Cuckoo

Working outside makes you very aware of the change of seasons; particularity the rapid changes of spring. One event we eagerly anticipate is hearing the first cuckoo of the year. This year it was a little later than previously, in early May. But in compensation, we heard two, one at Far Stanley and one at Gretton.

Thursday 5^th May

Six of the team in today - the one absence due to Covid.

Construction gang of three worked on culvert 24C at Working Lane, haul road exit headwall. Laid the last three courses of normal bricks and some of the top course of bull nose. Also they started building the small headwall on the entry from the boundary hedge ditch pipe.

Almost complete - the coping layer of bull nose bricks on the big 24C outlet headwall.

The first few bricks on the little headwall where the pipe from the boundary hedge ditch starts.

Also at Working Lane they removed some of the metal rubbish from the garden centre junk on the hard standing to the metals skip at Winchcombe yard. Plus sorted out some of the burnable wood and non-burnable plastic waste.

Meanwhile, the odd job gang of two first investigated culvert 35C at Gotherington as this was reported to have standing water. Up side outflow check running fine; down side inlet checked, minor vegetation clearance needed in the silt trap. Water flowing normally. (Actually the water level was low as nothing flowing from the embankment toe drain south of the stream inlet). Next job was the installation of a new bridge rail post for mile post 14 at Stanley Pontlarge.

The new (well refurbished) length of bridge rail for mile post 14.

Whilst there they noted several ash trees in the area which are suffering from ash die back. On the way on to Working Lane, they pruned the sycamore sapling that is growing from the high mileage up side wing wall of Gretton Village Bridge (26). It is impossible to remove entirely from above! The final job of the day was to test fit the Michael Beveridge memorial plaque to the culvert 25B junction inlet headwall at Working Lane.

GWR 2-8-0T 4270 passes with an up train.

Finally our plant operative (gang of one!?) spent the day at Winchcombe yard using the telehandler to move spoil material from the Churchward House boundary fence to the up side near the Usk building.

Careful operation of the telehandler required - we don't want Churchward House fence demolished.

Thursday 12^th May

With all seven team members attending we adopted a 3-3-1 formation.

The construction gang of 3 progressed the culvert 24C haul road exit headwall build at Working Lane. This is now structurally complete, the last brick was laid. The last brick was actually on the small headwall from the boundary ditch, which actually turned out to be not that small as it used over 60 bricks.

A big smile from master bricklayer Polly as the last bricks go in on culvert 24C (well the last on the up side, we will return to down side in the future!)

The height of the main exit headwall of 24C is apparent here. Certainly needs the safety fences and back fill added.

Yet more metal and other other rubbish was sorted out from the former garden centre rubbish on the hard standing.

The odd job gang of 3 first went to Toddington to collect a refreshed first aid kit for our main Transit truck. Then on to Broadway to install new milepost 4 and three quarters. This is a new hollow head so is mounted on a wooden post. As it is located by the run round points north of the platforms, very few passengers will see it.

The new 4¾ mile post.

Next it was investigation of the up side embankment by Station Road bridge in connection with the platform 2 building construction. The Wednesday clearance team had cut the vegetation on the embankment side, which has exposed evidence of a small slip near the road, classic dish shaped slope. Also exposed are two drains leading into the ditch at the foot of the embankment which is then piped under the road. One drain enters the ditch close to the road boundary; this appears to run from behind the bridge abutment. The second drain is 12" SGP which exits in a 5 course headwall about 12 feet up from the ditch. This drain is inline with the last track drain manhole in the 6 foot. However there is no evidence of a connection with that - the track drains at Broadway are in the 6 foot and run from the summit by the Station Road bridge north. So this drain down the embankment would carry very little from water from the track drains. We will have to return with the CCTV probe to investigate further.

Where is the other end of this cross drain?

Then the odd job team proceeded to Stanley Pontlarge to install the new head of milepost 14 on the length of bridge rail planted last week.

The second milepost finished today - mp 14 at Stanley Pontlarge.

Finally back to Working Lane to properly fix the Michael Beveridge memorial plaque to the inlet headwall of the culvert 25B entry to the 25A/25B junction.

To the memory of
MICHAEL BEVERIDGE
25 July 1946 - 11 December 2021
Member of the Drainage team,
builder of this and many other structures

The plant operative gang of 1 spent another day at Winchcombe yard. First using the telehandler to clear more of the area where the new shipping containers are going.

Jonathan touching up the paint work on the new (to us) mini dumper.

Then taking delivery of small dumper from Halls. Some minor cosmetic was undertaken on this, particularly the paintwork on the floor.

Thursday 19^th May

Another day with full attendance – this can’t last!

The odd job team today was three strong. First they installed a second set of slip marker posts at Toddington North cutting up side - mile 9 & quarter. All of these are 8m down from the first row; so now any movement above and below the slip face can be monitored. The tops of these were painted yellow to make them easier to spot once the vegetation has grown. The tops of the existing row of markers at the top of the bank similarly treated. The top row are still all vertical and inline - so no recent movement on the slip.

Second set of slip marker posts on the up side at Toddington North; yellow tops for easier observation.

Then proceed to Working Lane to meet the plant operative operator who had taken the telehandler there after waiting for Winchcombe school traffic to finish. The telehandler was used to fill around the headwalls on the haul road exit of culvert 24C. Infill was a mixture of garden centre rubbish (with anything metal or wooden removed) and soil.

More careful operation of the telehandler to get infill as level as possible.

Even with the mechanical aid, there was a fair bit of manual shovelling and raking. The final job was fitting three lengths of two rail safety fences on substantial posts well clear of the headwalls. That essentially completes that bit of 24C, at 22 courses high it is one the tallest headwalls we have built. Just a bit more top soil required, when we find a convenient source.

The final rail of the safety fence for 24C haul road outlet headwall get nailed in. (L to R: Jonathan, Nigel, Polly).

24C up side - job done!

The (re-)construction team of three headed for a new location – Gotherington Yard. All the cess drain manholes from here through Dixton cutting back to Prestcott Road bridge require attention. When rebuilt (probably 20 years ago), the final course or two of bricks were normal house bricks. These have deteriorated; so need removing. With 20 manholes on each side of the line between Prescott Road bridge and Gotherington Yard this job will keep us occupied for quite a few weeks. Today the team completed three on the down side, those nearest the yard, just on the low mileage side of culvert 33B today. A fortunate discovery is that the oblong concrete rings we have in stock at Winchcombe fit well; so this will reduce the amount of new bricks needed. One manhole required two rings; the other two one each.

Before rebuild ... [Photo by Dave]

... rebuild in progress (Roger laying mortar) ... [Photo by Dave]

... after rebuild. Only 39 more to do! [Photo by Dave]

Back at Winchcombe we took delivery of a 360 mini digger from Halls. Together with the small dumper, these two pieces of plant will significantly increase the scope of work that we can undertake, thus reducing the need to call in contractors. Initially they are restricted to Winchcombe, as they require a suitable trailer to be moved from site to site. That should hopefully arrive in the summer.

The new plant awaiting first use in Churchward House yard.