The Mystery of the Stanton Crest Drain

Monday 25th March

Welcome back to second thrilling instalment of the Drain Gang's adventures at Stanton, we left them last week with 2 small excavations, the first having found the crest drain/cess pipe tee and the second uncovering the top of the land drain. Andrew and Dave started on excavation 2 looking to uncover the crest drain that runs under the land drain. Stay with us, it'll make sense soon (we hope😉) 

The location was pinpointed by using a sonde (a transmitter that can be tracked from above ground) 

Sonde Transmitter on the drain rods 

Sonde Tracer

The sonde proved we were digging in the correct place, so it was matter of going down a bit further. 

Meanwhile Roger was sent to Coventry, he was really standing on the spot where the crest drain had been traced going north. We needed to look to see if there was another pipe going down to the track level. 

While all this was going on there was an initial design meeting for the planned works at Culvert 11A and 11B, this programme may well dominate our efforts for the next few months. 

Andrew and Dave still digging 

Towards the end of the day, Roger and Stuart replaced a catchpit ring that had been damaged during the ballast loading for the Permanent Way Dept. It may just be beyond repair 😠

At close we ended up with excavation 1 ready for concreting the base and the cess pipe exposed under the land drain in excavation 2. The crest pipe damage must have been inflicted when the land drain was installed. It's going to be truncated here so it is no great problem. 

Left: Excavation 1 - Right: Excavation 2, land drain on the left and crest drain running horizontally 

Thursday 28 March 

We split into a variety of groups today, Stuart went to look at Stanway Viaduct in readiness for a job next week, while the rest of the gang went back to Stanton to the excavation site. The spring sunshine picked out the landslip at Toddington cutting that is being monitored for any signs of movement. 

Toddington North Cutting 

Stanway Viaduct South end 

It was all hands to the digging back at Stanton with 2 people on each excavation getting them ready for the concrete bases.

Left to Right: Alastair, Roger, Michael and Dave 

Land Drain and Crest drain interface 

In excavation 2 a section of crest pipe was removed, the idea here is to divert the water from the land drain into the crest then down to the cess.

Concrete base was poured into Excavation 1

While all this was going on Stuart and Alastair headed back to Culvert 11A to measure the scour hole on the up side at the end of the brick channel, this is undermining the farmers track  that runs under the bridge

Scour at Culvert 11A 

Photo by Alastair 

Stuart weighed down by his H&S headgear notes the measurements 















After a hard day digging it's a relief to get the equipment loaded onto the truck and head off. 

Home time 

Saturday 30 March 

Only 2 in today so we decide to head off in the direction of Cheltenham to do some inspections and small remedial jobs. First stop is Hunting Butts Tunnel north end, to check on the anti-vandal GRP lids we installed last month. Some of our cynical colleagues said they would't last a week - well eat your words, they are all still in place after a month.   

GRP lid intact, just the one concrete lid tipped off by inquisitive visitors 

The up side wing wall on the tunnel has some new graffiti so as they can't tamper with the drains they have turned their attention elsewhere.   

Hunting Butts Tunnel North End 

Next stop is Southam Lane just to the east of the Racecourse. This time the damage was done by the contractor who flailed the vegetation, the cess chambers didn't stand a chance!   

Roger replaces the top ring on a chamber 

While out trackside, we gather up some litter, it's amazing how much stuff finds it's way onto the railway 

Last stop was Bishop's Cleeve to replace more rings and lids on chambers in the up side cess, again after flail damage. 

To round the week off we stopped off at Winchcombe Station for a well earned mug of tea just as the DMU rumbled out. 



Next week we are back to Stanton and to start the site set up for Culvert 11A works and get some bricks into the crest chambers, volunteering is never dull (except when it rains 😉) 

A list of jargon and other terms that may not be familiar to people in the real world will be added to the blog when there's a few spare minutes. Just post a comment if there is anything that is really obscure.