Dry January

No, nothing to do with abstinence or not of alcoholic drinks in the first month of the year. But a statement on the weather. The first three working days for the team were entirely dry, and on the fourth the precipitation was just some early morning drizzle. (Or mizzle as the weather forecaster called it – it was more of a mist and low cloud). As the fourth Thursday of January was Burns Night – I am sure that one or two of the team enjoyed an after work tipple or three.

Thursday 18^th January

The dry weather certainly has made a big difference. Some of the watercourses we inspected today were dry or just damp, this time last year some were noted as flowing strongly; and no sign of the standing water reported just before Christmas. However, the weather did give us one problem - frozen metal inspection lids on the inlets of cross drains 39B and 40B. Not surprising with overnight temperatures of -8C; but a combination of hot water, WD40 and brute strength managed to shift them.

With no wind and plenty of sunshine, our lunch break was longer than last week - and we had a stunning view west past the Malverns with the Welsh mountains just visible.

Opened eventually! Frost and ice still on the inside of the metal lid of 39B inlet.

Six of the team were in attendance. The work was the internal visual inspection and clearance of cross drains 39B, 40A, 40B, 41A, 41B and 41C between Bishops Cleeve and Kayte Lane. We also greased the 10mm bolts on the metal inspection cover in the footpath by Pecked Lane crossing at Bishops Cleeve. Also cleared was the remaining vegetation round cess chambers, mileposts and some other uprights which the robo fail can not reach. There are a few more of these to do - but these can wait until later in the year as this is strimming activities not brush cutting so can be done in bird nesting season and the better tool is a cord strimmer rather than a brushcutter.

 

For a cross drain, 40B is quite a drawn out structure. Here is where a stream enters the cutting on the down side, it comes from some springs up on Cleeve Hill. Some of the water runs in pipes down to the cess, but some runs south in a crest ditch. Where the cutting transitions into an embankment, this becomes a toe ditch; and the cess empties into it (see next photo). Finally it all runs into the inlet of the main 40B structure - over quarter of a mile from the stream entry. Quite why the GWR (or the contractors) built it this way is a mystery.

This is the little dinky headwall where the down side cess is piped into the toe ditch to run to 40B.

We noted quite a large amount of litter around Two Hedges Road, obviously tossed over from the footpath. A little further south were some larger items of non-railway rubbish inside the boundary fence. We removed some the bigger metal items.

Just before Christmas there was a pond here - all dry (well OK just damp) here now. This is the outlet  (up or Malvern side) of cross drain 41A. Downstream is the school playing fields, without a proper channel for this watercourse.

The wildlife spotters in the team were on the lookout for the visiting winter birds. A small flock of fieldfares were noted at Bishops Cleeve in one of the lineside back gardens. No sign of waxwings or redstarts though. As usual with clearance activities, it is the tame robins that come closest. Near Kayte Lane we even spotted one inside a cross drain bore.

Thursday 25^th January

Headline activity for today was the completion of the 2023 programme of internal visual inspections and clearance of culverts and cross drains - the last two (as usually is the case) being those south of Hunting Butts on the disused course of the line.

Again the team size was six, and we appreciated the warmer temperature. Once the early morning mist cleared, it was a reasonable day. In places the ground conditions were noticeable dry – a consequence of a few days with no rain and a good drying breeze.

Initially all the team were involved with the recovery of 3 9-foot lengths of bridge rail from under Evesham Road bridge at Cheltenham Racecourse. We also recovered two concrete catch pit rings from near the siding point south of the bridge; and some various bits of metal scrap.

The only item moving on the rails south of Gotherington was our permaquip trolley. Here Ian provides the motive power heading south through Racecourse station. Coming back with three lengths of bridge rail and two concrete chamber rings required more effort!

Then three of the team headed off to culverts 44A south of Hunting Butts tunnel and 45A at Wymans Brook to undertake the visual inspections and the essential clearance. The brickwork of the outlet (up side) of 45A Wymans Brook has noticeably deteriorated as a stump of an ash tree is growing again. The other item of note was that the up side low mileage toe ditch that feeds into 44A outlet was flowing - probably from field run off as the field had just been ploughed. There was no flow in the up side cess chambers south of the tunnel, but as expected a steady flow in the down side and into 44A inlet.

Looking down the 'chimney' chamber on the down inlet side of culvert 45A at Wymans Brook. The brook is over 20 feet down; it is piped all the way back to the lake in Pritville Park. This the most southerly structure on today's GWSR.

 

The other three team members cleared vegetation from around all the cess chambers on both sides between Evesham Road bridge and Hunting Butts tunnel north portal. Good to report that all the anchored down blue mesh chamber covers are still intact. Hunting Butts does suffer from trespassers and vandals, so everything needs to be anchored down. On the south side of the tunnel there was evidence of recent trespass. We spotted a Deliveroo bag inside the tunnel and the burnt out remains of the Deliveroo tricycle on the old trackbed at the footpath crossing. Even with the dry days, water was still running of the down side field north of the tunnel. It runs into the cess drain and then out through the tunnel. There was some evidence of a significant flow during the recent storms.

In Hunting Butts tunnel, the two cess drains combine into a single drain that runs in the 6 foot. This is the lid of separation chamber on the south (high mileage) end. Firmly screwed down - a job we did several years ago.

 

After lunch the combined team cleared the access on both sides of the line to bridge 42A - the Hyde Brook watercourse. This is bridge and not a culvert, so the visual inspection is down to the bridges team. However it does look to be in good condition - one of the best on the line!

Outlet (up or Malvern side) of Hyde Brook watercourse - bridge 42A. One day all our headwalls will be this good!

Finally back at Winchcombe yard - the unloading task included finding a suitable spot for the lengths of bridge rail. The milepost replacement project will be restarting shortly.

Not a great deal to report on the wildlife front this week. There were plenty of slugs and woodlice under the loose coping bricks and in gaps on culverts 44A and 45A. We spotted a single black headed gull at Cheltenham Racecourse. The noisy flock of herring gulls around Cheltenham Spa (Landsdown) station do not seem to have ventured north – yet.