Chain gang expands

That is the chain saw gang. Martin and Andrew, together with Nick, Maurice and Gary from the clearance teams attended classes on chain saw maintenance and felling up to 200mm diameter trees. The hardest part of the classes was finding some suitable trees to practice on. Most of those we need to fell are either too large or are located on embankment or cutting slopes that are too steep for beginners. After a bit of searching a pair of multi-trunk ash trees on the down side near Hayles Abbey Halt were selected. These are now piles of logs in Winchcombe Yard. Also covered in the classes was use of a polesaw, a small chain saw on a long telescopic handle. The practice items for this were the trees overhanging the end of the third rake siding on the up side at Winchcombe.

Just a load of stumps, a pile of brash and logs out of site. Hard to tell who is under the PPE!

Polesaw, the ideal tool for trimming overhanging branches. The guy standing by the carriage is the class instructor.

Thursday 17^th February

The five members of the team not learning chainsawing formed two groups today.

Two formed the construction squad at Working Lane. They dug out one side of culvert 24C outlet for the concrete base of the new headwall. They also moved the last remaining concrete blocks from the top of the haul road opposite the Royal Oak down to the hardstanding area at the bottom of the haul road. These now form the boundary of the area to be extended.

Culvert 24C, temporary extension pipe and nearest camera excavation for headwall and concrete apron. Digging the other side of the pipe will be another day's work. Heavy clay abounds here.

The remaining three members of the team continued with internal visual inspections and clearing of culverts. They covered Bishops Cleeve to Two Hedges Road, with culverts/cross pipes 37E, 37F, 37G, 38A, 39A, 39B covered. Most of the culverts on the Gotherington to Bishops Cleeve stretch were rebuilt in 2017 or 2018. Consequently are are in good condition. Besides a couple of loose coping bricks, the only significant items for these is installation of appropriate safety fences or markers. Annual vegetation growth often obscures the edges the head and wing walls, which is a safety issue. Not all lineside workers have the knowledge of the location of all the structures.

37G is a multi-part culvert. First from the low mileage end is this headwall where the stream from Nottingham Hill joins the down side to drain ditch, footpath behind fence on right. (Photo by Dave)

Second headwall where the stream goes under the footpath again, the footpath goes under bridge 38. (Photo by Dave)

On the high mileage end of bridge 38, 37G is a pipe with an access chamber. That single thick cover is probably GWR origin, it is certainly heavy! (Photo by Dave).

Third headwall, where 37G exits to become a toe ditch at the foot of the down side embankment. This has the safety fences which we will be installing on many other headwalls soon.

Flowing away alongside the Willow Drive mobile home park towards culvert 38A. First of many land drains from the mobile home park on the left. (Photo by Dave)

One big change on the culvert inspections this week was the quantity of water. After a dry January and early February, storm Dudley brought a lot of rain to the Cotswolds. Consequently most of the flow reports were ‘substantial’ or ‘good’ rather than ‘damp’ or ‘a trickle’. Additionally in a couple of places the vegetation clearance is only partial; the levels in the ditches were too deep even for wellies. We will have to revisit these in the spring or summer which we hope will be drier.

Finally a couple of hours in the workshop saw the completion of three more replacement milepost heads. These are 5 miles, the first of the Broadway extension ‘house number’ replacements; 10 miles for Didbrook where the current post only has half a head, and 13¾ miles at Gotherington; one of those that is currently just a bridge rail post.

Three more more mile post heads ready for fitting (well will be once the black paint on the screw heads has dried). The heads are upside down on the workbench to stop them falling over.

Thursday 24^th February

Only five of the team in today; the main task being yet more vegetation clearance and visual internal inspections. A team of three headed to Two Hedges Road bridge at Bishops Cleeve to commence with culvert 40A and work south to Kayte Lane, culvert 41C. With the weather improving in the afternoon, they were also able to clear the vegetation from the cess manholes all the way down to the RDA crossing at Cheltenham. The end of this round of inspections is now in sight! In fact there are only two more to complete, both of these are south of Hunting Butts tunnel where there is no railway on the trackbed.

Culvert 40A is a syphon, this cover marked with a blue asterisk is the centre washout. We don't remove these for internal visual inspections!

Between 40A and 40B on the down side is this little mini-headwall. It is not culvert or even a cross drain. It is where a pipe connects the cess drain to the toe ditch that follows the boundary down to culvert 40B.

The only dry culvert today, 41A. Changes to the levels on the adjoining field on the upstream side (the down side in railway parlance) result in this one only flowing during very wet spells.

Damage to a cess drain manhole lid near Southam Lane bridge. Even with reinforcing bar these lids will not support the weight of a heavy object or vehicle. One more to add to the list of replacements. (Photo by Roger)

The other two members first headed to Working Lane to deliver some more infill for the hardstanding. Whilst there they checked the temporary extension to the outlet of culvert 24C – it is all holding well, no storm damage. Also on 24C, the regular clearing of the grill protecting the outlet under the boundary fence was attended to. Another odd job was removal of silt from the new apron on culvert 24B haul road inlet; probably the storms washing clean from our construction activities earlier in the year.

