No... No... No... November

November, the 'fag end of the year'. Perfectly summarised by Thomas Hood's poem.

No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November! 

This November did not entirely adhere to each stanza, with some warmth and leaves remaining into the third week. However, the overall gloom feeling was there.

Thursday 4th November

Six team members in today, including our new recruit. Jonathan has added Estates Management/Drainage to his CV.  With qualifications on excavators, dumpers and the telehandler he will be a key member of the team.

Straight to work with the telehandler today, recovering infill from the up side of Winchcombe Yard for use at Working Lane/Royal Oak. The loads moved in the Citroen tipper thus required no manual handling, a great bonus. Off loading the blue Transit was still a manual process though. The first three loads completed the backfill of the haul road exit headwall for culvert 24A. Subsequent loads are stockpiled in readiness for other backfills, one of which requires access to a neighbouring property.

Using the telehandler makes loading infill easier!

However offloading the flat bed blue Transit is manual work. But 'many hands make light work', left to right Polly, Dave, Martin, Nigel.

Finally the backfill of culvert 24A up side haul road exit is complete.

 

Two of the team took our regular LWB Transit down to bridge 35 Granna Lane, Gotherington. (The first time for quite a while we had four vehicles in use simultaneously). The task at Granna Lane was to repair the steps on the public footpath which also serves as access to the GWSR platform at Gotherington Station. This was an item which the recent external inspection of the bridge showed up. In true 'A team' style, not only did they repair the noted broken top step, they also improved the bottom step. A just in time repair, as trains would be stopping at Gotherington during the Gala weekend.

Repaired steps at bridge 35, Granna Lane, Gotherington. (Taken a few days later after removal of the shuttering). Photo by Roger.

 

Back at Winchcombe Yard, between loading infill the team made some progress on the replacement mileposts . A second coat of black paint was applied to the numerals for 7 & quarter given and the first three cut lengths of bridge rail brushed down to remove more rust. Additionally, they inspected the channel which runs at the back of the down side yard from Churchward House to the River Isbourne. The clearance teams had cleared the embankment of this on previous Wednesdays. This channel is part of the complex drainage at Winchcombe; checking for leaks and obstructions here is part of the grand plan for the down side yard.

Sunday 7th November

No we were not putting in extra hours at Sunday double time and a quarter overtime rates! Instead, for a change, six of the team enjoyed being passengers on the second day of the Autumn 40th Anniversary Gala. Some sunshine at the correct moments was welcome, as too were the burgers from the stand at Winchcombe. 

Probably the highlight of the gala was the freight train - particularly when hauled by a freight loco running chimney first! 4270 arrives at Winchcombe. Note the covers on the drain that runs between the running lines.

 

The DMU makes for a good inspection train - Polly (l) and Martin (r) in the front seats near Gotherington.

After completing a round trip on the line, five of the party enjoyed a meal at the Pheasant at Toddington. Very good value that was too.

Thursday 11th November

All seven members of the drainage team working today together with Andy (S) from PWay to work on the mileposts. Thus we almost outnumbered Carriage & Wagon!

First job was extracting more lengths of bridge rail from the area of Winchcombe yard which is being cleared for the site of new shipping containers for storage. Certainly the use of the telehandler made this easier. Other drainage materials, lengths of plastic pipe and drain manhole concrete lids, were also moved. Spotted another length of bridge rail for the milepost project. But it was lying underneath some cast pillars that are too heavy to move by hand and can't yet be reached by the telehandler.

Lurking under the cast posts is a length of bridge rail yet to be recovered.

 

The extracted bridge rail pieces were cut to length using the PWay rail saw. The waste went in the metal skip - or rather on the pile beside it. Four lengths of bridge rail were taken up to steam loco at Toddington, they have agreed to drill the additional holes for the milepost heads. Neither PWay or C&W have suitable drills at Winchcombe. The milepost project is certainly involving many departments of the railway.

