Rings, and more rings

The main task of the team continues to be the rebuilding of the cess chambers in Dixton cutting.

Thursday 28^th July

All seven members of the drainage team in attendance yesterday. We lent our plant operative to take the mini digger to Toddington to assist with excavating a new concrete area by the unloading road. Unfortunately the digger developed a fault with one of the hydraulic pipes - plus the trailer got a flat tyre.

The other six of us headed to Dixton Cutting to continue the cess chamber rebuilds. Another four were completed with concrete rings; two had the top courses of brick repaired; and one the top course of brick was removed ready for a concrete ring. As we are now working beyond (that is north of) the Gotherington down distant signal; there is room to park the vehicles and set up the mixer track side. This meant a lot less time ferrying materials and equipment to where needed. Together with six working, we actually came to a halt because we ran out of concrete rings on site. Anyway it was getting rather warm by early afternoon.

An up side chamber mortared up ready for the concrete ring.

 

After ring placement, the next job is flaunching the side. That is smoothing the mortar into a diagonal. This chamber required some internal repointing. Not many left now with the infamous distant signal wire in the way!

Martin & Roger start on removing the damaged brick courses of an down side chamber.

Placing the concrete rings into position is a team task. They are heavy!

Dave clears the vegetation from an up side chamber. Looks like this does not need any demolition, just concrete ring added to raise the height.

Thursday 4^th August

Another day will a full team attendance of seven.

The plant operative went to Toddington to collect the mini digger which needs some new hydraulic hoses fitted. He spent the rest of the day cleaning the trailer of spilt hydraulic fluid and using the telehandler to move some lengths of wood for C&W at Winchcombe.

The other six team members headed to Dixton Cutting. Thy took another seven concrete rings from WInchcombe. These certainly speed up the rebuilding of the cess chambers, particularly where there are no courses of brick which need patching. On a couple of chambers, we removed all the bricks on any damaged course - this will mean a couple of chambers will have two concrete rings added. With a team of six, progress is rapid, three rings had been laid by the time the first up train passed. The temporary blue mesh covers on the chambers completed last week were replaced by the proper lids. One chamber required a new lid. On the demolition front we prepared another six chambers. We now have reached mp 14 3/4; over half way in terms of distance. More than half way in terms of chamber quantity, as there are now fewer chambers on the up side.

Dixton cutting in the summer - an idyllic spot! Looking south to bridge 33 and the chambers we have completed.

 

A completed down side chamber, reusing all the existing lids.

A completed up side chamber. A mixture of lids, a new own make on the left and probably an original GW big lid on the right.

Dinmore Manor passes the work site at mp 14 & three quarters with an early afternoon down train.

Once again the heat of the afternoon meant an earlier finish, plus the requirement to bring yet more concrete rings from Winchcombe.

Final task for the day at Dixton was to shift a length of rail from the middle of the vehicle track to lie alongside another length by the ballast shoulder. It did take all of the coordinated bar work with six people to shift it. It was moved as the previous day a road vehicle suffered a punctured tyre when driving over this length of rail. The vehicle involved had been left at Gotherington yard; so we recovered it after supervising the tyre replacement by Ski Tyres.

The team take a breather after barring the length of rail from the middle of the vehicle track on the up side of the formation. The photographer had been using the bar on the ground - so it was a full six man shift.

 

The perfect way to end a day of physical work. Cup of tea from a china mug, sat at a table and watching trains. Martin, Dave and Roger watch Dinmore Manor pull in to Winchcombe.

Nature corner

For this entry the subject is spiders. So arachnophobes stop reading now!

Big black spider on an egg sac. (Photo by Dave)

The large black spiders we saw in one of the chambers are either the European Cave Spider (Meta menardi) or the closely-related Meta bourneti.

The European cave spider is not dangerous to humans and although (in common with nearly all spiders) they have venom, its effect on large mammals is negligible. They are unlikely to bite if carefully handled but if sufficiently provoked they are capable of inflicting an unpleasant "nip". They are non-aggressive and generally slow moving and are regarded (by arachnophobes) as "gentle giants". So no need to panic! The cotton wool balls are egg sacs, tear-shaped white pendants (sometimes with a slightly yellow centre) usually hanging from the roof of the habitat by a silk thread.