Still Not Flaming June!

Thursday 12^th June

The second working day in a row where rain has affected our plans! With some of the odd jobs we planned to attend to between Gotherington and Bishops Cleeve postponed for a second week.

Until we install proper permanent location marker posts, we use blue marker paint to denote the position of the cross drains and culverts. But after a few months the rain washes it away! [Photo by Jonathan]

Before the heavy rains (it was more than a shower) set in at lunchtime, the team attended to several odd jobs south of Two Hedges Road. This included measuring at cross drains 40B and 41A for safety rails; repointing on the up side exit chamber of cross drain 41B and the down side inlet chamber of cross drain 41A. Also at 40B we added a barrow load of stone as scour prevention to the outlet chamber.

Polly with a bucket of mortar for repointing down side of 41A. [Photo by Jonathan]

Another small repointing job attended to was a crack in the down side wall of the footpath approach at Pecked Lane crossing.

Polly made quick work of repointing the crack in the footpath retaining wall at Pecked Lane crossing.

The Bishops Cleeve area received some heavy thunderstorms over the previous weekend, several roads, including Church Street, we flooded. So we checked all the water courses between cross drains 37F and 41B – nothing untoward noted. However, it is very apparent that the recent rain has cause the vegetation to rapidly grow; we are going to have a lot of clearance work in the autumn to restore access.

Even after the heavy showers in the past few days, some watercourses are still bone dry. This is cross drain 41B.

Before declaring the rain to heavy to continue with repointing and concrete repairs, we placed another barrow load of stone as scour prevention into the outlet stream of cross drain 37F.

The seven members of the team who got rather wet were John, Peter, Andrew, Nigel, Dave, Jonathan and Polly.

Wildlife report: Before the rain stated, we watched an impressive ariel ballet from gulls, red kites, buzzards and crows. North of Station Road Bridge we has a quick glimpse of a deer – probably a muntjac. On the floral side, we noted quite lot of wild roses in bloom.

Not flaming June!

Thursday 5th June

Our first wet working day for over two months. Fortunately the heavy shows coincided with morning coffee break and lunchtime.

Two teams, both starting work at Pecked Lane, Bishops Cleeve.

Jonathan, Martin and Peter formed the first team. Their first task was to clear the debris that had accumulated inside culvert 39A; where it splits into two pipes almost at the railway boundary on the up (Malvern) side. They also cleared the trash screen on the down (Cotswold) side inlet in Honeybourne Meadow.

Checking for gases in the manhole above the split of culvert 39A. This is part of the confined spaces entry procedure we follow. The build up of debris below is very obvious. [Photo by Jonathan]

Debris removed - revealing the start of the twin pipes where sticks get caught.  [Photo by Jonathan]

Cleared trash screen on the inlet of 39A right under the boundary fence. [Photo by Jonathan]

Then it was a trip down to Elliots to collect a tonne of building sand. An indirect journey back was lineside, which enabled stops for attend to silt clearance at cross drains 37E, 37D, 36B and finally 36A at Manor Lane. Ironically all these clearance tasks were on our ‘dry day’ list! However, the recent rains so far have not significantly increased the flow and, more importantly, the depth of water in these watercourses.

Martin and Peter clearing silt from the down (Cotswold) side inlet of cross drain 36B.  [Photo by Jonathan]

After lunch, the bag of sand was unloaded in Winchcombe Yard using the telehandler in Jonathan’s capable hands.

Meanwhile, the larger team (Nigel, Dave, Polly, Andrew, Stuart, Roger) headed south of Two Hedges Road to the point where the cutting becomes an embankment. The task here was to raise the height of two up side cess chambers to make them more visible; and to replace broken concrete lids with blue mesh. For both chambers we used double (220mm) height GRP chamber rings. One chamber is a standard cess chamber; but the other is where a foul water pipe passes under the railway, effectively cutting through the cess drains on both sides. Probably this chamber and the corresponding one on the down side were built whilst the railway was closed. They are a non standard size. So this meant some of the team returning to Winchcombe to collect two reinforced concrete lintels and a few bricks on which to sit the GRP ring. This delay, together with the heavy rain shower at lunchtime, meant the rebuild took a bit longer than expected. Consequently we postponed attending to some other small tasks between Bishops Cleeve and Gotherington. Typically, arrival back at Winchcombe coincided with the rain stopping. So at least unloading the vehicles, including storing away the reusable concrete lids and concrete chamber ring, took place in the dry.

GRP ring on the standard cess chamber (left); the bigger chamber with the foul water pipe running through it on the right.

Polly completes the reduction base for the GRP ring on the odd sized chamber.

Job complete - chambers proud of the ground and with visible blue mesh covers.

Wildlife report: The headline item today was finding a slow worm south of Two Hedges Road. Otherwise most animal and bird life was sensibly sheltering from the rain.

Slow worm.

 

 

 

Wednesday 4th June

Attendance at a meeting at Toddington coincided with the train preparations. The two GWR 2-8-0s make a very pleasing sight when side by side.