Always something new to discover

Dealing with infrastructure that is over 100 years old and has been modified by at least three organisations will often result in surprises. Additionally modifications made by owners or users of adjoining properties add to the complications. This time we had two such instances on the same day. What is that pipe doing? Where does it come from? Where does it run to? These lead to the important question – what can we do to improve the situation?

Thursday 7^th March

Five of the team attending today with various jobs on the list to complete.

First unblock the grills under Meadow Lane bridge at Laverton. Unfortunately, the water levels had not dropped much from last week and were still at the 2 foot flood level. Despite two team members attempting to reach them the water levels were well above Wellington depth so item left for another week. To complicate issues a different car sat unoccupied in the water.

Meadow Lane - still to deep for Wellingtons, and normal cars! [Photo by Dave]

 

Second on the list was servicing some of our equipment. Completed today was cleaning and greasing the digger; servicing the generator and one of the concrete mixers. Spark plug change on the mixer outstanding due to lack of correct plug socket.

Next on the list was a report from track inspections of a broken manhole on the upside toe drain, low mileage side of bridge 6 from the robot flail. Yes the flail had gone through a course of bricks and the steel manhole ring sitting on top of the concrete biscuits. We inspected the four other manholes in this toe drain. A further one had substantial flail damage to brickwork; one was intact and two had suffered frost damage with complete mortar failure. So four structures in need of immediate repair.

First up side toe ditch chamber requiring attention. [Photo by Dave]

 

And the second one. [Photo by Dave]

Third one - brick course repaired. [Photo by Dave]

Fourth one - repair to be completed next week. [Photo by Dave]

We manage to rebuilt or repair three today; the fourth one awaits rebuild next week. Fortunately we had in stock one manhole ring and cover.

Also on the list today was the rebuilding of the low mileage up side wing wall of the River Isbourne bridge. However, we had to postpone this, not due to weather this time but because the work at Laverton had taken more time than anticipated.

(Todays report from Roger, as the team leader was away attending a funeral.)

Thursday 14^th March

Six team members in attendance - some battling through Cheltenham racing traffic and lorry fires on the M5 to get in.

A group of four headed to Laverton to complete the repairs to up side toe drain chambers which had been damaged by the robo flail. This is length where an embankment slip was repaired as part of the reopening to Broadway. The other task at this location on the plan was to remove some metal fencing debris from the down side. This had to be abandoned for two reasons - there was no room on the LWB Transit and the debris is one big mass which will require the telehandler to lift.

Fourth up side toe ditch chamber repair complete. [Photo by Dave]

The other two members also headed to Laverton, specifically Meadow Lane. As the water level under the bridge had receded, it was possible to remove the silt from the silt trap pits. We believe GCC had attended with a gully cleaner to clear the exit pipes - so the steady flow of water off the down side fields was running fine down the grills. The gallant two cleared one side of the road, then the other four members arrived so the other side of the road was cleared a lot quicker. The damaged depth marks on the Wormington side (up or Malvern) of the road was reported to GCC. We also investigated the over flowing roadside gully which is fed from land drains in the high mileage down side field. The small exit pipe which leads to the high mileage silt trap under the bridge is obstructed – clearing it will need drainage rods and some traffic management for safe working. Plus a dry spell to ease the flow of water!

Like Weston Super Mare with the tide out - no water!

 

Flood depth gauge on the high mileage down side is the only one still complete.

High mileage up side, the grill which drains the silt trap is at the bottom in the centre of the picture.

 

Then back to Winchcombe for lunch - on the station platform so to be entertained by the non-stop ECS race trains coming back from Cheltenham. (Both running tender first - so no photos!)

After lunch we finally made a start on the rebuilding of the low mileage up side wing wall of the Isbourne bridge. The large coping stone at the bottom end was replaced - relatively easy as it sits on a flat portion. Attempts to refit some of the old angled bricks on the sloping portion of the wall were not successful - as trying to clean them up to remove the old mortar resulted in the bricks breaking. So we are going to have to cut new bricks to fit. Whilst three of the team worked on the bricking, the other three fabricated some temporary steps to make the access route from the top of the embankment less hazardous. What had so far been a dry day then came to an end as a heavy shower came in - so we abandoned the repointing of the wing wall cracks.

Roger (centre) relays the end coping stone, whilst Nigel (left) and Martin attempt brick cleaning.

 

The bottom coping stone back in position.

Wildlife report: Certainly signs of spring abounding - lots of pink (probably ornamental cherry) blossom in bloom. Plant wise we noted sprouting ash and hawthorn saplings in several places that we don't want them. Recognisable flowers in bloom included Viola odorata (Wild violet) and Ranunculus ficaria (Lesser Celandine, also known as fig buttercup). Animal wise there was evidence (hoof prints in the mud) of deer alongside the River Isbourne. Numerous red kites in the air – these are now so common in the Cotswolds that we will no longer mention them!

