Found it!

What did we find and where? Keep reading to the end of this post to find out!

Thursday 2nd December

The main task for today was to have been the start of construction of the culvert 24B up side haul road exit headwall at Working Lane. However, a prerequisite was the fitting of the extension to the 450mm twinwall pipe to enure the new headwall is well away from the haul road. We had a section of pipe of the right length and a joining collar; but we were unable to get this to make a watertight joint with the existing pipe under the haul road. Subsequent research indicates that twinwall pipes and collars from different manufacturers are not guaranteed to fit snugly. Some require sealing rings (like big washers), some don't. We know the make of the collar, but not that of the existing or extension pipes. Hunting around our stock at Winchcombe and Stanton yards did not uncover any other lengths of 450mm diameter pipe or collars. Thus, we will have to spend some budget on a combination of new pipe, collar, and sealing rings. This setback, together with the colder weather, lead to our decision to postpone construction work for a few weeks.

Polly tries to fix the leak from the collar and extension pipe on 24B haul road exit.

Instead we attended to the list of odd jobs. One was to collect the kissing gate metalwork and the cube water container previously recovered at Stanton Yard where they were in the area that will be used as the compound by the contractors working on the B4632 bridge (8). We moved both items to Winchcombe Yard.

Little and large at Stanton Yard. Our Citroen tipper (l) is dwarfed by the bigger vehicle in use by the contractors clearing the area for use during bridge 8 works in the New Year. (Picture by Dave).

Back at Working Lane, the brush cutting team members continued clearing along the fence line on the up side to reach the outlet of culvert 25B. This outlet wanders around the boundary fence, there is a small diameter pipe which leads across the adjoining field as well. The flow on 25B during the winter is quite considerable - usually more than the adjoining 25A. Thus, reinstating the headwall on the 25B exit will have to be a summer job.

Spot the missing headwall! Up side exit of 25B is currently just a pipe emptying into a deep ditch. (Picture by Roger).

 

The telehander was put to good use. First task was a couple of bucket loads of infill taken across the line to backfill the down side crest chamber of culvert 24A, adjacent to the Royal Oak fence. This was a job outstanding from 2019 - it makes the area around the chamber much safer. Whilst the telehander moved the infill to the chamber, final positioning was a manual job (well done Nigel).

Down side crest chamber of 24A, Nigel takes a breather before final shovelling of the backfill. ("Who dumped this here then?" could almost be the caption!)

The other telehandler job was moving seven or so bucket loads of infill via the adjoining field (with permission) to backfill the new headwall on the 25B entry to the junction section with 25A. A couple of hours with the telehandler and a little bit of shovelling and raking completed this. By next summer when the grass and other vegetation has grown there will be no trace of the big hole that was once here. So after a bit of frustrating day, it was good to tick off a couple of completed tasks!

Jonathan carefully positions the telehander to avoid too much manual handling of the backfill on the 25B junction inlet headwall.

25B junction inlet finally complete!

Thursday 9th December

A second week in a row with a full attendance - if this continues the team will be requesting a Christmas Bonus! The main objectives of today were to use the brush cutters to clear vegetation from around manholes and culvert chambers in the sections accessed from Stanton Yard. As the contractors working on the B4632 bridge will be using Stanton Yard for the first couple of months next year, access will be restricted then.

Initially we split into three teams. Dave & Nigel were the A team, they started brush cutting from Stanton Yard northwards. They earned the A team name because they completed all manholes up to culvert 6B at Laverton Fields, plus the stream across the aqueduct. This did then mean over a mile of reversing the Transit van to get back to the yard for lunch. The turning point at Laverton Fields has disappeared.

Aqueduct (bridge 9) down side inlet. After removal of the dead leaves from this autumn. (Picture by Dave).

Martin and Andrew were the B team - they commenced by clearing culvert 11B at Stanton and then undertook the internal visual inspection of it. Interestingly very little water is flowing in from the down side; but quite a bit flows out on the up side. This then is constrained by a small diameter and partially blocked pipe under the adjoining field - evidenced from the puddles by the fence. Near the top of our 'to do' list is the construction of a new ditch and pipe to take the 11B outlet inside of the railway fence down to the 11A exit at bridge 11.

Up side exit ditch of culvert 11B. Entry to pipe across the field is just by the fence line. Note the standing water by the fence in the field. The new pipe/ditch will run to the right here, inside the boundary fence.

Roger, Jonathan and Polly were the C team; they had all the odd jobs. First was shifting some very large diameter twinwall pipes from the down side to the up side at Winchcombe yard. These pipes are for the unfinished work on the River Isbourne. They next took another load of concrete rubble infill to Working Lane. Then it was on to Steam Loco at Toddington to collect four lengths of bridge rail that have been drilled for the new milepost head fixing. Finally they arrived at Stanton to join up with team B.

The combined B & C teams then cleared the manholes and chambers on the cutting crest from bridge 11 back to Stanton Yard. Two more internal visual inspections of culverts were completed, these being 7A (a syphon on the low mileage side of bridge 8) and 6B (the stream by the foot crossing at Laverton Meadows).

General view of syphon culvert 7A. The inlet which comes under the B4632 on the Broadway side of bridge 8 flows into the chamber protected by the yellow gratings. The outlet on the up side of the railway is behind the headwall by the far fence. In between is a manhole for the up side cess drain - this is not connected to the syphon.

Up side headwall and high mileage wing wall of culvert 6B near the foot crossing at Laverton Meadows. Stream too deep to enter even with wellies today, so clearing this vegetation is another job for the spring or summer.

After lunch and a team change around, one group completed manhole clearing all the way up to bridge 6 at Laverton Meadows. Also cleared was the access up to the inlet and outlet of syphon culvert 6C; so another internal visual survey was completed.

Syphon culvert 6C. Well strictly the circular metal plate is the 'plug' in the centre of the syphon, as this is view into the chamber that was in the six foot at bridge 7. The pipe and water in the bottom is a cess drain - again no connection to the syphon.

The second group took the lengths of bridge rail back to Winchcombe, carefully unloading (they are very heavy) and adding to the stock for the milepost project. There are around two dozen mileposts currently that do not have the correct bridge rail posts. So we are still on the scrounge for suitable lengths of bridge rail that are easy to recover.

The stock of bridge rail lengths which will become milepost uprights. The two at the front have the new holes drilled by the Steam Loco department (thanks!) at the bottom.

Whilst on the subject of mileposts, you might have guessed the answer to the question posed at the beginning of this post. As as we were packing up, we spotted the infamous lost milepost 7 & quarter in the dense jungle just north of the foot crossing at Laverton Meadows. This post had evaded being found by clearance, drainage and milepost teams on at least four earlier occasions. The dying vegetation finally allowed its location to be spotted. So the team cleared around this to make it a bit more visible. Fortunately Permanent Way had been very accurate in guessing its location, track panel 1 for that quarter mile starts one sleeper on the low mileage side! What is more, the post is complete with correct numerals, bridge rail upright, and metal cap. It just needs painting. The new 7 & quarter head we made a few weeks ago will not be wasted. With the addition of two pairs of quarter marks it becomes the new head for 7 & three quarters - that is one of the posts currently with the inauthentic plastic house numerals.

MP 7 & quarter visible again. In reasonable condition, it was last refurbished in 2016.