Investigating the syphons

Not the GWR milk/parcels/newspaper carrying items of non-passenger coaching stock. (There is one of those on the railway, Siphon G 2983, details on this page of the Vintage Carriages Trust website – http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=168). No, we are talking of syphons, the wide variety of devices that involve the flow of liquids through tubes. In a narrower sense, the word refers particularly to a tube in an inverted "U" shape, which causes a liquid to flow upward, above the surface of a reservoir, with no pump, but powered by the fall of the liquid as it flows down the tube under the pull of gravity, then discharging at a level lower than the surface of the reservoir from which it came. We use the spelling with a Y, the alternative spelling with an I reveals its derivation from Ancient Greek σίφων (síphōn) meaning 'pipe’ or ‘tube'. We have 5 syphons which run underneath the railway track; four are small(ish) diameter so we classify these as cross drains, one is larger so is a culvert. Two of our syphons are at Bishops Cleeve, either side of Two Hedges Road; both were subject to alterations around 30 years ago as part of the reopening back to Cheltenham Racecourse. Hence high time to attend to the effects of time and weather since then.

Thursday 27^th February

Nine of the team attending on our last working day of the (metrological) Winter. Six of the team went syphon investigating at Bishops Cleeve, the other three attending to Working Lane haul road.

First was a delivery of spent ballast to Bryan at Gotherington station to use for driveway repairs. Jonathan loaded this with the telehandler at Winchcombe onto the tipper Transit; then Dave and Peter delivered it to Gotherington.

Spent ballast delivered to Gotherington Station. [Photo by Dave]

The three of them then proceeded to the bottom of the haul road at Working Lane. Jonathan used the telehandler to clear a path through the pile of debris to enable some of the water that is collecting there to drain away into the boundary ditch.

Clearing a drainage channel through the debris at the bottom of the haul road. [Photo by Dave]

Meanwhile Dave and Peter loaded some good reclaimed red bricks for transport back to Winchcombe. These had been the only materials moved to Working Lane when the intention was to use that area for storing drainage items. The stack of bricks were surrounded by old pallets, which had become a ‘bug hotel’. So these were taken up to the top of the haul road to construct a new ‘bug hotel’ by the boundary hedge near to the stack of cut logs. Together these will provide spaces for insects and small mammals.

Peter loads the recovered red bricks. [Photo by Dave]

The new 'bug hotel' under construction at the top of the haul road. [Photo by Dave]

 

Finally at Working Lane, Dave and Peter cleared out the grill on the down stream exit of culvert 24C under the railway boundary; they also checked the up side entry as there was more than the usual amount of debris in the channel.

Roger, Nigel, Polly, Ian, Martin and Andrew were the six headed for Bishops Cleeve. First task was at syphon cross drain 39B. The down (Cotswold) side inlet, originally an L shaped headwall, had in the past been extended into a chamber covered with concrete sleepers. Some of the chamber sides are now displaced, so will need rebuilding. Roger, Ian, Martin and Andrew drew up the plan for this; it will include fitting a proper blue mesh lid to replace the concrete sleepers. Meanwhile Nigel and Polly renewed the mortar flaunching around the metal manhole lid which takes the inlet from the run off on footbridge 39Z. (The footbridge is on the low mileage side of the main Two Hedges Road bridge which is number 40, hence the 39 number).

Ian (left) and Roger remove the concrete sleepers to reveal the syphon inlet chamber of 39B.

Three displaced coping bricks on the original headwall of 39B inlet.

Polly completes the new flaunching around the metal manhole of 39B road run off inlet.

Then over to the up (Malvern) side. Here the original syphon exit is in a pit partly under a gate in the security fence. At some time in the past, probably when the houses on Jesson Road and Two Hedges Road were built, the outlet had been extended in concrete pipes to outside railway land. Excavating this pit revealed a gap in the first join of the concrete pipes; we quickly sealed this with some more mortar. Again we established the rebuild plans, this time we will use concrete lids because of the clearance needed under the fence.

Currently the cover of the 39B exit pit is this old section of security fence. Loose section of brick just visible underneath.

