Stanton Crest - The plot thickens...

Thursday 11 April 

Welcome to episode 8 of the saga of Stanton down side crest drain, as with all serials there's bound to be many plot twists and turns. This one is no exception. 

Water still pooling  in the cess 

Roger and Michael got off to a good start today laying bricks, both chambers are starting to take shape. 

Chamber 1 headers going on 

Chamber 2 with bricks all round 

Dave and Stuart headed for Culvert 11A to try and jet the gully drain pipe running parallel to the exit of the brick channel. Even though the water in the culvert was running well, a separate supply was brought in the bowser for the jet.   

Bowser set up on Bridge 11 

End of the gully drain 

Jet pump and rods being used 

By lunchtime the jetting seemed to have hit a hard obstacle; next thing is to stick the camera in to see what is going on. 

Back at the crest, chamber 2 was at the point where the land drain had to be cut so that the wall nearest the track could be built up. 

Michael saws the pipe 

Land drain cut to divert flow
into the new chamber 

This is where the plot twists, there was a dribble from the truncated drain, definitely not as much water as was anticipated...  

Drain outlet still flowing 

A quick check on the drain outlet showed that cutting the pipe hadn't stopped the flow, how can this be possible everyone shouted (or words to that effect 😉). First we applied logic, then we got the CCTV drain camera to have a look up the pipe. 

As we belatedly expected, there was a second pipe joining the first just beyond where the excavation had been dug. It look like there is a makeshift junction with the joints sealed with blue plastic. So there was nothing else for it but for Dave and Michael to start to extend the second excavation. 

Dave and Michael enlarge the excavation 

After some furious digging the second pipe was uncovered. The intention now is to chop this pipe and fit a 90 degree bend and pipe the flow into the chamber through the end wall. Luckily the mortar was still soft enough to take a couple of bricks out to get a section of pipe in. 

Second land drain :-( 

With the 'new' pipe discovered, it was decided that was enough excitement for one day so we packed up and headed back to base to reflect on the fact that nothing ever goes to plan with drains. 

It hasn't been decided yet whether we dig out the junction to see what is in there, it will probably just be abandoned as mystery for someone to find in 100 years time.