Culvert 24C exits railway land through a pipe protected by this grill; removing the debris and the level in the ditch drops over 2 inches.

Then it was on to Bishops Cleeve, culvert 37G. Last weeks inspection team reported some debris in the chamber of this culvert on the high mileage side. An easy job for the long handled grab; once the heavy old thick lid was removed. 37G is unusual in that it does not go under the railway; but a footpath, twice. It takes a stream that flows down Nottingham Hill onto railway land; then back under the footpath by accommodation bridge 38 to flow at the foot of the down side embankment to join the stream that flows through culvert 38A. This length borders the Willow Drive mobile home park, it was inaccessible until recent clearing by the clearance teams. Some minor cleariing with rakes improved the flow, but again a thorough clear out will have to wait until drier weather. Some noticeable undercutting of the raised land in the mobile home park has occurred, this maybe a result of suspected restrictions in the outflow of culvert 38A outside of GWSR land. We are in contact with the Gloucester County Council flood officer to progress further inspections.

Inside the chamber of 37G; not silt but medium sized gravel.

 

Under cutting of the raised land in the mobile home park by the ditch between 37G and 38A.

Finally it was down to Kayte Lane to join up with the other gang. The combined team were then able to remove most of the debris in the inlet and outlets of Culvert 41C; and a large overhanding branch over the outlet. This culvert is a large two pipe syphon, interestingly the two cess drains also have syphons under the foot crossing here.

Inlet ditch of 41C at Kayte Lane, after clearing. The level had dropped over 3 inches.

Inlet side 41C after clearing, the brick pillar divides the inlets of the two big syphon pipes.

Outlet side of 41C after removal of overhanging dead branch and as much clearance as possible without getting feet wet.

With the ‘official’ bird nesting season starting on 1^st March (and running to end of August) our brush cutters will be having some well earned rest. The clearing items we need to revisit are mostly grass trimming and reed removal, plus some digging to remove silt. Several weeks of warm and dry spring weather is what we need now!

Variety is the spice of life

Variety may well be the spice of life, but sometimes it can play havoc with planning. Early February was a good example.

Thursday 3^rd February

The first unplanned request for today was to sort out an instance of fly tipping at Laverton Meadow, bridge 6. This was blocking the access gate and spilling over onto the public road. Jonathan and Martin were the clean up team, fortunately the Citroen tipper was just big enough and the dumped material was relative clean and uncontaminated rubble. Consequently we moved this to Working Lane to add to the base of the extended hard standing.

If you wish to make a donation of useable infill to the Railway please do not just dump it by an access gate! (Photo by Jonathan).

Second unplanned item was a more welcome donation of infill material, mainly consisting of top soil. Even better, the offer included delivery to where we wanted it! So we used it for the backfill of the culvert 24B haul road headwalls; by the end of the day the inlet side was levelled and complete. The outlet side required a bit more landscaping. The channel between the railway and the haul road is protected by old sleepers one side and old concrete paving slabs from Toddington Garden Centre on the other. Reuse at its best!

Jonathan wielding a shovel sorting out the back fill on 24B. (Photo by Martin)

Culvert 24B, between the haul road and the railway with back filling complete. The new haul road inlet headwall is in the foreground, in the back ground is the 2017 built railway outlet headwall. Almost a good enough seed bed to plant vegetables!

Our Bridges Engineer was the source of the third unplanned request. Could we have a look at two items on Working Lane bridge 25 and advise on ease of repair. One item was loose bricks at the crown springing point on the low mileage down side; the other the opening up of a crack in the low mileage up side wing wall. Chief bricklayer Polly with Nigel as assistant went to investigate. They came back with a plan which did not involve use of scaffolding, hence we added this as a task for next week.

Bridge 25 Working Lane, up side low mileage wing wall, crack to repoint. (Photo John Balderstone)

The final unplanned item came from the Wednesday lineside clearance team. The day before they had started clearing the fence line on the down side at Gotherington loop to investigate the state of the fence there. Unfortunately on clearing the brambles the fence turned out only to be two strands of wire; so not livestock proof. Hence the urgent need for a fix. Roger and Dave duly patched the length with some orange plastic fence, before continuing with their planned task.

Bramble replacement stock proof temporary fencing, down side, Gotherington. (Photo by Roger)

Fortunately this also was at Gotherington, clearing and visually inspecting culverts. They completed 35A, 35B, 35C, 35D and 36A. Another example of variety, every one of those is different. However, with the recent period of dry weather, they did have one thing in common, the water was not very deep.

