Let’s Go Round Again

I’m always reminded of this song, a hit for the Average White Band in 1980, when driving around the ring roads of Stourbridge and Coventry. I’m now adding the commencement of the annual internal culvert and cross drain inspections and clearance on the GWSR. As in previous years we have started at the north end of the line, we expect to complete the programme south of Hunting Butts early in the New Year. We clear the access paths to the inlet and outlet chambers; remove silt and vegetation from the open ditches and rod out any pipes which are blocked with silt or other debris. As none of the team are qualified civil engineers, our inspections are only visual; essentially noting any obvious defects such as missing or displaced copings and cracks in brickwork. The exceptional dry spring and summer (and so far early autumn) has provided a great benefit to us. Many culverts are bone dry, and some that usually are a foot or more deep are now shallow enough to stand in with wellies. This has enabled some close up photographs of headwalls and interiors of pipes; something not possible at least for the past four years.

Our programme of inspections does not cover the large structures, such as the River Isbourne and the big culverts 17A and 42A; these are all classified as bridges. We leave those to the professional engineering teams engaged by the Bridges Engineer. We also omit the half-dozen or so culverts and cross drains that each year are included in the programme of external detailed examinations. However, for these we still have to clear the access paths and any inlet or outlet ditches.

Thursday 1^st September

Six of the team working this week. Jonathan was dispatched to accompanied the external inspection team who were examining culverts 33B (Gotherington Yard) and 38A and 39A (Bishops Cleeve).

The other five started the 2022/2023 programme of internal inspections and clearance. They completed just two today - 3A and 3B at Peasbrook. There was significant vegetation growth at both. On the down side at 3A they started the repairs to the inlet wing walls, loose concrete secured and damaged bricks removed.

Down side of 3A; starting the extension of the low mileage wing wall replacing decayed sand bags over the toe drain inlet.

Another sign of a dry summer was spotted at 3A on the down side. Here a 40cm crack has developed above the inlet headwall. There is no obvious sign of a slip starting, but we will monitor this over the next few months.

Sign of the dry summer - only a trickle of water inside culvert 3B.

Final task was to clear vegetation from the unused farm gate north of bridge 4 (Peasbrook Farm). This is now fit for turning vehicles again, inserted a wooden post to mark a depression on the low mileage end.

A rare occasion when we are working on the sunny side of a passing train - and smoke box first too! P&O at Peasbrook. (I didn't request the blowing off though!)

Thursday 8^th September

Once again six members of the team in today. Three members formed the construction and odd job team. They first visited culvert 3A near Peasbrook to complete the build of the extension to the down side low mileage wing wall over the toe drain inlet.

The extended low mileage down side wing wall at 3A over the toe drain inlet. (Photo by Jonathan.)

Then on to Bishops Cleeve foot crossing (Pecked Lane) to use a ratchet strap to realign the gate posts at the crossing. Both gates now working properly; now not able to go past the closing point.

It is not just drains we attend to - crossing gate at Bishops Cleeve. (Photo by Jonathan.)

The other three team members continued with the visual internal inspections of culverts and cross drains and clearance, tackling 4A, 5A and 5B north of Laverton Meadow Lane. They reported little change since the last inspections, apart from the coping crack at 4A getting marginally wider.

The crack in the up side coping of 4A - this is too wide for a quick fix of mortar. Another demolish and rebuild task to add to our list. (Photo by Dave.)

As expected after the dry summer there was no visible flow through any of them. Might be soon, as the day's showers merged into general nuisance rain, prompting a return to Winchcombe in time for a train ride to Broadway and back.

Thursday 15^th September

Guess the attendance figure – yes, six again! (But each week it is a different absentee with a different excuse!).

This week all the attendees were involved in the visual internal inspections of culverts and cross drains and clearance. Structures tacked today were 5D, 5C, 6A and 6B at Laverton. 5D involved clearing of some smelly silt and a small bit of repointing.

You can tell by the colour that the silt in the up side outlet of 5D was smelly!

At 5C by the foot crossing at 6m 60c they filled the cracks between the downside headwall and wing walls; and began attending to the loose coping courses on the wing walls. Whilst there they also cleared vegetation on the footpath steps on down side.

Another tunnel shot - inside 5C looking 'down stream' from the down side.

Afternoon work was work at 6B by the other foot crossing at 7m 21c. This occupied the team all afternoon, it required a lot of clearing!

Up side (outlet) of 6B; all in good condition.

The very reduced level of water helped here. Last visit was November last year when the stream was quite high. Again whilst on site the team extended the clearance to include the lineside on the up side between the crossing and milepost 7 and quarter. This was the milepost that was lost in the undergrowth last autumn.

We will not loose this milepost this winter! Foot crossing in background.

No rain to disrupt work today; and a very pleasant temperature for manual out door work.

Thursday 22^nd September

The attendance register count is still stuck at six, but one team member did sign on very early at 07:30!

The morning work involved two groups of three. The first group headed to culvert 5C at Laverton to complete the repairs to the wing walls on the down side.

5C down side, replaced bricks on low mileage wing wall. (Photo by Dave.)

The second group initially refuelled the telehandler, dumper and mini-digger; moved some items from Churchward House compound to Winchcombe Yard and repositioned vehicles in the compound. This makes more room to manoeuvre and park the vehicles. Then it was on to Stanton Fields bridge to continue with culvert/cross-drain clearance and internal visual inspections. First was 6C, a syphon cross drain. It has two pits on the down side and a single pit on the up side; all on the crest of the embankments. Also a chamber in the former six foot (between the up and down lines when the railway was double tracked), this contains the syphon wash out cover. We check this for any signs of leakage.

6C syphon washout cover. The pipe below connects this chamber to the cess drains.

The neighbour on the up side has reported standing water during wet weather. We could not find any obvious cause; so will need to return with rods and/or CCTV to determine if there is any blockage and whether inside our boundary or not. Certainly no sign of standing water today; the continuing dry spell causing this syphon cross drain to be bone dry.

Next on this was culvert 7A, another syphon just north of the B4632 road bridge (8). Again this was not flowing; and the standing water in the outlet pit on the up side was only a few inches deep. This standing water occurs as the exit ditch outside of our boundary is well silted. The low water level enabled a better examination of the cracks in the up side headwall which in wet weather causes leaks into the cess drain. Hopefully the dry spell will continue, as this will simplify the repair task. Even so it does require the exit chamber to be pumped dry.

After lunch the two groups combined to clear around the cess chambers between the aqueduct / footbridge bridge (9) and Stanton Yard.

A view that normally means getting boots wet - looking through the 'bore' of the aqueduct. (Photo by Dave.)

They also reset lids and in one case the top ring of up side cess chambers which had been dislodged, probably by a road vehicle. Finally the turning point immediately on the low mileage side of under bridge 11 was cleared. This will enable safe parking clear of the running line when we return to continue the inspections with culverts 11A, 11B and 11C.

Not our work! Walsh have resumed work on the River Isbourne bridge at Winchcombe. This includes replacing the last 20 yards or so of the pipe which takes most of the water from south of Greet tunnel that flows through the 6 foot drain at the station. A new inspection chamber will be built over the opened section of the pipe. Installing this new pipe was a tricky job - the flow of water could not be stopped. At least the flow was much reduced!