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?