April showers, or not!

 

Surprisingly for this wet spring, two of our working days in April were dry. At least, dry in terms of precipitation – however the ground conditions are far from dry. The last Thursday of April was more typical – and temperature wise more like February!

Thursday 11^th April

A very good day - on two counts. Firstly it did not rain at all, secondly we achieved more than the planned tasks. Six of the team in attendance.

First task was to replace the spark plugs in the generator and the cement mixers - we expected to need the generator later.

Jonathan and Martin headed to Cheltenham - to collect an order of Postcrete from Travis Perkins. Also collected from a scaffolding contractor at Leckhampton was several length of old scaffold pole which had been donated. We will use these to construct safety markers for culvert and cross drain headwalls.

Stuart, Nigel, Dave and Andrew first went to Southam Lane bridge. The main task was to investigate the manhole by the side of the racecourse perimeter road which had been overflowing during Gold Cup week. We had expected to pump this out - but the water level had dropped naturally. This revealed the exit pipe, a 6" diameter blue plastic than runs down to the down side cess chamber. We rodded this out and also removed the silt from the bottom of the chamber. This reduced the standing water level even more. We used some tracer dye to confirm that both the larger diameter pipes that enter the chamber (on the right in picture below) run from the ditch alongside Southam Lane (south side uphill) - one of which flows well but the other is obstructed. As these are outside of railway land we did not attempt to rod them. We also cleared silt, debris and rubbish from the down side cess chamber - will come back later to fit an extended cover to prevent the rubbish accumulating.

The blue plastic pipe is the exit to the down side cess, whilst the two larger pipes on the right are the inlets from the roadside ditch on Southam Lane.

 

As concrete lids become broken, we will be deploying metal grill lids.

Whilst at Southam Lane we replaced two broken cess chamber lids on the up side between the bridge and the RDA crossing. The replacement lids are the metal grills; as we have no spare reinforced concrete lids which fit the concrete chamber rings.

Sunshine on the smoke-box of a northbound train - a photo not that easy to obtain. 7903 Foremarke Hall at the RDA crossing with the first up train of the day (10:15 from Racecourse). From 7th May the first departure is 40 minutes later.

 

Then after coffee break, all six of us went to investigate the security barrier at the south portal of Hunting Butts tunnel. One of the sheet piles was loose. We developed a plan to fix it - and determined that we had sufficient manpower, tools and materials to execute it after lunch. This involved some of the bags of just collected Postcrete to cement in lengths of rail to wedge the sheet piles. Hopefully this will keep the trespassers out - for a while at least!

Stuart and Dave cementing the footings of the security fence at the south portal of Hunting Butts tunnel.

 

Wildlife report: We noted a large spotted slug in one of the cess chambers, probably a leopard slug or Limax maximus. Skylarks heard and seen at Hunting Butts. Bluebells in flower on the cutting sides at Racecourse Station.

Thursday 18^th April

Surprisingly another dry day - so we were able progress with some bridge work that required no rain. Again, six of the team in attendance.

Roger, Dave and Martin spent the day working on the low mileage up side wing wall of the River Isbourne bridge. Most of the effort was in cutting some imperial solid bricks to triangular shapes; replacing those which broke when being removed or attempting a clean-up.

Roger and Martin progressing the Isbourne wing wall repair. [Photo by Dave]

Jonathan worked on plant maintenance - giving the dumper and the telehandler a steam clean (courtesy of Halls); then greasing the dumper. The dumper was used to ferry mixed mortar from Winchcombe yard to the Isbourne bridge. Jonathan also started a bit of silt and debris removal from the Isbourne - but more is required when the level drops a bit more.

Ian and Andrew first went to Stanton Aqueduct. We used two tubes of mastic in the cracks between the down side brick/concrete inlet through and the concrete abutment. These cracks had widened since repointing last year; also some of the flaunching in the inlet had come away and there were brambles growing in the inlet. Underneath the 300mm pipe was some shallow water - so unable to put mastic there. From the ground conditions on the down side cutting underneath the trough, it appears that there is only minor leakage from the inlet.

Mastic filling the cracks between the inlet trough and the concrete abutment, high mileage side ...

 

... and low mileage side.

We checked the slip marker posts under the downside of the aqueduct. The two directly under the aqueduct have a very slight downwards lean; the rest are all still in line and upright.

After lunch we prepared some more lengths of bridge rail for milepost uprights - we now have 6 ready to go. Also we made up a culvert headwall safety marker from some of the old scaffold poles. This is destined for 37F.

Wildlife report: birds this week. A wren and chiffchaffs at Stanton and a flock of noisy sparrows at Winchcombe.

Thursday 25^th April

For the first time for quite a few months all nine members of the team attended. Hence we spilt into three groups of three.