On the high mileage side of Two Hedges Bridge is syphon cross drain 40A. Here the up side outlet is way outside of railway land on the other side of Pargets Road. (The water course eventually ends up in the Dean Brook.)  There is a metal centre washout lid in the up side cess – here we will construct a small wall around it to prevent vegetation encroachment and thus keeping it visible to clearance teams. On the down side, the actual syphon inlet is now buried. More concrete sleepers cover part of a U shaped brick invert which leads to this. The big puzzle is a circular depression in the invert. After prodding this with a crowbar and a long handled spade, we think this is just a slit trap. As the flow through the syphon appears to be good with no leakage into the cess drains; and the U shaped invert is in reasonable condition, the only item for our ‘to do’ list here is fitting a better lid to replace the concrete sleepers. But that is certainly nowhere near the top of the priority list.

Looking towards the inlet of 40A underneath the track at the top of the cutting. Part of the circular silt trap visible in foreground. [Photo by Ian]

Close up of the circular silt trap in the base of 40A inlet.

Looking down the U shaped invert of 40A towards the syphon entry. [Photo by Ian]

Martin, Ian and Roger take a breather before replacing the last of the concrete sleepers on the 40A inlet.

 

The next drainage channel south is definitely on our priority list! Just before milepost 17½, a stream which originates on Cleeve Hill and gathers spring water on its way down, enters under the down side boundary at the top of the cutting. There is intermediately a 90 degree bend; the water then heading south. Over topping of the crest ditch here has been a long running problem. A few years ago, the team aided by one of our contractors added a French drain with two perforated twinwall pipes in it to take any excess water down to a new chamber in the down side cess. The 90 degree bend was improved with a circular manhole and part of the crest ditch was piped. (See here.) Unfortunately our contractors did not complete the piping of the crest ditch as they were redeployed to a more critical repair.

The down side cess chamber which gets the overflow from the Cleeve Hill stream. Water dribbling out of the two twinwall pipes and oozing from the cutting side through the concrete ring slots.

Checking the flow in the 90 degree bend manhole.

We rodded the two perforated twinwall pipes from the down side cess chamber – this proved that they are not blocked with silt and showed where they start in the crest ditch. We also removed silt and other debris from around the cess chamber and the lower part of the French drain. We also examined the circular manhole , this confirmed that all of the water entering does indeed make the 90 degree turn to exit into the crest pipe. It looks like it is the first join in the crest pipe that is leaking. So next task is to dig out around that.

The pointed end of the drain rods emerges from one of the twinwall pipes into the crest ditch.

A lot neater with the silt and debris removed from the bottom of the French drain and the down side cess chamber.

 

All this water does eventually reach cross drain 40B. Nigel and Polly knocked off a couple of minor repair jobs for that, some repointing around the barrel on the outlet of the main structure and to the rear of the small headwall where the down side cess drain enters the toe ditch.

Brickwork repair team, Polly (l) and Nigel, at 40B up side exit.

 

As ever when working at Bishops Cleeve, we cleared up quite an assortment of items that our neighbours have donated. Amongst the haul was almost a dozen assorted balls of various sizes; a twelve foot scaffold pole (which will be useful for safety rail construction) and a concrete bird bath.

Back at Winchcombe, we stacked the recovered bricks from Working Lane on a decent pallet. Finally our last task was to move our stock of milepost heads and materials for numerals from the old wooden workshop to the block built shed. The old wooden workshop and office are due to be demolished in April.

Wildlife report: Not a great deal of note to report. A friendly black cat paid a brief visit to us at Bishops Cleeve, a flock of finches was noted a bit further south, with gulls, wood pigeons, crows and blackbirds circling overhead. Spring’s imminent arrival was apparent with some new growth appearing on blackberry brambles; still plenty of snowdrops but all now past their best. Most daffodils we noted are still in bud, a noticeable exception being those in front of the entrance to Churchward House which are already in full bloom.

A tale of two sites and two diggers

Thursday 20^th February

Two teams of four working at two sites with two diggers, but both of those were at one site.

Dave, Nigel, Peter and Polly headed to Little Buckland Bridge (5). The main task was to clear overhanging trees and undergrowth from the path of the outlet ditch of cross drain 5A. This runs along the border of a triangle of GWSR land on the high mileage end of the up (Malvern) side of the bridge. Outside of the railway land, this then becomes a roadside ditch; or rather it should! The roadside ditch is very overgrown and shallow; and all the water discharging from 5A seeps into the ground. With the improvements to the drainage on the down (Cotswold) side of the line; 5A is likely to take a greater flow. Hence the need for ensuring it can effectively drain. Today we just scraped debris from the ditch on the railway land; further deepening it can only happen when the roadside ditch is improved. There is a temporary dam in the toe ditch on the down side which is diverting some of the flow to run south to cross drain 5B. This is to ensure that the 5A outlet ditch does not overflow onto Little Buckland Road, this causes deep puddles under the bridge.

