Getting back slowly

Week Ending 8 August 2020

Looking back at our budget for 2020 we should have by now finished off at Royal Oak and moved on to south to the next job. Added to that, a couple of contractor jobs should have been completed, but alas lockdown got in the way. There's a possibility that we may start some proper work in the not too distant future, but it's still a bit vague at the moment.

Tuesday 4th

What happened this week? On Tuesday Dave and Nigel headed off south to do some culvert clearing through the Bishops Cleeve environs. Starting at Culvert 38A and working down towards Kayte Lane. Culvert 40A escaped their attention, but it is well hidden and it's a siphon.

First batch of images are from Dave. 

Culvert 38A Down Side 

Culvert 38A
Nigel disappearing along the down side ditch 

Culvert 39B Two Hedges Road Siphon 

Culvert 40B Up Side 

Culvert 41B Down Side 

Culvert 41B In Side 😊

Culvert 41C Double Siphon at Kayte Lane 
Down side 

Thursday 6th 

Andrew and Martin tackled Culvert 42A at the Racecourse then went and had a look at Southam Lane bridge where we dropped a new drain in late last year. On the way back to Winchcombe, they dropped in at Royal Oak to see if they could find our building site. 

Next batch of images from Andrew. 

Culvert 42A down side headwall 

Culvert 42A down side headwall 

Culvert 42A Down Side Wing Wall 

Culvert 42A up side headwall 

Culvert 42A up side cracked wing wall 

Culvert 42A up side 

Bridge 42 Southam Lane 
Abutment drain 

Bridge 42 Southam Lane
low mileage wing wall drain 

Round at Royal Oak, the situation isn't as bad as it could be, the vegetation has taken hold, somebody or something looks to have set up home in out concreting ballast pile. 

Culvert 24A up side, the fence is back 

Culvert 24A up side, it's work in progress still 

At Culvert 24B on the down side, the landowner has stuck a pipe through the fence into the end of the culvert. There's an overgrown ditch here, so presumably it's going to be reinstated. 

Culvert 24B down side with the new pipe 

Culvert 24B down side headwall
To be replaced with a chamber 

Culvert 24B up side 

The concrete ballast pile hotel 

Andrew noticed that the signals at Cheltenham have been repurposed. With no trains visiting for best part of 5 months they have been taken over by Starlings. 

CRC Outer Home roost 

Friday 7th 

Stuart along with Roger on his first day back headed off to Peasebrook for a final batch of levels. This was to capture the profile over Culverts 3B and 3A. The heat was building fast so diving up and down the slope was good way to shed the excess lockdown weight. 

Peasebrook Farm - Looking north 

During the week, there's been a ballast drop along the up side shoulder, it's obliterated the distance marking we painted on a couple of weeks back. 

The up side ballast drop 

Spot the yellow paint  

Peasebrook up side, out to Bredon Hill 

Peasebrook up side to Childswickham 

Culvert 3B up side, Roger sorting the staff out 

Peasebrook down side, not much slope to the Cotswolds 

Peasebrook up side 

A bit of rain blowing through 

On the way back we called at Stanton Yard to see what kit we had stashed away there, just a few bricks, some bags of ballast and 20 tonne of pipe bedding stone. Not much help for immediate building works. 

Stanton Yard gate, somebody 
has been keen get in or out 

That's it for this week, wondering now what to start on next.