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