Up with the Larks

Like any outdoor team we certainly notice the changing seasons. Sometimes the weather does as well, but we often experience all four seasons in a single day. The hours of daylight are more reliable. A few weeks ago I was getting up on work days before dawn and just as the dawn chorus was starting. Now the birds start singing before I awake, and the journey to Winchcombe is all in daylight.

Our wildlife event this time is also a herald of spring – a skylark singing. With the clearance of most of the down (Cotswold) side embankments and cuttings, there is now more open ground for these and other ground nesting birds to establish nests. There is still plenty of scrub on the up (Malvern) side for the likes of robins, yellow hammers, thrushes and bull finches. That is biodiversity in action. (See https://www.gwsr.com/facilities/nature-between-the-fences for some more notes on what the Estates Management teams have found on the railway).

Thursday 16th February

Not yet back to full strength, two of the team still off sick, so only five attending.

A group of two attended to Bridge 9, Stanton aqueduct. They completed all the repointing of the two pillars. The gap in the inlet channel brickwork was filled with new bricks and the cracks in the original (well from a few years ago) brickwork repointed. The slip marker posts were checked, good to report no movement discerned. Next task was to add the extra 300mm diameter pipes which were donated by our Civil Engineering contactor, Walsh. This hit a problem. The existing pipe through the head wall was too close to the concrete bottom to fit the joining collar. The concrete floor of the channel was too hard to break out to form a deeper channel. After discussion with our Infrastructure Manager, a plan B was formulated. This is to remove the exiting pipe through the inlet headwall and to fit the replacement pipe through the headwall, around 30mm higher. So bricks were removed from headwall and the first length of new pipe fitted.

New pipes in the aqueduct inlet channel. (Photo by Roger)

 

Up side pillar of aqueduct after repointing. (Photo by Roger)

Down side pillar of aqueduct after repointing; slip marker post visible in background. (Photo by Roger)

The other three formed a heavy lifting gang. They moved 30 concrete chamber rings from the former garden centre site at Toddington to bridge 11 at Stanton. These have been a ‘feature’ at Toddington for over 3 years. They are for the project to divert the outlet (up side) of cross drain 11B to avoid a small diameter land drain in the adjoining field – this has caused some flooding in previous years. This project would have commenced in 2020 had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic. Even with LWB Transits equipped with tail lifts this was heavy work. The remaining 18 rings at Toddington (two bound stacks of 9) will be moved later – this time with using the Telehandler to load and unload them.

Thirty concrete rings neatly stacked near bridge 11 at Stanton. They will not be there as long as they were at Toddington (hopefully!)

 

Thursday 23 February

First the very good news, the two team members who had been off ill returned and we were joined by our new recruit (welcome Stuart). So a team of 8!

Hence division into three sub teams; and another change of plan.

First group (of two) attended Stanton Aqueduct (bridge 9) again. Armed with the correct jointing lubricant they made a permanent joint in the sections of the new 300mm id pipe which runs from the inlet headwall to inside the aqueduct trough. They then bricked up the hole in the headwall. So the inlet (down side) repair is now complete. Once again they checked the slip marker posts – all are still upright and in line, so no discernable movement in the cutting side.

 

Nigel (l) and Roger inserting the new pipes in the aqueduct inlet and rebuilding the headwall.

 

Completed repair to the aqueduct inlet channel with the new 300mm diameter pipes through the headwall to the trough. (Picture by Roger).

 

Second group of 3 measured up the pipes which exit from Churchward House yard to the ditch in the embankment at the edge of Winchcombe Yard. This is in correction with the building of the new S&T workshop – for which we need to ensure this ditch does not overflow. Our recommended plan is to pipe the ditch for 25m; as the ditch is too deep to build a concrete wall. The group then headed to Stanton Aqueduct to assist there. But a call from the third group meant a return to collect a pump from Winchcombe and head to Prescot Road.

The final group of three set off to Prescot Road bridge (32) to take advantage of the road closure. The objective was to rod out the pipe in the outlet ditch of culvert 31B; this is beside the road and well outside of railway land. This pipe has been blocked for a long time, causing the water in the bore of culvert 31B to back up. The exit of this pipe is about 40m from the railway boundary and about 1.5m below road level - the entry has never been found. It is probably about 4m from the boundary. After some forceful rodding, the flow in the ditch increased marginally and a few air bubbles appeared near the suspected pipe inlet. However, one of the rods broke (the screw connection came off) - leaving around 30 rods in the pipe. Hence request to group two for a pump.

Thirty six rods went in but only six came out! The exit of the the pipe in the outlet of culvert 31B. (Picture by Dave)

With the pump running over lunchtime the water level went down from around 2ft to around 6". This enabled use of grabs to extract some silt. But then the pump failed (suspect it is the float switch which has played up before.) So we still have not found the inlet to the pipe! It feels like there is at least a foot of silt and rubble in the bottom of the outlet sump.

The advantage of a road closure - our vehicles parked next to the outlet of culvert 31B, Prescott Road. New fence installed as part of the bridge 32 rebuilt prominent.

There must be a pipe inlet down there some where! Martin tries his luck!

So not so a very successful day, but we did notice the puddles in the corner of the adjacent field (up side low mileage) disappeared during the day; so there is probably a greater flow in the outlet ditch than when we started. Also with the roadside fence in place it is slightly safer to work there when the road is open. So we will return soon, with new rods and a working pump.