A fruitful September

Many of us are familiar with the opening line of John Keats' poem To Autumn... "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness". The beginning of autumn 2021 lived up to the second part, but not the first.

Like our colleagues on the Permanent Way and Clearance teams, we are able to closely observe the fruit growing on or by the railway. Blackberries are the most numerous, growing everywhere, particularly where not wanted! Tree wise there are several varieties of apples and pears. Most of the pears are the perry cider type, they ripen late in the season and even then are rock hard. Sloes, the fruit of the very prickly Blackthorn are quite common, whilst there are a few damson trees too. Damsons are bigger than sloes, and there no danger from thorns when picking them. Also they taste better.

Tuesday 7th September

Only three of us working again today, a different three to last week. This was a very hot day, hotter than any in August. Plus as the work was brush cutting which requires extra PPE, we certainly felt the heat.

We cleared the access at Bridge 6, Meadow Lane Laverton and all four of the wing walls. Makes a change to work here in the warm and dry; usually we visit this bridge in the winter or spring to deal with the flooding on the road underneath.

Low mileage down side wing wall, bridge 6 Meadow Lane, Laverton.

 

Diagonally opposite, this is high mileage up side wing wall. No trace now of the entrance to the long lost Laverton Halt.

We then went to try to find lost milepost 7 and quarter; it should be near the foot crossing south of Meadow Lane. The up side there has very thick brambles and other vegetation. We failed to locate it. The Permanent Way team who are numbering the rail lengths have estimated where it should be, the rail length numbers start at 1 for each quarter mile. This is the reason why the milepost replacement/refurbishment project is joint between us and PW.

35006 Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co. with a down train passing where milepost 7 & quarter should be.

As ice cream was called for we headed to Broadway station for lunch.  Plus that was a good opportunity to catch up with the team there making progress on the footbridge and platform 2.

This will be a popular photographic spot once Broadway footbridge is open to the public. 4270 running around the train.

 

After lunch we cleared access to culvert 11C between Stanton farm crossing and Stanway viaduct. This is a good example of why the access needs clearing. On both sides the access down the embankment is very steep and there is a big drop over the headwall on the up side. Clearing this makes it much safer and easier for the external inspectors.

Culvert 11C up side, cut vegetation on left, uncut on right.

By then it was too hot for anything else!

Tuesday 14th September

A definite change in the weather, but not to a mellow mist! Low cloud and drizzle, but that does enhance the steam effects from the trains! At least the forecasted heavy rain held off.

35006 Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co. again with a down train, here approaching bridge 20.

 

Four team members in today, so three brush cutters in action and the fourth person was the lookout. This is vital when train are running, brush cutting requires ear defenders so you can not hear much over the noise from the cutter.

We continued clearing access to the first set of structures that the external inspectors are examining later in the month. Today we managed one culvert (20A) and four bridges (Bridge 20 Old Farmers Accommodation, Bridge 19 New Farmers Accommodation, Bridge 17A the big culvert, Bridge 17 Hailes Halt). We also started on culvert 17B, but the depth of water on the up side (exit) required wellies.

Bridge 20 Old Farmers Accommodation Bridge, up side high mileage

 

The team in action clearing down side of culvert 17A

Bridge 17 Hailes Halt, high mileage up side. An unpleasant job clearing this one due to numerous plastic dog poo bags in the vegetation.

Another early finish, but this time to enable us to dry out. Hence a visit to the Coffee Pot at Winchcombe for a welcome cup of tea! 

Tuesday 21st September

Today we completed the clearing of the first set of structures that the external inspectors are examining this year, the final one was culvert 17B.

17A and 17B are large culverts, 17A is so large that is technically classified as a bridge. 17B is not much smaller, and it has a large area to clear on the down (Cotswold) side, which is upstream. The railway land extends to the side of the bridge which takes the footpath over the stream. Although this bridge is numbered 18, it is not GWSR owned and thus not our responsibility to maintain. A lot of thick growth in this area, mainly elder intermingled with a lot of brambles. As this was not cleared last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was slow going.

Down side of 17B clearing back to the footpath bridge.

 

Five members of the team working today, so we were also able to attend to the loose coping stones on the low mileage end of both the up and down side headwall.

 

Culvert 17B up side, fixing the end coping stone. Photo by Roger.

All done - and all level (note the spirit level). Photo by Roger.

 

With the vegetation cleared, the view from the public footpath is now photogenic for passing trains! 4270 passes with a down train.

Whilst returning to base using the vehicle track alongside the running line to Toddington we cleared overhanging branches at Didbrook No1 and Didbrook No 2 bridges.

Tuesday 28 September

After spending the past few weeks mainly on clearance activities it was good to be back to construction today, and back to Royal Oak/Working Lane, Gretton.

The five strong team made a start on the next new headwall, this is culvert 24B up side entry to the pipe under the haul road. First job was to excavate for the concrete base which provides the foundation for the headwall. We transported the excavated material up the haul road to use as backfill on culvert 24A haul road exit. Most of the material was clay, heavy but fortunately not too wet. Before starting we inserted a temporary pipe to take the flow from under line exit, so that hopefully the work area will stay relatively dry.

Before the rains came, Nigel (l) and Roger digging out for the concrete base at 24B; Martin ready to barrow away.

We loaded the barrow loads of excavated clay on to the LWB Transit with the tail lift and then took it up hill to 24A haul road exit as backfill. Not sufficient to complete that, but we have a cunning plan, to be revealed next month!

Completed excavation at 24B for the concrete base for the new headwall. Too wet today to lay the concrete. Temporary pipe from the 2017 built railway exit headwall in place.

 

The weather was certainly not dry, so to avoid the heavy rain in the afternoon we returned to Winchcombe to commence manufacture of the replacement milepost heads. Activities included cutting steel bar for the new horizontal dividing line and the quarter marks, fettling the new cast lead numerals and painting some of the new wooden heads.

Roger (back) painting milepost heads and Polly fettling lead numbers.

Nigel (l) and Martin cutting steel bar for quarter marks and horizontal dividing lines for the mileposts.

Continued milepost manufacture will be our wet weather activity for the winter.