Lesser Celandine.

Thursday 21^st March

Two groups of three was the formation for this weeks activities - but with a swap at the end of the morning to ensure our telehandler driver (Jonathan) was with the group heading to Laverton.

First group (Ian, Martin and Andrew) took the LWB transit to Cheltenham to collect various items that our Bridge Engineer was donating as part of his downsizing house move. These included some very useful drainage rods, hand tools and a couple more deckchairs. Also we helped with the house clearance by loading a couple of items of wooden furniture which went to the steam loco fire lighting stack at Toddington. Next stop was the far end of the Racecourse, adjacent to Southam Lane. During the very wet spell last week, water had been bubbling out of a manhole by the side of the racecourse road and flowing down the cutting side to the down side cess. The surprise when we opened this manhole is that it appears to only have two pipes into it, which are almost parallel. One was well blocked with silt - so the just acquired drainage rods were put to use. This pipe turned out to be the inlet, it comes from the roadside ditch alongside Southam Lane. The other pipe appeared to be clear - but it is set at a slightly higher level so nothing was flowing into it. We cleared the end of the roadside ditch - all the flow was entering the pipe which goes straight to the cess chamber near the bridge abutment. We will have to return with a pump to empty the manhole to confirm that it really only has two pipes connected to it. We also tried to open a manhole in the archery field across the racecourse road to see what that is connected to - however the circular lid was well rusted and refused to budge.

Ian and Martin open up the manhole by the Racecourse permieter road. Southam Lane bridge (42) in background.

 

Surprise Number One - inside the manhole are two pipes almost parallel. The inlet one is on the right - but why is the outlet on the left at a higher level?

One week earlier (during the Gold Cup race meeting) water was bubbbling out of that manhole then running down the racecourse perimeter road and down the down side cutting side. [Photo by Jonathan]

Meanwhile the other group (Dave, Nigel and Jonathan) went to the down side behind the Willow Drive mobile homes at Woodmancote. Following the mammoth clearance operation by the Wednesday and Saturday clearance teams, we are now able to access the ditch which runs at the toe of the embankment from the inlet of culvert 38A towards Station Road, Bishops Cleeve. The ditch was badly obstructed with plenty of non-railway debris (including lots of glass milk bottles, remains of corrugated roof sheets and car wheels) - most of this was removed. Eventually the team reached the end of the ditch, for the second surprise of the day. There are two pipes entering the ditch. One is definitely the piped stream which comes down from Cleeve Hill and runs under the entrance road to the mobile home park. That one is obstructed - it will require the heavy duty rods to attempt clearance. The second pipe is lower down and of smaller diameter - it might be the continuance of the toe drain under the extended garden of the property adjacent to Station Road bridge. After nine man hours of digging, raking and trawling the ditch, enough silt and debris had been removed to ensure a good steady flow along the length of ditch. The resident of the mobile home who allowed us access was very appreciative. Further work with grabs will remove more silt and the remaining cut vegetation needs moving to stop it failing back into the ditch.

Toe ditch at the foot of the down side embankment adjacent to the mobile home park cleared of the larger items of debris.

 

Surprise number two - the two inlets to this toe ditch. The bigger one on the left carries the stream from Cleeve Hill. The smaller one, only just visible on the right, maybe a pipe section of the toe running to Station Road.

A big improvement - water flowing freely down the length of the ditch. However more work to be done to prevent future obstructions.

 

On the way back to very late lunch at Winchcombe we stopped at Gotherington Yard to check exactly where the spoil from the platform 2 building excavations at Broadway will be placed. The area behind the entrance headwall of culvert 33B is quite deep - so that is where the rough stuff will go. The top soil will temporarily be placed in Gotherington Yard until we use it for head and wing wall backfilling between Manor Lane, Gotherington and Bishops Cleeve.

The area at Gotherington Yard to be raised with some of the spoil excavated from platform 2 building at Broadway.

In the meantime, Ian and Martin returned to Winchcombe with Jonathan, unloaded the collected tools; then loaded the telehandler forks. With Jonathan driving the telehander (without forks as these are too long to be legal when on the public roads) they set off to Laverton. The Transit made a detour to Toddington to unload the wood items for the lighting up pile. The objective of the visit to Laverton was to collect the mass of old fence wire and other metal debris from the down side near to the foot crossing north of bridge 6 (Meadow Lane). The telehander was required to load this - it was in two large heaps, far too heavy to be manually loaded. Similarly once back at Winchcombe, the telehandler was deployed to off load the debris into the skip - and then to compress it down.

 

We had to wait for a line block at Laverton to perform the loading of the debris. Jonathan carefully manoeuvrers the telehander, Martin directs. [Photo by Ian]

Wildlife report: Definitely a spring day - we spotted the first butterflies (probably cabbage whites although they were pale yellow) and quite a number of primroses at Gotherington.