5A outlet headwall with Polly & Nigel clearing access to the fence. [Photo by Dave]

 

Looking downstream away from the railway - line of outlet ditch now accessible. The fence is not the railway boundary; the field edge to the left of the ditch is the boundary as far as Little Buckland Road. The thick scrub in the rest of the triangle of land by the bridge will have to remain until the end of bird nesting season. [Photo by Dave]

Looking back up the ditch to the railway - Peter just visible. Water now flowing after some minimal cleaning of the ditch. [Photo by Dave]

 

Beside clearing access to permit later ditch deepening, the team checked and cleaned the roadside gullies under the bridge.

Our other four workers, Jonathan, Martin, Roger and Andrew, headed in the opposite direction to culvert 24A opposite the Royal Oak at Gretton. Here they were joined by Mark with a 8-tonne excavator from our contractor, Tom Clarke. The task of the day was to fill in the hole around the new chamber in the outlet of 24A between the track bed and the haul road.

First we used some large stones which we had brought from Winchcombe. This was followed by the material which had been excavated a few weeks ago, and finally several tonnes of spent ballast. The spent ballast had come from the Didbrook relaying on Wednesday, again courtesy of Tom Clarke with a tractor and trailer. One pile of ballast was at the top of the haul road; the second at the bottom. Jonathan used our telehandler with the bucket to bring the material up the haul road. Or most of it, as some was required to fill in some deep ruts on the haul road itself. At times this operation was like a ballet for two diggers; telehandler dumps material then the excavator nimbly moves it into place and compresses it down. The caterpillar tracks and the weight of the excavator were used to good advantage to compact the infill forming the reinstated vehicle access on the vacant trackbed on the up (Malvern) side.

First into the hole was some medium size stone - left over from the Rive Isbourne gabions. Note the Royal Oak pub in the background, at 9am there was a delicious aroma of breakfast wafting across!

Next Mark reinstates the infill that was excavated a couple of weeks ago.

 

The bucket of the excavator is used to carefully compress the infill.

Spent ballast from Didbrook is placed with the Telehandler.

A coordinated ballet for two diggers!

Mark levels out the last of the spent ballast.

By just after lunchtime the infilling was complete. We removed all the temporary barriers; and fitted brackets to the blue mesh lid on the top of the new chamber.

 

Job done 1 -  from the vacant up side track bed.

Job done 2 - looking towards Gretton from the haul road.

Job done 3 - looking towards Gretton from the vacant up side track bed.

 

So structurally the rebuild of 24A is now complete. There is plenty of scope for using more spent ballast and the infill from Broadway platform 2 for landscaping the area between the culvert and the top of the haul road to give a more gradual slope to the embankment. Plus we have two items to complete. First we will obtain and install one more GRP chamber ring to make the chamber well proud of the uphill embankment line. Secondly we will replace the old sleepers we have placed at the edge of the vacant trackbed with permanent safety markers to prevent vehicles leaving the vacant track before the top of the haul road and thus damaging the chamber.

With the bucket fitted telehandler at Gretton, we (well Jonathan and Martin mainly) took the opportunity to tidy the parking area at the bottom of the haul road. This has made the parking area a bit larger and is a start on our project to improve the drainage there. As a bonus, we recovered two lengths of bridge rail from the pile of debris. Although these were one time fence posts, we can remove the corroded sections for reuse as milepost uprights. So we took them back to Winchcombe to join our bridge rail stockpile at the far end of the wooden shed.

Wildlife report: Whilst the weather was much warmer (the warmest Thursday of the year so far); it was far from spring like! Frequent heavy showers and longer spells of rain – but a few brief shafts of sunshine. A welcome sight was some snowdrops flowering alongside Working Lane where a few years ago we improved the outlets of culverts 25A and 25B. The resident robin at Royal Oak welcomed us with plenty of song; but some pheasants soon scuttled away when we started work. At Winchcombe, the local Red Kite was circling very low above the yard; no doubt there is plenty of small mammals hiding amongst our stacks of materials.

