More of the same

Thursday 17 October

More vegetation clearance today as there was only Andrew, Alastair and Dave in. They took the scenic route out to Manor Lane at Gotherington, caught out by the water main rehabilitation at Gretton (not sure how anyone would even start to 'rehabilitate' a water main, but evidently Severn Trent do). The targets for clearance were Culverts 36A and B, but they managed to squeeze Culvert 35D in as well.

All the photos today are from Alastair. 

First job is to clear a parking space

Andrew cuts around the truck

Culvert 36A inlet

Culvert 36A inlet chamber, flowing well 

Culvert 36B down side inlet, possibly 😊

Found the fence around 36B inlet

Culvert 36B inlet (Down side)

Culvert 36B up side outlet

Culvert 35D up side outlet 

Culvert 36A outlet along Manor Lane 

Culvert 36A outlet headwall 

Saturday 19 October

Food and Drink fayre today so Winchcombe Station was busy when we left, as the vendors were unloading and setting up. Only three of us venturing out this morning, but we have a varied agenda. Roger needs to put some bricks back into the wing wall on Bridge 10 at Stanton, there's still some culverts to clear on the way up to Laverton, measurements are needed for the pipe that will link 11B to 11A and there are more candidates for the confined space survey. 

While Roger did the bricks on Bridge 10, Stuart wandered down to Culvert 11B to check a few measurements so that the job can be costed to make sure it's viable to start this financial year. The other works we did at Stanton this year were checked as he passed. 

Stanton down side crest outfall, running well 

Stanton crest rebuilt chamber, down side 

Culvert 11A outfall 

Bridge 11, new gully drain doing its job 

Down at Culvert 11B the recent wet weather has left the toe of embankment very wet, our next project is to install some drainage pipes to get this water over to the up side and way to Culvert 11A.  

Cuvlert 11B down side toe, water ponding 

Culvert 11B outlet can't take the flow 

Back at Bridge 10 Roger was putting a couple of bricks into the north east wing wall. This isn't a repair, it's to monitor the top of the wall to see if it is still moving. The wall will be checked to see If the mortar and bricks separate over the winter, that's the sign that all's not well. 

Roger replacing a brick
(Photo: Alastair)  

Brick pointed up
(Photo: Alastair) 

We moved up to Culvert 7A to start clearing and to investigate the sound of falling water Alastair heard a couple of weeks ago. 

Long shovel at Culvert 7A outlet 

Long shovel down the side of the headwall 

Water is escaping through the brickwork on the outlet side headwall of the siphon, it looks like the mortar has washed out. Probably the main contributory factor is that the downstream ditch is silted up. The landowner has planted trees in what used to be a field, this means that maintaining the ditch is now virtually impossible. Over the 40 years the line was dormant the brickwork has decayed and the mortar washed out. Next problem it to find where the water is going as the up side cess isn't flowing very fast.  

Roger watching Alastair digging out 

Stuart and Roger improvising a post hole shovel 😊

Alastair digging out the side of the headwall 

Leaking headwall 

Tracing the water is fairly easy with the fluorescent dye, if you have a suspicion of where it'll come out that is. 

Dye going in at the up side headwall 

Chamber up from the siphon on the down side 

Chamber on the down side 3 minutes after the dye went in 

From this it looks like the water is running back under the iron siphon pipe and getting into the down side cess drain. 

Culvert 7A Inlet 

Culvert 7A Outlet after clearing some brash out to the ditch
Level down by 2 brick courses 

We have gone away to think about this one, it looks like more excavation will be required but winter isn't the best time for doing a repair here. 

Then it was on with the culvert and chamber clearance. 

Stuart cutting around the first chamber
(Photo: Alastair) 

The drain run form the Aqueduct to Culvert 6B is around 1.17m in length. The first 430m is in a covered concrete channel. The first chamber is at the transition point to piped drain. The chamber has extra feeds from he road drains, the crest, the field and the wing wall. 

Chamber at the transition point
Inlet channel form the north 

Inlet from the pre-cast concrete channel 

Chamber cleared 

Roger clearing the up side chambers
(Photo: Alastair) 

Stuart measuring down to the top of the 1.8m measuring pole
(Photo: Alastair) 

Culvert 7A down side cleared 

Surprise visit by GWR pannier tank 9466, out on a test run 

The chamber survey involves dipping the depth and checking for other pipes besides the cess run. 

Roger looking for spiders 

Alastair looking for chambers 

Some chambers have marks left by previous civilisations, a bit like hieroglyphics. Not sure if the Ancient Britons had spray cans 😏 The next siphon, Culvert 6C, crosses the drain in the 6' and the inspection plate protrudes into this chamber 

Cess drain meets siphon culvert

The cess drain is up to 18" pipe by Bridge 7 

The information being collected about the chambers is turned into a schematic and added to the asset database so that we can manage future maintenance. 

Section of cess drain surveyed 

Lastly we've recruited a new team member, Michael rescued this little fellow from the stream in Winchcombe Yard while brushcutting last week. He's destined to become the team mascot, his dishevelled appearance fits in well 😊 

Ted, the drain gang mascot