Culvert 35A inlet (down side). The concrete headwalls from the embankment toe drains and the plastic pipe inserted in the bore date from 2018. Usually at this time of year the apron here is wet, or at least damp. (Photo by Dave)

Culvert 36A outlet, this is outside of the fence but still on GWSR land where the outflow ditch runs alongside Manor Lane, Gotherington. (Photo by Dave)

The other planned items that the team achieved were at Gretton Working Lane / Royal Oak. The reason why we have been doing a lot of work here in the past two years dates back several years to the down side cutting slip just outside of Greet Tunnel. To enable access for plant and materials to the slip site, a haul road was constructed on the up side from Working Lane. This crosses the outlets of culverts 24A, 24B and 24C. The slip repair work only included the basic provision of pipes at these crossings. A lot of water runs off Gretton and Cups Hill to the south (down side); the OS maps shows springs on Cups Hill. There is evidence of BR Western Region making alterations to the drainage here in the 1950s. We believe this is when the big hollow concrete blocks were installed. As the hollow cores had become blocked with silt we removed some of these two years ago, to improve the flow into culvert 25A. This stack of removed blocks, and some recovered red bricks, had become a feature here. We have reused some in the construction of the new headwalls. The remaining blocks will now become part of the expanded hardstanding at the foot of the haul road. Nigel, Polly and I made a start on moving these. Even with mechanical aids this is tiring work, so we left some of for other team members in the coming weeks.

Going, the last few (well 40!) concrete blocks in the pile at the top of the haul road oppositive the Royal Oak. This improves what is probably the best view from the line.

Where the concrete blocks are going, forming the edge of the extended hardstanding. Culvert 24C outlet ditch to the left.

Our next construction job is the outflow headwall of culvert 24C. To enable excavations for the concrete base for this to start, we reduced the depth of the ditch by the outfall and temporarily installed a length of pipe to keep most of the water clear. Nigel headed back to Winchcombe yard and returned with a length of 22” diameter pipe that was almost a perfect fit. With some clay to seal, the join is almost water tight.

Temporary extension to culvert 24C outlet, note clay seal and another use for a concrete block.

Thursday 10 February

Another unplanned item for today, but a very welcome one. The Railway Board has approved the Estates Management Department budget for the next 12 months. Included in the budget are two construction items at Royal Oak to be completed by outside contractors. These are the up side outflow of culvert 24A and the down side inlet to 24B. The former involves excavating very close to the running line, so will have to be scheduled for the ‘closed’ season, probably next January/February. It is to replace a badly corroded steel plate which currently is the roof of part of the culvert, another BR(W) 1950 construction we think. The work at 24B also requires a large excavator as the inlet is at the bottom of the embankment. Whilst not quite so close to the running line, because all plant and materials will need to cross the line it makes sense to include this in the same possession. Thus a task for today was to meet on site with one of our contractors to discuss the requirements and potential construction methods.

Meanwhile, back under Working Lane bridge, Polly and Nigel were busy effecting the repairs to the loose brickwork and repointing the cracks on the low mileage wing walls. Fortunately the problem at the crown springing point on the down side turned out to be only one loose brick. The secret trick to hold this in position whilst the mortar dries is the use of slate wedges. Also fortunate was that the height was within use of the mobile platform deployed, and we had no interruptions from farm traffic on the lane. The crack in the up side low mileage wing wall was also attended to, including the insertion of a cement patch inscribed 22 (for 2022) to monitor any further movement. As much brickwork that could be reached from the mobile platform was repointed, and some ivy removed. There is more to do, but that will definitely require scaffolding or the use of a cherry picker.

The crown springing point with the loose brick removed and before repointing (bridge 25 down side low mileage).

Up side low mileage wing wall crack filled - note cement patch '22'. Compare with the photo above in the 3rd February entry.

Repointing of low mileage abutment at ground level.

Down side low mileage on completion.

Yet another unplanned request for today – this time to back fill a headwall at Bishops Cleeve. Dave, Jonathan and Roger picked up a transit load of infill from Winchcombe (fortunately mechanically loaded for us) and set off to investigate. The destination turned out to be culvert 37G, which is a bit of an oddity. It does not run under the railway, but under the footpath by bridge 38. Like many headwalls between Gotherington and Bishops Cleeve backfilling was not fully completed. Lack of materials and access over the rails to the down side were the reasons. With the railway closed south of Winchcombe access using a temporary barrow crossing was easier today. Another load or two are required to complete this backfill.

Culvert 37G infill added to headwall to right, the bore goes under the footpath to the right.

 

Finally, to round off the variety, it was more culvert inspections and clearance. I joined Dave, Jonathan and Roger at Manor Lane, Gotherington to attend to 36B, 37A, 37B, 37C and 37D. The effect of the backlog due to COVID-19 lockdowns was really noticeable. Plenty of vegetation growth, particularly at 37B which took a while to find as the marks on the boundary fences were obscured. When the sun was out it looked almost spring like, but a short heavy hail shower and a cold piercing wind reminded us it was still winter. Brushcutting in such conditions does keep you warm!

Culvert 37A flows under bridge 37, a now unused accommodation bridge.

Most of the headwalls of the '37' series culverts were rebuilt in 2017; so are in good condition. This is 37D inlet (down side) which has this rather nifty opening for the high mileage toe drain.

Wildlife quiz for this post: can you identify this spider who was over wintering in the up side chamber of 37C?