UK Plant Operators Magazine YouTube Video  The YouTube video shot by UK Plant Operators magazine of the excavation operation at 24A (16th January) is now published. The link is https://youtu.be/7-untMqWyOc?si

 

One tonne each

Thursday 13^th February

Just one task to occupy the team today – inserting pea gravel and other small aggregate into the bottom of the hole surrounding the new inspection chamber on the outlet (up or Malvern side) of culvert 24A opposite the Royal Oak at Gretton.

With eight of the team in attendance, and around 8 tonnes of material to transport and inset, the average was one tonne each. It certainly felt like it!

Earlier in the week, one of our aggregate suppliers, Elliot’s of Bishops Cleeve, had delivered five tonnes of pea gravel to the bottom of the haul road at Woking Lane. At Winchcombe Yard, we extracted three more part-filled dumpy bags of pea gravel; plus two other bags of contaminated sand and small aggregate. As usual, our plant operator Jonathan loaded these using the telehandler onto the two Transit vehicles, then set off for Gretton. The rest of the team (Dave, Nigel, Martin, Polly, John, Stuart and Andrew) followed in the Transits and the Isuzu pickup. We need the telehandler at Gretton to carry the loaded bags up the haul road; as it is too steep and currently very wet and slippery. A loaded Transit would not reach the top.

Five tonnes of pea gravel awaiting use at the bottom of the Working Lane/Royal Oak haul road.

Haul road transport - telehandler with forks to carry each dumpy bag.

Inlet and outlet pipe of the new chamber surrounded with pea gravel.

We placed all 8+ tonnes of this material in the hole – concentrating on surrounding the plastic twinwall pipes and creating a level surface around the concrete blocks courses of the chamber. We also located some larger and heavier pieces of rock and infill, we carefully placed this on top of the pea gravel at the edge of the hole nearest the running line.

After 8+ tonnes of small infill and some of the larger items; the chamber is hole is ready for the excavated material to be replaced.

Just one other subsidiary task, was the use of the electric breaker to break up the sections of the old brick headwall removed a few weeks ago. Dave, Nigel and Polly did the honours for this. We also collected as much broken bricks from the debris pile – old brick is not good for infill as it will eventually crumble leaving voids. We transported all the old broken bricks back to the yard at Winchcombe. There is now quite a quantity of broken brick there, the plan is to call in a contractor to crush it all and to spread the crushing around the down side yard, hopefully eliminating the puddles.

One wall broken up and bagged, one to go. All the workers on coffee break - inside the vehicles!

 

The final task at Gretton was to place a blue mesh lid on top of the new chamber; temporarily covered with some ply wood to prevent material from entering when the rest of the hole is in-filled. Back at Winchcombe we part filled two dumpy bags with stone that had overflowed a damaged metal cage. That, and another bag of spoil will go to Gretton next week.

From the vacant track bed where the up line was the size of the hole is still considerable.

Before then, we expect one of our contractors to attend with his large digger to replace the material excavated from above the old headwall. Also the spent ballast and other spoil from the track relaying at Didbrook will be transported to Gretton; we will use most of that for the top surface of the vacant up side track bed. Plus some will be used to fill in the worst ruts on the haul road. Finally we will use the two wagon loads of spoil from the Broadway platform 2 building excavations to grade the area at the top of the haul road. Moving the wagons to Gretton and unloading them is now likely to be after the Cheltenham Gold Cup Race days – midweek when no passenger trains are running.

Wildlife report: A gang of people in orange hi-vis clothing does deter most animals from coming too close. So, as usual, most of our observations were of bird life. A pair of magpies on the electric power lines, the resident robin and a low flying Red Kite were all spotted at Gretton. At lunchtime a few crows flew overhead followed by a large flock of seabirds – too small to be gulls, they are most likely one of the species of terns. Weather wise it was not quite such as harsh winter’s day as the last couple of weeks – plus we could just see the Malverns in the distance.

Where have the Malverns gone?

As we have remarked before, the view North West from opposite the Royal Oak at Gretton is one of the finest from the GWSR. Usually! On our first working day in February there was no view – just mist. Freezing mist at that, thick enough to be fog at times. This did not shift until gone 2pm. However, with a job that needs completing before the beginning of the running season, eight hardy soles from the team pressed on.

