The big team is back

Week Ending 20 March 

Tuesday, and it's back on the culvert inspections. Dave and Nigel began the day by going up to Stanton. Culvert 11A was flowing well following the rebuild in 2019. The toe along to Culvert 11B is reasonably dry which is a good sign. Pictures and report from Dave. 

Culvert 11A up side outlet channel 

Culvert 11A runs under Bridge 11 

Culvert 11B outlet to the field 

Up to the siphon. Culvert 7A and the up side washout from the failing headwall seems to be stable, at least the hole hasn't grown. 

Culvert 7A up side, outlet headwall 

At Bridge 6 a few more barrow loads of silt were removed from the high mileage side of the gully drains, then they decided that it was really at least a 3-man, 2-wheelbarrow job 😒

Bridge 6 low mileage abutment 

Next bit of interest was Culvert 5A down side, a pool of water has formed at the inlet, the silt trap is working, on the up side, the outlet ditch doesn't have a much fall so it's neve a raging torrent. They spotted some stagnant water in the ditch at around the mid-point between 5A and 5B, again, the ditch here needs digging out to get the water to flowing. 

Toe ditch between Culverts 5B and 5A 

Nothing else much to report, all is in working order. 

Friday 

A team of 5 in to shift the pea shingle washed out from the counterfort drain on the down, low mileage side of Bridge 33 at Dixton Cutting. In tandem, the culverts between Gotherington Yard and Greet Tunnel were checked as the team travelled past. Pictures here from Andrew. 

Stop board out to protect the workers
(Possession obtained before starting) 

Washed out ballast from the counterfort drain 

Barrow crossing employed 

The view from the top 

Sweeping the ballast 

Dumpy bags of recovered pea shingle 

After a hard day on the shovel, the site is fully cleared. Next job is to get 8 tonnes of 20/40mm stone to replace the shingle backfill. That's a bit too much to hand shovel so it might have to wait for a digger 😉

Success 

Down side cess drain uncovered 

The bank on the up side of Culvert 32A has collapsed, it's been undermined over the winter evidently. Not much can be done here, it'll all wash away in the next flood. 

A mini landslip into Tirle Brook at 32A 

Culvert 30B has acquired a log across the outlet steam, not sure how it got through the pipe.  

Might be beavers around here 🤣🤣

That's it for this week. Trains start running again on 13 April, you can book a ticket online at: 

Forthcoming Events | Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (gwsr.com)

Back in the swing of things, almost

 Week Ending 13 March 2021 

Well, it's been almost a year of disruption, our last proper day working was 19 March 2020. This year there are no race trains, the Cheltenham Festival will go ahead behind closed doors next week, this will leave a huge hole in the local economy, the festival is the highlight of the jump season and draws crowds of over 100,000. Two gangs out last week, one on Tuesday and the other of Friday. 

Tuesday saw Dave and Nigel head off to Broadway, word had been passed that intruders were gaining access to the site by crawling under the palisade gates at the Springfield Lane end. The solution decided on was to bring up some hollow blocks removed from Gretton and Postcrete them in the gap. There's some old stock stored in the headshunt at Broadway so this made access a bit of pain as all the kit had to be carried along the six foot between the stock. 

Tuesday pictures from Dave. 

Permaquip trolley loaded with kit for the first leg of the trip 

Gap under the gate, might be rather big rabbits 😁

Dave and Nigel drew straws to see who would go for the block and who would dig a trench under the gate to place them. They both drew the short straw as both jobs were hard work. 

Loading the blocks at Culvert 24A, Royal Oak, Gretton 

Road - rail transfer at Broadway Station 

Next leg is to carry them along past the parked stock 

Spirit level out, proper job 👍

Blocks concreted in with Postcrete 

Scratch your way through there now! 

After all that exertion, they had a look under Springfield lane bridge to check the cess drains that carry the Broadway station surface water north. 

Lids dropped in! not sure what the 
attraction of this is 

Top ring removed for reseating 

Anti-vandal lids added to both drains 
with more Postcrete to secure the rings  

Job finished 

Overall, it was a bit of rude awakening after lockdown, a bit too much exertion for the first day back. 

Friday 12th and it was the expanded squad of Andrew, Martin and Michael down the other end of the line. That was after a stop-off at Bridge 6 at Laverton following a report of flooding under the bridge. Nothing too drastic, it was about 300mm deep so traffic was still getting through. After getting the gullies cleared the gang headed off to Bishops Cleeve to pick up on the culvert inspections where they left off last week. 

Pictures from Andrew unless marked. 

Bridge 6 at the beginning of February this year, 
a bit of water doesn't stop the locals 
(Picture: John B) 

Usual problems here, silt washed down from
 the fields blocking the gullies 

Gulley drains cleared out 

Surface water has drained away 

Inspection starting point was Culvert 38A down side, the up side is in somebody's garden so it's not accessible. 

Culvert 38A d/s headwall 

Culvert 38A d/s makeshift bridge 

Tracking down to Culvert 37G
this runs under the old farm track under the bridge 

Ash sapling growing near the running line
a perennial issue along here 

Near Bridge 37, more diggings
possibly 🦡

Low mileage end of the soil nails at Bridge 37 - 
marker post still in line 

Culvert 35A d/s at Gotherington 
Doesn't look like it's seen much flooding  

On the way back to base, the gang called at Dixton to look at the washed out gravel on the low mileage side of Bridge 33. This was reported back in February, but it wasn't causing an obstruction to the line so it was safe to leave it until work resumed. The gravel in the four foot was cleared away, the rest will be bagged up and taken away for reuse. Some spare 40-20mm stone will be used for backfilling when time allows. 

Pea gravel washout on the counterfort drain at 
Bridge 33 down side 
(Picture: Neil C) 

Winding back up

March 2021 

It seems to have been rather a long lockdown this time, over 2 months into the year and this is the first blog. That's not to say nothing has been happening over this time; there's been some major reorganisation within the Lineside departments. Lineside Drainage, Fencing and Clearance have all been merged into one team. This will support more sharing of resources and make working simpler. The new structure is headed up by Mike Peers and he will report to a new Civil Engineer when they are appointed. 

At the end of February we lost Peter Muir the Railway's Civil Engineer after a short illness. Peter had worked on the railways all his life, starting with British Railways Western Region when he first qualified. Peter had been volunteering with the GWSR since 2012. He had a vast knowledge of the permanent way and supporting infrastructures. He has left a rather big hole that will be very difficult to fill.  

There was a couple of days doing emergency repairs in early January following some flash flooding in the Bishops Cleeve area, but other than that the team have been on lockdown. So it was with some apprehension that Martin, Michael and Andrew ventured out this week to see what state the drainage was in. 

Starting at Hunting Butts they worked northwards checking the culverts and other drainage assets. All the pictures are from Andrew. 

Southam Lane, Bridge 42, weep holes 

Southam Lane, signs of the flash floods still 

Kayte Lane, Culvert 41C, Michael and Martin inspecting

Culvert 40B down side 

Down side cess ditch at Bishops Cleeve 

On the way back to Winchcombe they dropped in at Culvert 24C to clear the outlet, it tends to block with debris washed down the stream. There's a bid for in for funding to do some improvements here and get a proper trash screen installed. 

Michael clears some of the sludge from Culvert 24C 

COVID Safe Trains start running on Tuesday 13 April, all being well. It's the round trip service from Toddington and tickets need to be booked on-line before travelling.