 

A long winter

A long year as it is a leap year. As the leap day occurs at the end of February, it makes winter one day longer. No matter whether you use the meteorological definition of winter, the months of December, January and February, or the astronomical definition as the period between the winter solstice and the spring or vernal equinox – a leap year makes for a long winter!

This year, the drainage team were working on leap day – so making five Thursdays in February. If we stick to Thursdays, it will be 28 years before we work on 29^th February again!

Thursday 22^nd February

The five members of the team attending unanimously agreed it was the wettest day so far this year. Torrential rain early morning and heavy rain in the afternoon, with just a brief interlude in the middle - but even that had drizzle. The only improvement from two weeks ago was that the puddles in Winchcombe yard were not quite so deep.

Consequently no work was achieved on the low mileage up side wing wall of the River Isbourne bridge. The level of the river was only 1 inch below the brick course we demolished last week.

High and fast flow in the River Isbourne.

In the comparative dry of the old wooden workshop we were able to make progress on milepost manufacture. Some lengths of bridge rail were painted with black hammerite and half a dozen new heads given another coat of gloss white.

The telehandler was used to undertake a bit more of the tidy up of Winchcombe Yard - mainly levelling up with small debris/soil near the gravel bin.

When the rain eased off, we spilt into to two teams to inspect various places north of Winchcombe. Some of this was planned - some was to check the results of the heavy rain of the past few days.

Dave & Nigel went first to Meadow Lane bridge (6) at Laverton. The road underneath is flooded - probably because the roadside exit drains (not railway responsibility) are blocked with debris and silt washed from the fields (mainly the adjacent field on the down side high mileage of the bridge). They were not able to reach the grills under the bridge to rake them out as the depth of water was over 3 foot - well over wellington boot height.

Meadow Lane bridge 6, Laverton - 3 feet of water. [Photo by Dave]

Says it all! [Photo by Dave]

Next they checked bridge 5, Little Buckland. Just puddles under that, no flooding. Then on to Stanton to check on 11A and 11B. 11A was flowing fast and vigorous - about two thirds up the brick U channel. The outlet of the 11B up side diversion was also flowing strongly.

The 11B diversion exit (black plastic pipe) into the turbulent 11A stream. [Photo by Dave]

 

Jonathan, Roger and Andrew undertook the checking of the Winchcombe to Toddington section. First stop was cross drain 19A - for the first time we saw water flowing through this. There is no real stream inlet on the down side - just field run off. Also no stream outlet on the up side - just water in one of the medieval field furrows.

Rare photo of water flowing out of cross drain 19A and across the field in one of the medieval furrows.

Next was culvert 17B - the up side inlet under the footpath bridge was like Niagara falls. With the recent major clearance by Tom Clarke with robo flail and tractor mounted flail we could see water running by the boundary on the low mileage up side of the culvert - and back in a shallow ditch to the up side cess outlet. Again , we have never seen this running with water. We added clearing of the cess outlet to the open job list. Then along to the next one, bridge 17A. This was one of the planned visits, as damage had been reported to the high mileage up side cess outlet which enters the outlet stream. This turned out to be significant damage to the 12 inch diameter SGP pipes, which are only a few inches below the surface. We dug out several lengths to ensure no blockage. A full repair here will need most of this pipe back to the first cess chamber excavated and replaced with 300mm plastic twinwall pipe. The lower end of this cess outlet was replaced when major work on the bridge 17A was done - now over 10 years ago. We checked the down side as well - it was flowing well from the steam, two field drains and the high mileage down cess.

Culvert 17B inlet (down or Cotswold side). The footpath bridge is not GWSR responsibility.

 

Culvert 17B low mileage up (Malvern) side - we can now see where the cess outlet runs.

Damage to SGP pipe taking high mileage up side cess to the 17A outlet. (As 17A is a large structure it is a bridge, not a culvert, even though it is over a stream).

Heading north we noticed a slightly broken cess chamber lid at Hayles Abbey halt. On further inspection this also has a fractured top concrete ring that will need replacing - with the last concrete ring we have in stock.

Then the final planned inspection at culvert 14B, just north of Didbrook No1 bridge. The down side ditch which takes the excess from culvert 14A into the low mileage end of the input stream was a torrent - a mini High Force waterfall. No wonder that there is a lot of undercutting here. Infill was added a few years ago but has all been washed away. With the boundary fence line on the high mileage end now cleared back to the 'gate' by Didbrook No1 bridge; it would be possible to get a bit closer with the dumper. However not close enough to the low mileage end for direct tipping of material. The proper solution to this will be construction of waterfall steps - either concrete or GRP sections. Definitely a summer job - and maybe best contracted out. Finally we checked the flow on the down side around 14A; the surface flow on the upstream (low mileage) and the downstream of the 14 entrance appeared to be equal. So it looks like very little flows through 14A - it is only a 4 inch pipe and the exit location is unknown.

