Stopping at Toddington and Winchcombe

Monday 30 September 

With no trains running today, it was our chance to nip up to Toddington and do some CCTV on the problem gully drains to finally nail down the issues. We started by running the camera into the outlet at the south end of the station, this pipe runs under the road to the admin cabin and we were looking for where the drains connect to the pipe as there isn't a surface cover visible. 

Lights, camera, action... 

Through to the Admin cabin chamber
upside down though! 

On the video (below) we found 2 separate connection, the first will be the gullies up the road and the second the drains outside the Admin cabin. The pipe is clear and running well so that it's unlikely that anything else will need to be done.  

Next we looked at the drain that is contributing to the flooding, 

Nigel with the rods 

The pipe has been compressed at the south end of the station building, this is constricting the flow and it's not something that can be solved without digging up the road. Our colleagues in C&M have been advised and we await news of the next steps. 

Just as we were packing up Alastair rang to say he could hear running water at the outlet to Culvert 7A at Stanton (it's a siphon). sure enough, the flow in looked good while there's not much coming out, partly due to the silting up of the downstream ditch. There's a definite sound of leaking water that will need to be explored when we get a minute. 

Culvert 7A down side, covered in weeds  

Culvert 7A inlet pipe 

The forecast for today was miserable, so we headed back to Winchcombe to carry on with clearing the stream at the back of the yard. That way we could make an early escape should the predicted downpour appear. 

Winchcombe stream, where we left off 

Nigel heads west along the bund 

And there he was gone! 

Brush cutting down, just the elder to remove 

Stuart clearing out the brash
(Photo: Alastair) 

Today's end point 

Stream cleared back to the inlet 

The going get's easier from here on