Midday - and the outline of the Royal Oak pub is only just visible.

Thursday 6^th February

First task at Winchcombe was to extract some dumpy bags of pea gravel surplus from other projects. Jonathan loaded these onto the white tipper Transit using the telehandler, then set off for Gretton with the telehandler. The rest of the team, loaded all the other required materials and tools on to the blue LWB tail-lift Transit and the Isuzu. So it was a convoy of four vehicles that headed to Gretton. We required the telehander there to both unload the bags of material and convey them up the haul road; the slope is too steep and currently too muddy for heavily loaded Transits.

The telehandler with the first bag of pea gravel looms out of the mist approaching the top of the haul road.

Roger and Nigel set up the submersible pumps. One on the down (Cotswold) side to pump out the 24A inlet chamber and thus stop water running through the bore whilst we are working. The second was to pump out the base of the chamber – that did not have to run all day. Then Polly assisted by Roger got to work laying the concrete blocks of the final courses of the new chamber. Nigel was manning the mixer. We also used some grouting to seal the lower courses of the chamber.

Pumping out the down side inlet of 24A.

 

No hills to be seen in the background - just mist. Getting ready to lay the final blocks of the new chamber.

Meanwhile, Dave and Martin took some brush cutters and loopers down to the exit ditch of cross drain 24B; to clear that out down to the boundary hedge. The plan was also to make a start on the clearing of the access to the ditch by the hedge that flows down from 24A. However we abandoned this; the growth is thick willow trees that will need cutting with saws. A job that has to be done outside of the bird nesting season. Andrew barrowed some of the broken concrete slabs down to 24B to use as anti scouring material where the outlet ditch is being down cut.

Martin attempts to work uphill from 24B along the ditch line by the boundary hedge.

After delivering the first bag of pea gravel to the top of the haul road; Jonathan accompanied by John set off for Bishops’s Cleeve to collect more building sand from Elliot’s. They also made an important stop on the way back – at North’s Bakery to obtain some large hot pasties for the team. Once back at 24A, all work momentarily stopped whilst the team had an extra break to devour the tasty pasties. On a cold, frosty, misty day, some hot food mid morning is a necessity not a luxury!

The supplier of essential hot pasties! [Photo by Jonathan]

 

 

 

Once back to work; Jonathan fetched the other bags of pea gravel, carefully delivering them to the top of the bank by the track. Andrew and Martin the carefully shovelled the gravel to cover the length of new twinwall pipe leading to the chamber. Nigel, Roger and Polly continued with the chamber build – installing the six GRP chamber rings. Dave and John descended to 24B to install the anti scouring, not quite such a crazy paving appearance here as the outlet ditch is narrower and deeper than that of 24A.

Anti scouring concrete blocks and broken slabs in the outlet ditch of 24B. [Photo by Dave]

 

All blocks laid; so next task is a mortar bed for the first GRP ring. Note first loads of pea gravel on the low mileage side of the new twinwall pipe.

 

Nigel - you have been framed! The first GRP chamber ring goes on. (Don't try a one man lift with a concrete ring!)

Roger (l) and Polly make sure the first ring is level and square to the blocks

After lunch, Jonathan returned the telehandler to Winchcombe, as he had to make some repairs to the towing hook and electric socket of the Ford Ranger. Martin and John returned with the white Transit at the same time – as we need an escort vehicle for one right hand turn with the telehandler. Back at the yard, they unloaded the building sand and reorganised our storage in the old wooden shed; essential as all the tools were coming back from Gretton.

Dave and Polly undertook one of our regular winter tasks, clearing debris from the grill where the exit ditch of culvert 24C enters a pipe under the neighbouring property. This grill is essential to stop medium and large items from entering this long pipe and potentially blocking it.

Regular blog readers will not doubt recognise this at the 24C exit grill at our boundary. Cleared again! [Photo by Dave]

 

Roger, Nigel and Andrew stayed at 24A tidying the side and loading all the remaining tools onto the blue LWB tail-lift Transit. To keep the 24A bore and new chamber dry for as long a possible, the last items loaded were the generator and the submersible pump from the down side.

