Our team’s work is primarily to maintain and improve the railway’s drainage system. The earliest structures date from the construction of the line starting in 1902. Not often do we come across items that pre-date this time. However, our work at Stanton on the up side diversion of the outlet of culvert 11B has found two such items – one considerably older.
Thursday 13th April
Two groups working at two sites. At Stanton aqueduct one group installed the rebar and shuttering ready for the concrete pour on the up side abutment. The rebar sits on top of the first layer of grout which was poured the previous week. The concrete layer then surrounds the rebar.
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| Rebar high mileage side of trough. (Photo by Roger) |
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| Rebar low mileage side of trough. (Photo by Roger) |
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| Shuttering around the new collar. (Photo by Roger) |
The other team attempted clearance of the up side outlet of culvert 31B at Prescott Road. Using the minidigger in the JJ Farms leased field beside the road, some silt and debris was removed from the ditch upstream of the roadside pipe. However, as the Evolution petrol powered pump would only work intermittently, the water level never became low enough to expose the entrance of the pipe. A rather frustrating day, so another visit is needed with a working pump.
Thursday 20th April
Two groups again, but both working at Stanton, almost within sight of each other.
At the aqueduct, the ‘aqueduct repair’ group mixed and poured the concrete. The mix of this used the special high strength 40N cement. There were no leaks from the shuttering.
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| The concrete pour on the high mileage side of the trough. |
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| The shuttering on the high mileage side of the trough - expanding foam to seal the joints. |
Just down the line at culvert 11B, we were able to get the minidigger on site. Excavating of the trench for the new pipe resumed, it was dug to the correct level almost as far as the first intermediate chamber site. That is approximately one quarter of the trench dug. The reason for the slower than anticipated progress is two fold. First the very wet weather earlier in the year making it impossible to get the digger on site. Secondly, the heavy clay soil which even the minidigger complains about. Frequently one of us has to remove solid clay from the digger’s bucket with a spade. How the old canal and railway navvies managed with hand digging in such conditions is amazing.
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| Jonathan concentrates on keeping the ditch in a straight line and at the correct depth. |
Thursday 27th April
A slightly reduced team size of five today. However, we still progressed work at both of the Stanton sites.
At culvert 11B, a group of two with the minidigger continued extending the ditch northwards and excavating the first intermediate chamber.
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| Looking back (towards Toddington) from the first intermediate chamber site. |
The other three attended Stanton aqueduct. The grout was poured (two separate pours, one each from each side of the abutment) around the through; thus completing the additional anchorage for the new retaining collar. The shuttering will be left in position until next week - although the grout goes off quickly; a weeks curing time will mean it is very solid. The three then joined the diggers at 11B.
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| Shuttering on the outlet end of the aqueduct trough. Stuart makes final checks on the high mileage side after the grout pour. |
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| The grout is self levelling. This is the low mileage side complete. |
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| High mileage side, just before final top up. The length of plastic guttering on the right is the pouring funnel. |
The ditch digging is slow going as below 6 inches the soil is the infamous Stanton clay. We came across remains of clay field drains; the depth and alignment of these suggest they were in the field when the embankment was built. Also close examination of a whole section of pipe indicates that is hand-made; it has a one slightly flat face. This suggests these land drains date from the early 19th century, our first pre-railway find. The second find is even older – a small ammonite fossil. This will be at least 66 million years old.
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| The very old land drain at the first intermediate chamber site. Even though it is clogged with silt, water still dribbles out of it. |
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| The Stanton ammonite. |
The ditch now extends to approximately 12m north of the first intermediate chamber. Some hand digging ensured that chamber is ready for the concrete to go in, a wood post marking the correct level. One advantage (perhaps the only advantage) of thick clay is that there is no need to construct wooden shuttering for these bases.
Back at Winchcombe we fitted some replacement parts to the Evoultion petrol powered pump - adding some underwater grease to the inlet pipe threads. This will be tested next week at Prescot Road (culvert 31B).
Thursday 4th May
Just like on the 13th April, two groups of three headed to two sites in opposite directions.
The first group took the minidigger and the repaired Evolution petrol powered pump to Culvert 31B at Prescott Road. The pump now runs well. After pumping the outlet out; they rodded the pipe in the roadside ditch outside of the railway land. This indicated a blockage just a couple of feet in. They then excavated this length; revealing a couple of lengths of broken and misaligned SGP pipe. After removing this, the roadside exit is flowing well. This should prevent the build up of water in the bore which runs under bridge 32. There is a large amount of silt which has built up in the catch pit and back up the bore under the bridge – this will require removing at some point. Finally the group installed some red plastic barriers to fence off the excavation from the road and the field.
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| Exposed - where the roadside pipe of the 31B outlet was broken. |
The second group headed to Stanton, first to culvert 11B. They cast the concrete base of the first intermediate chamber of the up side diversion of culvert 11B to 11. Added interest was that the young grass snake (Natrix natrix) visited the ditch. It quickly slithered away before we had time to take a photograph.
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| Snakes eye view of Foremarke Hall from the new 11B ditch at Stanton. |
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| Concrete base of the first intermediate chamber. |
After lunch the group moved on to Stanton aqueduct to remove all the shuttering from the up side abutment now the grouting and concrete around the new retaining collar is complete. The new retaining collar is now firmly held in place. The repair is complete, apart from filling a small void in the lower grout level caused by some of the sealing foam.
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| Nice clean edge to the grout and concrete around the trough and new collar. Low mileage (Broadway) side. |
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| With all the shuttering removed, the new collar looks like it has always been part of the structure. |
Signs of spring at Stanton included observations of increased insect activity, we noted a hornet and a red tailed bumble bee (Bombus lapidarius). Also the magnificent pear tree on the down side just on the low mileage end of bridge 11 was in full blossom.
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| Stanton pear in full blossom. (Photo by Roger) |