 

Andy (S) using the PWay rail saw to cut the bridge rail into 6 foot lengths for milepost uprights.

The main task of the day was moving more of the infill material from Winchcombe yard up side to Working Lane. About half of this is now moved. Before loading any reusable whole bricks and stone blocks were removed for reuse. Also removed, but for discarding, are large chunks of concrete.

Dave supervises Jonathan loading infill.

 

Whilst unloading at Working Lane, one of the hinges on the tailgate of the Citroen tipper broke. Thus most of the loads were taken in the Transits which meant shovelling off to unload. The broken tailgate was taken to the very helpful metalwork folk at C&W (Nick) for a replacement hinge to be fabricated.

Finally back on the mileposts, the numbers, horizontal bar and quarter marks for the replacement 7 & quarter post were fitted. A card pattern for the top caps was made, the caps needs to be fashioned from flashing. To be authentic this needs something that looks like real old fashioned lead flashing. As of there are many mileposts which are missing this cap, investigations of a suitable but inexpensive source of material has begun.

Looking good, the first replacement mile post head. Just needs screw fillings sanded and painted and the metal flashing cap added.

Thursday 18th November

Another day with full attendance of seven.

In the past week the forestry contractors had removed a tree and a lot of the cuttings from the embankment at the back of the down yard at Winchcombe. To do this they had moved some of the other items, which meant that we could recover the remaining length of bridge rail for another milepost upright.

Also in connection with the reorganisation of the yard, a big thick steel sheet was moved from near the drain by the Churchward House fence. This was to check that there were no other drains or manholes hiding underneath it. With a bit of brute force the the drain grill was removed to enable inspection of the inside. There are two inlet pipes which run from Churchward House yard, perpendicular to the fence. Both are running with water; there is about a foot drop to the outlet, hence the sound of running water. The outlet is at 90 degrees to the inlet, so runs parallel to the Churchward House fence. It probably joins the main station drain some where near the foot crossing; but there are no signs of any man holes before the big deep one near the Usk hut on the other side of the line. The last man hole in the 6 foot between the platform lines was checked; it is flowing but not as much as the yard drain. Another mystery to add to the Winchcombe Yard complex!

Inside the drain near Churchward House fence; two inlets left and one outlet top.

 

As the telehandler was in use by PWay at Dixton cutting, moving more spoil and infill from Winchcombe Yard to Royal Oak was not progressed. Instead the team resumed construction items at Working Lane and Royal Oak. A small amount of infill was barrowed to culvert 25B junction inlet headwall.

At Culvert 24B haul road inlet side the brick laying was completed, using bull nose bricks for the coping layer. The concrete for the first step of the apron back to the 2017 built headwall was mixed and poured. This used a very dry mix as leaks from the bypass pipe is making the area wet. Finally a bit more bank was excavated where the second apron step will go.

Team effort, mixing and pouring concrete for the between headwalls apron. Left to right: Nigel, Roger, Polly, Jonathan.

 

Polly putting the finishing touches to the pointing of the bull nosed coping layer.

On the other side of the haul road, excavation for the concrete apron was undertaken. This turned out to be a heavy manual job, as most of the material is clay. Interestingly in two distinct layers, an orange-ish layer on top of a blue layer. The exiting plastic pipe under the haul road will be extended to ensure the headwall is well clear of the edge of the haul road. Fortunately a suitable sized joining collar is in our stack of materials at Winchcombe. Like all building materials, the price of new collars has increased substantially over the last year.

24B haul road exit excavation - that was a lot of digging. Pipe to be extended so that headwall is away from the edge of the haul road.

Tuesday 23rd November

Two working days this week both to accommodate other commitments of team members and to overcome the problem that the LWB Transit with the welfare facilities can only be in one place at a time.

The Tuesday team numbered three and started work at Stanton Yard. As contactors begin work on bridge 8, the main B4632 road at Stanton, in January, space is required to site welfare facilities in Stanton Yard.