Chamber build complete. All that we need to do now is back fill the hole! That will need 5 more tonnes of pea gravel; then some stone and the excavated material replaced. Then we will use the infill from Broadway platform 2 excavations, which contains a lot of clay, to grade the whole of the area at the top of the haul road. Plus of course the new chamber needs a lid!

 

All back to Winchcombe for a welcome cup of tea in the warmth of the Churchward House mess. Of course, just at that moment the mist and fog lifted to reveal a deep blue sunny sky. Almost spring like!

Wildlife report: With the cold, frosty and misty conditions, most animals and birds were sensibly not venturing out. We did note a kestrel; and a robin which followed us from 24A to 24B and back again. The number of snowdrops in bloom was greater than last week; and we spotted a couple of daffodils just about to bloom.

Full house again

Full house on two scores. Firstly all eleven members of the team were in attendance on our last working day in January; and one of the tasks completed was reinstating the last missing milepost. However, there are still 22 other mileposts on the running line that require replacement with a correct GWR style head featuring numerals in the correct font.

After an absence of many years - milepost 9¼ is finally back! Toddington North cutting near the down bracket signal.

Thursday 30^th January

With the telehandler in use to move materials at Gretton, the team allocation to vehicles on departure from Winchcombe Yard was 4-4-2-1. (I’m beginning to feel like a football team manger trying out different team formations!)

Three vehicles headed for culvert 24A at the top of the haul road opposite the Royal Oak at Gretton. Jonathan drove the telehandler, whilst Roger, Nigel, Dave, Martin, Polly and Peter plus most of the materials and tools followed in the tail-lift Transit and the Isuzu. First task was to pump the outlet pit dry. Once dry enough; the tasks were to lay some more rows of concrete blocks for the new chamber, and to install the 450mm diameter twinwall extension pipe and elbow. The later turned out to be rather challenging; but the use of some recovered BR era hollow concrete blocks as supports helped. Polly concentrated on the block laying, Roger on the pipe installation and Nigel was chief mixer. Dave and Martin undertaking most of fetch and carrying. Peter and Jonathan took the tail-lift Transit to Bishops Cleeve to collect one tonne of pea gravel from Elliots Building Supplies. They also collected some ply wood pallets which we will deconstruct to form shuttering. On return the pea gravel was taken up the haul road by the telehanlder; as neither of our Transits can manage such a heavy load up the steep slope.

Chamber construction - concrete blocks up to above the top of the pies. Then it will be GRP rings above.

 

Meanwhile the other group, Andrew, Ian, John, Stuart, headed north to Little Buckland. The route was a little devious and scenic, as the B4632 was closed between Toddington roundabout and Grange Farm for gas main repair. (This closure is scheduled for a few weeks). At Little Buckland we met the owner of Archer Farm and his drainage contractor to view the work undertaken there; this has included a significant clean out of the embankment toe ditch alongside the farm. During this work they have discovered a sealed cross drain pipe running under the track. This is between cross drains 5A and 5B, about 20 yards south of 5A. There is an inlet pipe from the farm at the same point in the down (Cotswold) side toe ditch. On the up side the pipe is sealed; as there is no longer a working toe ditch at the foot of the embankment. We have quite a few unanswered questions about this. When was it installed? It is not shown on the original GWR plans of the line; nor on the land registry maps. When was it sealed? We know that 5A and the down side of 5B were rebuilt in 2016 as part of the Broadway extension work. What structure number shall we give this? We think best not to renumber 5B, 5C and 5D. And finally, what shall we do about it? One option is to leave it sealed, with all the northbound flow in the down side ditch going to 5A. The other option is to unseal it and re-excavate a toe ditch on the up (Malvern) side back to 5A. Both of these options depend on the outlet of 5A; which outside of railway land alongside the Little Buckland Road is a very shallow ditch which quickly disappears. There is some evidence of overflowing from this ditch onto the road and then back to the gullies under the bridge. Like Laverton Meadow Lane and Didbrook No2 bridges, the road here is susceptible to flooding during heavy rains. The road gullies empty into some long lengths of small bore pipe with a shallow gradient. So what ever we do, we can not add to flow in those pipes. We will make some more investigations; then discuss with our engineers, the land owners and the highway authority.

The deepened and straightened toe ditch on the down side along side Archer Farm. Looking south from the location of cross drain 5A.