The 14A to 14B overflow ditch on the down side undercutting near the entry to the 14B stream.

We did not venture down the slippery embankment to the up side (outlet) of 14B - but from above it looked like the pond was almost overflowing. The outlet from the undersized pipe in the adjoining property was like a jet wash. All now visible following the major clearance work - so too is the Didbrook terminus of the narrow gauge line.

 

A view not seen for many years - the Didbrook end of the narrow gauge line from the embankment near culvert 14B.

Wildlife report:
Didbrook: Woodpecker (probably a greater spotted - it was heard rather than seen); low flying red kite. Plant wise several early flowering primroses on the up side embankment - shows what grows when bramble and scrub removed.

Vegetation thinks it is spring - pity the weather does not agree!

 Winchcombe - magpie, a bird that surprisingly we have not recorded before.

Thursday 29^th February

Six team members working on the leap day. Weather wise it was the least wet for a few weeks, and the water levels in the Isbourne and streams had fallen. But it was still too wet for bricklaying on the Isbourne bridge wing wall. So we tackled a variety of other jobs.

Two team members headed to Laverton Meadow Lane bridge (6). Again they were not able to check  the gulleys under the bridge. Although the water depth had dropped to around 18 inches, this is still too deep for wellies and when 4x4 vehicles or tractors pass through the flood water the bow wave created would drench the workers. There was an abandoned BMW on the road which had obviously found the water too deep to pass.

Meadow Lane Bridge 6, Laverton. Abandoned BMW - this is what happens whey you ignore road closed signs and drive through flood water. [Photo by Stuart]

The other four of the team recovered an unused concrete chamber ring from the down side near Greet Tunnel. This is the last spare concrete ring we have, it was going to be part of the a new chamber on the end of the cutting crest pipe. But the need of the damaged up side cess chamber at Hayles Abbey was greater. So the combined team assembled at Hayles Abbey; removed the damaged top ring from the cess chamber; inserted the new ring and replacement lid. Quite a straightforward operation - even with the distraction of two light engine and two ECS train movements. (Nice to see moving trains again!)

Damage lid replaced with metal grill, top concrete ring replaced and some marker stones added. Up side cess chamber opposite the platform at Hayles Abbey Halt.

 

47105 hauls the second coach set (we can not call it the maroon set now) to Toddington through Hayles Abbey Halt.

Then on to the damaged up side cess pipe on the high mileage side of bridge (big culvert) 17A. We measured up for the replacement 300mm diameter twinwall pipe and covered the section of excavated damaged pipe with blue mesh covers. Another job that needs some drier weather to progress (and some 300mm pipe too!).

The damaged concrete lid from the chamber at Hayles Abbey was put to use to weigh down the blue mesh covers temporarily protecting the expose cess drain pipe at 17A.

Next back to Winchcombe and more milepost preparation. Mainly this was painting lengths of bridge rail and preparing the lengths recovered from Cheltenham Racecourse for painting. After lunch four of the team headed to Prescott Road bridge to install new milepost 14½. This used the length of bridge rail which was intended for mile post 9¼ at Toddington North. That will now be replaced when other work in Toddington North cutting is completed.

Milepost 14 and half now properly set on bridge rail - previously the BR style yellow head was attached to the bridge parapet. [Photo by Roger]

The heritage fans amongst our readers will be glad to know that the numerals, dividers and quarter marks on the replacement mileposts are screwed in with conventional slotted brass screws – not crossheads. But the screw heads are painted black to hide them; so unless you look very closely you would not notice! If you want to inspect a milepost close up; milepost 12 is on platform 2 at Winchcombe.

On the way back from Prescott Road the group cleared the outfall grating on the exit of culvert 24C; as usual a few weeks worth of twigs and leaves was causing a restriction. Also they observed the progress on the glamping pods at the Royal Oak pub. With the Railway’s permission, land drainage from this area will flow into the inlet of culvert 24A. This will lead to quite an increase in the flow through the culvert, so we will be adding more scour prevention on the up side outlet downstream of the haul road.

Nigel clears the exit grill of culvert 24C outlet - water level then dropped several inches. [Photo by Dave]

 

The other two team members installed a (temporary) rope handrail on the up side access to the Isbourne Bridge. When we finally can get to progress the rebuild; we will have to mix the mortar at the top of the embankment and transport it down the wing wall in buckets.

Jonathan undertakes the test of the temporary rope handrail on the up side access to the Isbourne bridge.

Wildlife report:
We heard several sky larks, and two woodpeckers but once again no sighting so we are yet to determine exactly what species they are (we suspect great spotted). Also noted at Gotherington were lots of Canada geese and lots of rabbits.