Nigel, Dave and Roger continued with the rebuilt of the low mileage up side wing wall of the the River Isbourne bridge. Good progress was made until a very heavy rain shower just after lunch made it too wet to lay mortar and too slippery to work safely. Four more coping stones remain to be replaced.

Roger evaluates the next replacement for the Isbourne wing wall. [Photo by Dave]

 

Jonathan, Martin and Stuart, with the mini excavator, went to Gotherington Yard. The task of the day being to move some of the spoil that had come from Broadway to the low mileage side of the inlet of culvert 33B by the road side fence; also to fix the yard gate. The pile of mainly clay from Broadway is starting to dry out - or at least the top foot or so. As the arm of the excavator is not that long; quite a bit of the moving took two steps. The roadside fence was dismantled to enable the arm to reach behind the outflow headwall of the under road part of the culvert. Another job where the heavy early afternoon shower hindered progress.

Stuart and Martin begin to replace the roadside fence at Gotherington Yard. It was removed to enable the excavator to access  the low mileage side of culvert 33B to level our the clay infill.

Polly (welcome back!), Ian and Andrew completed the fabrication of the first two headwall safety markers - three lengths of old scaffold poles bolted together. We then went to Bishops Cleeve to install these on both headwalls of cross drain 37F. No excuse for robo flail operators to miss these structure now! (At least a dozen other culverts/cross drains will be similarly marked).

Polly and Ian fix the safety marker to the outlet (up side) of cross drain 37F.

 

37F inlet (down side) also now has a safety marker rail.

Then along to cross drain 37D to attend to some repointing of joints in the up side exit headwall and wingwalls. Next a look at the upside exit of 37A where three concrete slabs in the low mileage wall are displaced. We noted that the concrete base of the exit channel is cracked; so decided that the best approach here is a more substantial rebuilt when the flow of water is less. Finally we joined the Gotherington Yard team to make a minor brickwork repair to culvert 33B and after a quick trip back to Winchcombe to collect long nails to assist with replacing the roadside fence.

Waiting for the next train to pass before moving the vehicle. Between Bishops Cleeve and Gotherington there are limited places to park with at least 3m between the vehicle and the nearest running rail. This is the minimum safe distance required by our Personal Trackside Safety rules. (Here the distance is 3.046m - we used a tape to measure it!)

Wildlife report: Lots of snails at Gotherington Yard. Also noted buzzards being mobbed by the crows in the up side field. More blossom on the pear trees between Bishops Cleeve and Gotherington; plus several clumps of yellow primula in full flower. These probably are Primula veris, cowslip.

Moving earth

Thursday 28^th March

Seven of the team in attendance - all involved with earth moving. Actually at Gotherington the earth was mostly clay and at Woodmancote it was silt.

Ian attended Toddington to assist with the unloading of the Broadway spoil wagons into Ken Pink's tipper lorry. The Heritage Herald blog post “A grab lorry came” has some pictures and a description of this part of the operation.

Jonathan and Andrew went to Gotherington Yard to handle the unloading of the spoil. The telehander was used to get most of the first load, which was almost entirely clay, into the hollow behind the inlet headwall of culvert 33B. Because of the slope and the limit of the telehandler boom, quite a lot of this load was placed by lifting over the boundary fence. The heavy manual processes were moving the clay off the lids of the chamber by the boundary fence - and removing that which was getting stuck in the telehandler bucket. Just like the folk at Toddington, we found this clay stuck to everything! The third full load and the final part load did have less clay content - these were tipped between the entrance gate and the culvert ditch. At least there was very few broken bricks and other debris in the spoil. We will be using the piled spoil as backfill for various structures south of Gotherington in the next few weeks. Whilst at the yard with the telehander, we took the opportunity to tidy the piles of ballast and increase the parking area - it should now be possible to turn the trailer with the minidigger on it there.

Making room for the tipper lorry to dump the Broadway spoil at Gotherington Yard.

 

First load of spoil arrives - grab out of way to enable tipping.

Second load is tipped.

 

Temporary shuttering to prevent spoil entering the ditch of culvert 33B.

Meanwhile Dave, Nigel, Stuart and Martin paid a second visit to the mobile home park at Woodmancote. They removed yet more silt from the down (Cotswold) side toe ditch between culvert 38A and Station Road. This caused the level in the inlet pond to drop significantly - which revealed at third inlet pipe. This and the second (middle) pipe resisted all attempts of clearing with the rods with a corkscrew head - probably the pipes are obstructed by tree roots. There are some willow tress growing on the line of the pipe around 20 yards from the exit. Most of the flow into the ditch was coming from the inlet pipe closest to the track; and the flow noticeably increased following a heavy shower of rain. We believe the road gullies in Station Road feed into this. Once we get a drier spell of weather, we plan to investigate the many watercourses in this area. This toe ditch is now flowing well down the whole length to the inlet of culvert 38A; so hopefully will not require any more work until the autumn.