 

The rediscovered cross drain and inlet pipes. Temporary board to try to get any flow to run south to 5B rather than to 5A.

Ian, Stuart and John investigate the sealed end of the rediscovered cross drain on the up (Malvern) side. No evidence of a ditch across the field.

Cross drain 5A outlet - beyond the fence it is a ditch that quickly disappears. Little Buckland Road at a lower level on the right - bridge 5 is just to the right of the picture.

 

A different scenic detour took the group back to Toddington station for a walk up the line to install the head of milepost 9¼. Unlike two weeks ago, when a trolley was required to move the bridge rail length, we could easily manage carrying the new head; the bolts to secure it with, a drill to drill the holes, a spanner to tighten the nuts and, most importantly, a spirit level to ensure the head was level. So now all the quarter miles on the running line (4¾ to 19) have a marker of sorts – but they are not yet all the correct GWR pattern. One marker will never have a proper post; that is 12½, as it is inside Greet tunnel. It is a white paint mark on up side tunnel wall. It is almost in the middle of the tunnel, 15 chains in from south (Winchcombe) portal; 17 chains in from north (Gretton) portal. After Toddington North the group ventured to Gotherington to repeat the head installation exercise for milepost 15½; located between the platform ends and the signal box.

Proper heritage mile post 15½ sits well alongside the private collection of railway items at Gotherington.

 

 

 

Whilst at Gotherington they noted the work undertaken by our Lineside Clearance team and a vegetation contractor on the down side embankment. This has included the removal of a large multi-trunk tree that was growing far too close the inlet of cross drain 35B. This clearance work has also improved access to the chambers on the boundary hedge/fence for the pipe which connects the cess drain in the old 6 foot through the platforms to cross drain 35A. So a quick check that all was well there was undertaken. Then back to Gretton to join up with the rest of the team opposite the Royal Oak.

What a transformation - the down side embankment at Gotherington with the stump of the tree removed from the inlet of cross drain 35B.

Before a late lunch, all 11 of us spent a hectic hour finishing today’s chamber block laying and packing pea gravel around the twinwall extension pipe. When using rapid curing cement you have to be quick!

Orange army! Seven of the team (and the shadow of the photographer) at work on 24A.

 

Stuart ensures pea gravel is packed under the extension pipe.

 

After lunch Jonathan with the telehandler and Ian and Stuart returned to Winchcombe Yard. Here the task was to extract some old dumpy bags filled with pea gravel and other material which we can use as infill at 24A. These were at the back of an area which S&T require for outdoor storage. As some of the old dumpy bags were rotten, this task involved quite a lot of shovelling to transfer the contents to better condition bags. The rest of the team tidied up the site at Gretton. Another example of inter-department cooperation here; PWay have loaned us a lockable tool store to deploy on site. This means a lot less shifting of tools and items like bags of cement at the beginning and end of each days work.

Just enough warmth in the sun for an al-fresco lunch. Use of the ballast shoulder as a seat can only be undertaken when the line is closed under a possession. (Left to Right Nigel, Roger, Martin, Dave - the other team members preferred the tail lift of the Transit  and the back of the Ranger).

 

Sate of construction at the end of the day. Another 20 blocks needed for the chamber and around 3 more tonnes of pea gravel to cover the pipe. Then it will be bring in the infill.

The tools that won't fit the tool store are loaded on the tail lift Transit for the journey back to Winchcombe. Its our favourite view from the line here - at its best on a clear sunny winter's day with no leaves on the trees.

Last task was to turn off the pump on the inlet (down or Cotswold side), so water starts running through the new extension for the first time.

Next week we plan to complete the block courses of the new chamber; then we can start the task of infilling the hole. So our ‘shutdown’ project is on schedule, we are looking forward to seeing Cheltenham Gold Cup race trains heading past a graded landscaped area at the top of the haul road.

Wildlife report: Close encounters with large mammals today – a large dog fox at Little Buckland and a couple of muntjac deer at Gotherington. Bird wise nothing unusual to note – just the plentiful number of red kites, kestrels, buzzards, and robins. Very noticeable was an increase in back birds, both in numbers and the volume of their song. It must be that spring is on the way! Confirmation of this was the observation of the first flowering of snowdrops . On the sunny side of the cutting at Toddington North it is very apparent the other spring bulbs are rapidly growing. Not quite so on the shady side.