tree. [Photo by Roger]

What a difference - yes this is the same spot a few hours later.

 

After lunch, the full complement of five undertook clearing of culvert 4A and visual inspections of 3A (part), 3B and 4A. Also at cross drain 5B Jonathan and Polly attempted further rodding of the inlet from the pond overflow in Archer Farm. Whilst the small flexible disc on the drain rods seemed to get past the obstruction; anything bigger didn't. So we suspect the obstruction is clay in the bottom of the pipe; or a badly aligned pipe join. This information we have passed on to the farm owner, he plans to call in a contractor to renew this pipe. The team then cleared some more obstructions from the embankment toe ditch alongside Archer Farm on the low mileage side of 5B.

Finally back at Winchcombe we undertook yet another form of maintenance — that of our power tools. Specifically this was to some of the brush cutters, some have a reversible blade which need periodic turning over to even the wear on the cutting edges.

End of day cuppa tea time at Winchcombe coincides with the last steam train to Cheltenham. War time GW black does suit 3850.

Wildlife report: Two roe deer, one rabbit, pheasants by the score, a kestrel and damsel fly all spotted between Laverton and Peasbrook Farm.