The down side on Monday

Monday 29 July 

It's been perfect weather for bricklaying for a change, even better, it's been ideal for getting some concrete down so that even more bricklaying can be done. The spotlight is slowly moving over to the down side with the channel wall already raised, the main thrust is around the inlet and cess outfall that need to be constructed. 

The footings for the south wall extension have been dug out, they are following the line of the brick channel that was covered by pipe when we started here. This has saved a bit of effort as there's a solid base to work up from. 

Nigel digging out the footings on the down side
(Photo: Alastair) 

Down side south wall, increased height  

Footings for the wall extension 

More supplies were brought down from the yard to keep the team busy. 

Bricks and cement loaded for transfer 

Dave stores the bricks under the bridge
(Photo: Alastair) 

The bit of grass remaining between Culverts 11A and 11B on the up side was cut back. 

Area needing a trim 

Stuart runs the flail along the hedge line
(Photo: Alastair) 

Clear run between the culverts 

The shuttering was removed from the up side cess outfall 

Up side cess outfall 

Roger adding the new headers to the south wall 

Roger, Stuart, Nigel and Dave all busy on the down side
(Photo: Alastair) 

There's some old concrete left where the new wall is going to go, we are just building up on top of it. 

Shuttering down for the concrete 

Part of the concrete footings laid 

Culvert 11A, Down side, South wall level raised 

By the end of the day, the progress was visible 

Down side, original south wall raised 

Up side, 125 headers laid out ready to go on the north wall 

Brick arch, the former will be ready for moving on Thursday 

All change at Stanton

Saturday 27 July 

The all change in the title refers to the weather, we've gone from baking heat to miserable wet in less than 36 hours. Is it any wonder that the English are obsessed by the weather. Anyway, the bricklayers said it was too wet today, the mortar was washing out. There was, therefore, a slight shift in emphasis, the Gantt chart got shuffled, the critical path went awry,  the project manager's hair turned a little lighter grey.  All things being even, we still had a productive day.  

Cotswolds shrouded in low cloud, not a promising start 

Alastair is always first out of the blocks to get the mixer going so that the builders can make a start.  

Alastair starts the first mortar mix 

Raising the channel south wall on the down side is (was) next on the agenda.  

Roger cleaning off the down side south wall 

Michael continues with the up side north wall
(Photo: Alastair) 

Dave sorting out the recycled bricks 

Stuart went off to do the gardening, the vegetation has taken over at Gallery Crossing (to the south of the work site) and this needs to be cleared ready for any harvest traffic. 

Crossing down side ramp 

Crossing up side ramp 

Clearing some wire from the flail head
(Photo: Alastair) 

Crossing down side after treatment 

Up side after clearing 

Back at the culvert, the old mortar on the down side south wall was was proving harder to shift than most of the other parts dismantled along the channel. 

Roger cleans off the old mortar 

In the vain hope that the weather was going to get better, bricklaying did start. The forecast said 10% chance of rain, it didn't mention the 100% chance of heavy drizzle though. 

Culvert 11A down side south wall 

Michael on the up side north wall 

Dave keeping ahead with the recycled brick supply 

This is where the plan gets modified, the forecast change in the weather hadn't materialised so the decision was made to do the concreting around the up side cess outfall walls.  

Michael, Roger and Dave constructing shuttering
on the up side cess outfall 

Michael level the scour prevention step 

Up side cess outfall outside wall 

Up side cess scour prevention step 

Dave takes over the Mixer, under expert supervision 

Promotion to mixer operator brings with it extra responsibilities, no extra money though 😉  

Dave cleaning the mixer 

Up side cess outfall - Culvert 11A meeting point concreted

We have spotted that the copings on Bridge 11 wing walls need to be re-seated, there are cracks along the mortar joins. Roger decided to investigate the up side north end, in the vain hope that just the large corner would need to be refitted. 

Sometimes it's best not to look 😊

The mortar in the middle void of the coping must have been attacked by ants (or some other critter) there's definite signs of habitation in the patterns formed 

Under the wing wall copings 

The whole length of the horizontals had to come off 

Michael and Roger preparing the copings and base for re-fitting
(Photo: Alastair) 

We are proposing to lay a new pipe from Culvert 11B to 11A, currently the flow runs under the adjacent field where the pipe has collapsed. In readiness for this work the area needs to be cleared again, just in case the budget stretches to doing the work this year. 

Culvert 11B up side 

The end still to be cleared 

Rest of the area cleared today 

Using the wheel to measure the pipe run from Culvert 11B up to Culvert 11A arrived at 126 m, measuring on Google Maps satellite imagery shows 122 m, that's a margin of error we can work with. 

Is the unicycle accurate? 

The up side north wall only needs to have the top headers added now, the decision to take it back down to the water level has paid off. 

Culvert 11A up side Channel

Culvert 11A up side Channel
end view 

Did we mention it was the Heritage Diesel Gala this weekend, the intensive timetable meant we had more passing trains than usual for a Saturday. With the thick overcast the headlights made spotting approaching trains a lot easier. 

Class 47 heading south from Broadway 

The hottest day, phew!!

Thursday 25 July 

It was a bit on the warm side today, the bricklayers were complaining that the bricks were too hot to handle. It'll be too cold in a couple of months, no pleasing some people 😉 

We had to knock off early today at Stanton due to the heat, but time wasn't wasted, we had trip to Broadway to swap some chamber lids on the north end of Platform 2, these were reported as a hazard to shipping last Saturday, thanks to our rapid intervention they should no longer prove to be troublesome. 

Culvert 11A at Stanton had some more bricks carefully fixed on the former for the brick arch. Although only a few people will ever see this, the knowledge that it has been repaired to its original shape will give us a warm glow 😊. 

Brick Arch - Start of day 

Brick Arch - former moved outwards and Roger laying another
batch of Arch Taper bricks 

Michael carried on with the up side north side wall of the channel 

Bricklayers in action 

Brick Arch - the length of the former limits how many can be laid 

The mortar needs to go off before we move the arch again, otherwise there will probably just be a pipe of bricks in the invert of the channel. 

Andrew returned from his cruise around the canal network and got to remove the headers along the south wall on the down side. 

Andrew gets words of encouragement on his first day back 
(Photo: Alastair) 

Roger moved onto the up side cess outfall to add the headers to the inside wall 

Roger moved out of the shade when it got hotter 😒

Progress today... 

Down side ready for new bricks to raise the height 

Up side cess side walls finished 

Up side channel north wall
Stretcher course front done, back half way 

Clay packed into the hole left by a sleeper
removed from alongside the down side inlet pipe 

After lunch, we took a leisurely drive up to Broadway to attend to the loose chamber lids at the end of Platform 2. While there we swapped another 2 sets in the 6' where the loco crews may need to walk. 

Alastair and Roger find some lids stored at Broadway Station 

The offending wobbly concrete lids 

Concrete lids replaced with grilles 

Lids replaced in the 6' next to the barrow crossing 

King Edward II in our way 😠

Only 32 degrees in the car when we got back to Winchcombe, so not quite as warm as Phoenix Arizona, but too hot for bricks 😏