The area chosen is that alongside the Stanton Road fence, currently occupied by redundant tack components, debris from the aqueduct rebuild of a few years ago and various other items. The task was to recover those items that are not to be disposed of. Amongst this was half a pallet of blue engineering bricks, most of which turned out to be imperial sized solids. They certainly are most valuable, so are now back at Winchcombe. Other items extracted and moved to other parts of Stanton Yard included two farm gates, a kissing gate; 3 panels of Heras fencing and a cube water container. These will be moved once decisions are taken as to where they will be used.

Recovering the kissing gate from the undergrowth.

Talking of the aqueduct (bridge 9), the team took the opportunity to check on the state of the stream that flows across it. Surprisingly for late autumn, no water was flowing. Another good sign was that the channel was mainly clear of debris.

Polly (l) and Martin inspecting the aqueduct channel.

 

The main task of the day was to progress the programme of internal visual examinations of culverts. Three were completed, 14A, 14B and 15A, these are the first three south of Toddington Station. That for 14A was more than an inspection. The Wednesday clearance team have completed the clearing of the down side embankment from Toddington signal box to the culvert inlet, thus allowing access to the ditch there. Some silt removal was undertaken, resulting in the flow of water increasing and reducing the pooling. The team are going to keep a close watch on this ditch, as in previous years it has occasionally carried grey water. When the station and adjacent properties were built there was no main sewage connection at Toddington. Culvert 14A is a small diameter pipe, so strictly in the structures nomenclature it is cross pipe. At times of heavy flow, water overflows the 14A entry and continues down the ditch to culvert 14B. The hand grabber came in very handy to remove the build up of silt in the down side chamber of 14A. The exit of 14A on the up side is the other side of the narrow gauge tracks.

Inside the 14A inlet chamber, the small diameter pipe running under the line is just visible.

Then on to culvert 14B. In contrast this is a proper brick arch and invert culvert. On the up side here the team cleared the access and around the pond at the outlet. Removing logs and grass from the outlet pipe dropped the pond by a couple of inches. On the down side the access to 14B was still clear from the work done by the Wednesday clearance team earlier in the year.

Culvert 14B up side (outlet). The pond has formed here due to changes in the adjacent land.

 

Finally to 15A, which was inspected with out vegetation clearing as access was reasonable and because time was against us. (The vehicle had to be back at Winchcombe for a tail lift inspection).

The inlet channel of 15A (down side) is lined with old concrete paving slabs. Just to the left of the last slab on the high mileage side a small pipe enters, this is the gulley drain from under bridge 16, Didbrook No2.

The good news is that all three culverts inspected show any signs of noticeable deterioration in condition since the last visual inspection.

Thursday 25th November

The four team members not working on Tuesday braved the cold but sunny day today.

All the work was at Royal Oak, on the haul road parts of culvert 24B. First was the construction of the concrete apron forming the middle step on between the new headwall and the outlet constructed in 2017.

A frosty start, so Jonathan was lucky to get the initial, warming job of the last bit of digging out! Photo by Dave.

24B concrete apron between the headwalls complete. Photo by Dave.

 

Then it was more concreting, this time the base for the new headwall on the downstream side of haul road. All this concreting swallowed large quantities of ballast and more than 8 bags of cement; it kept the mixer busy all day – and those feeding it!

Haul road outlet side concrete base for headwall complete. Photo by Dave.

 

Finally, four 'kerbstones' were installed along the line of the new headwall on the haul road inlet side to guide those driving up/down the haul road away from the headwall and the ditch beyond. A similar kerb will be placed on the other side of the road once the headwall on this side has also been built.

'Kerb' installed on the 24B haul road headwall. Photo by Dave.

 

As the weather is now colder with overnight frosts, all concrete and mortar needs to be covered up at the end of each day. Photo by Dave.

Up to date! 

That completes the backlog of blog entries - all up to date until we carry on at Royal Oak next week. One day it would be great to write that we have completed the backlog of tasks on our construction and improvement list!