Thursday 23 January
The piped end of the crest drain at Winchcombe Cutting down side has been finished, all it needs now is the rest of the ditch to be excavated and that's been started. First job was to look for a manhole on the up side at Winchcombe, it's shown on the GWR's 1902 plan, and there's a mark visible on a 2010 satellite image. The 2017 satellite image doesn't show anything though, the contractors didn't see anything when they excavated up there. Nothing was found, but we will have one more go on Saturday.
The river Isbourne works have been put on hold for a while as the ground is too wet for the excavations to continue. The river level has dropped, but it will rise again when it rains. Gotherington slip is still on the move, we went to measure it again this afternoon.
Dave has sent a couple of pictures from Monday of the work up at the tunnel portal...
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Greet Tunnel, channel around the down side wing wall
(Photo: Dave) |
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Andrew checking the portal steps
(Photo: Dave) |
At the River Isbourne the old course has been left to take the flow from the stream that runs down the back of Winchcombe Yard.
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| River Isbourne, Culvert 21A down side |
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| Winchcombe Cutting, up side slip area |
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| Site where the 1902 map shows a manhole |
Winchcombe cutting down side drain has been piped past the access gate so that machinery can get in and out.
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| Winchcombe cutting down side |
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| Winchcombe cutting down side piped drain |
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| Winchcombe Cutting down side ditch |
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| New lids placed to replace the broken lid |
The signal cabling is being moved from the up side of the cutting to the down side so that it's out of the way of the slip area.
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| JCB trenching the cable run for S&T |
The shallow ditch at the tunnel end of the cutting needs to be reinstated to catch any run off that get under the fence.
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| Ditch line along the cutting crest |
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| Edges taken off round the middle chamber so that it can be built up |
There's a plan to start repairs on the Gotherington slip in the next week or so, until then we are keeping an eye on it.
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| Gotherington, Bridge 37 slip area, cracks appearing in the slope |
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| Bridge 37 slip face |
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| Sleeper spotted in the crack on the slip face |
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| Cracks appearing in the snout at the fence |
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| Gotherington slip toe drain snout |
It looks like the toe drain is intact, either that or no water is getting into it. The middle chamber sump level is up to the outlet pipe, with no build up of water.
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| North toe drain chamber |
Hello GWSR-DG,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information about the 2000 tons of stone in your last post. Will it be necessary to lift the tracks in order to excavate beneath? There appears to be a vertical shear face & it is just the sloped embankment that has moved. The track bed looks stable. Has there been movement on the other side of the embankment? The Railway Herald had a photograph showing one track near Godstone suspended over a yawning chasm (I exaggerate). One benefit of digging out both embankments would be the opportunity in inserting another culvert, if necessary?
Best wishes,
Perry
HI Perry, it's just the side that has slipped, the track will stay in place while the works go ahead. It looks like it will be a mix of soil nailing and some piling. The design hasn't been finalised yet. It's only the up side that's moved, the first stage is to stabilise the trackbed and then work through the summer on the rest of the slope
DeleteI grew up living in Isolation Cottage (now restored to Inoculation House I believe) from 1958 to 1980. At that time a stream came down the field from the Gretton Road (on the line of the existing hedge). It disappeared for a few yards then emerged for a short stretch to pass by a toppled, but still alive, Willow tree near the foot of the field access ramp from the Greet Road gate. This was a great spot for making dams in the stream and then blowing them up with embedded bangers. The stream then dived again to reappear briefly inside the field boundary, between the large tree and the start of the Greet Road ramp up to the railway bridge, opposite the station approach, where it disappeared into a culvert under the Greet Road on its way to the Isbourne. We understood that this was the stream that had formed the original copse in which the station was built and had been diverted at the time of the railway build. Certainly the Ganger considered the geology in this area to be poor and remembered the major engineering work that had been undertaken in 1949(?) to run a substantial culvert down through the station between the lines in an attempt to improve the site drainage. I have supplied G&W with photos of this work that were taken by the CEs at the time, showing the trench being cut and the pipes laid. Access to the railway cutting for heavy machinery was achieved by a temporary track about where your new access has been cut from the field.
ReplyDeleteNigel
Ref the missing up side manhole I remember An early Father Brown episode had a drone shot of a train in the cutting, may be series 2 2014. anybody got a box set.
ReplyDeleteRod C&W