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.
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| Southam Lane, Bridge 42, weep holes |
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| Southam Lane, signs of the flash floods still |
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| Culvert 40B down side |
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| 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.
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| 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.
Hi again - I posted something about this on the last blog, not sure if anyone saw it but it's now been confirmed that pieces of a meterorite caught on camera came down in the Winchcombe area. Might be worth looking out for more on the track as it would probably stand out from the ballast (especially if there's been no steam engines through for months!. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56326246
ReplyDeleteHi Lee, the gang are keeping a watch for bits as they travel round
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