The Extra Half Mile

As noted in the last posting, following the rediscovery of milepost 7¼ the new head intended for this has duly become that for 7¾ with the addition of two pairs of extra quarter marks. Another bonus of the rediscovery is that we now need one less length of bridge rail; we are now only 18 lengths short!

The new 7¾ head ready for installation, complete with cap. Interestingly the old BR yellow 7¾ is also in the workshop; so with the one on the line we currently have three 7¾s. But not for long.

Tuesday 14 December

Another week with two working days for the Drainage team to accommodate member's other commitments.

The Tuesday gang this time numbered just three, but that was the ideal number for clearing drains, clearing access to culverts and undertaking the internal visual inspections. Two on brushcutters, one on a rake or shovel. Each year we inspect all the small cross drains plus all the culverts other than those which the external inspectors cover. Anyway, that is the plan, we are still catching up with the backlog caused by the 2020 and 2021 COVID-19 lockdowns. Today the team progressed from Culvert 20C at Chicken Curve north to Pipe 16A near Didbrook No2 bridge. A total of 8 structures. Helpful that a couple of culverts and cross drains are located close to bridges which were still clear of vegetation following the earlier clearance for the bridge inspections.

Down side inlet of Culvert 20C, cleared of extensive growth of brook lime, but the water here was very murky.

Down side of Cross Pipe 16B, in need of a touch of repointing of the blue brick courses, probably these are original GWR of 1900 vintage

An unusual find located by the up side boundary fence at Didbrook was an old coffee table. As it a very sturdy construction, we though it was too good to go in the skip. It is now drying out at Winchcombe, any offers of a good home are welcome.

The Recovered coffee table.

Thursday 16 December

The other four members of the team were today’s squad. First task was a quick inspection at Dixton Cutting, to see what remedial work is required following the track relaying activities of the Permanent Way department. Then it was up to Laverton to undertake the clearance and internal visual inspections from Cross Drain 6A northwards. The intention was to complete all the way to Broadway – but thick growth on those at Little Buckland thwarted that. Hence the 'score' for today was 6 structures. Thus Culverts 3A and 3B at Peasebrook will be first on the list for next year, and then we have everything south of Gretton to undertake.

Looking through the bore of Culvert 4A from the down side. Picture by Dave.

Head and wing walls of culvert 5B up side outlet. Most, but not all, of the culverts on this section are all blue brick.Picture by Dave.

But not all outlets have headwalls. This is 5C, extended at some point in the past using stone gabions. Picture by Dave.

Until we get some more concrete posts with proper markers on them, we mark the culvert locations with plenty of blue paint. That gap in the undergrowth will have disappeared by next summer! Picture by Dave.

Thursday 23 December

Our final workday for the year! Or rather a half-day as we retired in early afternoon to enjoy a Christmas lunch in the Pheasant at Toddington.

Five of the team spent the morning working in the old C&M workshop at Toddington, at times it was a little like Santa's workshop. Particularly as Winchcombe station had become the North Pole for the Santa trains.

First job was to use some strong sealant to join the twinwall extension pipe and coupler for the 24B Haul Road outlet at Working Lane. Doing this in the dry should make for a watertight joint.

Twinwall pipe and coupler joined, another use for concrete blocks as a weight whilst drying.

All the other tasks (except one) were related to mileposts. The cast lead numbers were drilled and fettled; then primed. Some which had been previously primed as a homework task received the first coat of black paint. Also painted black were the few remaining cast iron original numerals we have. The steel bar strips for the horizontal dividers and quarter marks (and for some of the number '1's) were primed. From a sheet of galvanised steel and a smaller sheet of aluminium five caps for the heads were made. As usual the first one took twice as long as the rest. These are made to fit each head, as we have two type of head which have slightly different dimensions.

Dave in charge of painting.

Polly cutting and bending the first cap from the galvanised sheet.

Jonathan metal bashing another cap.

Martin fettling some of the cast numbers.

Here are today's numbers! The old BR 7¾ head in the background.

The first two of the new heads ready for fixing to their posts. 13½ is between Gretton skew bridge and Townsend Farm bridge; 7¾ is very close to the B4632 road bridge at Stanton (bridge 8). Installation of the latter will be after the work at that bridge is completed.

And finally our most unusual task of the year. A lock on one of the toilet doors in the Tim Mitchell Building had become jammed, trapping a female elf inside. So off went our St. George clasping hammer, screwdriver, pilers and assorted other tools. On his return we had the message 'task successfully completed' but not quite the full details of how the broken lock was unlocked from the outside with out damaging the door. Relief all round! No pictures though.

That is it for another year

With the team taking a well earned break next week, it will be 2022 when we resume. So we send all our readers Season Greetings and wish you all peace, prosperity and happiness for the New Year.

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.

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!