Now three inlet pipes to the mobile home to ditch! [Photo by Dave]

 

Cleared and deepened ditch - flowing well. [Photo by Dave]

 

Back at Winchcombe after a late lunch we moved two completely painted lengths of bridge rail out of the shed and then painted the undersides of three lengths of bridge rail. These three lengths should therefore be ready for flipping over to paint their top sides next time we want to escape the worst of any rain.

Wildlife report: As ever robins were very quick to investigate the disturbed soil at both sites. At Gotherington a large flock of crows were noted, occasionally mobbing some buzzards.

Thursday 4^th April

Fortunately the very heavy overnight rain had stopped by 8am and the days rain did not start before we finished - so at last we had a dry day. That is excluding the water on the ground! The overnight rain was extremely heavy - team members coming in from west of the Severn and north of the Avon reported a lot of flooding.

Six of the team attending. Initially Dave, Nigel and Martin headed for Working Lane to clear the exit grill of culvert 24C on the up side at the foot of the haul road. This is a regular task - the grill gets obstructed with twigs and small debris. It is far better the obstruction is on the grill than a blockage inside the pipe. Removal only takes a few minutes and then the water drops; over 6 inches today.

24C exit before cleaning of the grating .... [Photo by Dave]

... and after cleaning. [Photo by Dave]

 

The main task of the day was backfilling of culvert and cross drain head and wing walls between Gotherington and Bishops Cleeve. As most of those which required attention were on the down side, we deployed a barrow crossing. Hence we had arranged a line possession with the Operations Manager and installed stop boards at Manor Lane. This was possible as public trains on Thursdays do not start until next week. Jonathan manned the telehander for loading at Gotherington Yard, whilst Roger and Andrew delivered the first load of spoil. Dave, Nigel and Martin collected a second load of spoil. We used all this to backfill both sides of 37B, and the down side of 37C, 37E, 37F and 37G. Additionally we measured up 37B through to 37G for headwall safety markers. These will help all staff and contractors working lineside to spot where the headwalls are, particularity in the summer after the vegetation has grown.

 

Backfilling of the gaps behind headwall and wingwalls makes for a much neater appearance. But more importantly it is a safety matter - there is no gap in which to trap a foot which could lead to twisted or broken ankles.

Cross drain 37G is unusual in that it does not pass under the railway - it goes under the footpath which runs under bridge 38.

 

Roger and Nigel load up after delivering the final barrow loads of spoil at cross drain 37G.

Meanwhile at Gotherington Yard, Jonathan used the telehandler to further tidy the piles of spoil and ballast. There is now plenty of room for manoeuvring vehicles and for another delivery or ballast. It was still too wet to complete the levelling out of the ex-Broadway spoil behind the inlet headwall of culvert 33B.

Following the heavy rain overnight there was a lot of water running off adjoining fields. At Gotherington we noted on the down side water flowing from the field by cross drain 33A - there is a shallow ditch there; we have added a task to deepen that.

Run off water from the adjoining down side field collecting behind the wall of cross drain 33A inlet channel. [Photo by Roger]

 

At Woodmancote, the stream which becomes culvert 37G was overflowing outside of railway land, probably due to obstructions in the pipe under the footpath. Most of the water is then flowing down the footpath and pooling under bridge 38; walkers beware!

Water flowing down the footpath then under bridge 38.

We checked on the state of the toe ditch on the down side alongside the mobile homes between culvert 38A and Station Road bridge. The work there in the past two weeks has paid off - the level of the ditch was well down, enough to see two thirds of the inlet pipes. We have confirmation that this ditch does carry the runoff from the road drains in Station Road. So no doubt earlier in the day it was flowing stronger.

After another late lunch at Gotherington, we headed back to Winchcombe. A spot more painting of bridge rail lengths for mileposts and some plant maintenance tasks were completed. The later covered work on our cement mixers, the generator and a wheel change on a wheelbarrow. We noted that the flat tyre we replaced was marked “General Wheelbarrow Tire”!

A check was made on the level of the River Isbourne - it was certainly too high and the flow too fast to have safely progressed the wing wall rebuilt.

Wildlife report: The highlight was a very close encounter with a muntjac deer - we disturbed it in the vegetation near bridge 38. Otherwise the most noticeable item was the number of butterflies, mainly cabbage whites, no doubt due to the welcome sunshine. Two more positive plant identifications (at Gotherington): common comfrey (Symphytum officinale) and Thyme-leaved speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia).